Cheers folks, I’ve mapped out a loop (Using an actual paper map and 5B pencil! Master of technology that I am.),for the Friday that I think should be good. Although I’m pretty sure that it’s roughly the same route I’ve done countless times before. Unfortunately, the names mean nothing to me as I have a memory like a sieve.

Anyway, starting from the Lodge we’ll wheech down the Lairig grhu, hang a left at the bottom and cross the river at the club footbridge. Then we’ll bang our way along to Loch an Eilein. All familiar stuff up to here.

Halfway round the loch we’ll peel off and head over to loch Gamhna and then find the forestry track (Not shown on my c.1994 OS map!), that’ll take us up to the head of the Cake or Death trails. Have a play around here, then follow the familiar trails back along to Inverdruie / Aviemore for a couple of beers before heading back to the lodge along the logging trail and a few more well earned refreshments. Around about a 25 mile loop for 2-3 folk who haven’t managed a lot of bike time this summer.

Whatcha think? Anyone have any tweaks or better suggestions?

The Corner of Death sounds exciting. Am I likely to encounter it? I have a poor history of coming out on top in such encounters!

Happened to a good friend of mine earlier this year. I think it was one of those systems where the roof bar’s feet clamp onto a gutter in the roof of the car? Our car has fitted rails, so I’m not sure how the gutter one’s work. Anyway the whole lot was ripped off my friend’s car on the motorway. Both bikes, racks and bars strewn across the lanes. I still shudder inside when I think what might have happened if anything had gone through someone’s windscreen.

What I’ve wondered though was that my mate did catch a sleeping policeman at a really bad angle as we entered the car park before we went riding. The car did a really big side to side waggle with the bikes still on top and I wonder if this might have shifted something and led to the bars and rack coming loose on the motorway as we headed home.

There was a round of applause when we landed at Glasgow returning from Corfu the other week. Might have been relief that folk were finally going to get away from some of the awful weegies on the flight.

We tend to take a trip to the cinema every Christmas to see ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’. Every time it finishes, no matter what cinema we’re in, there’s a big round of applause. I’ve never joined in because I’m usually too busy trying to get the dust out of my eyes at the end…these old cinemas are very dusty, but I still find it a bit odd.

Haven’t got any pics, sorry, but I was down in the Lakes this weekend and rode from Keswick, up Latrigg and through Lonscale Fell to Skiddaw House. We then headed west along the foot of Blencathra until we popped out at the Quaker tea room in Mosedale. Here, I parted company with my mate and his son as they were starting to struggle in the heat. they headed back along the road towards Keswick, while I headed west again and started climbing up onto the Caldbeck fells. It was around about this point that I started to think I’d maybe bitten off more than I could chew….

However, idiot that I am, I thought “Hey, I’m an unfit, overweight Scotsman out on a baking hot day in the Lakes, what could possibly go wrong?”

Once I got to the highest point of the Caldbeck track, the descent was quite good fun as I was able to pop my Orange Four off the water bar ramps and get wee bits of high speed air. Unfortunately every little descent seemed to be immediately followed by another tough climb. The drop down Longlands Fell was the fastest and funnest, but by this point I was really starting to struggle to turn the pedals and my plan to return to Keswick via Whitewater Dash – Skiddaw House and Threlkeld was quietly shelved.

I finished off by taking the road back to Keswick, but by Christ, that was the longest 9 miles I’ve ever ridden on the road. I was shattered, sunburnt and dehydrated by the time I got back to Oddfellows beer garden. It was a great ride, but way to much for my fitness levels and I’m still paying for it now, two days later with aching legs, delayed exercise induced diabetic hypoglycemia and absolutely no sympathy from the wife!

Umm…dunno Reggie. The cranks are definitely Raceface Cinch somethingorother. Thought it was Aeffect, but I have been know to talk pish…..from time to time.

T o o    S l o w  . . .

Can I jump in and ask a related question?

