I had it used on me as a treatment when I stuffed my rotator cuff. My physio said that there was no hard evidence of its efficacy, but that there was no harm in giving it shot.

Not sure what you mean by ‘used diagnostically’ though. Without any screen/feedback surely you can’t diagnose anything?! (Unless you are a bat)

Thanks folks, booked an appointment with my doctor, though the first available was 22 October 😯

I might well give FASIC a call as they were decent when dealing with a rotator cuff injury a couple of years back.

Any other Edinburgh options worth considering?

Hurts first thing in the morning but not at all once it warms up to a bit of exercise. However, the more I exercise, the more it hurts in the morning.

I have had this for a couple of weeks and it’s now gotten to the stage where my symptoms are exactly like the above and I’m thinking it’s time to do something about it.

Should my first port of call for an assessment be a visit to my GP or should I just head straight to a sports physio?

The NTS have some decent options that fit your requirements[/url], the Torridon one in particular is close to a good pub and some amazing riding/walking.

However, the wise monk’s suggestion looks pretty hard to beat.

Had mine a just over a year (2010 frame with 120mm forks) and really like it.

Has done everything I have asked of it and only felt uncomfortable when things have gotten silly steep and technical… actually that might just be my total lack of skill 🙂

Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow.

Seems silly to start another album of the year thread, so here’s a few more I reckon should go on the long list.

Carcass – Surgical Steel
A breath of fresh putrefaction. Just what metal needs at the moment IMO. This is getting played a lot.

**** Buttons – Slow Focus
Somehow sounds simultaneously threatening and uplifting. Listened to it recently while driving through the Highlands on the A832 in the middle of the night… the perfect parallel really.

Jon Hopkins – Immunity
Picked this up after enjoying his superb collaboration with King Creosote. Didn’t really know what to expect, but have loved every moment of it.

Looking forward to the new Future of the Left album too, but have a whole month to wait for that.

Another recommendation for Portal/Portal 2

Superb games, a little dark around the edges, but nothing offensive.

Wish game physics/storylines had been that good when I was eleven.

Debaser – are you the producer who goes by that name?

Nope, that’s not me. I just happened to be listening to the Pixies when I signed up to STW.

It’s on backwards, does it work ok like that?

Aye, it is a bit of a fudge, but it fits pretty well without any modification and has been rock solid on some pretty rough and rocky singletrack.

Was torn between a custom Wildcat bag and the Jandd frame pack. The Jandd dimensions seemed like they would fit my frame so gave it a shot. Not fully waterproof but heavy duty fabric and good build quality.

Bought it from here.

http://cyclecomponents.com/1/sv/artiklar/jandd-frame-pack-svart.html

Sweden is EU so no import duties. Can’t remember how much postage was but I think the pack was about £35. Delivery was less than a week I think.

Still buy quite a lot of records, especially now that most will come with a download code for digital files.

Last thing I bought was the splendid new Carcass album.

mmm beer, this evening I have enjoyed a couple of bottles of

&

Bike looks great.

Paddock needs pump track/dirt jumps 😀

Kayak23 – If you have just ordered you should be able to cancel before it is even sent out.

Thanks for the PSA, just ordered a 16GB to replace my aged and ailing HTC Desire.

A cyanogen ROM and GiffGaff SIM had given the HTC a new lease of life but the tiny onboard memory was getting increasingly frustrating. Might try stripping back the Desire to a GPS only navigation device.

Looking forward to seeing how much quicker and slicker the Nexus is.

the dirty ‘tax’ word cropped up

VAT is included in the price quoted, but there is a tenner delivery charge.

After six years in a rock solid Merlin wheel build my Pro ii sort of exploded, leaving a big crack along the hub body, a half dozen snapped spokes and a long walk out of the woods. Could have been worse, I’ve been on a couple of rides this year where it would have been a total disaster.

Anyway, given the age of the hub and the abuse it has taken I really wasn’t expecting a replacement, but sent it off to Hope to ask what they thought had gone wrong and if there was any way I could have prevented it.

