If I want a properly thought through, interesting in depth, something to read I pick up a mag from the other side of the Atlantic or even Australia. I gave up on UK mags about five years ago! Too many adverts and spin and stuff I’m not interested in or know already. Nice pics in some but so much hype and nonsense..

DRumlanrig definetely

+1 for Like-a-abike jumper.

It’ll sell one well. We sell quite a few and always offer to buy it back when finished with it (for half what you paid) as we’d love to have some second hand bikes on offer. Never had one back!

They are so light, you (or your missus) will end up carrying it for some of the time !

The wee bit suspension is really good, scoot your own rigid bike round the block – if there are no pedals to stand up on every bump goes right thru to your bum!!

We also sell plenty of the Zooms but probably more Likeabikes as they’re so good. We have demo bikes and good stock if you’re in the Dumfries area

An English cat called One Two Three challenged a french cat called Un Deux Trois to a swimming race.

The English cat won……….

Un Deux Trios cat sank..

Did you hear about the donkey who won the Nobel Prize?

He was out standing in his field!!

What do you called a three legged donkey?
A Wonkey

What do you call a three legged donkey with only one eye?
A Winky Wonkey!!

Just sharpen your chain!
you don’t need a new one if it hasn’t been sharpened before, just make sure all the teeth are at the same angle and length and it’ll cut fine.
swap the blade over as well ( you should flip it each time you sharpen the saw). All you need is the correct wee round file and a guide if your new to it.

+1 Bear
only lag the pipe if you can make it totally waterproof, or it’ll freeze up and you’ll not be able to thaw it.

Drumlanrig rode very sweetly today. Crunchy snow, a few hidden roots, only 5 sets of tracks and 3 dog prints in th snow. 🙂

The trails are riding dry and crispy right now, only a sugaring of snow!

Mabie has a sprinkling, Dalbeattie OK I’da thought Kirro will be fine.

Not a Stane, but Drumlanrig in excellent condition- dry and grippy, crisp sugar coat of frosty snow – sweet!

Drumlanrig is excellent for mixed ability as you can dip in and out of the red from the blue. Pop into the shop for a map and I’ll show you where the easier bits of red are..

only an hour down the motorway..

drumlanrig totally clear

There is a £2 parking charge at the weekends at Drumlanrig, but thru the week totally free.

The ‘per person’ charge is what builds the trails tho so don’t grudge it!

No Euro grant millions or tax payers money’s gone into subsidising ‘your’ hobby; so if you’re only down once or twice ‘pay to play’, please. If you’re down more often, join the local bike club or get a season ticket it’ll pay for itself on ride 4.

After that get on with enjoying our more organic take on trails…

The trails at Drumlanrig are always open, as are the bike wash (closed for repairs right now) and showers.

Park up, if you’re there before the kiosk person pay when you get back. There is only a charge at the weekend at the moment so get down, ride and enjoy.

The bike shop and cafe are open Fri Sat Sun and an occasional Monday if there’s enough stuff in the workshop to keep us busy..

Please pop into the shop for a blether even if you don’t need to buy anything, it get’s pretty quiet at this time of the year.. It’s always good for us to get feedback on the trails and just to find out who’d about.

It can get pretty spooky out on your own after dark, especially when the ‘eyes’ start appearing ‘scooby doo’ style; and the ‘shriek’ owls give it a loud one…

😉

Hi Peter

I must try get back out there now that you’ve found some more exciting trails… That looks like it could be fun..

IMO you do need to relax and be more fluid over the rocks/bumps. As said above, try riding over things more rather than losing speed dodging rocks. To do this you’re gonna have to use some of that smooth explosive strength that you use on the rock and a huge dose of commitment!!

Stand up good and tall and look further ahead not down at what’s right in front of your wheel. Try thinking about moving the bike ‘under’ you, rather than yourself around the bike; centre your gravity firmly on the pedals, and use legs and arms to push into the backslope/dh sides of everything and lift the bike over any kinda upslope or rock. Pump everything (+1 on the Lopes/McCormack book from the last thread)

For the steeper drops/steps, if they’re rolleable hooch down as your rolling over the edge to smooth out the lip/drop, then extend arms/legs as you roll out, suck them in again if there are more bumps; your trying to isolate your mass from the sharpness of the trail , Not a good idea to lock out arms or legs, keep them strong but flexi, elbows out .

