Dread Zeppelin – Reggae Led Zep covers with an Elvis impersonator lead singer, saw them at the Barras.
Hayseed Dixie – Bluegrass AC/DC, At Stirling Toolbooth. Fantastic musicians.

There was one, a good few years ago that really rung true with me. In it, the author talked about the joy of going on a muddy ride then diverting through the local town centre just to bask in the looks of horror from the shoppers.

I still do that.

“Particularly where you’ve got 20mph limits on increasing numbers of roads, cyclists can easily exceed those, so I want to make speed limits apply to cyclists.”

20mph? That’s 32kmh!!! In all seriousness, head down and in the drops of my CX bike (it’s what we called them before Gravel arrived), I could hit 32km/h on a downhill section of tarmac. I couldn’t sustain that on the flat and I would have thought I’m a fairly average cyclist.

Who’s he targeting? Chris Froome??

Eeeee….. I think I met Chipps for the first time on opening day at Carron Valley trail centre c.2005. Been a subscriber since issue 1 though, and on this since the Gofar days.

I look at this site A LOT, but have always seen it as a bonus addition to the magazine. Even when we were all logging on to the Gofar message board, I seem to recall that most of the chat was about the upcoming magazine.
I used to post on here a lot as well, but I’m yet another one who has become more and more intimidated by some of the truly toxic posters. Still enjoy reading their childish arguments mind you, but would never get involved. I still see this site as a supplement to the magazine, it’s a brilliant thing full of great advice, great people and just enough Richard’s to give the rest of us a laugh, but for me I think I would miss the magazine more.
I vividly recall the excitement when the quarterly Singletrack magazine popped through my door. Admittedly, I kind of lost a bit of interest in it when it started coming out monthly, but that rallied when it went to bi-monthly a few years ago. As I’m getting older and more things on me are starting to fail than on my bike, the magazine’s adventure and mountain bike lifestyle articles let me escape my dodgy health issues and live the dream through others with better bits on them.

Long live the magazine, but keep the forum going as well, if you can please.

Beagy

My apologies as well, I was a bit sharp there.

I’m not in the greatest of places at the moment. I’ve been through my own fight with bowel cancer these last two years. A successful fight I’m happy to report. However, with my latest scan giving me the all clear came the warning that something doesn’t look right with my lungs. According to my oncologist, I could have long covid (I’ve had 5 boosters, LFT’ed regularly and never knowingly had covid), or the chemotherapy drugs may have caused my lungs to develop pulmonary fibrosis. A terminal disease that I watched slowly consume my dad.

I’ve been referred to the respiratory disease specialists and I’m currently waiting on an appointment. I thought I was done with it all, and now I feel like I’m right back at the start again with all the worry and uncertainty.

Nothing like the same league as that chap in the Lakes, I wish him well and have the utmost respect, just my optimism is wearing a bit thin and I don’t think my head can deal with his story at the moment.

Sorry

C. xx

I started reading it then stopped. Seems to be guy’s struggle with advanced bowel cancer, and his use of mountain biking as a mental crutch.

I’m sure it’s uplifting and inspirational, but not what I need to be seeing right now. I’m with Scotroutes, a wee bit of a heads-up would have been nice.

Mrs Beagleboy is the Tetris Queen of packing. From Tesco shopping to packing the camping gear into the car. I just throw stuff in and hope. She places stuff with geometric perfection so that every space is efficiently used.

The order of it all frightens me a little bit, if I’m honest.

I got my 530 as a Christmas present to myself when my work gave me a £250 voucher as a team work prize. I’ve basically just been using it as a bike computer (it very handily links to my e-bike and gives me a %age value of battery, rather than just the 5 bars), but yesterday I used it to navigate a GPX route for the first time.

I downloaded the route from my mate, and uploaded it to the gps via Trailforks on my laptop where I’m pretty you can edit the route / start point. I then went to Menu-Navigation-Course where I found a list of all my favourites and selected my mates route. The unit then asked if I wanted to navigate to the start and I said yep. I then ignored the units plaintive bleeping as I ignored it’s chosen route into Stirling, but it quickly reconfigured and quietened down. It got a bit upset again when I didn’t head for the designated start point at my mate’s house, but joined the route where I wanted to, but again it quickly settled itself.

