One more to add:

The Flying Scotsman

I rode the Srath Beag/An Slugan route as part of the Sligahan loop in March last year.

I rode it in the direction Torrin to Luib. I say “rode it” but alot of it was hike a bike (at least for someone of my abilities anyway). For me crossing this glen came at the end of the ride (i started and finished in Luib) and to be honest i found it a bit of a slog in places. This wasn’t helped by it being a muddy time of year.

It would ride much better, however, in the direction Luib to Torrin in my opinion. This would leave you descending the pictured singletrack above 8) The climb from Luib would be a bit of a grind which would be “hike a bike” for a reasonable portion.

I can’t comment on how it compares to Srath Mor though as I have never ridden through that glen.

Take the dotted path towards Strolamas (the old road) which will get you off the main road (you can also avoid another main road section by going round the Moll road near Sconser).

The section through An Slugan uphill beside the stream would be mainly hike a bike to the highest point then it would be mainly rideable through Srath Beag down to Loch Slapin.

Some recent ones that spring to memory

The Lives of Others
Sweet Mud
You the Living
The Bothersome Man
The Class

Slumdog millionaire

Agree woffle this winter was a tough one, makes you appreciate daylight and a bit of sunshine all the more though.

I found this winter to be really enjoyable commuting. Plenty of hard frosts ensuring I arrived at work dry and clean rather than wet and muddy.

My only real regret from the winter commute was I missed the the chance to do it in the snowstorm that “prevented” others from making it in.

This time of year I find i don’t have the energy to commute and ride after work and commute the next day so i mix and match a bit. At the moment with dry dusty trails and lack of plant growth commuting isn’t getting much of a look in.

I agree with what previous posters have said though in that the only way to commute in is by actually wanting to commute by bike.

cuckoo – that singletrack looks so inviting, where is it?

It is in Derbyshire cinnamon_girl 8)

A few from today’s post-work ride.

Hey! your bike is damaging all those pretty flowers.

(Sorry, but I had to at least TRY and come up with something negative).

Hope the poor attitude of some jerkoffs doesn’t blinker your other half to the positive aspects to cycling.

Looks awesome. Thanks for posting the pics 8)

I’d like to see that form too BenH.

England conquering Scotland is news to me. Someone better get EdwardI out of his lead coffin then.

Looks like a black woodpecker to me. Never seen one personally, apparently they are about the size of a crow.

Keep them in their ignorance I say so they don’t spoil the green spaciousness….

The problem with this is that most of these ignorant **** seem to end up with a job in the planning department. Then when it comes to the argument “you shouldn’t build that there because it is ripping up all that mature woodland/hedges/ponds etc.”, their response is so ****ing what who’s bothered about that **** anyway. Everyone knows we need another massive out of town supermarket/shopping complex/industrial warehouse/4 lane motorway etc.

That is what seems to happen near where I live anyway.

Local cheeky trails on busy weekends (too many anti-cyclist walkers!).

Also tend to avoid the busier parts of the peak on Sunday’s (too many people walking dogs/pushing prams across the entire trail width).

Trails susceptible to bogginess after rainy periods (too heavy a toll on drivetrain).

Also anywhere in built up areas/on busy roads if i can help it.

Lathkill dale, Wolfscote dale etc. would be good options at the moment IMO as you should be sheltered from the wind a bit more.

What are the midges like on Harris in August? I know the west coast mainland can be affected at this time.

great way to case out a joint

Good trails but it looks too crowded for my liking. 😛

I am not against off-roaders per-see but feel that on this occasion they have overstepped the mark. There needs to be access in the right places but here they have left their legal rights of way and damaged large areas of “protected” habitat.

Houndkirk Moor is heather moorland. Whilst that might seem unremarkable in Britain, when viewed from a larger perspective 75% of the world’s heather moorland is in the British Isles.

It is an important habitat for species like the red grouse which are endemic (found nowhere else) to the British Isles. This habitat is already facing huge pressures due to climate change, urban encroachment and erosion by increasing visitor numbers.

The moor is in a national park and is supposed to be in a protected area yet on an average weekend the British can be found wheelspinning their 4×4’s over areas that are away from the main track.

Someone commented earlier that “there is loads of countryside” but to me this isn’t the case anymore. Urban encroachment has seen large areas concreted over and the areas we still have are all to often getting trashed very quickly. Round me people just chuck trash out of the car window and fly-tipping is rife. Nobody is systematically picking litter up out in the countryside leading to further degredation of the areas.

well done for picking it up.

i was out walking in the peak district today and had to walk alongside the A57 for a short distance. The amount of litter was disgusting. I picked up a few bottles and took them to the nearby bin at a lay-by but, sadly, it is just “pi$$ing in the wind”.

I suppose some wet liberal is going to say they had a right to protest. They can join the deportation queue too!

