Also Rebas (although excellent in in my experience) seem a bit sensitive to pressures, and wether the negative chamber has been filled before the positive.

I would start by releasing all the air from +ve and -ve, checking the travel by gently depressing them until they stop, and if you get 100mm deflated, pump them back up, positive first.

Ahem, yes, obviously :oops:

…and sure enough, if i click the ‘cache’ button underneath the dead link, up pops the page!

Cheers Z1ppy

Cheers guys, google search brought up a URL but it was a dead link unfortunately!

Will email the admin guys, see what they can find.

If you do make it as far as Glen Derry, do consider going to Braemar via Claise Fearnaig, Glen Quoich and Glen Slugain:

Claise Fearnaig, from Glen Derry this would be a short unrideable climb followed by some very sweet rocky singletrack, descending into Glen Quoich:

And a mixture of some good/some boggy singletrack would take you to Glen Slugain:

I’m climbing it in the pic, but as a descent it would be fantastic!

MrK,

Its difficult to describe, but if you nip in between some small beech hedges to your left on Margaret Rose Avenue, you’ll find some pretty polished singletrack leading into the mortonhall woods. Stick right and climb gradually over lots more roots, and you’ll start descending with some houses on your left. Take the obvious left turn when it comes, cross mountholy loan and carry on through the woods. Where the paths come together you need to cross them, heading into a tunnel between some thick hedges. This takes you onto the golf course access road, with a school on your left. There are some nice trails on your left which eventually peter out at a heap of gravel, cross over behind the tin hut, find the funny green tarmac path on the golf course, climb slightly and look for the trail starting on your left. This takes you most of the way down, then you follow the access track to the road. At this point you’re nearly at the braids, and you can follow the trails that go around the golf course, which take you to the Lang Linne path which descends into the hermitage. Once there just follow your nose, in theory you can climb again and descend into the blackford area.

If you have time, just explore, lots of singletrack in there, otherwise grab your night lights and i’ll show you some time, they’re hardly secret and obviously well used by other folk!

Would have loved to, i teach wheelbuilding classes myself, and can build a pretty decent wheel, but can’t help but think there’s so much more i could learn, in fact, i might just buy mr m’s book, what’s it called/where to buy?

Sorry fauxbyfour, nae pics..

Kenny, that sounds a good loop! most of the descents from capelaw to glencorse are pretty good, either the all out loose mayhem on the red road, or that super skinny singeltrack traversing castlelaw… I just couldn’t be bothered climbing back up again!

Andy, its not really a coast to coast as much as a ‘coast’. : )

I won’t hijack with a massive waffley description of a route, will post it up soon.

I’m putting together a pretty tasty looking route from ft william to cape wrath, then back down to Ben Loyal. There are lots of variations on the same theme, and mine deliberately takes in some road sections (the ‘wee mad road of sutherland’) but i reckon i’ve got a good one. will post it up here once i eventually commit it to memory map or something.

the west highland way would take you from glasgow to fort william, so that just leave the other 3/4 of britain to figure out! ; )

Its just the next step in Singletrack’s transition into Dirt magazine, ‘lifestyle’ shots of people drinking beer with a freeride bike in the shot somewhere.

Next they’ll be recommending we all ride 6″ travel full sus bikes with 700mm wide handlebars and Avid codes… oh, wait a minute…

Good god, they actually sound WORSE than the numerous crooks we’ve dealt with in edinburgh.

I’d be worried that they were building up a paper-trail to justify withholiding your deposit at the end. If they agree they’ve been over-zealous, i’d want it in writing, and signed, to use at a later date if they quibble about deposits.

I always think the Flat Letting ‘industry’ needs some sort of reform to stop them taking the p1ss like this, we’ve been charged ridiculous £80 per person admin fees by a letting agent who have consistently proven themselves to be totally useless/unwilling to perform any admin.

I’d forgive them any amount of BS on their website, as the frames are most definitely not BS, huge mud clearance, solid, great shape and tough paintwork (which is handy when the grpahics look that good).

Re: Longer forks. I think thats what makes the duster a bit unique, the angles and 4″ fork make it great on the climbs, but the huge tyre clearance means you can run fat tubeless tyres and throw it down the hills. Its just a slightly different blend of climbing/descending that i really like.

