..and Whyte

Lord of the Flies 8)

Mrs Beagleboy finally got fed up with me pressing my nose up against the computer game shop’s window and sighing wistfully. So she relented and bought me (my MTB habit sucks up every spare penny I have :cry: )a PS3 for my birthday in the spring. The joy of this is that I have such a huge back catalogue of cheap games to call on. Currently I’m playing with GT5, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Uncharted 2.

Batman is awesome, but I’m open to other suggestions.

B.

My worst experience of walkers was down in the Lakes last summer. I was climbing up Latrigg, out of Keswick to do the Skiddaw / Blencathra loop. I had been climbing up the steepest bit of Latrigg to the point where I couldn’t turn one more pedal stoke, I was defeated. I looked up to see how far I’d gotten, into the faces of about 20-30 walkers lining each side of the path. As I went to put my foot down they all started clapping, cheering ‘Bravo’ and generally encouraging me on.

Swine, gits……. Fifers! I will never forgive them for that. I think my heart stopped at least three times up at the gate.

Walkers…..don’t talk to me about walkers unless they’re cheese and onion flavour….grrrrr!

B. :wink:

Surely it must be ‘Pity’ and ‘Fool’

I went on the ‘High Atlas Descent’ tour about 5yrs ago. It was fabulous cycling through the parts of Morocco that you wouldn’t see on a traditional tourist trip.

The tour itself was superbly supported, and the hotels we stayed in were lovely. I’d still like to know exactly what was happening to that donkey in the walled town we stayed in though!

It was cycling, rather than mountain biking though, if you get what I mean. The trip was pretty much 100% dirt tracks with the odd wee bit of tarmac thrown in. Still fabulous though!

One of the wee oasis villages

Last day, with the surf in the distance!

Going back to Bansko in Feb for the 3rd time in 4yrs. Even better is the fact that because we booked the flights as soon as they became available, we’re going for around £100 cheaper than last time!

Flights: £200 return from Manchester (poop as it’s a long drive down)

2 bedroom apartment, 5 minute walk away from the Gondola: €240, so with the four of us going it works out at £50 each for the 6 days. Awesome, as the price hasn’t changed since the 1st time.

Transfers: £70 split between the four of us, and again the price hasn’t risen.

Lift Pass: Last time it was around £95 for the 6 day pass

Food and drink hardly costs anything. One night I had a superb two course meal with four beers for £6. Awesome!

The resort itself is geared up for beginners to intermmediates, it’s clean and as long as you remember it’s a budget destination I can’t see how you could complain. Especially as we had chest deep powder last time. It was fabulous.

B. :-)

I’ve finally admitted defeat. My twin halogen Lumicycle set has done me proud for getting on 10yrs now, but I simply can’t ride with other people now because their more powerful lights wash mine out.

I’ve already got my Lumi smart charger and Enduro battery, so I think I’m going to go for the Lumicycle XPG3 (or whatever it’s called)lamp unit. This means I can keep my trusty old halogens as backup when I want to do some proper nightriding.

B.

I’ve got a 6yr old Raleigh Pioneer and I’d say it’s strong enough for Glentress duties. I upgraded the cable discs to hydraulic and the rigid fork to a Revelation, oh and it has a Thudbuster style seatpost for Mrs Beagleboy.

I’ve only been proper off-road on it a couple of times as this has generally ended with painfully bruised kidneys, so we tend to just stick to towpaths and country lanes now. However if your riding partner is more adventurous or packs a lighter right hook, you should get on Ok with it methinks.

If you live near Stirlingshire drop me a line and you can take it out for a test run.

Well, I posted my calipers down to Hope on Wednesday morning. I fully expected to pay for a new pair, but was curious to know what could have caused such severe corrosion. I honestly didn’t expect the postie to drop two brand new calipers off this morning, especially as I’d even managed to lose the receipt, so couldn’t prove where or when I’d bought the brakes, ( Merlin , 24 months ago).