OK then i will be the “wet liberal”.

They have a right to protest which is far more than they would have had in the islamic state that most of them desire to live in.

What was wrong in my opinion is that the police did not remove the offensive banners under the “intent to cause racial incitement” legislation.

And of course the protestors should have targeted the politicians instead of the soldiers who have shown great bravery in carrying out their job.

For those doubting that Iraqi soldiers were tortured

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse

Simon Ralli’s comment though was that it was army policy for this to happen.

Documentary films like “Standard Operating Procedure” tried to show a cover-up had taken place but did not prove this.

A few bad apples in the US army (many of whom are now serving jail sentences) should not be allowed to be seen as representative of the armed forces as a whole who are doing a professional and couragous job in these places.

In the same way a few muslim nutters should not be seen as representative of the wider muslim community.

Simon Ralli,

I have not heard of the cases of rape and torture of Iraqi women but I did see the documentary film “Standard Operating Procedure”

This film had proof of torture, sexual crimes and alledged murder against Iraqis by American soldiers (the proof was photographs and videos shot by the American soldiers themselves as kind of “trophies” of their time in Iraq).

There were many other incidents that most would class as torture but were classed by the army inquiry as “standard operating procedure” as a way of pressurising captives to talk.

Whilst I also don’t agree with the protestors and the way they made their protest and the target they chose, it is a measure of why our society is better than an islamic state by the fact that they were free to make this protest at all.

Another vote for push up tensioner.

However make sure the tensioner is not fouling the chainstay when trying to tension the chain!

If everyone who visited the countryside removed 1 more piece of litter than they dropped there wouldn’t be any litter in the countryside!

In my opinion it would take a massive cultural change to stop British people dropping litter. Britain is one of the worst countries in Europe for litter.

I like the black and white ones but the ginger ones seem a bit too aggressive for my liking (does that make me a badger racist?).

I sometimes watch them feeding in a friends garden and i felt a bit sorry for them as their eyesight seems really bad, which i guess is why so many get hit on the roads.

By the time you can smell a car coming its too late!

We get some ginger badgers round here.

They seem to bully the black and white ones a bit 🙂

In my experience the administrators bills and invoices tend to cover most of what is available.

In one case they announced that they needed another 6 months to “sort the paperwork” which pretty much sucked up what was left.

great photo 🙂

As you say the temperatures are high for February. This month will likely finish with an overall above average temperature despite a cold and snowy start!

another peaks loner 🙂

been riding there for a few years in all seasons/most times of day. the good thing is even when on the hilltops your usually less than an hour away from a town/village with cafe/cake/pub etc. Can’t always get a phone signal though.

When i rode elsewhere e.g. Cheviots/NW Scotland it made me realise that in these places you need to think a bit more carefully about things before setting out on an all day ride.

we have a rusty old bike rack (space for 3 bikes) but no changing/drying facility or lockers. No wonder there are only 2 people arriving on bikes (1 of those has a commute less than a mile).

Congrats!

Riding to work is the highlight of my working week 🙂

You do realise though that now you have done the commute in February you have no excuse for not riding in at other times of the year!

For beginners there is also the route around Carsington water.

As stated by joemarshall the former railway lines that are now the high peak trail, tissington trail, monsal trail offer flat less muddy options as well

You could cycle to Cromford and get on the canal towpath which runs to Ambergate. There are numerous detours into the surrounding woodland but to be honest they are a quagmire at this time of year. Unlikely to be much fun for a beginner.

The route around Ladybower/Derwent and Howden is a preferable scenic option if you don’t mind the extra driving.

I live near Matlock and can confirm that there is alot of mud about at the moment!

Love the snow as it is the only time i can ride to work and not get wound up by the amount of litter that i see 🙂

sorry for the thread hijack 😳

Alpine girl do you know the Vorarlberg area well at all?

If so could you reccommend any routes in the Montafon valley? Something near St.Gallenkirch would be ideal, thanks.

Saw it before all the hype started and said afterwards that it was the worst film i had seen in quite a while.

I can’t understand all the awards but it appears i am in the minority with my views. Most of the “mainstream” film watchers say i have an odd taste in films anyway so maybe it just comes down to that.

I was there last year. A beautiful city but now alot of the tourist activites are geared towards milking wealthy American visitors.

If you go for a few days and fancy a day outside the city the short trip to Karlstein Castle is worth the effort in my opinion. It is situated in some picturesque countryside too in the Cesky kras.

I found the people in Prague to be similar to city people elsewhere in the world. However in the countryside I found the Czech people to be very friendly, in general. We even thumbed a lift from one guy in Ceske Svykarsko without whom we would have missed the last train back to Prague and been in a right mess. He went about 10 miles out of his way, didn’t speak any English but wouldn’t accept any form of payment for his good deed.