Have to concur with some of the others about the saddle height. If you’re running that much seatpost out of the frame, make sure it’s a very long un’.

I used to ride my old medium Orange 5 with about that much seatpost extended. I now ride a large sized frame, showing a lot less seatpost. My old Orange 5 is hanging on the garage wall, where I can see the broken seat-tube / top-tube weld every day to remind me of the folly of buying a bargainous ex-demo bike that might be just a bit too wee. :roll:

Other than that, gorgeous colour and a lovely looking bike mate, sweet!

B. :-)

20yrs of riding mountain bikes and I still can’t get out of the habit of unweighting the front wheel when I go into a corner. I know it’s going to be the end of me some day, but I just can’t help myself. :roll:

Snot fair :cry:

When I bought my frame, the LBS guy mistakenly informed me that all the ‘custom’ colours were an extra £100. My budget couldn’t stretch to that, so I went for the standard option at the time….Chrome Grey. I don’t even consider it a colour. :roll:

However, even as we speak, things are looking up. I’m going all ‘Gok Wan’ on Josephine (my Five), and come the end of March when I’ve bought the last few shiny upgrades I need, she’ll disappear into my garage for a few hours and then I’ll unveil her to my poor unsuspecting riding mates. :twisted: They’re not going to know what’s hit them. Every day’s going to be a sunshine day!

B. 8)

We were our riding through the woods at the back of Stirling University last night and the ground was a carpet of Snowdrops. Spring is just around the corner, hang in there dude. 8)

Hey Hora,

I don’t have any expert knowledge in this field, but I did take my old Orange 5 frame to a local powdercoater who was recommended by others who’d had their frames done by him. If memory serves me right, the job cost about £60 and was absolutely beautiful. A matt black background sprinkled with holographic disco sparkles and a gloss laquer on top.

However, on getting the frame home I did discover that all my careful explanations of what should be masked had been pretty much ignored. The bearings, shock, headset and rear brake could only be refitted after hours of sanding. After about a week of riding, the lovely gloss laquer had dulled, and where near cables, gone completely. Finally, about 6 weeks after it had been treated the frame cracked at the seatpost / top tube interface. Now, I can’t say that this was directly due to the powdercoating process as the frame was about 3 yrs old at the time. However, I have since been made aware that a lot of powdercoat ovens run at temperatures too high for heat treated aluminium bike frames, which can lead to a loss of strength at the welded joints.

As I say, I’m no expert (I work in a genetics lab), but having gone down the route of the local powdercoat firm, I wouldn’t do it again. If I ever decide to get Josephine (my new Orange 5), repainted she’ll be going back to Orange where I know she’ll be properly cared for.

B. :-)

Nope, but I do know a very kind and approachable gentleman who lives and rides there.

Davey Graham is the fellow’s name and you should be able to get in contact with him via the Scottish Cyclocross website, or possible through Mull’s own MTB club website.

I know for a fact he’d be more than happy to advise you. He’s a true gent.

B. :-)

Ahh, beaten by the fickle finger of TandemJeremy. :-)

Hey Mr Curry,

Interesting what a few folk have said about sizing for the Five. I’m on my 2nd Five, having snapped my 18inch 06′ model last year. I’m 6ft 1in, but with stumpy wee 32in legs, so the new Five’s dropped top-tube design was a godsend. I’m now riding a 20in Five. The old one snapped at the top tube, seat tube weld, pretty much because I’m a chunky lad and was running it with a lot of seatpost showing.

Go have a test ride on one, I think you’ll love it, but then I do have quite a few Orange’s in the garage. :D Or, if you live anywhere near Stirling, gimme a shout and you can have mine for the day while I show you my local trails.
B. :-)

Bothy bikes do wee route maps that can take you out to some fab bits of singletrack. One section in particular that springs to mind was in the forestry out past Ryovan Bothy. Simply superb.