Do I need a special tool to remove the bearings from the Hope 30mm BB? They’ve been in there for about a year now and are starting to feel a bit grinchy. Think it’s about time I popped them out and replaced them with fresh bearings. I think with my old style Hope BB, I just used a socket from a socket wrench to pop the bearings out. Is this still the case with the new fangled 30mm ones?

Oh, and my Hope 30mm screw in BB is paired with a Raceface Aeffect cinch crank, no compatibility issues at all. :-)

I had similar looking aluminium corrosion on a set of Hope X2 brake calipers. I thought nothing of it because the aluminium oxide creates a barrier preventing any further corrosion from happening. I rode into a wall at the bottom of a technical chute….really hard….when the rear caliper popped and gooshed all the brake fluid out. The corrosion had rotted clean through the caliper and opened a gaping hole in it. You should have seen the bruises I had, they were impressive.

I would treat that fork as gubbed. If it’s on a commuter, I might still ride it until I found a cheap replacement fork, but if that’s a bike ridden off-road in anger, I’d be thinking better safe than sorry.

C.

A Druid coven enacting some sort of ritual. Didn’t hang about in case I became the next course. Two knights in full armour battering each other with swords in the same woods. Who would have thought Bridge of Allan could be so exciting??

A fair few undressed folks, including two guys having a bit of a naked wrestling match in the back of a Landrover that they’d just pulled into a passing place. No problem with that, except it was about 2.30pm on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Get A Room!!

Oooh, an exotic photoshoot just to the side of the wee road down to Mungrisdale from the end of the Skiddaw House trail in the Lakes. The photographer was desperately trying to cover up the lady’s bits as three of us rode past, but she was just giggling and laughing. She was a fine looking young woman.

Cheers all!

Wife and I are just back from a delightful two weeks in Arillas, Corfu.

Our last action before leaving home at 3am to catch our holiday flight a fortnight ago, was to call the police and report that our neighbour’s front bay window had just been smashed in. The boom when the window went scared the beejesus out of us!

We got back yesterday afternoon and the window is still boarded up, the family next door are still living in hiding somewhere (although we are still in contact with them), and the police are still doing the occasional drive-by to show a presence.

No-one is setting up camp outside the building anymore, but I swear (I may be paranoid though), that there are still loads more cars going past and people taking more interest than usual in our quiet wee bit of street.

It’s the threats to burn the family in their home that scares me. The police took this seriously enough that they arrested one of the people making the threats and installed a firebox under next door’s letterbox. It frightens me that these people don’t seem to understand the possible consequences of their actions. It also frightens me that guilty or not, they think it acceptable to terrify and threaten the entire family, and their neighbours. It was made clear from the start that because we and our surrounding neighbours weren’t supporting the so called protesters, we were obviously guilty as well.

The next door family are getting their window repaired today or tomorrow, and are getting quotes for a big fence to go around the front of the house to hopefully deter any more attacks. I’m feeling really bad right now because part of me would just like to see a big ‘For Sale’ sign go up in their garden. It’s really terrible, because they are a lovely, caring family and really great neighbours but I can’t see any end to this crap and fully expect it to all go crazy again as soon as the family make any attempt to move back into their own home.

Keep barking!

My first name is Beagle…no..no..wait a minute. I definitely remember that my mum used to call me Craig.

Got home from work last night and we just jumped in the car and went for a picnic…well…fish and chips in the park. We figured the best way to avoid a repeat of the previous  night’s hostility was just to not be there. Eventually returned home around 9pm and were confronted with about 30 folk holding placards and banners across from our house and about 6 police officers standing outside next door. We couldn’t even get in our driveway at first because all the ”local’ protesters had driven here and blocked us out.

I spoke to a police officer…. carefully, as I’d had a bottle of merlot in the park with me haggis supper, and he at least reassured me that as long as these people keep turning up, so will they. He also nodded at a woman he was planning on arresting and punting into the back of his van, so the protesters can’t be that peaceful. These ”vigilantes’ had already been hurling abuse at another neighbour’s teenage daughters who had defended my neighbour’s daughter.

I guess all we can do is trust in the police and wait till these pond scum find another street to torture.

