If you’re entered for the “Puffer this may interest you. Just click on the pic to go to my Flickr page to see the whole course. Too many pics to post here and too boring.

Start of singletrack, just off fireroad by epicyclo, on Flickr

Summary of conditions:

Fireroad (FR) – from bottom to first singletrack – well compacted, few ruts, wheelspin only problem.
Singletrack (ST) – link to next fireroad – ruts, tricky when frozen, some thick bits grabbing the front wheel.
FR – to top – difficult to ride because of the ruts or wheelspin. Often quicker and easier to walk.
ST – wee bridge to woods – rideable, but only just for me. Fell off twice due to ruts and hidden rocks.
ST – woods to Bridge of Thighs – varied, frozen ruts or footprints being the biggest problem. The rocky slabs were all rideable with no slick ice.
ST – BoT to top of zigzags – rideable, crunchy, not deep.
ST – zigzags to Snakebite Gully – mostly rideable where enough momentum could be got. Lots of little stoppie bits (ice lumps, ruts).
FR – Snakebite Gully to turnoff to Revolving Chair – rideable with momentum.
ST – to Revolving Chair and down to Loch Kinellan road – rideable, but lots of stoppie bits, and almost falls, momentum critical.
ST – Loch Kinellan to View Rock – all rideable, but frozen ruts. A few small offs.
ST – View Rock to bottom. Rideable, but watch the fast right hand corner. The forest has been logged and the logs are poking out onto path, plus other debris lower down. The descent not as icy as it usually is in this sort of conditions – more exposed to sun now and it’s crunchy.

I rode my Pugsley, but I think my 29er with studded tyres would have been just as good.

I think I can now claim the record for the slowest lap (3 hours) 🙂

Good man. Some effort. Will be out next weekend for sure 😉

As of now, this is obsolete info. Just getting a heavy snowfall.

I was about to say that epicyclo! your efforts are appreciated onetheless 😀 and that isnt the slowest lap of the puffer, Dougie Vipond has that record: 11 months and counting…

well two of the fastest pufferites in years gone by came back to the shop and said 2 hours for a lap on saturday so yer doing well,epi!

starting to snow here now.. theres another inch on top of whats been there for a week and its still falling.Supposed to be driving to Edinburgh tomorrow.

heh.

Oh, and why did you go to all that bother photoshopping an oil painting above the bike in the 2nd pic? ;O) nice.

Sprung!

anyone been around contin on a bike today? whats the snow like?

Saturday looking dodgy already 😥

I’m getting withdrawl symptoms here!

I’ll have a go tomorrow. May take the fixie for more fun 🙂

(Nothing to do with it being easier to carry)

Let me know how that goes as I’m try to organise a few bodies for the weekend.

A more up to date recce here

Just the top part and done backwards so I could use gravity to get me through the thick stuff on the fireroad.

To cope with the conditions, you’ll note I broke out my dual suspension bike with gears. 😆