The invoice simply stated corrosion damage. I have simply become a fan of Hope for life. Chapeau Hope

Confession time. :oops: I checked the front caliper in the cold light of day and it has some corrosion, but not nearly as bad, in the exact same place. So my earlier statement that it wasn’t affected is wrong. Sorry.

Both calipers are now packed up and will be getting posted to Hope by Mrs Beagleboy tomorrow.

Wouldn’t there be corrosion on the disc rotor, or on the contact points between the rotor and it’s alloy spider as well then?

IS MY WHOLE BIKE GOING TO CRUMBLE INTO DUST????? 8O

Interesting stuff. The bike is kept in a dry garage, and usually gets a nice wee rubdown with a dry cloth after it’s shower. There’s no sign of any corrosion around the fixing bolts, or on the post mount adaptor. Likewise, the topside of the caliper is in perfect condition.

Dunno if this will be any clearer.

Remember that the caliper is flipped over and the post mount removed for the pic.

I do ride on the road a fair bit. It’s the better part of a 8-10 mile road bash out to the trails that I regularly ride, so roadsalt could be a likely culprit, but I’ve never seen the likes on any of my other bikes, nor on the front brake of this one. I find it hard to believe it’s brake fluid corrosion as the brake was set up two years ago, and hasn’t been fettled with since. Likewise, I’m a bit skeptical about the corrosive effects of fairy liquid. Why haven’t my other bikes melted?

B.

Thanks for the advice Teamslug :wink: Luckily my hardtail has two working brakes (8/9 yr old Hope Mono Mini’s on a steel frame), which have managed to survive my apparent slapdash approach to bicycle maintenance. 8) As have the original Hope Mini’s fitted to my tandem. I’m a bit of a fan of Hope kit, all my bikes are kitted out with Hope headsets, hubs, brakes, bottom brackets and bling.

B. :D

Yep I’ve sent them pictures and am posting the caliper down to them,it would have been away today but I couldn’t print out the form they sent me at home. No ink in my printer. Me and my shoddy maintenance regimes again. :twisted:

Sorry for not getting back earlier folks, I went for a bike ride then had a sleep. 8)

To my shame, I don’t use a dedicated bike cleaner like mucoff. I use a squirt of Ecowash washing up liquid (from Asda),in a 5 gallon bucket of water out of the garden water butt, finished off with a good rinse from the garden hose. I also tend to clean the bike with the wheels still in, and as I’ve mentioned before, the site of the corrosion is on the underside of the caliper, between the post mount adaptor and the frame (Orange 5). So yes I suppose I could be at fault for not spotting the corrosion in time.

I live in Stirlingshire, so my bike needs washed very regularly, but again to my shame, when doing so, I don’t strip the entire frame down and inspect every component for wear. :roll:

I checked the front caliper last night, which is subjected to the same maintenance regime as the rear, and it doesn’t have a mark. It’s as bright and shiny as the day I fitted it 2yrs ago.

I’m not trying to make excuses here. If my washing up liquid is so alkaline that it can eat metal then it’s a fair cop. I’m just pointing out that I had a nasty shock, and other’s might want to take a second to double check their calipers as well. Outwardly, the thing looked perfect, just a little gunked up with what I thought was a thin layer of road grime and cow poop. It wasn’t until I’d removed the caliper from the frame, then the mount adapter, that I was able to get into the gunked up bit properly and watched as it crumbled away in my hands!

Beagy

Hey Craigxxl

If you look at the bottom half of the pic I posted, do you see how the caliper has black marks on it? Those black marks got darker and deeper towards the rear of the caliper that was hidden away between the frame and the caliper mount. When I started cleaning off the black marks with a rag dipped in a wee skoosh of WD40, whole chunks of the black stuff crumbled away leaving what you see in the pic. No Dremmels, and a fairly regular cleaning schedule, albeit possibly one that wasn’t good enough in that very inaccessible area.

Hey tracknicko,

Road salt might do it I suppose, although I don’t ride my full susser that much in the winter. In my defense, the area where the corrosion appears worst sits facing the ground, with a post mount adapter between it and the frame, so its well hidden and not easy to access. The bike is also kept very well and looked after lovingly.