Other side of the river from Denny, but yes Steve, I expect it’s the same story. Are any of your facebook ‘ have-a-go-hero friends threatening to burn our building down while we sleep? Would you mind passing their names onto me or the Police?

Another message from my wife to say that the family returned to their house briefly this morning and packed their bags. They’re staying somewhere else because someone has threatened to torch the house with all of them in it.

Apparently someone has just been to fit a ‘firebox’ to their letter box.

Just now, got another message, the woman who was threatening to firebomb our building has been arrested by the police.

So that’s someone been arrested….all because of an internet based rumour mill. I wonder if this woman who was threatening to burn our neighbour’s house down spared one moment of thought that their might be other people next door, happily getting along with their life?

This is seriously doing my head in.

Just had a message from my wife saying that things are quiet at the moment, and a police car has been round this morning to check on things. We’ve lived here for over 20 yrs and it’s a lovely area with really great neighbours who look out for each other. No-one I spoke to recognised any of the people who were out in front of the house last night.

I’m taking the wife out for a meal tonight and we’re actually going on holiday at the weekend so hopefully it’ll all be over when we return, but it still doesn’t take away from the horrible feeling of helplessness at the hands of a braying mob. Our neighbour, who took his punishment and thought he could move on is now being held captive in his house with his wife and youngest daughter.  All of us are at the mercy of this lynch mob of barely sentient oxygen thieves who think they are doing a public service by intimidating everyone in the street.

I’ve spoken to my boss and she’s agreeing with my wife that maybe I shouldn’t go home early and confront them, arms windmilling. My last fight was in 1984 with Colin Smith in 2nd year of high school when he tried to bully me. I think it ended with me sitting on him and screeching in a half broken voice to leave me the **** alone. I’m not a fighter, I abhor confrontation, but I hate bullies and I detest this feeling of being utterly powerless to stop anything.

Our neighbour two doors up from us, restores motorbikes and sells them from the garage he’s built out of corrugated steel in his back garden. He waits till it’s the nicest weekend day of the year (generally not that many of them in Stirlingshire) before revving the damn things up. I had words with him about it in front of his wife recently and he’s calmed it down a lot.

I really like it. I won a really good quality (and way more expensive than I’d ever buy), pair of winter gloves from them with their first issue. I’m not biased at all!

:-)

I was happily tootling along on the GoFar forum….then they moved everything around (like my local Co-op, grrrr!), but I thought I’d hang in there and give the new format a try….erm… that was a wee while ago now.

Wow! Well done, I wouldn’t have even thought about asking for money back. Like Oikeith, I waited about 8 weeks for a replacement shock on my 4K bike when it failed after 2 months of use . 2 years down the line and I’m about 6-7 weeks into waiting on a warranty replacement for the frame. In all honesty, I’m not really complaining, as I’m getting a new frame, but I still wouldn’t have thought about asking for money as well!

Chapeau lad!

Quite a lot of the time I think I’d quite happily just slink away myself, if it wasn’t for the fact that there’s a couple of folk would be upset. How about whoever came up with the grand idea of organised religion for controlling the masses? I’d happily bop them on the head!

Just be thankful it’s little birds he’s murdering. A couple of years back our two had their moment of glory. I’d come downstairs in the morning and fed them as usual. Then I had breakfast and got myself ready for work. As I was leaving the house I picked up the small backpack that I take with me…and all hell broke loose. They’d put a live rabbit in my backpack. I know it was them because my wife’s not quite that mean, and because when I finally stopped screaming I turned round and both of the little buggers were sitting at the kitchen door watching me….and I swear, I swear they were smirking.

Ohh dear!

Thanks for that. I’ve just bookmarked this site so I can pour more money away.

Some of those deals are amazing.

C.

Last night I was listening to an album I picked up in a 2nd hand store a few weeks ago. Greenpeace – Breakthrough. It was quite interesting as it was a bit of a lucky dip. Other than the title, the whole thing is in Russian, so I didn’t have a clue who was on it! Luckily, it started with Annie Lennox and got better from there.

I bought a tubeless conversion kit for my tubeless ready wheelset. Can I be in your club?