Also, Kenny Wilson took a bunch of us on a fantastic tour of the Aviemore trails a year or so ago. I seem to recall that some of the best bits were up above GlenMore lodge. You could check out his book, or again I think asking at Bothy Bikes would point you in the right direction.

B. :wink:

A bunch of us having an excellent wee play in the sun on Saturday.

B. 8)

Waaaaay Heyyyy!

It works again! I haven’t been able to view the forum on my lab computer* for months, but now it’s working again! Oh Frabulous day. :-)

*Ahem…Firefox V2 running on a Win 98 (not even 2nd ed.) Pentium 3.

(Is the site running a bit slow for anyone else?) :oops:

B.

Willard, you said the Martha Washington ‘series’. Is that the character from ‘Give Me Liberty’? Is there more than that? I want it, I want it now!

Oh, and Munkster, Give Me Liberty is a superb novel. I might have to go and re-read it now.

:-)

Give West End Cycles a phone. Very good chance they’ve got what you’re after.

The Watchmen?
Wanted?
Both reccommended to me by the good folk on here.

I really like some of the old Sandman stuff as well. Oh, and Constantine, he’s always a good read.

C’mon mttm go for it. The rain is absolutely pelting down outside my window, but I’m going to get my kit o and head out towards Stirling to hopefully meet up with some other loons. The weatherman has assured me it’s gonna clear up this morning. C’mon, it’ll be a laugh.

B.

I usually whack mine out with an old seatpost.

I’ve done quite a few of the 10 events, starting with the very first 10 under. The midges, oh my lord, the midges. Anyway, this year was the first time I’ve gotten around to doing all three and I’d rate the courses as 1st Moray, 2nd Kirroughtree and 3rd Ft Bill. The amount of draggy fireroad around the Ft Bill course is just demoralising. Kirroughtree is much better, with loads of fun singletrack, mixed in with the man-made stuff, but for sheer, root-tastic lovelyness. The final descent at Moray takes it in my opinion.

B.

I’m with Steve-Austin on this one. I tend to worry about the number of vicious Squirrels lurking behind every tree stump. When I stop, I can hear them whispering in the darkness. Plotting stuff, that’s what they’re up to.

Now I’m not so sure I want to go out tonight. :?

It’s because you were wearing a helmet! :lol:

I’m running for the door now… :twisted:

I’m with Ian Munro on this one. :lol:

My favourite ride this year has to have been across Leacann Muir, however, the bits that someone previously posted about have been ‘improved’ I’m afraid. A couple of the guys I was with, who have ridden this route previously were suprised to note that the initial singletrack section through the trees is no longer along a streambed. Also, the final descent back down to the roadside has been tamed,(I did it with my eyes open so it must be easy), and is more of a steep twisty fire road.

However, the scenery and the weather was stunning, and the trail up on the Muir made up for a lot of the disappointment at seeing yet more ‘trail improvements’.

Now, my favourite Scottish trail?

I’ve followed the rapidly diminishing form of Kenny Wilson (well he was on a fully rigid singlespeed, and I was only on my Five :oops: ), down some stunning woodland trails in the area around Glenmore lodge. I can still feel my arms throbbing from that. The trails he took us around were awesome, some of the best I’ve ridden anywhere. Or, last year a couple of mates and I headed back up there and rode some trails out past Ryovan Bothy…I think. I remember one particular trail that just twisted through the trees, not really descending, but at just enough of an incline to keep you freewheeling at ‘Landspeeder’ velocities. I think that particular section of trail, up to the point where my wheel dipped into a rut and spangled me against a tree 8O , has to be the one I’d like to go back and do the most. Without the high speed tree impact obviously. :D

Seems Ok to me, but is your brother a big lad? I’m 6ft 1in and I ride a 19in frame hardtail. I think it’s quite a common mistake to buy too big a bike when first getting into mountain biking. I know I did with my first 21in Trek 830, way back in the early 90’s

B. :-)

Fun with Dick and Jane by William Gray. Why? It got me into reading. :wink:

I'm obviously not as well read as you lot, but the book I return to the most is Alistair MacLean's HMS Ulysses. I've read it countless times and don't think I've ever put it down without a lump in my throat. It's not big, and you won't look clever reading it, but it's still a superbly told tale.

