Aye, I’ll put one o those in too;

Don’t think I can retro fit from the packs tho’ that’s for a new build.

as it’s the extension not the main part of the house it doesn’t fullfil the criteria; I phoned to check.

if you don’t have the proper qualifications and a written permission Mr FE man will be properly annoyed. Wind blow requires an extra ticket to your 3 day plain felling ticket so I’d say stay away.

It can be under all sorts of stresses and can do strange and violent things as you cut thru and release the twists etc.

If its on a path, let the ranger service know and they’ll deal with it.

Again – anybody coming down tomorrow?

An awesome amount of stone moved today by a hardy few; All raked and whacked in and looking very good.

There will be a diversion for a couple of weeks to let it settle so please respect it if you’re riding at Drumlanrig.

Just filling holes in the clay with some local crushed stone. Just a wee bit of barrowing to do over the next few days..

Any one??

totally loving mine!!

Hey ST

Thought it would be appropriate to bump onto page 1 on this on this beautiful sunny morning here at Drumlanrig..

It’s been a busy weekend on the trails.. Anybody else up for a wee bit of graft mid week???

Rik

It is pretty amazing at the mo’ with the last of the leaves still on the trees.

Mostly riding well too except for the new bit, our experimental use of peanut butter as a trail surface hasn’t been a remarkable success given the one of the wettest summers on record 😉

Cheers to all those offering help..

You can turn up and do as much as you like, we’ll be happy to have someone push a barrow for an hour or all day.

bump

He most certainly did.. 🙂

coffee tea and biscuits provided

29er nobby nic we have them in stock in 2.35

There’s a street/wee alley network somewhere near the china town area with awesome graffiti. Lot’s of good food and coffee in the center.

I only spent a day wandering around with the family but it seamed like a good spot.

I have a set of 14 year old shimano cutter which must get used more than most. Probably among the first bits of kit I bought when setting up the shop; still working perfectly and can be sharpened with a small round file. Awesome piece of kit – I’d be gutted if they got lost. No idea how much they are now..

I don’t rate the park one at all.

The Merida kids bikes are good value and come with QR wheels and decent kit.

Frames tend to be a wee bit smaller than others for the same wheel size which can work to your favour or not whatever.

Most of my sproggs group are riding them round bits of the Drumlanrig red trail on our monday night sessions so I know that they’ll do dirt pretty well.

nobby nics

I’d definitely recommend a look at Bike James’ blog.

He has some interesting things to say on pedaling dynamics and using your core and hips to improve power at the pedal rather than building bigger and faster quads, which can lead to imbalances at the knees.

I think this also echoes the ‘doesn’t ss shag your knees’ question – answer – not if your standing up to pedal and have a strong core to utilse your biggest assets – your butt muscles (which is what we’re designed to use after millions of years as runners not pedallers)..

Work on your core in the gym, have a look at http://www.bikejames.com/ for some ideas for core strength stuff.

In my experience the weans were fine on ‘back’ racks like the co-pilot til they were out of nappies, then they felt every bump and also spent more and more time leaning out to the side to see round the rider (a problem when they get a bit bigger).

We got a centric safe haven which sits across the frame from the headset to the seatpost, putting the child safely in between your arms.. and in full view of the ride ahead..

We went from begrudged rides to ‘demands’ to go out riding, and instead of being told to ‘slow down daddy’ every time she saw another biker on the road i had to speed up and catch them. We spent ages doing the left/right game were daughter no 1 decided the next turn direction until we got home again.. Great for both of us learning the locality!!

Also the mid position helps keep the weight distribution central and makes easy XC trail much more enjoyable. Had both mine round most of Ae and Mabie (big one on tagalong wee one on front seat :-O looks from the storm troopers who didn’t know that we’d missed the few techy bits on the trails).

What do folks recon to Sanderson?

I’ve just got one of their SS frames to build into a demo bike for the winter.

It will be available in a few weeks to try at Drumlanrig if anyones interested..

Have a good look at slings as well as the rucsacks, plenty of designs and very very good for baby.

We startef out with a Karrime until 8 months, he’s now 11 months and were on a Didymos woven wrap and just bought a ‘soft structure carrier’ frum Tuli which is half way to a rucsack but still ‘baby wearing’

I put snow tyres on the driving wheels of the Yaris last winter and was mightily impressed.

I’ll be sorting out all four corners this year.

I picked up Lassa Snoways (excellent cheesey name ) for about £60 ea and they were great. I left them on all summer as I do quite alot of fire roads and muddy roads , they drive well on the tar generally and I haven’t seen huge wear but this summer was pretty cool up here.