Yes, NewRetro, I believe it is. It came with a big poster (from the same strip), that I’ve got hanging in my garage!

I think I’ve still got a ‘Best Of Mint Sauce’ collection that came out…..quite a few years ago. It was a freebie with the magazine. Maybe 10th anniversary edition?

I’ll be having one of those keyrings though. It’ll go with my Mint Sauce jersey!

I’m hoping to get my bike back from the shop this weekend after it was sent away for a warranty repair. Sorry, it’s gonna pee down from now till the end of summer. All during this fantastic dry spell, I’ve been struggling around my local trails on my hardtail (my back is no longer in a respectable condition to be playing on a hardtail), desperately waiting on my Four to get back to me. Again, I apologise.

Been out on mine (might be a 2011), while I’m waiting for my Four to get repaired. To be honest, I’d forgotten just how much fun it was to ride as it’s usually my slogging through the winter gloop bike.

Riding my hardtail requires a whole different skill set and a lot more thought than just barging through everything on the full suss. I’m looking forward to heading out on it again tonight!

What IPA are you using on your pads? The Fintry Inn has a wonderful one on tap at the moment that makes me ‘turkey gobble’ on the climb back out of the place.

My story is almost the same as Fossy’s, except it was a snowboard, not a motorbike. I’m pretty much in pain all the time, but it’s just a background ‘wear you down’ pain. I’m usually not too bad on the bike unless I’m grinding up a long draggy climb, then I’ve got to stop frequently as the pain quickly builds up. After rides, I usually pop a few over the counter paracetamol and ibuprofen, although if I’m in a really bad way I do have a dwindling supply of tramadol from when I had my initial injury.

At the time, I was on Tramadol for about 8 months until another doctor found out and freaked as they were doing absolutely nothing for me because I’d built up a tolerance to them. They absolutely work now though. I think you need to speak to your doc again about your pain medication, because if you’re taking a daily dose of tramadol, then you won’t be getting any benefit from it.

Aah, but Vapers are starting to explode, I read it in the Metro this morning. The shop spaces will be filled by shoe shops. Douglas Adams explained the Shoe Shop Event Horizon scenario years ago. It terrified me because I don’t like flying.

I actually quite enjoyed the last spam call I got. Was sitting in a bar in Val d’Isere on my ski holiday, waiting for my mates to come off the slopes when my phone rang. I didn’t recognise the number, but answered the call in case there was a problem with one of my mates.

This woman on the other end of the phone pretty much barked at me that her company had heard I’d recently been involved in a serious accident that wasn’t my fault. “Are we talking about when I broke my leg four years ago?”, said I. This really got her attention, until I had to let her down by explaining that I’d done that by spanking into a tree on my mountain bike. I then told her that the only other serious accident I’d recently been involved in had led to me suffering a fractured spine two years ago. I do believe she thought we were onto a winner there….until I explained that I’d been on my own, snowboarding, and had been trying a really lame trick when it happened. I had time, just before she hung up on me, to tell her that yes, I’ve had plenty of serious accidents, but not a one was anything other than my own stupid fault. She replied with the dial tone.

Made me smile!

I get the bus from my home town to the centre of Glasgow as my daily work commute, it’s horrid. Takes about 70 mins in the morning, nearer 90 mins in the evening. However, I also use a hire bike (NextBike), to get from the centre of Glasgow out to my lab in the West end and back. It’s all of about 2.5 miles and takes me roughly 12 minutes each way, but those few minutes make such a difference to my day. I get to work feeling so much brighter and ready for the day, and the blast back to the centre of the town in the afternoon clears my head and puts me in a better mood for coping with the grotty bus journey home.

I’d say it’s a no-brainer, get a scruffy commuter bike from a charity shop if you’re worried about leaving the thing locked up at the station, but I certainly think the benefits of that wee bike ride is well worth it!

C.

Jethro Tull’s ‘Thick as a Brick’ album folds out into a full broadsheet sized newspaper, with pages inside. I love that album.

Alice Cooper’s School’s Out, with the naughty undies under the desk?

