Nope, it still pulls to the left even with one rider. Feels worse with the stoker onboard…just don’t tell her I said that.

Picture posting didn’t work, sorry!

That’s made my day already, thank you.

I thought this was going to be like the Octopus Sex thread. Disappointed now.

In nearly 30 years of mountain biking, I’ve never bothered with stretching. Around about Christmas time, I realised my left achilles tendon was badly swollen, having previously put the increasing soreness down to ‘just being in my very late 40s’. Went to see the quack, he referred me to the physio who pretty much laughed when she saw the state I was in. Apparently, my calves and hams are so tight from lack of stretching that not only has it led to severe swelling in my achilles, but it’s also making me flat footed!

I’m doing a lot more stretching now, and I think the swelling’s starting to go down a bit in my achilles.

I’m in the middle of converting some RNA into cDNA for library preps, but my head isn’t in it. My head is planning where to go when I get home tonight. A couple of laps around Torwood? Maybe head into Stirling for a skoosh along North Third’s clifftops? Need to do something as the weather’s to break tomorrow and the forecast is for a fortnight of rain. :-(

It’s stopped now (Thank the Lords of Cobol!), I was getting redirected to an admin page and the temptation to push one of the buttons was overwhelming!!

I always used Dogtags when I was going snowboarding holidays with my mates. However, I found out that I was paying around 5 times what they were for a weeks holiday insurance with snowsports cover. Eventually, I just started doing what they did, I went onto Compare the Meerkat and picked something from there.

….When I had my accident…I was covered by Dr24hr Cover or something like that. It cost £18 as I remember and was the ‘Silver’ cover option out of Bronze-Silver-Gold.

I believe that most of my treatment was covered by my EU medical card, but the translator, private nurse, transfer to a less terrifyingly dirty, private hospital and private air ambulance home a week later were all covered by Dr24hr cover. I didn’t pay a penny, still not sure how that worked out and still go into a cold sweat whenever I go online to get holiday insurance now, in case someone goes…”Hang on a minute, we’ve been looking for you”

I think you just take your chances, just like the insurance companies do when they gamble on you not costing them a small fortune. Now, when I go my skiing holidays (the word snowboard is now frowned upon in the Beagleboy household), I just stick with a mid-price, middle option insurance cover, keep my fingers crossed and never, ever believe an instructor again when he says, “..but this is a really easy trick.”

Not quite new, as I’ve had this bike for nearly 10 years now, but over the weekend I fitted new shifters, mechs and brakes. Also put on a new chainset, cassette and chain. Only things I didn’t change were the contact points, fork and wheelset.

It’s sunny outside today and I’ll be home from work in about 3 hrs. Looking forward to going out for a spin and seeing what bits I’ve forgotten to tighten up or put on!

C.
https://i.postimg.cc/J43CfYR3/IMG-20190406-161257-1.jpg

Been lurking around since the days of Gofar. Think my mag subscriber No. is 633, so I just missed out on the introductory subscriber offers to the first 500. Still miffed at that. Don’t really post much, but I do enjoy surfing the threads.

“Beagleboy slips in his huge dobsonian”

…at every and any opportunitiy. 😉

Here’s my Trio system…hopefully.

I’ll try and get a couple of pics of my system up tonight. It’s a TRIO turntable, amp and tape deck/tuner linked to a pair of Wharfdale floor standing speakers. All early 70’s and still pumping out awesome sounds.

We got one of these towards the tail end of last year.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Boutique-Camping-Rainbow-Zipped-Ground/dp/B01D1T5DR6

Masses of space in it, and much easier to erect than our Outwell tunnel tent. That was one of the reasons we went for it as my dodgy lower back was making it difficult to setup our old tent. The 5m version that we have has room for a full sized double bed, table and chairs, with plenty of cat swinging space left over. One thing my wife did buy for it, and which is sheer genius on her part, is a 5m circular groundsheet to go underneath the tent, keeping the base dry and clean for easy packing at the end of the holiday.

I really like it, especially as it’s really easy to find when I’m stumbling back from the pub.

Fallen, with Denzel Washington.

I remember watching this when it first came out in the late 90’s and right up to the final scene, I was thinking it was an okaaay movie, but not brilliant. Then Sympathy for the Devil kicks in, and pretty much made the entire movie for me. Still makes me smile when I think about it.

Cheers, I’ll check the insurance ( I need to declare my type 1 diabetes anyway). As for the doc, he’s basically prescribed me rest, ice,raising it when possible, ibuprofen and referred me for physiotherapy, to be started at some point in the future.

