You can get expanders for 9 speed now?

@devs — one of them The Beast by any chance?

Yep. 32:16 just too tough for me at the time. I’ll be on 29 or 29+ this time so probably 32:18 or maybe even 32:20. I’ll get up it though. It’ll be a while before I go out with the Sunday Singlespeed Gang on it it though 🙂

everything to do with saving money not emptying dog poo bins, nothing to do with protecting flora and fauna, always used by dog owners to justify not bagging and binning it when they get home

Just how much damage to flora ad fauna do you think dogshit does? Poo bags have a half life of about 50 years and take up a lot of space when full of cack and air. If every dog shite was put in land fill we very soon would have no land but landfill. All when a couple of weeks out in the open sees off the problem. I know how long it takes for one to degrade as I have set up CCTV to try and catch the tosser that keeps letting his dog crap behind my car in teh street. It really isn’t long.
Of course, if it’s the kind of land that people are likely to use for picnics or whatnot then the stick and flick isn’t appropriate but then I doubt the landowners would advocate it. Anyways, if a dog is prone to stop and shit on a trail then no they shouldn’t be taken to trail centres.
I would have no issues taking mine to GT, CyB, NyrA, Laggan, Golspie or Glenlivet. Or any of that style. He would be no more of an obstacle than me on my own but if the fact he was there annoyed you the I would take more pleasure from that.

don’t stray from the path then,,,,,

don’t worry about the habitat degradation and the disturbance of local wildlife

Yes I’d imagine a dog poo in thousands of acres of Scottish woodland really degrades the habitat and disturbs teh wildlife. All those foxes, badgers, pine martens and otters all bag and fill up landfill so that perfectly good land has to be dug up and filled with plastic bags full of air 🙄

SS made my legs stronger, core stronger and upper body stronger. I loved it but I found I was unable to do it for long rides. It’s a great training and fitness technique but not for all the time. I’m going to revisit it this year as there are 2 local hills I never got up without walking. I’m finding them hard on 1×10 so it will come as a shock but that’s half the fun. I started doing it after having had my arse handed to me on a plate by SSers around places like Nant yr Arian. They do tend to go faster uphill as basically they have no choice. Revenge is sweet on the flats and downs though.

Dog poo content fail. Must try harder.

In 35 years of dog ownership I’ve never known one that would choose to shit on a path or trail. The last 3 I’ve had like to back up to bushes or trees well off the beaten track. I’m happy to let them and leave it there. Apart from the one time one mistook a park bench for a tree. I had to pick that up natch. It’s kind of not busy here either as I ride in woods where the few dog walkers outnumber any other users by far. Very few dog egg incidents so far but there is never a good time for one. I took the lurcher of ultimate fitness for a quick 30kms round a trail centre the other day. We never saw any one else out on bikes. He did 2 poos both in places I’d get lacerated trying to pick them up. Is it ok to leave them there? I just wonder whether I should maybe make more of an effort so I can fill landfill sites with a non biodegradable bags full of cack and air instead of letting 2 weeks worth of weather, insects and bacteria get rid.
I think I might start collecting bags of shite and depositing them on trail centre paths though if it gets rid of the tosspot mountain bikers who think that they have a right to an uninterrupted hi speed blast to the bottom of a trail as recompense for having to slog to the top.

Great write up. I’m really tempted by this. Doing one last Puffer next year and this the year after hopefully. How hilly is it?

How do you manage to neglect a hub for this long to make it that bad? I tend to do nothing with mine until the cassettes wear out and the free hubs come off by accident when I’m fighting to get that off from the scored free hub. Then I find the free hub bearing and spacer has disintegrated, or one of the main bearings has.
The most I’ve ever had to do was clamp the free hub in a workmate and yank the wheel. I think I have 5 pro2 wheelsets.

Have you tried switching it off and back on again?

I’ve blocked him on Facebook. Not that we were friends but his comments on other people’s posts were inane ramblings and really quite disturbing.

I was clearing fallen trees mid ride at 1130 PM with a florabest hand saw! I often don’t set off till after 10PM, the latest ever would have been around 1115PM during Puffer training for a 3 hr ride. I’m self employed and end up either still busy or too tired at “normal” riding times. Then something good might come on the TV which pushes my departure back 🙂
I’ve had one smash when I thought what I was doing might have been a bit daft and one bad mechanical where I had to carry a mukluk 2 miles to the nearest road. Luckily, the first and only car on that road stopped and gave me a lift, bike and all. Saved me a 7 mile carry, or more likely walk and then retrieve later.

Is that £5 chest strap made of elastic or non stretch material? My elastic one bobs about a bit on the rough stuff.

I got the purple too. It’s folded up and stuffed in the camelbak for emergency use only. 🙂

Ice spikers go up tubeless a treat. Just saying.

Can’t understand what it’s all about. I have a fatbike and a krampus. If people are scared to do the real thing and want to pay for a halfway house then so be it. I can’t see any 29+ users going backwards unless they look up to jimmy krankie.

Tara. It was pish anyway. The amount of trees down this winter has been ridiculous.

5 in the front. 8 in the back. 17.5 stone.