I simply wasn’t aware that this part could be subject to corrosion, so I’m actually glad to hear that someone else has suffered with a similar problem.

Like I said earlier. I’m going to post the caliper to Hope and see what their verdict is. I’ll let folks know as soon as I do.

B. :wink:

Thanks Klunk, pretty sure that I regularly clean it with a bucket of soapy water, then a nice rinse down with the garden hose. No Caustic Soda as far as I’m aware. :roll:

They were bought new, about 24 months ago. Surely I would have lost power over time if there was fluid leaking from the system? Over the last week there was a couple of instances where the brake felt spongy, and I though maybe it was time to bleed them (never been done since fitted), but the power always came back after a couple of squeezes.

When I used the rag to clean away the gunk, it honestly felt like I was removing flaky, rotted rust from the body. Something’s eaten my brake. :(

It’s not through abrasion, the caliper was firmly clamped to a mount adaptor and the frame. I’ve contacted the chaps at Hope (it is an X2 caliper )and they’ve replied very promptly, asking me to send it down to them so it’ll be in the post tomorrow.

The accident I had wasn’t serious, I’m battered and bruised, but I’ve had worse. However, if it had failed at countless other points on the day the consequenses could have been life threatening, which kinda scares me and is why I’m posting this up.

If it’s a manufacturing defect, then fair enough I think I’d actually be happier with that, but if there’s some insidious corrosion going on underneath a layer of used brake pad material then I want as many folk as possible to flip their bikes over, wipe the grime off and check their brakes are Ok.

B. 8O

Surely the loud music is simply to drown out the screams of his victims? If he opens the door in wellies and a plastic pinny, with a meatcleaver in his hand, don’t come dragging your mutilated body to me looking for sympathy.

I reckon a polite word with him when you get the chance is the first step forward. My mum was deaf as a post and didn’t realise how earsplitting loud her telly was until we finally got it through to her. She turned it down and started using subtitles after that.

This is Ermintrude, she’s still sitting in the garage although doesn’t get outas much now as she’s so much heavier than my Five, with exactly the same amount of travel!

Just looking at Mildred’s (above), I think we must have very similar aged Patriots? I think Ermintrude is around 2001/2

Apparently my mum left me in my pram outside the local shop and only realised something was missing when she got home and my big sister asked where the baby was. I wouldn’t mind so much if it wasn’t for the fact that she remembered the dog, and the dog had been tied up to the pram!

Luckily I’m the strong sort who can easily get over that type of thing. 40 odd years ago, all in the past, easy mistake to make….sniff…..sniff,

B.

I’ve been using the ‘Gravity Drop’ (Gravity Dropper clone), that I got from bigmassive.com on my 27.2mm seat tubed Orange 5, since early February and it’s been brilliant. I’ve ridden stuff that I’d only walked before because I’d stop to adjust my seat….then look down….then bottle it! It only costs £85, it comes with a cable remote, and when I did snap the cable (through my own cack handedness), I was sent the replacements free of charge within days.

Superb bit of kit, superb value and really good after sales service.

Honestly worth the money if you want to dip your toes into this whole uppity-downy seatopst malarky.

Beagy . :wink:

Unfortunate accident with the lab mascot and a protein crosslinker, hence Beagleboy. You should see me go after rabbits though. :wink:

My first ‘proper’ mountainbike was an Orange O2, and from the moment I swung my leg over the top tube I realised it just felt right. It fitted my shonky body shape (6ft 1in, but stumpy wee legs), like a glove. I loved that bike, and after foolishly selling the frame to a clubmate, and seeing him transform it into a commuter, I swore I’d never sell another bike.

From the O2, I went to a 2001/2 Patriot that took me all around the Highlands, the Lakes, pretty much everywhere I could have wanted in fact. She’s sitting in my garage now, on her 2nd bearing change in 10yrs and still running as sweet as when she was new.

Next up, my lovely P7, bought as a frame in 2005 and built up with Hope kit. Again, she fits just right and is brilliant fun to ride. I may even go for a spin on her tonight in fact.

