I bought my kit from here, http://www.118.com/biz/558850.mvc/dundee-skiing-equipment-winter-shack-ski-and-snowboard-equipment

, when I was learning to board. The board, boots and bindings all came to about £180 and did me just fine. I even took it all away on my first snowboarding holiday a couple of years back, and everything worked flawlessly.

I’m heading back to the same resort this winter (Bansko, Bulgaria), and have upgraded my board and bindings as I felt I needed a longer board for speed, and to get across those big flat traverses on the slopes. Grrr!

I got my new board, a 2009/10 model Forum Symbol from these guys, http://www.S2AS.com for £150 (original RRP £390), and a set of matching bindings for £110 (RRP £150). I can go so fast now, I nearly overtook my mate who’s learning to Ski and has just about mastered the Snowplough! Next time, I’m gonna do it with my eyes open!

Luna and Ruby, just back from the Vet yesterday. Look, I’m sorry, OK??? please stop staring at me like that!!!

As most phage lyse the cells they infect, any form of selection based on antibiotic resistance would be totally inappropriate.

Dunno if it was Tennis Elbow per se, but I struggled with an injury to my right elbow for a long time. It manifested itself as a continuous dull ache in the outside of my elbow rising to a sharp pain whenever I lifted anything.

I had a lingering suspicion that it was to do with bike setup as I seemed to be worse after riding Victoria, my hardtail whilst riding Josephine, my full susser didn’t result in the same level of discomfort. The most recent change I’d made to Victoria was to fit an Easton handlbar, which was more bling than what’d previously been fitted, but crucially, was also a fair bit narrower.

So, I went back to the wider bars, and almost immediately I felt a reduction in the pain from my elbow. Just goes to show, eh? 8)

Beagy :D

Try popping the cassette back on and giving it a little ‘encouragement’ from behind.

ooerr, that sounds a bit rude, but it should do the trick!

I’ve got a Raleigh Pioneer +1 tandem, which has done us proud for the last four or five years. In its original guise it sported Quad cable disc brakes, SRAM 5 transmission and a rigid fork all for £500. I upgraded the brakes and the fork from my spares box and it’s been a brilliant bike! I’m not sure how much it goes for now, or the spec, but it still might be worth considering as a budget intro to tandems.

I know a couple who’re in their early 40’s and have been together through mostly happy times for the past 20 years. He would love kids, but she doesn’t want any. Relationships are about compromise, finding the middle ground. In this couples case, although the guy would give his right arm to be a dad, he wouldn’t give up the woman he loves.

B.

Nip over to Callander and pop into see Mark, who runs ‘Wheels of Callander’ an outdoor adventure centre type of a thing. He’s wonderfully helpful and an all round nice guy. He’ll sort you out with a few route ideas.

The Menteith Hills loop is the best that I know in the area, and I have a GPX in the house. Unfortunately thing’s are a bit mad at home at the moment. Mum’s moving into sheltered accommodation so it’s all hands on deck to get her moved in. I think my profile has my email address showing, (if it doesn’t I’ll sort it soon), if you drop me a line, I’ll try and get back to you asap with more route info.

Cheers,

Beagy

I read it as an amusing dig at some of the fabulously narrow-minded attitudes banded about on this here website. I really liked it.

Of course, that’s just my opinion, based on no more evidence than my own opinion. So it must be true and everyone else is a fool and deserves a bashing if they don’t agree. :D

B. :wink:

I got one to extend the steerer tube on the Bombers attached to my tandem. It seemed well made and worked along the same way as pre-aheadset stem/steerer combos. Tightening the top bolt drew up a wedge shaped bolt underneath, clamping it into the fork steerer.

However, It was a very….very tight fit and once in, something didn’t feel right. Yep, it had split the alloy steerer tube down it’s full length. I was a bit sad about that. I did try it on another (cheaper) fork and it slid in without a problem. By this point though, the 2nd fitting attempt, the bolt had threaded the wedge. It went in the bin then, and I resigned myself to a sore back and neck when tandeming.

I still think it was a fairly well thought out bit of kit for less than £20. There’s a good chance that both problems I encountered were more down to my over enthusiastic DIY. In saying all that, I was putting it on my tandem. The most Gnarr it gets is bumping down the two steps at the back of our house. I wouldn’t trust it on my MTB….unless it was made by Hope or Easton of course, and came in a nice shiny colour.