Mrnutt, are you thinking about a different race? 80-100km days for seven days at full race pace on a 7" full suspension bike? ; )

The Five might make more sense but i’d have my current bike (Charge Duster with 4" rebas, XT discs and tubeless mavic wheels with a shimano drivetrain, ti seatpost , flat bars and stubby bar ends) but with the top of the range equivalents, so

Ti Duster Frame
4" Reba world cups/teams
XTR discs
Continental Rubber Queen 2.2 tyres on whatever the lightest tubeless set up is atm, Stans?
Moots post (comfort and lightweight)
XTR drivetrain with maybe some extra thought put into the crankset, Middleburn on SKF or something similarly robust
Prologo Vertigo Max saddle (personal, but the fat nose makes seated, steep climbs easier)

I don’t think that race takes many prisoners, but the above bike would be light, tough yet capable on descents.

Slip slip sliding around some urban singletrack in edinburgh on saturday, best fun i’ve had going sideways in a long long time.

Utterly crap road ride today, climbed up to gorebridge from auchendinny with the wind firmly against me, and just as i reach the top the snow/sleet started, got a few blinding flakes in the eyes and some very wet numb hands before bailing out and taking the quickest route back to edinburgh, which turned out to be the nastiest, busiest, roundaboutiest road i’ve ever had the misfortune to ride along, got back pretty miserable, then pulled the liner out of my expensive Gore gloves trying to remove them from sodden hands.

My honeymoon period on the new roadbike is well and truly over then : (

If i’m out camping or doing some multi day stuff, i really like to have some tobacco with me, i prefer stopping in some amazing scenery and having a rollie to having a cup of tea, although both is even better.

I like to think they keep the midgies away at night as well…

I had a visit from an old ailment a few nights ago.

I woke up with a pain in my left knee which was slowly getting more painful. However, trying to move or straighten my knee was even more painful! I had to sort of gently move it back and forth before eventually straightening it.

This used to happen to me quite a lot, but i always forgot to tell the physio about it. Anyone suffer the same?

I wish mine were healthy though, still have a hankering for a game of squash now and then…

I had this problem with some old hopes, and it was because i had the rotor on backwards. I don’t know if thats possible with centrelock, but check that the arms are swaying forward, which is the usual way.

I only changed to discs because i was wearing rims down too quick for my liking. I didn’t even use good Vs, just basic tektros with good levers, full length cables and expensive pads.

Heh heh, very good theboatman.

Got to admit i missed the point of the commercial, other than that it was for insurance, and not heroin/see through trousers/being beaten up by hell’s angels

Another one for hill water here. Given the nasty stagnant hill streams i drank out off as a kid, i think a frigid mountain river is going to pretty safe.

I saw TGO magazine (i feel like a spy reading this, looking for new biking trails, haha) advertising wine ‘bags’ so you can ditch the bottle.

I’ve done the whisky thing a few times, but when i’m in the bothies i still hanker for a long cool bottle of ale or something, best example being carron bothy, which i reached after cycling past loch fyne brewery earlier in the day. They might have been heavy and awkward, but those bottles of ‘Highlander’ tasted brilliant.

On the one occasion i shared a bothy the banter was really good, whisky, tea, food and smokes were shared and it really contributed to a great trip.

yeah, the road biking definitely requires a stereo, or some twisty singletrack roads at least, i’ve found a lot of long descents on the road bike plain boring, especially if the wind is slightly against you.

Should have a look at the Continental Slash (2.3) or Digga (2.5) for the back. For scottish winter riding the slash is my tyre of choice. The compound isn’t desperately sticky, but the tread pattern is aggro enough for mud, but not super draggy or squirmy on hard pack.

Iggy Pop’s a wierd one for me, was reading about ‘raw power’ and he basically says people like me (graduates with desk jobs) are NOT the sort of people he wants listening to his music.

Screw him, “Your pretty face is going to hell” is the best riding track i’ve ever heard!

