That's a bummer! Love my Longitude although it doesn't get used so much these days. Shame you couldn't get it welded up to see you through the rest of the trip but good that it didn't cause you an accident!
Three of us did the Badger Divide last week. Epic scenery, great food and good riding. We took the train to Inverness and rode south. 2 nights in camp sites, 2 in wild camps. The weather started with a torrential rain shower as we were riding through Inverness and generally got worse through the ride until we had a full day of heavy rain on the fourth day. The sort of day where you shiver uncontrollably every time you stop and start wondering whether to sacrifice dry clothes to the inevitable drenching. There was a decent amount of snow on the hills above us and the evening temps were around 8 degrees.
Route finding was straight forward and there were plenty of places to camp - not so many resupply points for the second and third days - but I could have done with extra fitness, lower gearing on my bike and slightly wider tyres. MTB gearing and tyres and drop bars would have been perfect for me. I'd happily ride it again if there weren't so many other places to go.
Badger Divide is a great route. Did it on my HT with panniers, like you say I would do it again but lots of other places to go.
Just had a 2nd attempt at the Goats out in Portugal. Didn't finish, again. Managed 240 miles and 5500m climbing by lunchtime on day 3 then my knee packed in. Knowing the area and what was to come in the 2nd half I knew it was pointless continuing.
Had an absolute ball on the first 2 days doing 100 mile each day. My best mate was in a pair with another friend and they carried on for 5 days and ended up doing 400miles.
Was billed as a gravel event this year but having did the previous edition I elected to still take my hard tail, bloody glad I did.
If there's interest, ill do a proper write up at a later date but here's some pictures anyways. 
Interested. It's a pity that STW towers don't make more of the free content being provided in the forum and turn some of it into articles..
No worries, ill do a wee write up when im on night shift.
I would've suggested giving material to STW for an article but my pictures are pretty poor quality so prob wouldn't look good.