B. :D

I went to the Bulgarian resort of Bansko two winters ago and loved it. It’s only one big mountain with mainly Blue and Red runs, although it does have some Black runs and is hosting a World Cup Super Slalom round this coming February.

The three of us that went consisted of myself, a novice Snowboarder, my mate who’d just started on Skis and another who’s a very competent Snowboarder. As beginners, we loved it, our other mate though was, I think, getting a bit bored by the end of the week although she did enjoy the fact that the Black runs were almost completely deserted.

The resort itself is great. All the chairlifts are less than 10yrs old and I can only remember seeing one drag lift. Down in the town, the place is a bit shabby with loads of unfinished buildings and potholes you could drown in.

However, and here’s what swayed us, and why we’ve booked to go again this February, the prices are awesome.

We’ve booked our 6 person apartment, which is a five minute walk away from the Gondola station, for a cost of 240 euros. Shared between four of us that’s about £53 for 6 nights. Flights are about £170 return from Edinburgh, the two hour transfer to the resort was about 50 euros return and the 6 day lift pass 110 euros. Although I’m quoting prices in Euros, Bulgaria still has it’s own currency and when we went you were getting 2 Lev to the pound. So on the slopes a beer and burger would set you back about 7 lev, down in the town it was about half that.

As long as you bear in mind that you’re going on a budget holiday, and are willing to laugh at how Russian skiers are incapable of queuing for the lifts, you’ll be fine. If it wasn’t for budget resorts like Bansko, I simply wouldn’t be able to go on a winter holiday. I’m so excited, I’ve already bought a new pair of ears ( replacing the Tigger ones with big floppy Dalmation ones), for my Snowboard helmet!

If you want any more info on the place, drop me a line.

Beagy :wink:

I thought I would have been Beaker considering my job etc. However, the all knowing t’internet tells me I’m Gonzo. Which, to be honest, I’m pretty cool with as I kind of look like him.

B. :-)

I thought I would have been Beaker considering my job etc. However, the all knowing t’internet tells me I’m Gonzo. Which, to be honest, I’m pretty cool with as I kind of look like him.

B. :-)

I sold my lovely old Orange O2 frame to a chap who used to post on here. I didn’t mind at the time because I wasn’t riding it anymore. It just hung on my garage wall as a reminder of all the good times we’d had. Broke my heart though when I later discovered he’d had it powder coated and converted into a commuter. :cry: What an ignominious end to a cracking mountain bike. :|

Don’t think I’ll ever sell Ermintrude, my Patriot, or Victoria my P7 now. Even though I never ride Ermintrude anymore, and Victoria is purely a winter bike now. Too many memories. :-)

B. :wink:

Awesome! Wonder what he’ll do when he needs a rest? :-)

Best I’ve ever seen was someone riding along with a Kayak on his shoulder. Not one of these new fangled little ‘Pirhana’ style ones mind you. Oh no, this was a proper old style long, pointy ended fibre glass one. Occasionally see a chap riding through Stirling on rainy days (most days) with a big golf umbrella. He must go at a fair clip when he’s got a tail wind though!

B. 8)

I take it that everyone’s read Ben Elton’s ‘Chart Throb’. Says it all in my opinion. :lol:

I struggled for about a year recently with a great deal of pain on the outside of my right elbow. I’m left handed, so it couldn’t have been from the obvious, which left me a bit confused and in pain.

It cleared itself up within a few weeks after I bought and fitted a wider bar to my winter hardtail to bring it in line with my full susser. Just goes to show, eh?

B. :-)

The Carron Valley trails are actually closer to 6Km in length, not 6 miles and have really been dumbed down over the last year or two. Kelpie’s staircase is gone, and the runway has been flattened. It’s a good weatherproof option if you’re out for a 40 minute blast, but can be a tad ‘hamster on a wheel’ if you want anything a bit longer.

A more rewarding ride might be to stay in Stirling, head up to the University and then climb Dumyat, the chuffing great hill at the back of the Uni. You can’t miss it. :wink:

It’s rideable all the way up, although not by me, :oops: and the descent back down is fab. This descent can also be extended right through to Bridge of Allan via Mine Woods.