I reckon it’ll be fine as well, just a wee bit nervous of injuring myself on a winter holiday after the ‘Bulgarian Incident of 2016’. Think I’m going to get one of those stuffed sausage compression socks, see if that’ll help it any. :-)

Hey folks,

I’m a very cautious, beginner skier. I can parallel ski on blue runs and have had a week in Stubai, Austria two years ago, and Val d’Isere last year. I’m off to Italy’s Val di Fiemme three weeks today and am really looking forward to it. However, I went to the doc on Wednesday to ask him about what I thought was a bout of tendonitis in my achilles, only for him to point, say “Oooh, look at that!” and tell me I’ve actually partially torn the tendon.

It’s obviously sore to walk on, but not excruciatingly so as I’ve done the initial injury somewhere in the last 4-8 weeks and it’s basically manifested itself as an ache that I just put down to wear and tear in my late forties. When I told the doc I was going on a ski trip in 3 weeks time, he wasn’t the most helpful. “Yeah? Good luck with that!”, was pretty much all he said.

I’m figuring that my very slow and careful ski style, alongside the fact my foot and ankle will be pretty much immobilised in the ski boot, should let me get away with it. Has anyone else had this problem and survived to tell the tale?

I’m struggling to get started. Been trying to cut down on my consumption which has led to a few issues with my diabetes control recently and quite a few emergency, middle of the night sugar hits. Then I went to see my doctor on Wednesday about the tendonitis I thought I was suffering from. He pointed and went “Oooh, look at that!”, even before I’d got me sock and shoe off. Apparently I’ve been hobbling around on a partially torn achilles tendon for some time now. I thought it was just ‘late-forties-itis’. Plan to go out on my bike tomorrow, wearing everything I own so that I sweat like a pig, then come home and do a huge jobbie before weighing myself. Then I’ll probably drink a load of beer to cheer myself up. :-(

That poor dummy needs an airbag for his face. Even though it’s a dummy, I was still wincing!

I find it a bit weird how so many people obsess about keeping their bikes in pristine condition to preserve their resale value. When I buy a bike, it’s such a serious investment for me, that I fully intend to ride that bike to the death.

I think in nearly 30 yrs of mountain biking I’ve only sold 2 bikes. The rest have either broken or are still in my garage, hanging up as trophies. They’re designed to take a hammering, and every scrape and ding has a story behind it, just as they do on my sadly abused, chubby wee body.

Viva La entropy!

C.

Nope, don’t like it. You can see for a lot of the traffic riding that he’s just whipping in and out of stationary traffic, but I switched it off when he did the same going against the flow. He was just being an irritating nobber then.

Exactly the same as FastHaggis

Was there not a big article in the magazine about riding in this area not too long ago?

Did he wave though? It doesn’t matter if he nearly killed you as long as he waves into his rear mirror as you pick yourself up off the ground. That’s the law.

I’d be interested in seeing real numbers of failures, rather than just social media hysterics.

My 2 year old Orange Four’s swing arm cracked at the start of the summer, and although it took a couple of months to get sorted, for which I blame my LBS entirely, I still received a brand new 2018 frame as a replacement. In nearly 30 years of mountain biking, and putting unfair strain on bikes as I’m a hefty lad, I’ve had two bikes crack under the strain. My four this summer, and a 2005 model Orange 5 that was out of warranty, and truth be told, was too wee for me. It wasn’t a surprise when it cracked at the seat tube / top tube junction considering the amount of seat tube extension I was riding it with.

So that’s 2 Oranges out of the 8 that I’ve owned, and 12 mountain bikes I’ve owned in total since taking up the hobby seriously in the very early 90’s.

Over these years, I’ve seen Ti Raleigh’s come apart as the glue failed. I’ve seen the same with Trek’s bonded bottom brackets and dodgy swing arms. You wouldn’t get me to touch a Whyte with a smelly stick, I’ve seem so many of them break underneath folk that I ride with. So why is it that Orange are getting singled out?

I reckon social media is making it way to easy to cry wolf and be heard. It used to be that when someone’s bike failed, they’d go to the bike shop, maybe email the manufacturer and all would be sorted under warranty. Nowadays? Straight onto Facebook and start screaming recall. It’s all a nonsense in my opinion.

One of the biggest complaints on the Orange owners Facebook page seems to be that Orange aren’t honouring 2nd hand warranties. Seriously? Why would they?

Finally, the folk that are complaining about ugly welds? Admittedly, I’ve been out of the factory for a long time now, but I started my working life as a time served TIG welder, which I’m proud to say I was rather good at, in my opinion. Aluminium welding was a dark art to me, wizardry. Do you know that the aluminium oxide skin on aluminium has a higher melting temperature than the aluminium underneath? Those are good, strong aluminium welds.