After using loads of others I’m using this just now. Chain stays clean and it lasted a 100km puffer training ride through ice snow and a sandy beach where it absolutely pissed down all day. Wet lubes fail quicker in those conditions IME. Hose, wipe and reapply every ride.

Put a bit of soap on it. Heat it up till the soap turns black, this is the workable temp for aluminium alloy. Straighten. Let cool. Use.
This is what an engineer bloke told me. I couldn’t be arsed with the faff and got a new one. I also straightened one in a vice.

If it was a road or cycle path then i would agree that the dog owner was completely at fault but this was a shared use path. Just because you can ride full whack doesn’t mean you should. The blame here is 50/50. If I see a walker in daylight on a shared use path I slow down to pass them, just in case there is a dog or child running around.
I’ve had a dog killed on a road. My fault. I taught the dog to fetch things over obstacle courses so when I threw a ball too hard up a hill and it cleared the fence at the top, so did the dog. I couldn’t shout quick enough to stop him. He took out the valance of teh car and died in my arms. Cost me a few hundred to fix the damage and I had no qualms in doing so BUT that was a road set aside for vehicular use. Shared use paths are a different matter requiring responsible actions and respect for other users.

I struggle with long sentences. Has the dog been found yet?
Just as a discussion point, substitute dog with child. Who is to blame then? I always maintain that if you can’t stop in the distance you can see ahead then you are going too fast.
I would slow down to walking pace if I saw someone coming the other way, purely out of shock and to have a chat, it never happens 🙂

I just put a M1 rock and roll bed in the back of mine. I can get 2 complete bikes along side. I,ve had 5 people bikes and kit travelling on a foreign holiday. I haven’t bothered with lining other than kingspan and ply. I’m toying with the idea of one of these removable kitchen pod things, more because some festivals are getting a bit arsey about what constitutes a camper van, than because I want it. I’m more of an eat out person too.

I always park at Spean Bridge and get the bus. It’s well organised. Baiting the grumpy lady at the Spean Bridge chippy is fun too. Dunno if I’d want to stay there though, I’d prefer the nightlife in Fort Bill for that weekend.

First time I did the Puffer I bought a few pairs of Aldi overshoes to do a few laps each in and then bin. I tried them for size over my 5:10s but decided I looked like Olive Oil out of Popeye so never used them. They’re probably in the corner of my garage somewhere. Spraying them with Grangers and wearing sealskins is preferable.
I had ion mask boots for festivals which were awesome for a few years but one leaks a tiny bit now if you stand in a puddle. These nano whatsits definitely work for a while but they are far from permanent.

^^^^This.

100mm FS 29er such as the original Tallboy or a Krampus. I’ve done it on a Kona Dawg 5″ bike because it was all i had at the time. I’m still here 🙂

Nice vid. Thanks for sharing. You don’t really notice how pretty it was out there when you are suffering.

You can ride a bike past me any time you like. For money.

Oooh I didn’t realise there was a market for 17.5 stone beardy weirdy ride bys. Does I have to dress up nice too? I’ll do it for free if you gives me a hug after. 🙂

I kept going and put in some really slow lap times – by now the pain in my back was preventing me from riding up anything remotely steep and I wasn’t too hot at descending either.

Well it made my entire Puffer career to pass you albeit briefly on the top fire road and then again on the final descent. Now I’ve read this you’ve shot me down in flames. Guy passed me on the first corner and I managed to stay close to him till Haribo Hill when I had a mechanical. That was my 2nd best Puffer moment ever. Us old fat knackers are easily pleased y’see 🙂

Great event, well done all again. I had sworn to retire, along with my MorayMinx pair/Quad partner Roberta but when I collected my bikes last night we knuckle pumped to next year. I guess that’s that then. And there was me looking forward to giving the Somme Disco Dancer some competition.

Axl the lurcher of ultimate fitness comes and does 10 miles regularly. He has done 22 and would do more. Trouble is when the distances go up so does the road and fireroad miles and I’ve blistered his pads in teh past which I felt terrible about. When I go without him he goes out and sniffs the wheels to check where I’ve.
Here’s a wee vid of me and him old man shredding the woods on Christmas day.

Can’t remember the last time I rode during the day!

Will take a lot to pip that!

It’s going to be slippy. Rest assured.

Metcheck for bottom of Puffer course

I find riding bikes is infinitely more interesting.

I don’t really notice any difference if I wear tights or not so mainly don’t. If it’s driving sleet I’ll wear my Endura Stealth tights which are excellent but get way too hot.
I’m wearing shorts now with no heating on and have done most days for the last year. Might get dressed to see a customer later though.
I still sweat like a stuck pig on the bike so I suppose any cooling is welcome. I’m fat too. 🙂

Got mine yesterday and I like it. Other than that I really hope it works should I ever need it.

An old bloke did 10UTB this year in short silver lycra shorts. Kylie would have considered them too short. I believe he was serious but was too scared to go and ask.

Twentyfour12, the best 24hr type event in the uk by far!

Oh rly!

2nd the ulvang socks. Hoping they get big stock in again soon.