Stirling Bike Club have a Thursday night ride leaving from the bus shelter, near the tennis courts in King’s Park, central Stirling at 7pm. I doubt I’ll be out tomorrow night as I’ll be getting all my stuff together for heading out to 10 under the Ben, but it might be worth checking out the MTB rides section of the club’s web page to see if anyone’s heading out. No-one bites, and you’d be made most welcome.

Beagy. :D

Up my way it’s bike riders who’ve been laying sticks down on the trail! They’ve built chuffing great jumps over the original track and laid logs across it to prevent anyone getting in their way. Grrr! Young whipper snappers. Baggy trousered, Stormtrooper armoured louts the lot of em’.

Might have to slip a saw into my pack and start doing my own ‘trail improvements’. :twisted:

B. :wink:

Check the rear wheel QR is really tight. Also might want to check your front mech cable isn’t pinging off the cranks on every revolution. Not that I’d ever have been plagued for ages by such a silly little thing.

I think you’re being a bit harsh on the poor guy, Oldgit. So he’s gone out and blown loads of money on a bike way past his abilities? That’d be just like me and Josephine, my Orange 5 then. :oops: Bet I’m not the only one on here who could say that either. :-)

He’s come out on a group ride and been blown off the back almost immediately? Hmmm… I know from my own painful experience over the years that thinking you’re ‘bike fit’ and being ‘bike fit’ aren’t the same. It’s one thing to go out and do the miles yourself, at a pace you’re comfortable with and easing up or stopping when your body demands a rest. It’s a completely different thing to go out on a group ride where the pace and rests are dictated by someone else.

Even if the guy’s a bit of a plonker, he’s still someone who wants to share our hobby so should be encouraged rather than mocked, don’t you think?

Beagy, over biked, over the hill, over weight and over a mile off the back on most group rides. :wink:

Have any of you heard about, or seen the ‘Braveheart’ statue sitting in the carpark below the Wallace Monument in Stirling? It’s Awesome. :lol:

The story (as I heard it) goes that an artist created the statue, then had a hard time flogging it until he came upon the Sword Hotel, sadly now a housing estate, at the foot of the monument and managed to get them to buy it. Along comes the unveiling day, and there’s our national hero, complete with the famous lines from the Declaration of Arbroath, standing sword raised in defiance! Yep, a perfect replica of Mel Gibson. It’s brilliant, and makes me laugh every time I ride past it. Especially, as ironically it has to be kept behind bars to prevent vandals chucking paint etc at it.

If Scotland were ever to gain independence, can I come down and stay with you guys? :lol:

I think after the first 12 months the value is calculated at 25% of the original price. However, you can continue the hire period, free of charge, and the value drops as time passes.

B.

Mrs Beagy and I stayed in this last August.

http://www.quirky-holidays-cornwall.co.uk/accommodation.php?id=1

We had a wonderful holiday and felt the location (right smack in the middle of Cornwall) was perfect for a week of exploration. The wagon has to be seen to be believed, absolutely gorgeous. :-)

Beagy :wink:

Don’t no who makes mine, but it doesn’t matter because they’ve got Batman on them!

Effinsafety, next time you’re up my way (Stirlingshire), give me a shout and I’ll buy you a pint whilst we discuss why we’re right and everyone else is wrong. :-)

Beagy, proudly British.

Scottish Independence? My opinion?

Scotland would eventually become the Albania of Western Europe. :?

Is no-one proud to be British anymore? Each of the constituent parts of Great Britain is a rich and prosperous nation because it’s part of a greater entity.

I will never understand why anyone would want independence. Look at where we stand in the world as a United Kingdom! Oh, and I think we should have a GB footie team. :twisted:

Beagy

Where you based Morris? If you’re anywhere near me in Stirlingshire I’ve got a Thule ClipOn High 9105 that you can pick up for £80 :wink: Most secure boot rack out there in my opinion, and you can lock the bike on it!