Who’s next? A 2006 Orange 5. Now here, I was tempted by an awesome deal to buy a frame that was a tad too wee for me (Medium). It was really good fun to ride, snappy and fast, but snap it did…eventually.

A quick dally with an Orange Gringo, fast yes, but a bit too harsh for my aging bones, and then I bought a 2009 orange 5 frame, again building it up with Hope kit. It’s a lovely bike.

Having ridden loads of other bikes in my 20yrs or so of mountain biking , (most recently I tried out an Ellsworth Epiphany), I think I’d still stick with my single pivot Orange. It’s simple and it works. I don’t care how it looks, and I don’t really care how other folk perceive me or it. I enjoy it, so there, nerr nerr! :wink:

Guilty. :oops: Strangely enough, it’s always the first album to pop up on my iPod. 8)

I’ve been riding with this seatpost on my bike for about 8 weeks now and I reckon it’s one of the best bits of kit I’ve invested in for a long time.

I’m still fettling with the cable tension as I haven’t quite found the sweet spot yet, but other than that it’s great. I spent all of about 5 minutes yesterday dismantling it, cleaning and re-greasing to bring it back to full ‘ejector seat’ potency.

Really, really pleased with it.

B.

Lumicycle 12w/24w spot and flood combo. Worked brilliantly when I got the setup nearly 10yrs ago, and still works brilliantly now. The nights haven’t got any darker as far as I can tell. :wink:

B.

University of Glasgow :wink:

On it’s way to you now. I think! :wink:

Lumi 10w/20w Halogen combo with a burn time of around 5hrs here. I’m completely outgunned by the lights used by the folk I ride with. I’m still not convinced I want to ‘upgrade’ though. Nightriding is a completely different experience to riding in daylight, the lack of illumination adds an edge to things.

I’ll probably just keep pootling along at the back, relishing the challenge that my old fashioned lights give me.

Beagy,

p.s. I don’t like the cold blue light that LED’s give off either….brrrr!

I’m hoping to get up to Aviemore over the Chrimbo holidays and I’ve got a week in Bansko booked at the start of February. Apartment is 240 euros shared between four of us. Six day lift pass is about 130 euros, beer about £1 a pint (£2.50 on the slopes), and you can get a three course meal and a bottle of wine for way less than £20. Winner!

If you’re over there, you shouldn’t be able to miss me. I’ll be the overweight Scotsman slowly sliding down the hill on his newest pride and joy.

With new bindings to match!

Truly, I intend to hide my poor technique behind a veil of burnt out retinas! :twisted:

Beagy

Pixel! (From Heinlein’s ‘The Cat Who Walks Through Walls’) I liked that cat’s style!

My degree (and lab experience) was mostly based around invertebrate ecology. However, I applied for a technical post in a molecular biology lab as they were looking for someone experienced with invertebrates. During the interview I was asked if I had any molecular biology experience. I hadn’t, but trying to answer the question in a positive manner (essentially trying to say no, but I would love to learn), I made a foolish, foolish mistake. I tried to use the word ‘Organism’ in a sentence. I tried to say something along the lines of, “Till now, all of my experience has been with larger organisms.” That’s what I meant to say! The stunned silence, grins and sniggers from the interviewers will haunt me forever.

Probably got me the job as well! :-)

B. ;-)

It’d be like lending out the wife…icky! 8O

I’ve stayed here, http://www.netherbarr.co.uk/ it was a beautiful wee place and an absolute bargain price.

B. :D

I love all bikes, aren’t they just great?

I ride one of these in the winter. (Orange P7)

I ride a newer version of this (my old Five snapped, so I got the new style frame with swoopy toptube), in the summer.

Once I get a fork sorted out, I’ll get this back on the trail, even though she has pretty much the same amount of travel as my other full susser, there’s just a bit more ‘fun’ involved! (2002 Patriot)

They are, respectively, Victoria, Josephine and Ermintrude, and I love em’ all.

Beagy xx

My iTouch stopped updating after OS4.1 as my computer (it’s old but it’s good) is only running OS10.4. Am I missing anything exciting?