Stop, go back and try stuff over and over, if you do it right, do it again ‘right’, until it’s easy/second nature. It’s not like you’ll be in anyones way 😉

Best of luck buddy, and good luck with the STW massive when they come to stay.

Rik

Bye the way that video does not do any kind of justice to how steep and extremely rocky and sharp those trails are.

Drumlanrig’s riding fine at the moment. Plenty of leaves down hiding the roots which can make it ‘interesting’ slippy but not muddy.

No bike wash at the moment due to maintenance but not really needed..

Get yerself down, ride hard and enjoy !!

Drumlanrig TOTALLY open, and free to ride at the moment as no one mans the kiosk at this time of the year.

Snack bar and Rik’s Bike Shed open 10:00 – 4:00 Fri, Sat, Sun

Trails riding superbly and all very, very pictursque in all it’s autumnal glory..

Go on try something different, you know you want to…………

there used to be a wee wood powered sauna at the bunkhouse at Mabie.

Basically a wee wooden shed with a wood burner and some rocks in a basket. You could roll on the wet grass or out in the rain if it got a bit too hot.

Which it must have done significantly at one point as the plastic thermometer had melted into the wall FFS.

there used to be a wee wood powered sauna at the bunkhouse at Mabie.

Basically a wee wooden shed with a wood burner and some rocks in a basket. You could roll on the wet grass or out in the rain if it got a bit too hot.

Which it must have done significantly at one point as the plastic thermometer had melted into the wall FFS.

You could (as you do in a sweat lodge) build a fire outside and superheat the (granite or other volcanic) boulders;

then, boulders into a tin bucket, into the lodge/sauna, water on the boulders and Bobs yer auntie Roberta.

You can build one in the garden with green sticks and an old tarp.. You’ll probably end up with a bunch of hippies in there with you but they’re excellent for heating up yer old bones

You could (as you do in a sweat lodge) build a fire outside and superheat the (granite or other volcanic) boulders;

then, boulders into a tin bucket, into the lodge/sauna, water on the boulders and Bobs yer auntie Roberta.

You can build one in the garden with green sticks and an old tarp.. You’ll probably end up with a bunch of hippies in there with you but they’re excellent for heating up yer old bones

How do you titilate an ocelot

Occilate its titalot

I could lay my hands on a courier comp, an Orange Prestige and very early P7 so this could be a goer

I still have spotted orange shirts and shorts of the period too. What say we set a date?

That takes me back!!

My first DH race I had suspension…..a 130mm(long) flex stem!!!

I think i still have it somewhere..if anyone would like to recreate the event I could organise a hill, strictly retro bikes??

Great film!! And the Hogwarts Express put in an appearance too …Wow !

Out for a lap this morning.. sweet ‘n’ slippy.. even when you know where the roots are.

Cheers for the +ve comments everyone….. Rik

Just to confirm that you’ll need the voucher to get the deal.

The regular orice for entry is £5pp although you can get a season ticket for the whole year for next year; if you like it 😉

that’ll be rebuilt rather than new I think? Apart from the new section bypassing the ridge at Mabie, there’s not much actual new ‘wasn’t there before’ trail happening at the magnificent 7.

Plenty of smoothing out and facelifting tho’, bring your bmx 😉

?????? the bedrock was cleared with great effort by myself and the contractors. It rides (rode) beautifully!

I came back from a week or two away from the projet to find that the the Forestry health and safety officer had decided to boardwalk whole sections of bedrock.

Yup that’ll be John Ireland….

Absolutely no reason I can think off; it rode superbly. It was a ‘done and dusted’ with absolutely no communication with myself. John just didn’t get the trail at all.. He was having fits that it was too difficult and dangerous, demanding that sections be boarded up ( which mostly just destroyed the natural flow) and quite often he’d completely ignore sections that I knew were were far harder (but looked easy)..

I rode up most of the descents on my Singular so I was pretty sure there were no issues about steepness and drops etc. Made me sick and extremely cynical about the future of mtb if left to the FE jobsworths.