I used to wear Endura leggings under baggie shorts, but then discovered the ones that Aldi do for a fraction of the price. Think I have about four or five pairs of them now, a mix of bib longs and normal, although I prefer the bibs as they keep my back draught free in the really chilly stuff.

Forgive me for not really understanding what everyone’s complaining about. I’ve been a member of this forum since it was GoFar, and a subscriber to the magazine from issue 1. What’s so wrong with it that everyone is upset? Except for that weird ‘span’ thing popping up? I got that for the first time the other day, but managed to shift it because I spotted there was something weird going on in the preview panel. Is that what everyone is annoyed about?

The forum’s definitely quieter since its reboot a few months ago, but is that all so bad? I’m actually posting a wee bit more on here again because a lot of the annoying fannies seem to have packed their bags and left.

It still has a diverse content of bike and non-bike related subjects, I’m still entertained and informed both digitally and in print. What’s your problem with it??

The one I really regret selling was my 1999 / 2000 Orange Evo O2. It was my first ever, properly expensive mountain bike that I lavished love and money on. I eventually replaced it with an Orange 5 and a steel P7 hardtail, but held onto the O2, pretty much for the memories. Then a guy joined our bike club and he seemed so enthusiastic and eager to upgrade his bike that I decided to sell him the O2 at ‘mates rates’. He then took my wonderful O2, who’s name was McCoy, because I’d built him so lightweight that I could feel all the Bones in my body after a day in the saddle), sanded down the original polished aluminium finish and painted it matt black. Then he built it up as a commuter and laughed at my outrage.

He left the club, I think after making a few rather out of order comments towards other members, and I think I’m right in saying he even got banned from this forum after making some rather nasty sectarian comments regarding a debacle in Manchester involving Rangers football ‘fans’.

I don’t so much regret selling the bike, as much as I regret selling it to that guy. Although I would have bought it straight back off him if I knew what he had planned for it, even if I lost money. I loved that old O2, sorry McCoy, I should never have abandoned you to that fate.

Philjunior – Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is fairly easy to…erm spot..in the telescope (10mm eyepiece in a 200mm Newtonian, so roughly x120 magnification in my scope) if you time it right, as it only takes an hour or two to traverse the front of the planet. My Jupiter highlight a year or so ago was catching the Red Spot (actually pale salmon colour in my scope), then watching as a tiny black dot appeared on the cloud surface as well. It was the shadow of a Galilean moon! That was awesome! Unfortunately, though, Jupiter’s going to be really low on the horizon this coming year, so it’ll be a while yet before I get to try for that again.

Gnusmas – I’d mirror what other’s have said. The brightest star in the morning at the moment is Venus. I could almost have sworn you could see it’s disc this morning it was that bright! In the evening, one of the first stars to pop out and pretty much the brightest in the sky at the moment, (other than Venus), is Mars. It’s slowly working it’s way up in the sky to the south (all planets follow roughly the same path as the sun), and hopefully by next month it’ll be peeking over the roof of our house so I can get a peek at it with my scope!

I really rate the winter cycling gloves from Aldi. Not waterproof, but they keep my fingers toastie right down to freezing and beyond.

It’s been completely reworked in the last ten years. Everything is much smoother and anything remotely technical removed. I reckon the kids will love it. You’ll probably be reduced to tears of boredom, but the kids will have a great time.

I should add in a disclaimer here that I don’t actually have kids…I have two cats and can barely cope with the distain that they show me,,,, heaven help what I’d be like with kids. However, I was a kid once and reckon I’d have had a whale of a time at Carron Valley on my Raleigh Tomahawk!

This thread was the boot up the self pitying arse that I needed. I posted up on a local Facebook MTB group’s page and was invited out on a ride on Monday night. Couldn’t make their meeting time, but I caught up with them and was warmly welcomed into the group.

Plan to meet up with them again as soon as they’re out near me again.

I too, shall keep you informed!

I spanked a deer once.

I was riding down a narrow path between trees and a fence when a group of four or five deer burst out of the trees. All of them leapt the fence except one who tried to go through it. I was on the brakes by this point, with the rear end of my Patriot (that’s how long ago it was), sliding around. Rear wheel caught the back end of the deer which straightened me up again and gave the deer the impetus to jump the fence.

When I got home, I spotted deer hair stuck to my rear brake rotor. Have always worried since then that there’s a deer out there with Shimano branded on it’s arse and vengeance on its mind.

Umm, I’m no biologist, but I’m pretty sure the animals eyes aren’t emitting any light that can be reflected back at them from another animal. I think what you’re seeing is light being reflected from the animals retina by your torch, because the animal’s eyes have hugely dilated pupils in the dark.

