No chance of a thaw but the roads are fine. We’re getting some fantastic riding conditions in Elgin but even a couple of miles inland and you can forget it, it’s just to deep. Bring skis. I think I’m going awol for the rest of the week to make the most of it.

Speyside Cooperage is what passes as a visitor attraction round these parts! I’ve never been but my wife says it’s worth a visit and the cafe is quite good. That’s if you can get there, there’s a couple of feet of snow and I’ve just driven back from Aviemore in a blizzard. Strangely, it’s not front page news and everyone hasn’t stayed at home! 😛

Just found this in my bookmarks too. Handy for planning visits
Speyside whiskies

Don’t forget to visit Gordon & Macphails in Elgin too. If you like malts then the place will blow your mind. They have something like 900 in stock.

No. They’re open. Whiskytrail
The best way is to decide which ones you like and phone them for a tour. Be aware though that there are 2 feet of snow around Glenlivet etc just now.
The cairngorm brewery is worth a trip in Aviemore too. They do free tours and you’ll leave half cut! It’s right next door to Fat Tread too which is a bonus.

Ok cheesy feet. “Must” was maybe too strong a word but if it is on the smallest cog then it does make life a lot easier. But, as us old Usenet geeks say, YMMV.

The chain must be on teh smallest ring but apart from that piece of piss. You are pulling the cage back aren’t you? It’s hinged so you can.

Combine it with the 3rd most discussed thing. Put decent tyres on.

They all do! You bringing bikes?

Day at Laggan. Day at Golspie. Day at Carbisidale/Balblair. Day at Inshriach/Glenfeshie/Carn ban Mor/Rothiemurchus/take your pick of any Highland ride really.
That would be a “sweet” 4 days. You’d be like totally “stoked” after that.
I can do the South West in 9 hours from Moray bur probably not in the conditions just now!

Halfords sell the tools and spare valve inners if you can’t get them anywhere else. Sounds obvious but make sure it is fully deflated before you play with the valve inner. I know someone who nearly lost an eye!

13 proper snowy rides this winter so far, none of your pishy commutes, proper off road. Only one was bad as it was a slushy thaw and the weight of the snow had brought down so many trees I had to stop and get the saw out every 100 yards or so. Inshriach would have been too hard aswell but some kind 4×4 had driven up and left tracks for us to ride up. One we did with no lights at night and it is right up there in my top 3 rides ever. looking at metcheck it looks like I’ll get snowy rides all week too. Brilliant.

Is it really? Or do you just think it is because the pressure is down when you connect the shock pump?

Racemonkey is clearly one eyed. Davies knows his stuff and is mostly impartial. If Wales are playing badly he is the first to point it out. He is a breath of fresh air compared to the smarmy faced wakner called Inverdale and Guscott who start talking about England in every game that they cover, no matter who is playing. It’s downright disrespectful.

One is for an air shock, the other a coil. It’s to do with compression rates. I can’t remember which hole my RP3 is in and I can’t be arsed braving -3 temps just now to find out! Will let you know next time I’ve been to the garage if you’re interested.

Download norton removal tool. Remove Norton. Install something like AVG or Avast. Enjoy.

I used to have to wear one of those thunderbird jackets. Probably still got one somewhere. Will people laugh at me if I wear it at Laggan?

Now then. I am either a brilliant natural snow rider or the advantage I get from riding Swampthings in the snow takes me from being Mr average to being ride god that cleans everything when the normal gods can’t. I think I have worked out which it is.

50. 10 of them last night in a snowy forest with no lights but the moon. Absolutely awesome!

If anyone I knew bought any of that I would punch them. Ridiculous.

Insect repellant. Not too much though cos it’ll dissolve the whole grip.

A 3ft wall of snow would make a great kicker. You should have gone back, got the bikes and launched off it. Just like I have been doing with the one the sledgers have made near my house.

Hey Yetiman, I watched your vid about 8 times the night before I went up for the first time. It certainly helped! Good riding, you all make it look a lot easier than it feels when you are there.

My pal did Llandegla on DMR Motos. In fact he did Golspie and Lagan on them too whilst he was here but changed to High Rollers not long after that. They are fine on hard pack.
Here he is doing Llandegla black on them.

This has to be the ultimates convincer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_BsT8D9JYY

Aye, that erm….seals it! Sorry.

Julia too muscley for me. Toned = good. Ripped = bloke like.