Anyway, at least he’s not doing duets with Enrique Iglesias like Santana… <shudders>

I think distilleries allows too much room for going-wherever-the-hell-you-please-really, i mean, it is scotland after all! : )

If i were doing that it would involve canoeing through or around the Corryvreckan, no thanks!

Brilliant, cheers james.

I’m not looking for a twangy frame anyway, the duster seems pretty stiff for a steel frame, and i want to maintain that.

Just since you’re replying to threads here, care to disclose the seat tube diameter? : )

many thanks

Good suggestions, thanks! Might avoid the MT90s then, and look at some trail/approach shoes.

Have just read about these Innv-8 shoes that weigh next to nothing but are considered suitable for shorter walks and scrambling, could just strap them to the rucsac and stick with the spuds maybe.

Thankfully i’ve got a Tiso’s voucher burning a hole in my wallet after xmas, should come in handy!

TJ, i couldn’t agree more, I’ve spent a couple of camping trips in the areas surrounding the west highland way and know some blinding trails, some i’ve ridden, some i’ve still to ride.

I don’t compare the west highland way to these trips though, i prefer to think of it as a sort of epic trail centre black run (following the logic that distance + terrain = black) which is also more weather resistant than the wild country routes (i can testify to this having ridden the section from Crianlarich to Ft Bill in constant, solid drizzle) and can be ridden more brainlessly than a real back of beyond ride (just look for the next thistle signpost, and keep pedalling).

Another way of thinking of it is as a familiar thoroughfare connecting some brilliant areas of countryside, and the trails within them. Riding it once, end to end, opens up lots of other possibilities, and gives you a taste for better riding than the local forest loop.

So i think easy and dull is a bit harsh, easy in as much as it requires little planning (a good thing for a last minute jaunt) and dull only because it follows where many have been before, for good reason.

And as for the gorkles, they make good drinking companions, and provide banter and occasionally eye candy to boot. : )

To be honest, i don’t understand the detractors : )

I reckon most of it is good (by which i mean, singletrack-ish, rocky and rough) interspersed by some ‘dull’ landrover tracks or short tarmac sections, which i found a welcome relief and a chance to appreciate the surroundings.

Its also an easy and convenient fix of long distance riding which fits into a weekend, and allows you to see a large and varied selection of scottish countryside.

The unrideable section on Loch Lomondside (i’d be impressed if anyone could ride up the whole Devil’s Staircase, but its mostly rideable) is a)avoidable if you want to take a ferry ride or b)a fun scramble sandwiched between some brilliant trail.

In fact, the only downside i see to the whole route is the waterbars, a necessary evil about which i’ve moaned plenty elsewhere…

Care to expand on what you don’t like TJ? (I’m genuinely interested, not trying to antagonise!)

That’ll be mr somerville stooo? Rode with him before christmas, he’s inspired me to take on the one day challenge now.

druidh, it doesn’t bear much explaining, the4thdeadmonk was taken from a red snapper tune (4deadmonks) and now i’m deviously combining the4thdeadmonk with 13th floor elevator (amazing 70s garage/psych band) to achieve… 13thfloormonk. Could have been the4thdeadelevator but it didn’t have the same ring to it…

Yep, would agree with druidh, can be done on a hardtail no problem, rigid forks would be punishing after the first 100k or so though!

I went tubeless before i did it and really appreciated it, very rocky in places, and some nasty drainage ditches too..

I quite enjoy the section between kingshouse and the devil’s staircase, but it is a bit pointless if you’re in a hurry/knackered.

2 75km days seemed good to us, although we didn’t pace ourselves or eat properly. The walking section along lomonside is a pain but not so bad if you’re anticipating it, and the riding either side of it is ace.

i think south to north also gives you shorter (sharper) climbs and longer, faster descents.

Trailers are great.

The dead weight of the trailer is more than that of a rack/rucsac combo, but i think the handling (and comfort) of having weight low and off your back makes up for it.

In a lot of instances i found the trailer helped, especially over loose rocks/stream crossings.

Look at the extrawheel trailers as well, if i were to buy a trailer now (having used a BOB) i think i would buy an extrawheel at £150 approx.

I wouldn’t trust a revolution trailer for serious off-road as it uses nuts and bolts where the BOB uses welds, although nuts and bolts could be loctited/checked…