No Mark. I am about 5’9″ and not long enough for me. Good vehicles though, no problems with mine in 8+ years.

I use 16g threaded with Genuine Innovation products. I have a GI Mountain Pipe that is really heavy, so no good for races. It is a pump and inflator and works well. I also have a little GI Microflate Nano that I used for the first time yesterday which was fine on my road bike.

http://www.tyreinflators.co.uk have some cheap cartridges. 30 for £16.99.

’94 Kilauea a few years ago:

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IMG_0977[/url] by blackhound59[/url], on Flickr

And a couple of months ago:

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P3060802[/url] by blackhound59[/url], on Flickr

Many thanks all, have passed this link to the riders to make a decision. They are experienced riders and are quite capable on busy roads but like us all would prefer to avoid them – subject to meeting an 8 day schedule. We are starting on 2nd September from LE so kids should be back at school by the end of the week. FW is end of that day as currently planned so it will not be an option for an early start.

It sort of became favoured option for a long day. The ferry and Stirling / A9 options have been mentioned. IIRC correctly the ferry option included a lot more climbing. Many thanks for input so far, I will feed back. No final decision yet made but we need to get accommodation booked.

I trust you are all being careful to ‘shift the goalposts without scoring an own goal’

Supposed to be really good. A lady who rode with us has done it a couple of times. Think she won a stage last year.

It is really nice down there as well.

Heading to the West next week, but a bit further North, Limerick and Mayo.

And hope to get a chance to ride some of the road Molgrips mentions the week after before getting the ferry home.

If Roy goes to England and Mcleish gets sacked from the Villa after taking them down he could go to WBA. What a hattrick that could be!

A pic of ‘oldgit’ on page 86 I noticed.

Found out a short while ago I was at the same wedding as this young lady in Portugal about 18 months ago. I was also watching the race very close to where she died but was unaware until later.

The groom at the wedding did some mtb. I recall a number of the tables had Welsh trail centre names. Looks like a relative of the unfortunate young lady was on the Llandegla table:

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P8070455[/url] by blackhound59[/url], on Flickr

Surely the thing is that Rangers have been braking rules for years and going on to win titles. Celtic meanwhile, I understand, have been fiscally better run and not done so well. Ranger’s need to be punished but what is fair?

The SFA have played fair by putting the fine and ban in place now so that bidders for the club know in advance. I believe it would have been worse if the club was taken over by another party and THEN the fine and transfer ban were put in place.

SFA are in a tricky situation. They know as well as anybody a strong Old-Firm is good for competition and gate receipts for all clubs. On the other hand they can’t let a club flount rules and not pay tax over many years. So if we ran the SFA what is a fair punishment? Or should they just be let off and told not to do it again?

drinkmoreport – I got a fuel-tank from Pawel (the Polish chap). Good price and service was fine. He offered to rush it me for Christmas but I told him to leave it till after as I was in no rush.

Quality is excellent on the bag I have. I have looked at his rear/saddle bag but it ‘looks’ smaller than my Revelate bag that has seen better days.

I have heard the buggy-bag are made with cheaper, heavier materials therefore lower cost, though I have not seen one myself. The WIldcat one’s are well made with top notch materials – but you do pay a higher price for them.

Indeed bland, ~320km / 200 miles per riding day! Mike is also finding time to help and offer advice to other racers via Twitter. Top man.

Custom engraved is what I am after. Thanks for pointers.

Mike and Richard did meet up in NZ after one went Eastwards and the other Westwards:

http://worldcycleracing.com/east-meets-west/

Something like this would be good:

OMM

Tax relief on buy-to-let mortgages? Don’t think so. Tax Relief on domestic mortgages was stopped maybe 20 years ago – certainly seems a long tome ago to me.

Am I allowed to say ‘nice rack’?

Mike reached Brisbane a few hours ago and, if my calc’s are correct, he has done 49.5% distance in 47* riding days so is on for 94/5 days. Awesome!

* According to the rules days in transit don’t count.

Note that the SPOT trackers are underscoring, not sure what the problem is. So, I am using the daily SPOT location and Google Maps for the distance estimates for now.

A few people are trying to ride 1,000 miles in April as a personal challenge. Mike has done about 2,400 already. So that is his and mine done – off for some biscuits…

A couple of hospitalisations as well. Sean Conway got hit by a truck doing 55mph in Arkansas and is just back in the race wearing a neck brace. Simon Hutchinson, the only Irish rider, had a collision with a truck and on the way to hospital his tracker, passport, phone, camera went missing.