+1 the skills are transferable – just compare Cadel Evans to the Schlecks on any descent :-]

Any bike time is good bike time – I just ain’t getting enough right now 🙁

Ach well, I’ll class us as cheap, quick and cheerful then.

£30 + a fiver for the outers and a brew; advised of the need for new rings, but complete chainset is next upgrade after payday.

Done while the lad waited.

He seemed surprised it was more than £20 hence the thread.

what teacake said.

My winter gear never came off the bike this summer so 34:18 for a few hours round the woods or 34:19 or even 34:20 for a big day in the hills (see SUW thread).

My knees hurt after the Puffer but that’s about it, and everything hurts after the Puffer.

Spinning out on the flat bits is the biggest pain of SSing

The bits either side of Sanquhar are ok, with a wee bit of hike a bike.

Coming down of Green Lowther is ‘entertaining’ in a ‘HOW STEEP!!! vertical grass kinda fashion.

I’d recommend at least a week of dry weather before the attempt.

Good luck

Well the whole point fo Drumlanrig was to race; the SXC raced there after the FE wouldn’t open up after foot and mouth ten years ago (that’s why the trails we’re started there in the first place) and has returned every year since then. There have been two NPS and marathon enduro type events also.

No problems overtaking at any of these events yet the trail is generally very narrow by comparison to the FE trail centres. P’raps its because the trails are naturally surfaced so the centre line gradually turns into ‘off’ trail so is predictable, if you know what’s what, rather than there being a ‘ridden’ line with loose shaley nonsense on each side, then bog or brash outside that.

I can usually get past people quite easily if I’m out enjoyoing the trails of and evenin; and in a race situation it can be a bit of a parade for half of the first lap, then it all kinda settles down and you slot into your placing and ride on your own to the finish or the cramp gets ya and everyone goes past pishing themselves.

+1 for The Violent Femmes – I’d like to see the numbers painring that they came up with. Most played in my head while digging trails.

Also That Petrol Emotion – very usefull when theres a need to tamp down the loose

drink tea
then must tidy the workshop
brew up coffee
more tidying
blethering with muddy people
dodging the rain
must tidy the workshop

propbably on here quite alot, not a busy afternoon at the Shed

Using a set of 120 DT Swiss for extra slackness on my Ridgeline and it seems shweet; the half way lock down on the fork tightens everything up for the climbs rather nicely too..

Wow !!

Some of the woods are on clay, which needs a hardpack top to remain rideable all year round. Definitely no motorways tho’ very 3d flowing, pumptastic trails even on the surfaced ‘blue’ grade stuff.

Where possible the trails are as dug and much nicer to ride, no pics of these on the club site tho’

Bare in mind that the trails are for everyone and unlike the FE trail centres where access is, to an extent, self policing (you need a volvo or BMW to get there). The trails at Kirkcaldy are open to all, with a huge range of experience and skill levels. Something you’ll need to think about very seriously for any urban fringe trail network.

Edit – obviuosly the motorway comments above relate to the Blessingborne site not Middleden. Although those trails look great and fit for purpose to me.

Have a look at the trails at Middleden in Kirkcaldy.

Very diferent soil structure but the way you want to do it sounds similar.

Rik

no problem using an 8 speed chain on mine (or 9spd) just whatevers handy

Yup thats the spot.

If you know; it get involved and join the club there, all good guys.

+1 for Drumlanrig (I may be biased)

I’m going to be putting the finishing touches to a trail network right in the middle of Kirkcaldy next week. It’s cost peanuts compared to any of the FE trail centres and it doesn’t take a car journey to get to from the large and under priviliged estates which surround the woodland it’s built in.

A club has been formed so that there is local ‘ownership’ and also a forward path for maintenance and development.

Some follow up spend on coaching and access to decent bikes would be a much better way for the government to solve the heath issues there and there abouts than subsidising trails for the majority of folks on here who
1) would ride anyway, and
2) aren’t part of the obesity / health problem that is so often spouted as a reason for free access to trail networks
3) could realistically afford a few pounds on top of the £50 quids worth of deisel used to get in the middle of nowhere to ride

Let the trail centres stand on there own feet as far as raising cash from the users of the trail centres for development and maintenance is what I would suggest; seems fairer to me than what’s happening right now.

not all trail centres are on public land, and some, like Drumlanrig haven’t had any public money spent on them.

As for spending public money on a mostly middle class hobby, where most of us spend upwards of a grand for a bike – I’d say spend it on health care or education in the schemes and ghettos on actually getting the problem kids and adults out excercising and eating healthily.