I’ve got a set of ghetto swampies on one bike and proper UST High rollers on another. 18 months one puncture (Conti vert ripped sidewall). Previously I had at least one a week.
If you go proper UST then unless you are really unlucky punctures will become history. ISTM that the main downfall is when people try to lighten things up and use thin or light tyres at low pressures.
I don’t think if you do it properly it’s a real weight saving but for puncture resistance, grip and feel it rocks.
When a new bike arrived recently I rushed out on it and had 2 punctures where ordinarily I do 70 odd miles a week trouble free. It just reinforced to me that I will never go back to tubes.

Pal stayed at the Marine Hotel on the front. Said it was ok. Looked like your typical seaside hotel Probably dead just now.

Drac it’s a dig at the reported depths down south this week. 12″ reported looks an awful lot like 5″ when you see it in photos or on the telly. Some people including the press appear to have let the excitement get to them. We finally got a couple of inches last night but inland there is proper snow as Martin says. Wonder if there will be hysteria and mass absenteeism?

Like the others say, Awesome up, awesome down. It can be done on a HT but I would advise FS. It’s the longest uninterrupted DH in the UK (trailcentre)at something like 7.5km. It’s pretty technical so you might want to stop and check out some of the features first, especially after the bridge half way down. All the jumps and drops have some kind of chicken run so just about any standard can ride it although the top half of the black has some rocky chutes that might scare the bejaysus out of a newbie. Ride it as many times as you can because it just gets better each time.

Dinnae fart if yur gettin a blur job. Or at the dinner table. Any other time is fair game. Wherever you may be, let your wind blow free!

It’s universal on the older VPPs isn’t it? I get the pedal feedback on my Nomad and have grown to love it. The first time I rode it up a climb I did think there was something wrong with the granny ring!

Here’s what I was doing while you were all enjoying the snow. Still got none 🙁

So here’s one from earlier in the winter

New chain. If you must use the old one use powerlinks. Original pins will last 5 mins if you are lucky. 3 powerlinks must be about the price of a Deore chain nearly?

My pals 2CV made it to the Cairngorm carpark once when everything else was failing. The pram wheels are awesome in snow. Never mind you chelsea tractors and school run tanks, 2CVs are the future!

Snow in this quantity last occurred 18 years ago.

Here is the point. This is true for London maybe but certainly not around thse parts. Wow. I bet all the doublechoccamochlatte shops are going bust as the severe arctic conditions cause everyone to stay at home and drink Harrods instant instead.
If London collapses because of this severe weather event can we have the money from the banking bailout instead? We might even be able to afford to get the road and rail snow ploughs out of storage and find some grit with money like that.

Summer season with pikes and a Nomad. Rode them both for 10 miles each yesterday. Tend to only take the Nomad out for Golspie, Laggan, Carn Ban Mor type rides. Got the Summer Season to be a “winter” bike but it gets most of the riding now as the nomad is too much for most of my rides. Having said that it has been so dry this winter I have had to get it out for some fun on the gnarlier routes as they are in such great condition.
Summary. Got 2 ride both. One a bit more than the other.

I have owned allconmers in snow this winter. 😀 In normal conditions I’m mid pack. Been riding a 456 summer season with ghetto’d 2.35 60a swampthings.

60a LUST HR.
I’m just about to try a 60a LUST on the front and a 70a LUST HR on the back of the Gonad to try and maximise grip and lower rolling resistance and wear. I seem to be pretty good at making semi slick HRs on the back wheel!

Just the odd flake here in Moray. I think we’ll get it tomorrow and wed. Sitting here trying not to have schadenfreude at the chaos down south but failing miserably. Sorry, it’s just unbelievable how a little bit of white stuff can cause so much disruption.

OMG! Half an inch of snow. I’ll wait for the stories of people trapped in their cars for 24 hours tomorrow then! No gritters been out by the looks of things, best you all increase the gap to the car in front to at least 5 feet. Play safe and all that.

Devs – swampys are fine on roots, especially in softer compounds but there honestly are better options.

I haven’t found one. Most folk round these here parts ride HR as they seem to be the best all rounder and you can trust them on the wet roots. Now I’m not going to claim that my forest is better than yours but all our trails are natural and I cannot think of a better place to test tyres on roots. It’s kind of strange too that you mention the mobster, which, according to the Maxxis blurb is for hardpack yet they specifically mention wet roots in the blurb for the Swampies.
Also, contrary to your thinking, it would appear that the second (or first in their opinion) most effective wet root tyre in this parish is the Mud X. And yet we have no mud on these here sandy parts. Who’da thunk them marketing folks could get things so wrong huh?