I finished it the other evening and enjoyed it, some chapters more than others. Having dabbled in singlespeeding, road riding in The Alps and other bits it was good to read something pout much better than I could. I have also ridden a bit in Ireland, having lived in Mayo, and the end-to-end bought back memories.

Got mine for £169 and it is fine for what I need. Have not tried to read a mag yet but fine on the kobo book reader.

Daughter thinks I should have got an iPad but I was not going to pay £500 for something to use on sofa or train.

Takes a long time to fire up and slower than my laptop – which is no surprise.

Dolan and Ribble both Dedaccai frames or were 2/3 years ago. Made in same factory andstickered up by each. So same frame. You are paying for name on downtube so get cheapest. Or the nice steel Genesis ^^ there.

This is my Mercian resprayed ’94 Kilauea out in the wild last month:

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P3060802[/url] by blackhound59[/url], on Flickr

‘Two Tracksuits For £10’ stadium lol!

Villa – Bent is key I reckon. Not sure how long he is out for.

gil_m did my stickers as well for my ’94 Kilauea, a fine job. And Mercian also resprayed mine.

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IMG_1118[/url] by blackhound59[/url], on Flickr

A bunch of us tried that when running back in the 80’s. One of the guys did do a 2.15 or 2.16 marathon and another 2.25ish. No idea if it affected performance or not. They were clearly quick anyway. Placebo effect?

Idea was that the effect of caffeine would be greater if the body was not used to it.

Went past Bell’s End Lane yesterday!

I have often wondered the same, but no idea why it goes cold so quickly. Also interested in answer.

Giant TCR is £1,499. Carbon frame with a Ultegra/105 mix. Very nice.

I prefer something with campag kit on it but harder to find.

His mum would like him back for his birthday which is 96 days apparently. His target is a little longer than that, very close to what mudshark suggests.

He is nearly 1,000 miles ahead of Simon in second place. The next 3 riders Martin, Sean and Richard have all had trans atlantic flights already. Will be interesting to see Mike’s lead when he gets pedalling again in India where I understand he has cycled before.

Hoping to get some race replays on track leaders at some point as well. Trackleaders have apologised, they have full time jobs and family, and have to get all the routes plugged in first.

DezB – Linn LP12’s you have to take the turntable off, fit another gear, and replace turntable before it goes at the correct speed for 33/45rpm. Some of the newer one’s or as an upgrade you can get little PS boxes which cost a lot to do it for you.

Don’t know what that deck pictured was, look similar to some Michell products I used to look through the window of a hi-fi shop in York back in the 80’s.

These are the Ibex one’s from Always Riding, gone up a bit! I have had mine a few years and they were only about £65 back then:

El Fito

Vinyl for me – just turned 53 so not a surprise really.

I have an mp3 player but it sounds so flat and only half the music being there. A lot of emotion in vocals is missed in mp3 format.

MP3 and Spotify is convenient for listening to stuff on camping trips/fixing bike or to try before I buy but if I have the little woman round and a nice bottle of plonk then vinyl (or cd) is preferred.

Even Mrs B who is deaf enough to have a hearing aid can tell the difference in quality in an instant.

(Linn LP12 / Avondale Arcam Alpha 5 CD / Naim 72/140 and Credo for those who give a toss)

The Flash 29er in this pic was purchased by a German in Canada the day before the start of the 2011 Tour Divide*. A quick spin and off to the strat line and he finished the race. He liked it.

* Could not get an alloy in Germany so ordered one for collection in Banff.

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101_0130[/url] by blackhound59[/url], on Flickr

Pic taken before descent to Salida – so thats a load of 14,000 footers in background.

In fact both German based riders used Flash 29er’s.

Enjoyed the little I have read so far.

Ranked 9th best selling in the cycling lists – above David Millar’s book!

Sad at not really old age these days. I seem to recall hearing that the 4 were put together because they could not be sent to ‘Nam for one reason or another. One had flat feet and Davy was of course British.

Reckon it’s in the bag..

I guess you can’t make your own shake at work hould you want one but at home I do similar to a few other up there. 1/2 pint of milk, banana, protein powder, Camp coffee essence and chocy ovaltine all blended together.

I have read in a couple of places that as you age you do not process protein as well. At 50+ I am trying to keep my protein intake up a bit. Can do 100km road rides on successive days easily enough.

205 ahead…

Bivy nerd’s over here:

http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=7//%5DBearbones

Wish you never asked…