Dunno, even if he was trying to be funny or ironic, that jujuuk68 post kinda scared me. That’s the kind of attitude that drove me to the fringes of lurkerdom on this forum.

If I recall my ‘Mote in God’s Eye’ correctly, the light sail used by the Moties was only for acceleration and was binned after they’d reached their maximum speed. So, they could have been aliens, we just couldn’t catch them!

Whilst on the subject of exciting things in the sky, by the middle of next month we might just be getting treated to a nice view of a comet up near the Pleiades. 46P/Wirtanen should be easily visible on a clear dark night ride. I’m quite looking forward to that one!

Sorry Dick, should have said MOST folk in the club are tossers. Everyone knows you’re just an arse. 😘

I was a member of my local club for years and absolutely loved it. As the club developed though, it grew bigger and bigger and became much more road orientated. When I finally put a shout out for support of the dwindling MTB community within the club, I was told to go find another club. So I walked away from something that had been a really big part of my life, and where I’d made some amazing friends….and evidently quite a few who weren’t all that I thought they were!

I’ve actually returned to the club after a few years….although I don’t actually ride with them. I really support the grass roots development, the kids cycling club, and I really, really like the club kit. So I give them my annual membership. The folk in the club, however, are a bunch of tossers, so I don’t ride with them!

We had a Thule ‘Clip-on’ boot rack for years and it was one of the most solidly built and stable racks we’ve owned. It murdered the paintwork on the car though. The clips went under the lip of the boot and over the top of the boot door. Didn’t work if you’ve got any sort of go-faster spoiler thingy above the window of your boot. Found that out when we tried fitting it to a mate’s car….whoopsy!

Even though the metal clips had plastic and rubber coatings to protect the car’s paintwork, these soon wore away, but we didn’t notice this until we started seeing the damage to the car’s paintwork.

Mrs Beagleboy’s new car has roofbars, so we binned the boot rack and now have Thule roof racks. I don’t like them as much as the boot rack. It makes me nervous that my £4K pride and joy is wobbling around on the roof where I can’t see it, but it’s her car, and I’m not going to start an argument I have no hope of winning…ever…any argument….about anything… :-)

I do a very short commute from Buchanan bus station in Glasgow over to the university in the West end. It’s only about 3 miles and generally takes about 10 minutes or so on a big, heavy NextBike. Throughout most of the winter, I’ll do that with an old snowboard jacket on, generally with just a t-shirt underneath. Only time I heat up is climbing my nemesis, that frikken Gilmore hill….but it’s going to be the end of me no matter what I’m wearing at the time.

The snowboard jacket’s warm, waterproof,  highly visible and keeps me toasty for the rest of my commute as I bus it into Glasgow. I wouldn’t worry about the fashion police on here. Just give it a go and see what you think. I won’t laugh at you. :-*

I liked it.

…..that actually explains a lot of the sexual confusion I’ve felt over the years.

Whoa….what now? Are you saying Tripitaka wasn’t bald?

Like other’s here, I find the pictures of the two hunters posing with the dead goats quite absurd. However, the goats are on an island, their numbers need to be kept under control, these folk are paying good money into the local economy to do that, and quite frankly, I’d rather they went out and shot a goat, than a Lion or a Tiger.

When you read the woman’s actual tweet thingy at the bottom of the pictures, she’s making a big point of highlighting the equipment she used. She’s advertising her sponsor’s (or potential sponsor’s) kit in these pictures that are aimed at a niche audience, it’s her job to post this sort of stuff to social media. No matter how ludicrous it looks to me, there’ll be someone out there with a stack of money thinking that Islay is their next stop for a bit of shooting action.

I’m struggling to get worked up about it. If it was a picture of my mate Bazz, sitting at the edge of a pond with a 7kg Trout in his arms, and the caption….”Look what I just bagged at Wellside Farm fishery with my Shimano reel and Diawa rod”*, I’d be thinking, “Where’s me Trout fillet ya jammy git”. I’d struggle to be outraged in all honest. I don’t see the difference between popping off a Goat or  Deer with a gun, or pulling a fish out of the water on the end of a rod.