In the meantime I got Merlin to build me a new rear wheel to get me out and about again – 3 days from order, through build to delivery and out riding again.

New hub (aside from the freehub body) has just been dropped off by FedEx 😀

TLDR – Hope (and Merlin) are entirely made of win.

Keep or sell, but don’t chuck them.

Records are always great – with the notable exception of when you are moving house. I always curse my vinyl collection whenever that happens.

EDIT – Just noticed that you don’t have anything to play them on. If you’re not planning on buying a new record player, then you may aswell sell or donate them to charity.

Melted vinyl records

As a toddler, I carefully placed a dozen or so of my dads 7 inch singles along the top of the fire guard and watched them melt. I am honestly surprised that I am still here to tell the tale.

ASSISTER using the T in UTOPIA will get you a fifty bonus and a fresh rack of tiles.

EDIT: The bonus squares are in the wrong places… this ins’t Scrabble™

Bawbags 😡

Will keep an eye out on my travels around Leith.

Time to get a pet? I’m thinking about one of these.

Love that theory Kimbers 😀

Just watched ‘Blood Money’… well worth the wait.

Stayed in the Sendlinger Tor Hotel Cocoon a couple of weeks ago. Nothing fancy, but stylish, comfy, friendly and well situated.

Just had a standard room and it was pretty good. The slightly more expensive suites would be nicer and still under your budget too.

Definitely planning on going back to Munich and would certainly stay there again.

For me it’s about bunny hops (which are way easier than with panniers and getting airborne on a fully laden bike is exceedingly satisfying), balance (weight spread more evenly, heavy stuff in the frame and lighter stuff elsewhere) and bouncy bikes (no hassle with fitting a rack to the same mountain bike I normally ride on day to day that has no mounts for one).

Nowt wrong with panniers, but once heathery singletrack and tight rocky stuff appears I know which I prefer. Worth borrowing some bags/harnesses and seeing if you get on with them anyway.

Glad that folk are enjoying the thread, especially the folk whose posts/photos have inspired me to get the maps out and get out on this kind of trip.

there’s a guy with no facial hair pretending to be you on that boat 😯

😀

Don’t suppose you have a list of the kit you took with you?

Okay, since someone has requested the geek gear stuff… I put this together after I got back with the intention of figuring out which bits I didn’t use and what could be lighter/better/warmer/different next time. Don’t think I’d change much. Lighter/less bulky sleeping bag on this trip would have been good, but the Alpkit SH600 is my only option at the moment. Would have taken a Vango Banshee tent or adapted plans around bothies if the weather was looking rubbish.

Wildcat Mountain Lion bar harness with ‘large’ drybag (12l ish)
Alpkit SkyeHigh 600 Sleeping Bag
Alpkit Slim Airic Sleeping mat
Alpkit Hunka XL Bivvy bag
Map case (1:50 000 prints of route and options)

Wildcat Tiger seat harness with ‘medium’ drybag (8l ish)
Raceface Ambush convertible trousers
long sleeve merino top
montane prism jacket
thermal leggings
spare socks
merino T-shirt
spare liner short

Jannd Frame Bag
Pocket Rocket Stove and windshield
Vargo Ti mug
2 x 100g gas canisters
Firesteel, fork, spoon, pot scourer
Toolpouch (lezyne 19 multitool, opinel no7, spare chain links/powerlinks, zipties, instant patches, glue/patches, spare derailleur hanger, tyre levers, spokey, gear cable, 2x sets brake pads)
Headtorch

Camelbak Mayhem
2l bladder, 2 x inner tubes, lube with gaffa tape wrap, pump, first aid kit, chamois cream sachets, toothbrush, toothpaste, inhalers, midge head net, smidge, sunblock, tiny pack towel, earplugs, trowel, coreless bog roll, wet wipes, ziplock bags, matches, antiseptic handwash

Bike clothes
Helmet
Gloves
Liner shorts
Baggies
Riding Jersey
Sunglasses
Five Ten Exum Guide shoes (Bought these mainly for scrambling/via feratta but it turns out they are a perfect flat pedal/hike-a-bike/hillwaking shoe)
Bandana
Pace 3×3 Waterproof
Buff
Merino Gloves
Ground Effect Baked beanie

Most important of all – a hipflask filled with Ardbeg 🙂

Good luck. Enjoy the ride Rob.

