I did it in 3 days south to north. 98miles the first day Vatersay to Berneray. Stayed in Dunard hostel in Castlebay before starting then the Gatlif hostel on Berneray the next. Then 45miles to Ravenspoint hostel at Tabost 2nd night then up to Butt of Lewis and back to Stornoway last day 90miles. The roads on the Uists are flat and amazing surfaces. Lewis was a bit boring and barren plus nothing but the odd settlement and no shops/cafe till the butt of Lewis (which is stunning). Stunning ride all in all and the drivers all very courteous and patient. Ride back to Inverness from Ullapool is decent as well and not too hard going.

I cycled the heb way, through the 10 islands, a couple of weeks ago. The road surface on the uist’s and benbecula is awesome, it’s like Majorca. No joke. If you had a road bike you could do some decent long day rides around the islands and over the ferries south and north to Barra and Harris. Also got the ferry to Uig on Skye where you could do some decent rides to Quiraing and down to portree. Whatever you do, bike or not, it is properly stunning. But really great to appreciate on the bike.

Where are the Ian Linton photos? There weren’t any on his site under tweedlove 2016

What was the deal with Lee taking the wrong route, was it resolved or to be resolved after the race?

Lee has just shown she can do that in the NC500 – 36 hours nonstop. Maybe it was a practice run.

She didn’t do the full 36, had stops/sleeps in the van and supported 3 of the riders that did the full thing non stop

I’ve seen a couple of comments regarding the fisherfield section coming up so it’s “about to get interesting”. What’s the deal with this, is it a difficult, hilly, hike, remote, all of the above, kinda section?

Is there anything similar for road biking routes? North coast 500

Sorry I meant more like a register of all the rides and routes that people do road ITT style things on.

@bigmandh – very much an honour system but usually these days a GPX and/or a SPOT trace is required. For the UK the routes and fastest times are noted at selfsupported.net but this doesn’t usually name the holder. Some ITTs have their own webpage (the Cairngorm Loop does) and you need to find the info there.

Brilliant thanks for that. More routes to add to the must do list now (though maybe at a more leisurely pace!)

Is there anything similar for road biking routes?

Chris Hope is attempting a record attempt on the Cairngorm Loop today.

How does it work with all these records now? I wouldn’t imagine Cheryl Baker is there on the finish line with a stopwatch. Are they just managed as a community with gpx files and the such? And you just dig around forums and news articles to find who holds the record and what the routes are?

Yeah you can export the gpx from strava and use it on the device.

What settings have people had to change to get it to work better?

Mine has been an utter nightmare. Bought it for LEJOG a couple of weeks ago. I loaded my routes in and it usually started off giving point by point turns for the first 10mins, then lost it and just showed the blue line on the map which I had to zoom in on all the time. It then found the turn by turn again, usually when I was 5mins round the corner from my overnight stop. Also everytime I went to upload the ride I’d just done to strava or garmin connect it came up with an error. Luckily I’d realised this before LEJOG so took along my garmin watch as well to record the ride for recording purposes. It also started to turn itself off every now and again.

I don’t think they’ll be using the top steep bit through the trees. Just been up tonight and as far as I can tell/remember where the top is, that chute’s covered with branches,logs etc. Unless they’re planning on clearing it before Saturday or maybe using the bit jusy before it that comes out directly opposite zoom or bust (think it’s called ho-bust). Also I’ve forgotten how much I hate (how bad I am) on the downhill bits,especially the last one along the wall. Riding along the hill on the roots, catching pedals on the hill and the wider bars on the trees. Pray you don’t get caught behind me!

Emailed tweedlove and the response was this:

“Looking at last years lap times we’ve found that 45 minutes should be adequate to get around the course. That said, we will be monitoring timings on the day, and we will have the possibility to adjust this if we find the set time to be too short for the average rider.”

Which is strange as I took a quick glance down last year’s results and if you take lap 6 times there are about 25 under 45mins (out of about 350 entrants though some didn’t do 6 laps but only 1 of those had a sub 45min 5th lap)

Will see what happens on the day. If you all go slower it might move the cutoff time out a bit which would be a big help thanks 😉

I thought a C2C would be good as I’ve done the bottom to top route. Was thinking of riding to Annan in 1 day and back again the next. Depending on road surfaces obviously as I’d be doing it on the road bike. The Stranraer over 2 days from here might be a good shout and get train back so I’m not just coming back over the same route. My folks live up near Skye and I’m up there for a bit in June so will be taking both bikes up there so was looking for something closer to home for now.

Any comments on this?

Pretty easy job really. I unplugged the battery in the seat post as I took the seat post out. Make sure you’ve changed the gears into large chainring and smallest cog on cassette first. Derailleur came off and wire unplugged and taped to chain stay. Just plug everything back in and works as it should.