Once on the route I was really impressed. Even with my contacts in, I could still make out the screen well enough to navigate and the mapping detail (I added Talky-Toaster maps that someone on here recommended), was very good. Only thing I wasn’t so impressed with was the Tour de France style profile graph that popped up when I hit the climb. It showed the profile, the colour coded steepest bits and a little Beagleboy dot at the very bottom. Yeah, cheers for that.

I already like my 530 for the way it allows you to customise the display. I’m particularly fond of my ‘Beers Earned’ window, but I was particularly impressed with it yesterday for the turn by turn navigation and mapping accuracy as I followed the GPX route without once having to stop and consult my paper map.

I really miss my ‘The Jobby Face’ t-shirt. If anyone knows where to get them, please let me know!

I’m currently getting a lot of my shirts from…

Tee Shirts

I’m also a pretty regular buyer from…
https://www.qwertee.com/

And…
Top Funny T Shirts

Although, I do appreciate that working in a lab at a university, I may have a wee bit more freedom of expression than in a normal workplace!

My wife and I like sitting in the back garden with a glass of wine, enjoying the very infrequent evenings when it’s nice enough to do so in central Scotland. My neighbour, 3 doors round the corner, likes to sit out his back garden blasting dance ‘music’ at full volume. I’ve spoken to him about it, but he’s an ignorant, selfish idiot. He’s in his 30’s with a young kid, but he’s constantly behaving like an immature 14yr old. Other neighbours have called the police down on him, but he still doesn’t seem to understand how selfish it is to blast out his music at top volume into the wee small hours of a Sunday night. Don’t get me started about the dog he leaves out in the back garden, all night in the winter, barking and whining it’s poor wee heart out….

I sometimes bring a wee portable radio into the garden, but I play it at a volume where it can’t be heard more than 3-4 metres away. Anything more than that, unless you’ve invited / forewarned your neighbours, is being a bit of a tit in my opinion.

We’ve worked hard over the past 25yrs to make our back garden a really nice place to sit out, but our enjoyment of it is seriously limited because of our neighbour with his outdoor speakers blasting out pinkie and perky dance crap.

I keep all my gubbins in my hand luggage. I’ve been through Manchester security many times and have never been challenged over my diabetes kit. I’ve been through an airport body scanner a couple of times with my Libre CGM on my arm and haven’t had any problems. Not sure if it’s the same technology, but I’ve also had many CAT scans over the last couple of years, none of which have bothered the monitor. Had to take it off when getting MRI’s done though, as the nurse said it might get ripped off by the magnets!!!

Done

Any other surveys I can fill in? Please?

It’s that or I have to go into the lab and start restocking the -80C freezer that I defrosted yesterday.

Anything??

Please?????

I’m with Upspeak on this one. I work with a lot of young post grad students, and hear this a lot. I’d put this mannerism down to a simple, youthful, lack of confidence.

Our car is called – The car

My Orange Patriot – Ermintrude
My Orange Four – Polly
My old Orange P7 – Victoria (all fur coat and nae knickers)
My newer P7 – Penelope
My Spesh Levo – Lemmy
My replica 1910’s pathracer – Jasper
Our 1970’s Pashley tandem – Sybill
Our new Dawes tandem – Enid II
Wife’s Pashley Princess – Scarlett
My road bike – the road bike

Naming a car is just so weird, bunch of freaks!

C.

My mum used to tell me (so it must be true), that when her granny was young she knew an old man who’s dad had watched Bonnie Prince Charlie march his army through Falkirk on his way to victory at the battle of Falkirk Muir in the 1740’s.

I always though it a bit crazy, that something historical like that can be brought to within so few generations.

My garage door is a flippy over the head one with a twisty handle thingy on the inside. Pretty sure it has doodahs like that on it.

Litter on public transport….Grrr!

My daily commute is around 2hrs both ways and the number of coffee cups, food wrappers and Buckfast bottles (yes, I’m talking about Weegies), that I have to wade through to get a seat is astonishing. Do they think that a cleaner comes on the bus / subway immediately after they leave to clean up their mess?

My regular bike is a 27.5 Orange Four and it’s a superb bit of kit. My e-bike is a 29er Specialized Levo. It’s the 1st 29er I’ve ever ridden and I don’t think I’d go back to 27.5in wheels now if I was buying another bike. The huge wheels just crash through everything, it’s brilliant fun and mildly terrifying at the same time!