I’ve got a Garmin Dakota 450 and really like it. The touch screen interface works well even with gloves on. With a pair of Lithium AA batteries in, it’ll last you all day, and you can always pop a fresh set in if it doesn’t. The screen is a bit on the wee side though, but still easy enough to read that you don’t have to continually stop at every junction and get the paper map out.
It was pricey though, £300 with the whole of GB North 1:50000 landranger mapping on a microSD card. Having spent that money I was initially worried about mounting it on my bars as it’s a chunky wee unit. However a friend bought one after seeing mine, and being cleverer than me, he mounted it centrally on the stem. Much neater and probably safer from knocks.

B. :wink:

Well said there Mr Shackelton, well said.

I honestly don’t get a lot of the folk on here’s attitude to riding in the countryside. Surely when you go out there, some of your awareness must appreciate your surroundings? Why wouldn’t you want to keep those beautiful landscapes in as pristine condition as possible, simply by riding a bit more responsibly?

I’ve seen local trails getting wider and wider as folk ride around, rather than through or over obstacles. I’ve even seen trees uprooted to provide ‘better’ lines. Better lines for who? Some of those trees had so much of my DNA ingrained in their bark, we were practically relatives! :D

I don’t suppose a lot of you will get what I’m on about, but for me mountain biking is as much about getting out in to the wilds and appreciating this gorgeous little island we’re on, as it is about getting from the top to the bottom of the local hills without dabbing too many times.

B.

Wow! Molgrips listed everything I was going to put down.

I’d also agree that a single colour looks better. I’ve got an old 2002/3 Patriot in Black with a Grey swingarm. It’s not that great looking. My old 2006 Five (sadly broken) was ‘Laser Blue’ with a silver swingarm. A wee bit better looking than the Patriot, but be warned that what was a lovely ‘metallic’ effect, blue paint job on the main frame turned out to be the thinnest, and worst wearing of any bike I’ve owned. It just flaked off in big lumps. :(

My current Five is a 2009 model in Chrome Grey. As someone mentioned above, it’s very hard wearing and hides scratches well. The only downside of course is that it’s grey. Not even a colour in my opinion. :cry: At the time I was wrongly informed by the bike shop that Grey was the only colour available in the frame only option. :? However, just this week, I went all ‘Gok Wan’ on her and kitted her out with a whole raft of Hope kit that I’ve been collecting over the winter months. The dark Chrome Grey looks really good now with all her shiny red jewellery hanging from her. It appears to have even made me a better rider, as I cleaned a rooty step up last night that’s been irking me all winter. 8)

Oh, finally, a mate has just bought an all white (frame and fork) 2011 Orange Five. Again, I don’t count white as a colour, but the bike does look very handsome with everything matching so.

B.

Hey, to be fair to Kenny Wilson’s route guides, he can actually ride them. I’ve watched in admiration and envy as he’s disappeared into the distance on a fully rigid singlespeed whilst I and the rest of the group have flapped and flailed about on everything from superlight XC hardtails to full-sus wonder bikes. :oops:

Also, as someone else pointed out, May is probably the best time to hit this route…..at least I hope so. A bunch of us are going up there in mid-May to ride it! :lol:

Beagy

I ride Orange bikes, but on holiday in NZ 4yrs ago I hired a Cannondale Rush for a week and it really, really impressed me. It almost managed to make me enjoy the climbs! :D I thought it was a superb bit of kit. Stupidly low BB though. :wink:

B.

Rocketdog, I’d say it’s almost definitely a Buzzard. We’ve got bucket loads of them in Stirligshire, and most of them tend to circle above me. They have a distinctive ‘v’ shape to their wings when soaring.

Molegrips, sounds like a Kestrel to me.

Beagy.

p.s. I am not a twitcher. However , when I did my Ecology degree, the department was overflowing with staff who were. So I had to learn a wee bit about birdies. The things you do for an educashun eh’?

When I first got my P7 I really blinged her up with lovely blue hope bits. However, there’s no disguising the usless big lump sitting on top of her. So she’s called Victoria, because she’s ‘All fur coat and nae knickers’.

My Five is called Josephine because she rarely, if ever, get’s ridden at night.

Enid is our tandem that my wife and I have spiffing adventures on.

My old O2 was called McCoy, because by the end of every ride you could feel ever one of your bones and finally, I had a Gringo for a wee while and he was called El Guapo.

I love my bikes. :D

Can’t believe I forgot my old broken Five! He was called Johnny.