Just started a 3 month one just now in between contracts but I’m already wondering if I should have used it for travelling. Anyway so far I’ve been over and done the hebredian way. I’m off to Majorca for 10 days next week,back for 2 days then doing LEJOG. That takes me to mid May so need to plan some more bike trips around sportives and GT7. The worst part is rest days which are inevitable but I’ll feel I could have been working getting paid to rest!

That magic sponge eraser thing you get in B&M or pound stretcher type stores

Yeah that has happened actually. Did you still manage to upload your file?

Yeah Garmin connect wouldnt accept the file either. Tried the first of those repair tools to no avail 🙁

Sorry I misread that! Brilliant thanks

I’m more asking if the cranksarms on the 52/38 MC I have can be used with 52/36 MB chainrings if I buy them separately

I use a cree on the handlebars and a diablo on the helmet mount. The cree is brilliant for the money. Sometimes the diablo runs out and I don’t notice immediately. You can’t really go wrong with the cree as a start for £30

They ask if you have any,you say no,the bag goes through. Always works for me.

Yeah the coastal path from inverkeithing along the beach at north queensferry is good and brings you out right under the rail bridge. In the other direction it’s nice but mostly paved along to aberdour but the path between aberdour and burntisland is better for a bit of gravel under the wheels. Shared paths both ways though so will come across plenty of folk out dog walking though.

He’ll need to be quick he’s due to appear at the cycling and running show on Saturday!

I’m in Edinburgh. Level 1 online comes out tomorrow and days are in Glasgow. I think I’ll be doing level 2 in Edinburgh that starts straight after it as I can’t make any of the other Scottish level 2s this year,mainly due to sportives.

I’m not a member of a club but going to be joining up to road and mtb club locally so options there and if not I’ve got couple of mates and folk at work that would be keen so won’t be a problem. If it is I’ll be posting on here again looking for folk! But if it’s only a few you need will be fine.

That’s me signed up to level 1 today. Online part comes out Friday so looking forward to learning something new.

One thing I noticed for level 2 regarding the riders to coach is that it says the following:

“The opportunity to coach. You will be required to independently plan and deliver six hours of coaching. If you do not have riders to coach you must not enrol on the Level 2 qualification and should attend a Level 1.”

Does this mean that they can hook you up with people to coach for the level 2 part if you do the level 1?

I use saguaro on my old 26″ xc in the summer and sturdys in the winter. Both great tyres. Better than the specialized purgatorys I’m using on the new bike…

Ok this all sounds great and really positive comments there. Would be good to get into something new and along with the volunteering aspect get into a different area of the sport and give something back to get some satisfaction etc (which lacks in the day to day job hence looking at this!). I had a look at cytech mechanic courses but they seem pretty pricey and don’t get the best reviews for content and being worthwhile and I think the coaching thing will be more fulfilling.

Graeme obree flying Scotsman is good. A lot more insight into his illness,depression and suicidal tendencies than u get in the film. Quite incredible really.

Yeah it’s definitely a 52/38

Go to Scotland instead and you can stay where you want!

Thanks for comments. I definitely agree with the just get out and see how it is concept. That was the plan this weekend till a fall and some stiches in the leg at Glentress on Thursday night put heed to that for a week or 2. I just got into road biking last year after years of mtb,bought a giant defy (with compact on it) and have enjoyed it,hence the new purchase. Love my climbing and I’m decent enough at it plus being up in Scotland it’s a bit hilly in places. Have entered etape royal and kom sportive this year so will be a fair bit of climbing involved. Was over in Tenerife with the giant at Xmas as well and needed all the gears for Mount Teide. It’s dura ace Di2.on the new bike so won’t be a cheap fix but can hopefully sell the nearly chainset and/or cassette I have and not lose too much, though probably less demand for the 52-38 by the sounds of it if compact is the most popular now.

I did think about this with ryanair charging £120 and easyjet £70 but bought new bike and would love to ride it on the roads and climbs over there so will just bite the bullet and hope it’s ok I think.

I thought about going myself and wouldn’t have a problem finding my way around but think I’d prefer to do it in a group to meet folk and have stuff arranged so I wouldn’t have to do any organization myself.

Skoda octavia vrs estate in blue. Perfect all rounder,good build quality,performance,cost etc etc

No snow at top of spooky (prob not much top of black either. Trails all running sweet as now. Red all open as well.

Twice round Ae red and once round Mabie red yesterday and once around Dalbeattie red this morning. Not been down there for years. Trails are all pretty immaculate and running like summer. Shows a bit how Glentress is a victim of its own success I feel when you see how damaged some of the trails are (I know they do what they can)