Forgive me if I’m exhibiting moral bankruptcy, but I really can’t get outraged about this.

C.

* Awaiting sponsorship calls

I’ll occasionally ride on road without a helmet, but I’m never without one off-road. Smacked into too many low branches and rocks in my time.

There used to be a guy worked in our office. He would cycle into work and hang his kit and towel up in the loo to dry, as we’ve no other facilities available. Thing is, he was completely oblivious to the incredible stench (he used the same kit and towel all week), coming from his kit. It ended up that I was voted to be the responsible adult who had to go and have a chat with him about it. We were both mortified, but he was truly oblivious to the foul, bacterial stench coming off his cycling kit, and particularly his towel.

Just saying like…..

Old railway line in Denny, crossing the river Carron on my way home to the back garden and a glass of wine beside the firepit, on a lovely summer’s evening earlier this year.

With me, I solved a long standing problem with Tennis Elbow by fitting a wider handlebar to my mountain bike. The pain cleared up within a few weeks and I haven’t had any problems for a good few years now…..touch wood….touch wood.

Ha! I was thinking it was Aberfoyle as well. I remember riding down a trail there one winter where the conversation went along the lines of…

Beagy: Are you sure this is the actual trail? Because I think we’re in a large stream.

Crispin: Yep, this is the trail

Beagy: Are you really sure?

Crispin: Erm no. Hang on a minute, I think we’re in a stream.

The advert’s brilliant, really liked it, but I agree with some of the comments above about it looking like a sweatsuit. Unless it’s made of string vest material, I think I’d pass out within five minutes of wearing it.

Here’s a picture of me, just having got to the lab in my Hi-Vis, Glasgow weatherproof, cycling kit. It’s a bit sweaty when all zipped up, especially once we realised it’s actually supposed to have an airline attached to it.

I sat in the pub on Thursday night and read a good whack of it. Really enjoyed the article about the Lakes ‘hike-a-bike’ ride as I’ve done so many of those in the past, ignoring all advice (What do locals know, eh?), only to end up in a nightmare situation half way up a hill somewhere! Glad it worked out well for those guys!

Eddie Johnstone (out Falkirk way again), is forever putting up really nicely finished bike paint jobs on his Facebook pages. Not heard or seen a bad word about him. Awesome wee rider as well, but don’t tell him I said that.

I’m still using my blue Hope Mini Mono’s with ‘BeagleBoy’ etched into the levers on my hardtail. Although, I don’t ride my hardtail much nowadays as the brakes really, really don’t work anymore. Still nice to look at though!

The instruction manual on my Polar M200 recommends that when I’m about to start an activity, I should move the watch up my wrist higher than usual and tighten the strap a wee bit more than usual. I find that this gives me a more believable* heart rate, than if I forget and have the watch lower and looser on my wrist. Like someone else said though, it is just a guide. As long as you find you’re getting consistent results, it doesn’t really matter, does it?

*Believable in that at times I can be completely blowing out my arse and my watch claims my heart rate only 130bpm….more like 290 matey!

I’m working my way through the free Code Academy course at the moment. Really well structured course that you can take at your own speed.

Something is rotten?

Blue and Orange works for me!

I thought it was okay, not brilliant, but okay. No where near as good as the hype would have had me believe. Had a real problem though with the lead actor being such a miserable, whiney Scottish git….and that’s coming from a miserable, whiney Scottish git.

Didn’t take any pictures as I was too flipping knackered! My poor mate agreed to go exploring with me so I took her on a route that I’ve been oogling at from the summit of Dumyat for a couple of years now. We climbed up towards the summit of Myreton hill (Dumyat’s next door neighbour), along a steep series of switchbacks. Then, from near the summit, we followed the track up along the spine of the hill heading towards Sherrifmuir. We continued climbing…and climbing…and climbing. I’m not sure how that worked, but we only dropped down at the every end of the route, and it wasn’t a very long descent. We were robbed, seriously mugged and done over by that hill. I reckon we’re owed a good 300 metres of descent!

