Sorry poah, meant @a11y

@poah yeah, Friday afternoon. I’m not sure I’d want to pay to ride the gravel climbs at the Golfie, without even a chance to ride the trails. To each their own though.

I’d like a shot, looks fun.

@Ewan

That seems unlikely to be true. In any event you’re probably not going to max your HR cycling, running max HR is normally a bit higher as more muscle groups involved.

Nice to know that you know more about me than I do.

As for golf, I think an e-bike would be cheaper than the cost of replacing all the golf balls I’d lose.

I still think that as a ‘health’ point of view, riding in zone 2-3 for longer periods would be better for most people than the zone 4 (and briefly zone 5) that can be reached when riding off-road on proper steep off climbs and muddy conditions.

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/exercise-heart-rate-zones-explained

Gravel riding yesterday around Aberfoyle, cool to start with but was lovely once the sun came out.

E-bikes are fun and definitely make climbing easier, leaving you less tired for descending. I’ll be on one eventually, just not quite yet, even then I think it will be a ‘light’ version.

Also I reckon one benefit of e-bikes that is underplayed, is keeping your heartrate down, I don’t think maxing my heartrate on the bike (or anytime) is healthy for a mid forties dad with a bit of a belly.

A bit like a brisk walk being better for your overall health compared to running. Just a thought.

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/walking-vs-running

Bent elbows and a relaxed grip. The larger hoods on my GRX shifters help with the grip, as does thick bar tape. Maybe get some flared bars with minimal drop and get used to riding in the drops, definitely helps with control and braking, maybe help relieve pressure on your hands. Might need to raise the bars too.

The DT Swiss nipple tool is great, and hold the nipple solidly helping to thread onto the spoke with the washer on. If you want the washer to stick to the nipple then use a dab of thick grease. The shakey shakey dance might still need to employed though, just put some tunes on and embrace it.

Class! I think the Cairngorms is my favourite place to ride for a big day out. You should get your blog up and running again.

18 is no age. So sad.

Shag?

@easily

Popular route, good vídeo here of a couple doing it over two days on fat bikes. The route passes two bothies so I’d plan to stay in one of those if I was doing over two days rather than camp. There is a river crossing that would be difficult or impossible after heavy rain but was fine last week.

Route here:

Ben Nevis MTB loop

This is me from last week riding the Tour Of Ben Nevis loop, all gravel but I wouldn’t want to do it on a gravel bike. 

Is the bike the right size for you? Maybe a bit too big, as this means you’re stretching with more straight arms, resulting in all the trail buzz being transmitted up your arms.

For big gravel rides, I often prefer to take my xc full sus, it’s so more comfortable and I can really let it fly on the descents. Descents that would have me having to brake on the gravel bike. So maybe a lightweight xc bike might be better suited for you.

At the Golfie this afternoon, the weather was sunny with a cold stiff wind. Trails were riding really well, with only the odd puddle and muddy section. My new tyres were a revelation to my balding ones.

No riding tomorrow planned but will doing a longish gravel route in Aberfoyle on the Sunday with a few folk from my cycling club.

The Lady In The Van was a great film. She was a great actor who could really pull off being stern and affectionate.

I was there last Friday and it was riding well, with no closures I could see. I rode the blue route as a warm up, then rode up to the top of Alpha red and rode Rib Rattler etc back to the bottom for a coffee and cake. I then rode up for the black (which is very good and was manageable on my full sus xc bike) then rode Howlin’ Wolf red. Will be back on my burlier bike at some point as I bottled Air’s Rock again.

Really enjoyed it and is quite a compact trail centre with easy going climbs, so easy enough to session sections.

https://forestryandland.gov.scot/visit/laggan-wolftrax

My pal hired an Orbea gravel ebike in Majorca and was raving about it.

That half green, half purple paint job is incredible!

https://www.trekbikes.com/gb/en_GB/bikes/mountain-bikes/trail-mountain-bikes/top-fuel/top-fuel-9-8-gx-axs-t-type-gen-3/p/41646/

But grey or black will age better.

Looks a great deal on that Trek Fuel. I also like how you can adjust the rear suspension geometry from high to low. The high numbers look similar to my 2018 Scalpel SE, which is great for long days in the hills but if I was buying again, I’d go for a bike with a lower bottom bracket (like the newer Scalpel SE does) as I prefer the feeling in sweeping corners of a lower bottom bracket. I think your new Trek comes in the low setting as standard, but is something to be aware about if you want to tweak how it rides.

@chrispoffer, do you have a link to the 230V 13A charging cable? I was put off buying one by the circa £150 price for one when I got my EV two years ago.

Charge Scotland is decent and even covers parts of northern England. Not as cheap as it once was but does have more and better rapid chargers now in some sites, like Dunkeld for example.

As already mentioned, Tesla now allow non-Tesla cars with CCS connections which are very fast and are a bit cheaper than other motorway alternatives at (I think from memory) 67p/kW. Used the Tesla chargers at Tebay and in Fort William over the last week or so, both excellent and with multiple chargers at each site.