GPX file for boblo and others that might be interested.

A meta-PSA

Pixies european tour dates announced this morning…

Nice film.

Always meant to point the bike at that path, but there are so many other options in the area I’ve never gotten around to that one.

Hope you got some sunshine for some of the rest of your trip. How many days were you up for?

Thanks folks, glad you like the photos. I always enjoy ride reports when stuck behind a computer of a Monday morning so thought I’d pop this up for others in the same predicament.

Rode from the 6-9 of June. One of those rare times when leave and weather patterns magically align themselves.

Will dig out the GPX and pop it up somewhere when I get home later (It’s just a line drawn on to estimate mileage rather than a live track).

Just discovered the McMoonter/Boblo coast to coast thread. Fantastic stuff 🙂 don’t know how I missed that one first time round… Not that I’m avoiding work and looking at routes for more rides 😉

Next time, it could be a baby robin’s face sliced clean off.

That rare bird was already thousands of miles off course. It didn’t exactly have a track record for paying attention did it?

😆

Thanks for the advice folks.

Went for the hybrid half dome in the end. Partly due to the hardshell being better for rocks/multiple impacts, but mainly because I reckon I would wreck the rather delicate Meteor pretty quickly.

A colleague of mine just bought a second, bigger Isla bike for his daughter. Going up to the 20 from the 18 or 16 I think. The old one seemed to have held its value very well when he sold it on too.

Both were in a rather fetching magenta / shiny pink which was apparently a key requirement 🙂

I’m very impressed at the effort Isla put into their bikes. Really sorted for components (especially the brakes/lever) nice and light too, which for wee ones is a big bonus.

Thanks for the link. An unexpected Friday morning treat, I like that quite a lot.

mmm, the Trooper is indeed tasty…

Now drinking Caesar Augustus and failing to resist cranking up the Misfits.

Sun will be up soon Wrightyson, may aswell keep building the playlist and head out riding with the first light.

I’d build a route around a Potting Shed[/url] cake stop for a start. Lots of options around to get there from Rothiemurchus and some good stuff off Craig Dubh – Bothy bikes are always happy to advise on the best bits.

Badaguish is always worth a couple of laps, perhaps linked up with a traverse of Craiggowrie – Meall a’ Bhuachaille and down to Ryvoan?

Bottom section of the Larig Ghru on a quiet morning/evening is ace.

Have only walked it, but a descent off Craigellachie looks like it would be great if your in a big waterbar hopping mood.

Loch Einich, Burma Road, Carn Ban Mor… soooooo many options.

Pick a direction and ride, it’ll be great 🙂

Ms Debaser is still in the pub and I’m just back from a spin around Glentress.

Trooper in my glass and Grimes on the stereo. Might need to dig out Piece of Mind to accompany a second bottle.

Clutch – Earth Rocker

I have foolishly gone riding and played five-a-side after giving blood without thinking about it. Certainly felt pretty wonky (lightheaded and running on empty) on both occasions with 400 ml or so less blood so I wouldn’t be surprised if a few ‘medium tubes’ made a difference.

As a safety measure I now skip straight to the wine after giving blood and have a couple of days break before going back to strenuous exercise.

Try woolyhatshop. Noticed some there when I was sourcing bits for a friend who had his commuter wheels nabbed.

700c screw on freewheel

Still quite a lot of snow for this late in the year I think, but haven’t checked for a wee while. Hopefully it’s busily melting off the higher VF routes as I type.

Have no doubt the Meteor will be fine for VF, just wonder if its decent on the bike too.