Apparently, in the olden days, that used to happen quite a lot in labs. Benchtop centrifuges didn’t always have lids, or weren’t always used with them. Fluorescent strip lights in the lab and the centrifuge spinning at just the right speed would make it look stationary…..

Goodbye fingertips!

I still have all my fingers because my benchtop microfuge has a lid, I’m rubbish / too lazy to balance it properly so it usually rattles around the bench, and I bought it specifically because it has a ring of coloured LED’s around the spinny bit when it’s switched on.

Safety first kids!

I’d absolutely recommend getting a copy of ‘Turn Left At Orion’, as mentioned above. If you want to get the most out of a Dobsonian (the mount) Newtonian Reflector (the telescope), you’ll need to learn to recognise the main constellations, and then ‘star-hop’ to your target of choice. Essentially like joining the dots in the sky.

The basic eyepieces supplied with Skywatcher scopes are okay to begin with. The x25 eyepiece will give you a magnification of around x26, while the x10 eyepiece will bump that up to around x65 on that scope. You divide the focal length of the scope by the eyepiece, to get your magnification strength.

Start with the Moon, there’s not a huge amount to see in the skies at the moment as it doesn’t get properly dark over the summer months.

Good phone based planetariums are Sky Safari (my favourite) and Stellarium. These will give you a virtual representation of the night sky from your location, allowing you to see what’s in the sky at the moment. For instance, Orion’s nebula, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are all pretty much below the horizon now until late autumn, but there are fabulous sights to see in Cassiopeia and Ursa Major all year long as they never dip below the horizon.

Observing deep sky stuff like galaxies from your back garden is an exercise in imagination. Looking through anything other than the Hubble or James Webb, you’ll basically just see the faintest grey smudge as the light is so faint that our eyes don’t register colour. However, looking at that dim smudge in your eyepiece and realising that what you’re seeing are photons that have been travelling towards earth for say, 11 million years, having left their home galaxy while we were still picking fleas off one another in a tree on an African plain is truly a wonderful revelation!

I’m in Stirlingshire, and always happy to geek out about astronomy, if that’s any help to you.

Craig

@funkmasterp I didn’t feel the very squishy mouse due to a combination of an orthopedic insole to combat a current bout of plantar fascitis and mild numbness in my feet caused by the onset of diabetic neuropathy.

Oh, and I can still smell it. I might go for another shower.

:-P

@Montgomery, their combined best was plonking a live rabbit in the bag that I take to work. Yes, we did have a wee chuckle as I stood their hyperventilating.

@igm I have been looking for an excuse to open the bottle of Chivas Royal Salute my brother gave me. Blended 21yr old, in a brown Wade decanter. Reckon it was bottled in the 90s.

Oh, hahaha….all very funny.

Now, where can I buy one of those wee winch thingys, and how much are they?

Full year now since I finished chemo. Had to wait a wee while before surgery as it had filled my lungs with blood clots, but I’m 6 months after the final surgery now and Trevor the bowel tumour is starting to become a fading bad memory.

Heading down to the Lakes next weekend with my biking buddies. I’m stupidly, stupidly excited!

Love it! We get dressed up and have an Eurovision party every year. I reckon Ukraine will likely win, but it’s all just a laugh, (maybe not for the poor contestants I suppose). Was it last year that post Brexit UK got nil points? That was hilarious.

I’m very fond of whisky, very. My brother knows this, so when a colleague of his was clearing out their kitchen cupboards, and offered my brother the bottle of whisky that had sat in the back of one after he’d won it in a raffle years earlier, my brother gladly accepted it and handed it over to me as a birthday present a few weeks ago.

Chivas Regal, 21 Gun Salute in a brown, Wade pottery decanter.

It’s still sitting there, whispering to me, but I feel that I need a really good celebration to justify opening it!

Beagy

A couple of weekends ago the wife and I were enjoying the heady delights of Portobello promenade. It was a sunny day, so there were loads of folk out walking with wee kids, dogs and assorted old giffers. As we walked, I could hear a commotion swelling behind me and when I turned to look, my face was about 6 inches away from an oncoming front wheel.

Three teenagers in hoodies with their scarves pulled up, on leccy motorbikes showing off some impressive wheelie skills, whilst causing absolute carnage as they barrelled through the crowds.