They look pretty. They make a brilliant “ting” noise as they cool.That’s why I’ve got em’ on all my bikes! :D

I think I pretty much agree with Brown’s sentiments here.

I’m happy for folk to ride wherever they want, as long as our riding has minimal impact on those trails. We are very much the minority outdoor sport here and one tyre track (yes, I’m having a go at the monocyclists now :wink: ), can stand out a mile. A big group ride, or a large increase in rider traffic can cause carnage to a trail, with a huge visual impact that could influence folks opinion of our hobby / sport. I’ve seen this, and I have to my shame, contributed to this by riding a chicken route down a local feature which is now a 12in wide, 20ft long gouge in the landscape after just a few years. :oops:

I personally think we’ve all got to be aware of our impact on the trails as we ride them. Just as I grumble at the ‘mess’ a horsey makes to ‘my’ trail. We’ve got to be aware of how others will view tyre tracks on ‘their’ trails. We stand out from the norm, so we’ve always got to be on our best behaviour is what I think I’m trying to say.

I think my only real concern about riding up on the plateau is, as I stated at the very beginning, my fear of big group rides going up there. As long as you head up there, well aware that the environment is so slow to recover from any disturbance, that one instance of bad braking could leave a longterm visual impact and have a major influence on future runoff / erosion events. If riders keep this in mind, and keep in mind that we’re all ambassadors for our minority sport, then we’ll all be practising responsible access.

In my opinion….

I think…

Beagy :P

I’ve really enjoyed this so far. As I mentioned earlier, I was up on the plateau collecting baseline data for a longterm environmental impact assessment of the (at the time) newly proposed railway. It was at that time that I got a feel for how wonderful an environment it is. Do you know that the heather travels in waves up there as the growth is dictated by windburn, or that there are huge rocks slowly surfing down the slopes? How cool is that?

For me, it’s not a place I would choose to ride my bike. I think Andy@inner probably reflects my views the closest. There are many trails much more local to me that depending on conditions I won’t ride either because of the impact I would have on them. At the moment, a prime example would be Dumyat. It’ll be a soggy mess now, and my tyres would cut it to pieces. However, that’s my personal choice governed by my values and my appreciation of the landscapes that I ride on. I’m fully aware that these will differ from everyone else. Everyone’s values differ.

For me, what’s heartening to see from this excellent debate is the amount of awareness that folk have. When I first read Sanny’s article, I did see and take note of his warnings about the environmental and ecological nature of the area and I was glad to see these. However, within a day of reading his article, one of my riding partners was talking about organising a group ride based on this article. This was when I started to cringe, as I’ve seen first hand the impact that a big group ride can have on a hillside, especially if ridden in less than ideal conditions.

I’ve no problem with folk riding where they want, and based on the majority of replies to this thread I’m a bit more reassured that folk who do chose to ride in such a sensitive area do so with an awareness of their impact.

Just as an aside though, if you think about the number of walkers up there, and then think of the visual / political impact that just a few ‘out of place’ tyre tracks might have, it certainly makes me pause for thought.

Beagy, unashamed tree hugger

Hiya,

When the Funicular railway project was approved I was sent up there (straight after graduating), to spend 2 months up on the plateau collecting data points to act as a ‘baseline’ for erosion studies relating to the impact that increased numbers would have on such a sensitive area.

At the time, it was understood that there’d be no access to the summit from the top of the railway, thus limiting the impact it would have. I think they’ve removed that restriction now though.

Those two months, with every day spent up on the summit, surrounding corries and over towards Macdui were wonderful, and really struck home to me just how fragile and beautiful the ecosystem is up there. The area is already severely damaged, but not irreparably. It’s simply the time needed to recover from any damage that’s the issue. That’s why I too cringed when I saw the article and even more so when almost immediately afterwards I saw a post on our bike club website with someone wanting to organise a club ride up there. :?

We all have to ride responsibly, we all have to look at the conditions of the trails we ride and ask ourselves, should I really ride here today. I and many of the people I ride with shy away from certain popular riding destinations when the conditions aren’t optimal. It’s like TJ says, it’s about responsible access.

I personally don’t think that riding a bike up, over and down such a fragile habitat is responsible access. I won’t do it, and I’d be hacked off with any of my riding partners who did.

B.