I’ve spent years collecting  and listening to vinyl. Most of my music collection is on itunes now, but there’s still nothing better than sitting in my room with a glass of wine and popping a record on the turntable.

We have a Eurovision party every year. I love it, although this year could be a wee bit more tricky than usual. I have tickets for the Stirling Whisky Festival on Saturday afternoon, then I somehow have to make it home for our Eurovision party in the evening. Getting home from a whisky festival without Mrs Beagleboy arriving with the rescue wagon has never been attempted before!

I haven’t replaced my Hope 30mm BB bearings yet, but the last time I did replace the bearings on an older style Hope BB, I just went to a local trade stockist. Mine is Scotia Bearings, and they have a walk in customer counter. I picked up a tube of 10 bearings (exact same brand and product codes), for about half the price of a single ‘official’ bearing. Might be worth having a wee google search to see if there’s any companies near you that do similar.

Well, I went shoe shopping at the weekend!

I emailed Alain Baxter a couple of times, but after his first response he didn’t get back to me, so I went with a friend’s advice and headed into Glasgow to check out the boot range in ‘Blue’ at the Tiso Outdoor Experience. The chap there was very helpful and patiently took the measurements of my apparently rather funky shaped feet. I well remember years ago, my diabetic consultant looking at my feet and asking if they’d ‘always’ been that shape. :-(

Tried on a few pair of boots at Tiso, and although the difference between those and the hire boots I’ve used before was like night and day, they still just weren’t quite right. So we thanked the guy and headed down to Ellis Brigham at the Braehead centre. The young chap here (Ruairidh), was absolutely brilliant. He filled out a wee questionnaire, got my skiing background and aspirations…..all day comfort, not bothered about performance, then we got down to the nitty-gritty.

In the end we were working between wide fit 28.5 boots and normal fit 29.5. The stumbling points were my banana shaped feet, where my left is also significantly wider than my right and my fat calves…cause I’m a fairly chunky lad. Finally settled on a pair of 29.5 Nordica ‘Speedmachine 100’ boots, oooh the irony of that ‘speedmachine’ bit, like that’s ever going to happen! With the upper straps adjusted out to their widest setting, the right foot fit as comfortably as my old snowboarding boots. What a revelation! The left boot still wasn’t quite right because of pressure on the outside of my left foot, but the guy took the boot away and heat treated a section of the boot then used some sort of vacuum pump to pull the heated part of the shell out. Then he heat treated the inner sock and boom, the fit was as good on the left as it was on the right.

All in, we were probably there for around 3 hours and were treated brilliantly. I’m still gobsmacked that ski boots can be comfortable, I honestly assumed they were just awful to wear and that you just had to suck it up. Very pleased with my new boots, can’t wait to try them on a slope, oh, and they’ve even got ‘go fasta’ red bits!

Beagy :-)

I’ve been riding mountain bikes for nearly 30yrs now and my current Orange Four is the most capable, and fun bike I’ve owned in all that time. I absolutely adore it. She’s called Thelma.

I’ve been out solo night riding and ridden past circles of a dozen or so Druids a few times as I’ve climbed up into Mine Woods at the Back of Bridge of Allan. Always try to give them a cheery ‘Hello Pagans’ as I pass. A few years ago, in the same area, a bunch of us dropped down a wee chute into a scene from a medieval battle. Seriously, two guys in full armour, beating each other up with swords. Apparently they were filming a scene for a movie…..yeah right. Last summer a couple of mates were with me when we rounded a corner right into the middle of a ‘glamour’ shoot. The photographer panicked and tried to throw the very nice young lady her robe, but she didn’t seem to fazed. She just laughed and waved as we went past. Thing is we were on the road at the time, in the middle of the afternoon. We’d just ridden along the Skiddaw House to Mosedale bridleway and were starting the road descent down to the cake shop when we nearly ran the photographer over!

Hi Kennyp!

I’ve no idea what’s in Alain’s shop. All I was going by was the few pairs of boots he’s got showing on the front page of his website. Might still be worth giving him a bell?