They obviously thought it was hilarious, but I must admit I wasn’t so much angry as bewildered. Who buys their kids these sort of things and expects them to be used responsibly?

Then I saw a wee 3/4 year old zipping past on a leccy balance bike and my hope for the future of humanity sank even lower.

Oh, and just for disclosure purposes, I ride an Orange Four and a Spesh Levo and couldn’t pop a wheelie on either of them if my life depended on it.

B.

Seen a few Adders on the trails over the years, but the first time was the best. I was cycling along, enjoying the views of Little Glen Shee when my mate, who was a bike length or so behind me, shouted “Look at that!!”. I could see he was excitedly pointing at something ahead, but I was scanning the skies for an eagle, or the horizon for a majestic stag. When I shouted back “Look at what?” All I got in return was a pointed finger and the reply “That!!!!”

So, I stopped and looked back at him in puzzlement, and he looked at me in horror as I put my foot down right next to the head of a 60cm adder that was basking on the trail. Afterwards, we reached an understanding that if he saw another snake on the trail, he’d shout “Snake!”.

There’s always…..always a bike in mine. :-(

Last night, straight out the front door, across the road and up the river. It’s barely 7km out and back, but quite tricky in bits. Had to laugh at the teenage kids egging each other on into jumping into the river at Fankerton. It was sunny….but it’s still only April in Stirlingshire!!

Cheers for all the advice folks! As luck would have it (and as a general rule, I don’t), drowning the post in WD-40 and leaving it overnight was enough to break it’s grip on the frame.

The post is out, cleaned, re-greased and re-fitted. As is the dropper on my much newer Levo.

Lesson learned!

Don’t get any inconvenient, serious illnesses that get in the way of preventative bike maintenance.

B. :-)

I wouldn’t worry about it, as long as you’ve had it checked out by the doctor!

When I had surgery last year to get rid of Trevor, my bowel cancer, I ended up with Squirty-Stan the stoma, for about 6 months. During that time I was advised to do a lot of pelvic exercises to keep myself ‘toned-up’ in preparation for the reversal operation that would give me back control.

The initial surgery actually messed with my bladder as well, so I was having a bit of leakage and even now, having a full bladder is very painful. The one exercise I was told to do that I think has really helped though is stopping mid-flow and starting again.

Try that…..after you’ve been to see your doctor!

B.

The bottom of the post is in the frame to its full extent, so I’ve nothing to get a grip of. I do have a muckle great 30mm spanner that fits the nut on the top of the post. Is it possible to overtighten this nut and damage the innards, or can I use it for a bit of leverage?

@johnnymarone I’m another one suffering from really quite bad Pf. I’ve been struggling with it since around Christmas when I started getting active again after a long illness (nearly fell down the stairs in the morning a couple of times the pain was so bad). A month or so ago I bought insoles from Amazon, essentially the best recommended ones for Pf, and alongside stretching, I’ve started to see a slow but definite improvement over the last couple of weeks.

@Doris5000 Never mind what the Spaniels think. Get thee down to Takky Maxx and buy those 80s hip-hop inspired guttys. You’ll look awesome!

Beagy

@Poah

Nah, I started working with the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Parasitology in 2004, based in the Anderson college, then we moved to the Sir Graham Davies building a couple of years later. Been there ever since.

When I’m not in the lab, I spend most of my time at my desk in the office, gazing out the window at the front door of Tennents….

@Burko73 It was three weeks ago.

@Poah

Floor above Harry, I’m part of Richard. McCulloch’s lab.

Craig

Can’t help with the tax thing, because the item I bought from Lordgun (the only place I could find it), was only £60. Only £60 for an injection moulded, Spesh Levo, plastic battery guard…..

What I can say though is that their communication was excellent and I received the stupidly expensive dod of plastic 5 days after I placed the order.

Beagy x

I switched to flats when recovering from an operation last summer after nearly 30yrs on clipless. Almost immediately managed to perforate my shins, even though I had guards on!

I still find myself spending a lot of time looking down, trying to get my feet in the right place on the pedals. I did quickly learn the ‘heels down’ thing though.

I think once I’m fully recovered and back to riding normally, I’ll ditch the flat pedals and go back to clipless. At the start of a tricky descent, I don’t want to be faffing about, trying to get my foot right on the pedal. I much prefer the security, and immediate correct placement that clipless provides.

B.