Up my way, Facebook and the ‘Meetup App’ seem to be quite big for hooking up riders. I used to ride with my local club at every opportunity, but age, injuries, club politics and folk I thought of as friends turning out to be a right bunch of dicks (not you Barton), put paid to that.

Now I do the vast majority of my riding solo, which inevitably means I don’t ride anywhere near as much as I’d want to. For me, riding has always been more about the social interaction than the actual bikes or trails, so without the incentive of meeting up with the gang for a muddy evening, I’m just sitting in front of the telly feeling sorry for myself.

I’ve joined two local Facebook groups, Stirling Area Mountain Mudders and Central Scotland MTB group. Each group has 750-800 members, although I’d expect that the biggest proportion of those are shared. Even so, it’s a vast amount of riders of all abilities and although the Facebook activity seems to be dominated by just a few of the members, the diversity is still there and accessible.

I’m actually hoping to meet up with a bunch of them tonight, if my commute permits. I posted up on the Facebook group and one of the guys responded. If I can catch up with them I’ll see what happens. If I can’t, well, the fact is that I’m actually talking about going out on my bike, rather than planning what I’m going to watch on Netflix.

I’d have a search on Facebook, see if there’s any groups near you. If not, download the Meetup app and do the same…although I never really got on with that. It just seemed to go pinging off like mental as I couldn’t figure out how to filter the messages!

We just got a new condensing, combi boiler fitted in the summer for a total cost of £2000, and that was with a 10 year warranty. We’re in a 3 bedroom semi and it’s never been so toasty.

I went on one of those ‘trust a trader’ websites and got a couple of quotes. Ended up going with the guy who came across as the nicest.

Absolutely no alternative to the car?

I commute 24 miles each way and it cost me £140 per month to get from Dunipace (south of Stirling) into the west end of Glasgow using public transport (buses) and Glasgow’s Nextbike network. Wouldn’t say it’s a fun commute, but I don’t drive a car so where there’s a will, there’s a way!

Very similar happened to me Poolman. Lots of folk really stepped up, but I feel bad because I’m scared of investing in those friendships. I should stick with my cats, I know where I am with my cats. They loathe me and don’t pretend otherwise.

Two great friends from high school. We hung out together, went to concerts, went on holidays, one of them was my best man at my wedding. Thirty-four years of thinking these were the greatest guys in the world. Then, three years ago, when we were all away on a winter holiday together in Bulgaria, I had a bad accident the day before we were due to fly home and was hospitalised. Last I saw of my mates was as I was bundled into the back of an ambulance. It took the holiday insurance company to find me and tell my wife (back home), where I was and what had happened.

Several weeks later, (after a weeks intensive care in Bulgaria then flown home to the same at my local hospital), when I eventually saw my best mates again (one lives a 10 minute walk, the other a 10 minute drive from my house), they sat across from me and explained that I was ‘just a mate’ and that the cost of following me to the hospital and staying overnight would have been way more than anyone would expect to pay, as I was ‘just a mate’. Of course, they also pointed out in the same breath that had I been someone they ‘really cared about’, then nothing would have stopped them getting in the ambulance and being there for me, but I was ‘just a mate’.

I appreciate that in the past I have always been very naive and trusting with friends, maybe investing more friendship in them than I receive, but I’m much more careful now. How exactly are you supposed to trust anyone? I thought I knew those guys and would have quite frankly done anything for them. They seemed to have looked at me as an acquaintance.

Friends? I’m not so sure about friends anymore.

Hey Rachel! How’s it going? I actually did a baseline erosion survey up there, right after I graduated from Stirling with my shiny new Ecology degree, back in 1998. I took the initial measurements that would then be added to annually, and used to assess the impact that the expect increase in footfall from the funicular railway would have on the mountaintop. If I remember correctly, and as I understood it at the time, the measurements we were recording would help to assess the total impact of the railway, which at that time was going to be ‘trialled’ on the mountain, with it’s long term future depending on how much it increased tourism and how this would impact on the mountain environment. Scotroutes is correct when he says the main focus was on Cairngorm’s summit and the route over to Ben Macdui. If memory serves, the plateau has an ‘alpine tundra’ ecosystem that is really quite fragile. So, when the funicular finally got the go ahead, it was only on the provision that folk taking the railway to the Ptarmigan restaurant would have limited access to the summit. You could only get to the summit and then onward, over the plateau by good old fashioned legwork from the bottom of the mountain.

All the stuff that’s proposed on that there Facebook thingy is on the side of the mountain that’s pretty much been beaten to death anyway and is much lower down than the really fragile higher altitude environment. Quite fancy the roller coaster, but you can keep the zipline thanks!