Haven’t actually ridden with anyone famous, but my mates and I were packing our bikes up in Glentress car park one winter’s day when a lovely young lady wandered over to me. She was asking how long it would take to do the black loop as they didn’t have lights (it was getting late in the day), and I said 2-3 hours depending on how quick she was. She reckoned that was do-able, so I looked over her shoulder and asked about her partner who was bent over his bike fitting his wheels on. I actually said something like, “What about your mate, is he fairly quick on a bike?” She replied that he was pretty good ( I saw him smile through his sideburns at this point), so I wished them the best of luck and turned around to see my two mates just standing there, gaping.

Apparently I’d just asked if Guy Martin was fast on a bike.

I’ve been running Guide R’s on my Orange Four for two years now. Very consistent and powerful brakes in my opinion. They certainly stop all 110kg of me pretty quickly!

A what?

I’d actually say that your music choice works a lot better on this one than on a few of your other vids! I like it!

Nah, just to the Denny side of Barr Wood, behind North Field quarry. There’s some lovely wee deer tracks in there. It’s just finding them again that’s the bugger!

I’ve only been up Dumyat once since the new track went in. To be honest, it doesn’t really bother me as I rarely descend that way nowadays. There are other routes down that don’t get clogged with walkers, cut to death in damp weather or terrorised by Strava junkies! Still can’t beat Uni-Mine-Kippenrait then a pint in the brewery for a most excellent wee spin. Cambu is brilliant, North Third has benefitted from the logging in my opinion. What used to be an albeit fantastic trail has been opened up with each drop now having multiple options. Rather than do it the old way or casualty calls! Out to the south, Torwood has taken a hammering, but like N3rd the hill has been opened up and new lines abound. I’ve found 3-4km of unridden trails up there ..but I’m not telling the internet! I’ve honestly been looking at all the ‘track improvements’ and forestry work as a positive thing as it’s made me get off my complacent arse and go find new stuff to ride. I might actually go out tonight again cause there’s a plot of woodland near me that must have trails in it. I’ve been searching for the last 20yrs and haven’t found any, but they must be there!

With so many places closed off due to forestry over the last year, I slowed down a bit and started opening my eyes, especially to a lot of stuff that I just whizzed past on my way to do my normal loops. I now have a cracker of a 14 mile XC loop that maybe only involves a mile or two of road and has a few bits of Shhhh…don’t tell the ‘trailbuilder’ / Strava spoilsports or they’ll ruin it, sections straight from my front door.

I ride into Stirling from the south and I can tick off masses of lovely wee woodland trails that I’ve normally ridden past, but now add onto my list. It’s like Dick says, you just have to go and explore….just watch out for that trail half way up the Glen road on the left hand side. I went up there in the winter and there were some very odd gentlemen camping in the woods!

For not much more than an Airshot, I bought a track pump that doubles up as a tubeless inflator. Flick a switch one way and it pressurises a wee tank in the pump up to 240 psi, flick the switch back and it dumps the air into the tyre. It generally needs two full tanks to properly seat the bead, but it’s a complete doddle. When not in use as a tubeless installer, it’s a very efficient track pump that works well on all my bikes. I use it all the time, it’s brilliant. Not sure how a cola bottle could match up to it.

I would happily buy another one of those t-shirts if they were reprinted. I think I still have my original one, it’s maybe just a wee bit tight on me. Must have shrunk in the wash.

I had a situation recently where some Facebook ‘vigilantes’ took it upon themselves to setup a protest outside our next door neighbour’s (by that time empty) house. The upshot of it was that I went out to one of the police sergeants who were monitoring the crowd (Four of them were eventually arrested and charged with threatening to burn the house down with everyone in it. I can only assume they thought we were fireproof next door), and told him that both my wife and I were feeling extremely intimidated and threatened by this crowd of low life oxygen thieves.