The 22kW chargers are only any good for vans IMO, as most cars can’t do more than 7.2kW, so a bit of a waste of time in services etc. But can see why they’re installed at council and company offices/depots.

The car charger I used at Laggan Wolftrax last week in the carpark was handy but not cheap and was lucky it was midweek and quiet, I wouldn’t want to rely on it.

I think my 2018 Scalpel SE is still looking decent. It’s good at big Scottish xc rides but will also go around a trail centre trail black pretty well too.

I saw a brand new Cannondale frame in about 1992, it was my brother’s pal’s. It was dark green and absolutely lush, with it’s matching oversized fork, wearing it’s ‘made in America’ badge proudly. It was stunning. It was also a warranty replacement for one that had cracked. Probably why they were known as Crack’n’fail.

Looked like this one…..

Bought four small cans of Dark Arts Stout from Adsa. It’s a bit too fizzy and too much licorice taste for my liking. Won’t be buying again.

One sock and glasses. I must have half a dozen single socks in my drawer, the other one no where to be found. With riding glasses, it’s like that episode of Father Ted. 4 pairs in the last 12 months, all lost out riding.

Those lollipop sticks bolted to the rear shock don’t look very strong. It’s a funny looking thing isn’t it?

Prep stuff the night before, so to avoid procrastinating and wasting time finding that missing glove/car-key/bike lights.

I think my wife is playing cupboard jenga with me. When I need a certain bowl, towel, cup, baking tray etc, I can either try to remove it from the perilously balanced pile without the pile collapsing. Or what I normally do is take everything out and then put everything back in so it’s not a trap for the next person.

Appliances with complicated controls with too many buttons, the ones that are ‘smart’ just why?

I find that once one spoke goes, it’s only a matter of time until another one goes, I’m not sure if it’s because they’re all equally fatigued/corroded or the action of the first spoke snapping put extra stress on other spokes around it.

I have however never snapped a plain gauge spoke, despite putting thousands of single speed km’s on them, this has been the case both pair of wheels I’ve ran (one pair I built without a jig or tension gauge). Where I’ve had a fair amount of butted spokes snap. Maybe superlight butted spokes aren’t ideal for daily abuse, all year round in Scotland, or it could be the power you put out ;)

If I scratch one side of my body, I then scratch the opposite side of my body to even it out. So if I get an itch on my right knee and scratch it for relief, I then scratch my left knee. I thought this was normal but apparently it’s ‘weird’

People who walk about looking at their feet or at a phone. How hard is it to look where you’re actually going.

I’m a big fan of Gorewear’s cycle clothing, because:

• They offer three different fits (form fit, slim fit and regular fit)
• Materials are very good
• Construction is good
• Logos are generally kept to a minimum
• They often use chunky zips that last and can be used one handed (perfect for adjusting whilst riding)
• Generally have minimalist design but do offer more vibrant colours or patterns.

Downsides are that they’re quite expensive and often change designs or rename/rebrand them with no clear reason why, sometimes for the worse IME.

@crazy-legs I can highly recommend Gore C5 baggy shorts, they’re not overly baggy with the medium really fitting my 78kg 1.8m build perfectly. They also have Velcro waist adjusters. My current pair are about 4 years old and are still going strong. And I’m a right fussy bugger when it comes to mtb shorts.

https://www.gorewear.com/en-uk/c5-shorts-100585

Pedal Power have a sale on right now, if you’re in Scotland’s central belt and are looking for a new bike, I can definitely recommend them.

https://www.pedalpower.org.uk/products/cannondale-topstone-carbon-lefty-3

Or worse, when you find the perfect item of riding apparat and when it wears out, you find that it is no longer made and everything else on the market is inferior.

I like simple designs without the bells and whistles but made from quality materials and made well, like extra stitching in high stress/wear areas etc.

I think 7Mesh pretty much does this but at a premium price which is beyond most folk’s (including myself at times) budget.

1. 1 pair of road carbon shoes
2. 1 pair of mtb/gravel carbon shoes
3. 1 pair of mtb/gravel winter shoes
4. 1 pair of flat mtb shoes

This does not include the pile of 90% knackered shoes that are in the garage, that I do not have the heart to throw out.

I’m thinking of buying another pair of spd shoes to replace my 8 year old Shimano ME5’s that died the weekend, they were great all-rounders and for bike packing, might just hold out until a bargain pops up over the Christmas sales.

I could go down to a single pair of all-rounder spd shoes to cover all bases but prefer having more specific pairs for different bikes and terrain.

For £18 a litre, I think this might be my next lube purchase, cheers @chakaping

TF2 All-Weather Lubricant with Teflon

My very expensive SRAM XX1 Copper chain seems to hold onto the lube for longer than any other chains I have used. It is rather expensive but has also outlasted any other chain I’ve had too (excluding single speed chains of course). I find Shimano 11 speed chains rust a bit after even hosing down after a ride, and although the KMC X11EL chains on my gravel bike didn’t rust, they did wear out quicker than the 11 speed Shimano or SRAM ones I’ve used.

SRAM XX1 Eagle 12 Speed Copper Chain

I now fit 12 speed SRAM GX chains to my gravel bike and hardtail as I bought a load cheap.