B. :-)

Myself and two mates went to Bansko in Bulgaria for a week in February this year. Flights were £130 return, apartment(5 minute walk to Gondola) worked out at £70 each for the week and the 6 day ski pass was £110. We had brekkie in the apartment then ate out on the slopes every day and night, but didn't drink much as we were usually too knackered. I managed to spend a whopping £150 on food and drink for the week.

As a beginner myself, I thought the resort was excellent, although I did keep in mind at all times that it was a budget resort. Compared to Glen Shee, where I've boarded the most, it was superb. Modern (only 7yrs old), chairlifts everywhere and few if any of the dreaded pomas.

I was thinking of trying Andorra for my next snow holiday, but would happily head back to Bulgaria if I have a tight budget again.

B. :-)

'Extremely awkward to get over' could be someone else's challenging obstacle. Leave it natural would be my opinion. :wink:

So on Thursday night there, I somehow got roped into taking part in a 'Hill climb' competition up the access road to the Wallace Monument in Stirling. Now me climbing a hill on my bike isn't a pretty sight at the best of times, but racing up one simply shouldn't be allowed!

What frightened me the most at the end of the climb though, wasn't the taste of blood coming up from my lungs, or the rib cracking thud of my heart. No, it was the fact that I was the only one using whisky as a recovery drink! Everyone else there, and they were pretty much all skinny, fit looking roadie types, were drinking energy potions, or water.

Thankfully, a likeminded soul pulled on his mtb (says it all really) and we shared some of Ilay's finest whilst the purple haze slowly faded from our eyes. However it was a nervous few minutes for me as I sat around thinking, "What's wrong with these people?"

B. :lol:

S'mee again,

What I'm not understanding is that I've made 12 monthly payments of roughly £60 a go. I don't have a payslip to hand, but it was around that. I'm sure that it was something like £80 before deductions (I only earn 19.5k).

Sooo, 12x£60 is £720 (roughly) plus £295 that my employer wants as a 25% final payment means that I could be paying more than the original cost of the bike! Have I completely misunderstood the scheme? I though there was supposed to be a saving as an incentive to buy into it?

:?:

In 10yrs time we'll all be riding Hoverbikes that we'll transport to the top of the trails in our flying cars. I'm pretty sure Maggie Philbin assured us this would be the case in 1978. So really, the amount of travel, and the climbing ability of the bike will both be moot, won't they?

B. 8)

Mine has only just started doing this when I upgraded my touch to the new OS4 last night. I told it to get stuffed as all the info is in my itunes thingymybob anyway.

I cancelled out of it and my iPod's working just grand. I like the way it keeps the wallpaper now as you navigate through the menus :D

B.

ooooh, let's see now.

I've snapped an aluminium Easton Ea30 handlebar.The bolt holding my saddle to an Easton Ea70 seatpost snapped on three different occassions, which hurt, each time. I've also snapped an aluminium Ea50 seatpost clean through, about an inch above the clamp. Thankfully, I was saved serious injury through a combination of jedi skills and the Force. My most recent and expensive aluminium failure has to be my old Orange Five frame. Cracked at the seat tube / top tube junction. :cry:

Beagy

I've got a 5yr old one on my P7 and an even older one on my Patriot with nary a creak out of either of them in all that time. I reckon you're all doing them up wrong. :wink: Reminds me of the Hope Head Doctor thread. :twisted:

I was chatting to a chap called Jimmy (I think), on the first lap whilst we got his saddle height sorted. He'd come up from London to race at Kirroughtree and has only been riding mountain bikes for 6 months. He was riding solo and managed 2 laps before the conditions got the better of him. I never saw him without a grin on his face though, he looked like he was loving every minute. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside….or maybe that was the whisky. :lol:

Another excellent No Fuss event. I too loved every minute, except for the one's when I was on my bike and thinking I was going to die if I had to climb one more metre. :D

Beagy

I'll be the chubby guy in the Stirling Bike Club top, at the back as usual. Gimme a wave as you go by. 8)

This is mine in Chrome Grey. Wouldn't have been my first choice of colour, but then the bike shop wrongly told me that I'd have to pay an extra £100 if I wanted it in a different colour. However, over the last few months it has grown on me, to the point where I was recently devastated when I scraped a big score into the top tube's paintwork. I'll be much more careful next time I lean it up against the wall outside the cake shop. :oops:

Hmmmm, the lady in the garage at the end of Newton Stewart explained to me it was pronounced as 'Elaine-Anne' up there :roll: describes it.

Kir-ruff-tree

But I'm from Bonnybridge, so anyone who can speak with joined up letters sounds a bit funny to me.

B. :lol:

Wife and I had a rather memorable and low cost wedding.

Stretch limo picked us up from the hotel and took us to our wedding hall. The event was captured on video, webcam (broadcast live), and rather nice photo's were taken. After Elvis had performed the ceremony we had a reception in a hall at the back of the building with pink champagne and a nice cake, before the limo came and picked us up again to return us to our hotel.

We were treated like royalty throughout, as were the eight or nine close friends and family that were invited. In fact, we enjoyed it so much, we're going back to do it again in a couple of years when we hit our tenth anniversary.

http://www.vivalasvegasweddings.com/renewalofvows.htm

As I recall, the all in cost was $420 (not counting getting there), and we've managed to stick to our vows of , "Being each other's Teddy Bears" and "Never, ever, ever, have a Blue Sunday" :lol:

Beagy 8)

I'm the only one in our lab so far. However, it does mean I can crank the radio up (might change it over from 5 Live first), and my experiment seems to have worked and I'm going to bunk off early so I can go play on my bike later.

Not all bad then. :lol:

but your points are valid. however, as we've already established, what interests me isn't necessarily of interest to you. like, do you really need to know how much to bribe the rangers to let you ride the downhill trail from the ridge on con dao? even if the views over the islands are to die for and the monkeys throw twigs at you on the way down? nope, i thought not.

I would read that and enjoy it. As I've said countless times before, for me STW magazine is about the diverse cycling scene and about being a part of that scene. If I want to read bike reviews or 'how to ride a bike' articles, I'll go elsewhere.

My all-time favourite STW magazine article was in the 2nd issue I think and was about getting mucky. Not about what bike the author was on, or where he was riding, or what kit. Just the sheer pleasure of being a middle-aged bloke who still enjoys getting covered in mud, then does a detour so they can parade themselves down the local highstreet, proudly showing off their afternoon's 'badge of honour'. Simply superb and memorable, because I'm guilty of the same.

If it was me, I'd write about all the things that make you smile when on your bike, and makes your experiences unique from mine. I'd read that.

B.

I've got a Garmin 450t and am very pleased with it. Battery life, with a pair of Lithium AA's is about 10-12hrs? The screen is clear and easily read, even in bright sunlight. My unit came with the OS Discoverer National Parks microSd and the mapping is crystal clear. Thanks to Pedalhead (mentioned above), I've also been put onto the same piece of software that allows me to download custom maps into the unit, so I can have Explorer scale closeups of areas which blend in seamlessly with the lower scale, surrounding areas.

The unit itself is nice and sturdy, and the touchscreen is surviving muddy Scottish conditions well. The touchscreen controls are also fairly easy to use with gloves on.

B.
:D

Oh my, I think I owe you a pint Pedalhead, thanks for the link! :-)

Hi Paul,

I think it might just be the newer Oregon / Colorado's that support something called 'raster mapping',as far as I can see. :-)