As far as I understand, this was enough for the officers to act on and they moved the crowd away within a few minutes. For all that people are coming up with hard man tactics and jokey remedies, it’s not a nice situation to be in when you actually feel under threat in your own home.

Make the police aware of what’s going on, and keep making them aware. Someone else mentioned a screwdriver? If this guy is coming onto your property to do mischief, then he’ll be tooled up. Phone the police, tell them someone’s outside your property again and you think you saw something in their hand. Could be a screwdriver, could be a knife, could have been the light catching his mobile phone, but you’re feeling threatened and intimidated.

I tend to keep my hardtail tucked away for winter riding as in my mind there’s less to go wrong and / or get worn away in gritty mud. This has led me into a mindset where it’s my ‘backup’ bike and inevitably, the bike that gets fitted with all the hand-me-downs and partly worn out kit.

So, when my full suspension bike broke at the start of the best summer we’ve had in years, I was a wee bit disappointed, but I rolled out my backup and hit the trails on a steel, 3×9, 26in wheeled delight! The perceived speed, the feeling of just being in control and no more, the snappy steering, all were leaving me with a huge grin on my face.

Of course, that was all tempered by the lower back pain, but hey-ho!

Anyway, the point being that I’d forgotten just what a hoot a good hardtail can be like in good conditions and the upshot is that I’m currently planning on upgrading all the kit on Penelope to bring her back up to top spec! :-)

All you’ll ever need. Tonka’s finest creation. 42-43 years old and still doing a fine duty of holding my MTB light batteries while they charge. I love my Tonka tipper truck.

Funnily enough, one of the noisiest and most annoying walkers that has ever brayed at me in the Lakes was whilst I was on the bridleway along the side of Conniston water. I’d stopped to let a huge posse of walkers go by and this one red socked (I shit you not), Scottish guy stopped and gave me a lecture about bikes not being allowed there. I took my map out, showed him where we were and that I was permitted to ride there, but he just swore and walked away…..probably a Weegie, so just angry about his lot in life in general. :-)

The 2nd funniest one was whilst I was taking part in a Lakes Merida 100 XC event. I encountered a large lady who’d just stepped out of her Range Rover and was putting all of her mighty heft into pulling one of the event way markers out of the ground. When I remonstrated with her, she pointed out that the sign was leading riders down a footpath. We got into this wonderful circular argument where she was demanding to know where I was going, and I was trying to explain that myself and about 800 others were trying to follow the signs that she was busy pulling out of the ground. The fact that the national park authority had approved the route held no water with that lady. We were not going down that path!

In the end she just got more and more abusive and I ended up doubling back about a mile to the feedstation and letting the event organisation know what was going on. Don’t know what happened in the end, but that was one angry lady!

Other than those two that spring to mind, I’ve never had anything but encouragement and mild bafflement from the vast majority of other trail users in the near 20 years that I’ve been spending regular holidays and weekends down there. I have been fastidious about sticking to bridleways though…..but maybe next time I might be a wee bit daring and naughty if no-one is looking.

I regularly head down to Keswick for a bit of Lakeland riding but I’m always very leery of riding ‘cheeky’ stuff. This loop looks lovely and I’d really like to try it out next time I’m down there, but what would be the best way to tackle it without getting other trail users back’s up?

Late afternoon / early evening once everyone’s gone to Oddfellows and the Dog ‘n’ Gun? Or are most folk okay about riders on the occasional out of the way footpath? I’m very aware that you guys down south have the smelly end of the stick when it comes to trail access and I’d be the last person who’d want to cause any grief between walkers and cyclists.

Yeah….yeah, there is that….

Cheers,

Iain’s riding with the group on the Saturday / Sunday. A few of us are heading up earlier on the Friday for a cheeky warm up ride.