I’m very glad that we managed to save enough of the trail to give a good technical ride and that folks are enjoying the hard work and effort put in by John and Dougal the local contracters and myself.

Has the ‘crown’ at the top of the hill been completed yet by the way?. Just a few wee patches of woodwork needed to go in and it would make a properly sweet wee playground to ‘catch yer breath on’, or at least to have a play on while waiting for the geared.

Ain’t it a funny old world.

In my experience the majority of ‘mincing’ is done by baggily clad, portly blokes riding weighty full sus bike, wearing body armour on sanitised, groomed trail centers.

If any of you want to came and see the erosion caused by the skill-less locking up the back wheels compared to to the "skill-full" drifting come on out on a trail maintainance dig night first Tuesday of every month.

No difference at all by the way, it still puts the dirt from the tread of the trail into the bushes- that's where the trail goes by the way. Any time the trail leaves the tread or migrates down hill you take away cross slope and makes drainage harder. Harder/slower drainage eventually leads to soggy wet/washed out trail.

madison don't even have spare spokes for these wheels 🙁

If you must use alloy npples make sure you grease the spoke threads (not if radial)and rim.

I have been brought many a wheel for repair with seized up and fractured alloy nipples which are a real pain.

For longeveity use brass if a few grams makes all the difference alloy is OK but use lube on the threads and where the rim/nipple seat.

Peter and Annes guest house 'The Lemon House' is excellent by the way. They are easy going hosts who will do whatever they can to make your 'active' holiday as active as it can be.

We stayed there for a couple of weeks two years ago and they gave us lifts everywhere, loaned us climbing gear, took us to good spots for climbing and cycling; and even organised a couple of sea kayaking days.

Peters query is absulotely genuine re the grading of the local routes (my missus graded just about everything 'too ouchy' due to the pointy local rock (it's a place I'd wear elbow pads and I don't at home)). At the time there wasn't really any singletrack and Peter's guiding was on the firetracks and roads mentioned above but it looks like he's been busy clearing and brashing and waymarking just like we did here 10 or 12 years ago pre-trail centres..

Hopefully his wee business will benefit from a few forum posts, and the huge potential for off piste natural steep and techy trails will become a reality.

For the trail centre riders out there, don't expect easy gradient climbs. 500m (vert) of steep just to get to the next village and it's well hot.

Top venue for a two week do everything as well as lie on the beach holiday.

A bit late for this thread but if I could add that Drumlanrig is riding perfectly, the trails are extremely well drained after a wee bit shovel work earlier in the year and the recent rain has effectively compacted a lot off dust and gravel from the dry spell.

Wet roots – not a problem if you ride 'light' and pump the back slope !!

I live about a mile from Torthorwald and it's pronounced kinda like T'thorold, first o silent second o and the wa sounded as in otter . My village is Collin is pronounced Ku'lin with the emphasis on lin. Lots of Norse round the coastal parts here – Castle of Thors wood.

And Drum – lan – rig is easy to say and a very nice place to ride 😉

+1 Macavity

also Ae is just 'A' as in abc and Mabie as in maybe I will maybe I won't.

speed kings are my fav tyres for round here, and seem to last well if you're easy on the back brake

Two very nice lads used to come round my place the whole time to try and 'convert' me n the missus. One was obviously in charge and always steered the conversation back towards ' relgious' matters, t'other lad was younger and although a twin wasn't alowd to keep in touch with his brother (who was doing 'missionary ' work in France). They appeared out of nowhere one misty night as I was trying to solo a huge old couch out of the front door and onto the trailer, very useful timing. It became a bit of sport for us to keep the older dude 'off message' and get the younger guy stoked up about mtb and rock climbing and all that stuff, and just learning about the states etc. It was quite good craic. Eventually they seemed to give up, but we got more furniture shifted and some wall papering out of them. I think it was a bit of respite from the 'missionary work' certainly for the younger dude. We called them 'Smith and Jones', I met Smith with a new Jones about 6months later; he joked that the younger dude had run away then copped himself on and got his usuall serious back.

I'm usually bangin on about something or other at 'Drum' lanrig