Keela Saxon.

Manages to balance waterproof, breathable and lightweight into a package that works for me.  Decent price, direct sales at £110 delivered.

Plus, made in the UK by a company that understands living wages and has a garment repair service.

Avoid cheap supermarket diesel, unless you’ve got a spare bottle of Forte etc with you to clean your injectors afterwards.  It’s not everywhere that sells dirty diesel but how lucky do you feel on a long trip….?

Check your aircon is in good order; maybe get the gas re-charged first, if it’s not been done for a while.

Plan in advance how you’ll organise toll paying, whose bank card/cash, can the front seat passenger reach the toll booth comfortably while you’re judging distance from the other side of the car.

I think you’d be best speaking to a a good sports injury physio about the form that any knee support takes.  It’s impossible to recommend anything without knowing the nature of the problem and then how much support is wise.  Or even if any support is wise..

Finished.  Over 200 miles a day.  A new record; how is sustaining that pace even humanly possible…?

Toyota.  Which one is decided by how big you need it to be.

Keela Saxon.  @£110.  Multi functional, bike and off; has a hood, good range of sizes and colours.

Recommended, for all of my usual reasons; decently breathable, lightweight, properly waterproof, made in Glenrothes by a company that pays proper wages to UK workers.  Repairable at the factory for a small fee.

Mine has lasted very well, living in the bag year round and packs small enough to just leave there. I have a GV500 as well, which is what I take when bikepacking as it’s a closer fit shape.  The Keela is slightly more spacious, so more flexible for other activities..

Men’s Saxon Jacket (keelaoutdoors.com)

Second vote here for the Leatt Aeroflex knees, as per el_boufador above; they’re definitely at the ‘Very Light’ end of the pad spectrum though.  The D3O is removable, so you can wash the sleeves.  They only cover the front of the knee , there’s nothing on the outsides, so they are definitely only for lightweight riding or lower consequence situations.

Mine stay put very well when pedalling and don’t feel that much different to wearing a set of roadie 3/4s.  The size guide worked fine for me too.

At the other end of the scale, I’ve another set of Leatts, their chunky ‘Zip’ model with lots of side padding, a big D3O knee cup and that all important zip to get them off quickly at the end of a hot day…  These are for those high consequence days, big rocks, big mountains, remote trails..

Friday evening I’ll be in Milngavie, setting up registration for the annual West Highland Way race and doing the runner briefing.  So, that’s a 96 mile ultra marathon that starts at 0100 Saturday; between Friday morning and Sunday afternoon, there will be very little sleep indeed.  Around 220 runners should be on the start line, with their individual crews ready to meet them at the various checkpoints.  I’m the responsible adult, allegedly.  Safety officer and chief medic, so will have a field hospital facility set up with my team at the finish line in Ft Bill from lunchtime Saturday until after prize giving finishes and around 170-180 of those runners have collected their engraved crystal goblet.  There’s a wee party afterwards, for anyone still awake…

A couple of suggestions for you.

5 day Tour du Mont Blanc. E.g. Beaufort – Bourg St Maurice – Aosta – Martigny – Chamonix – Beaufort.  Have a look at the maps; this circuit has some really interesting passes.

When we did it, we actually started in Martigny, having taken a train from Geneva airport. Then after the riding, had a day and a night at the Montreux jazz.

Alternatively, if I were to pick a single base, I would suggest Beaufort. There’s good, classic quiet road passes all around you. Plus some lesser known gems, such as the Col du Pre.

Done.  I hope I never need it but if I do, I’d wish for the option to be there

Our two car policy with LV went from about £360 to £410. That’s for a Fabia and a Superb in a rural setting in Angus, two semi-mature drivers, both clean.

Another small but contributing factor to the problems with EVs: they frequently require longer stopping distances, as they’re usually 0.5-1 tonne heavier than a comparable sized petrol/diesel car.  This just happened to or neighbours with their electric, 2.5t Kia SUV.  On a dry road downhill, emergency braking for someone turning across them, theirs simply didn’t slow down quickly enough.  It’s hard to be sure from the dashcam footage but it did look like it should be possible to be able to stop in time but the driver is adamant he was giving it everything…

The harder you’ve been training, the more you need the time to taper and recover.  Rest is when you do your repairs and get stronger; sleep too, relax.

You don’t want or need to stop altogether, riding commutes at a sensible pace is ideal in this recovery phase and as others have said, you’ll not lose fitness in 5 days.  But a crash on a technical trail could ruin the trips.

To put it into perspective, we’re 8 days out from the West Highland Way race next Saturday and all of the ultra runners will be a week into their taper by now.

Just heard from our nephew this morning.  He’s on a train from Stuttgart to Munich now; the last leg of a journey that began in Glasgow two days ago, via relatives in a small town a few Km west of Zurich.  The station at Stuttgart was full of kilted Scots and now the train is absolutely rammed with the Tartan Army.  He’s met a pal there and it sounds like he’s the proverbial pig in poo…  Absolutely not my thing but what a grand wee ‘solo’ adventure for a 17 year old.

As event medic at numerous Scottish trail ultra marathon races, I frequently get asked to remove ticks from strangers and friends alike.
One especially memorable occasion was one of our regular female runners, who was insistent that I must carry out the deed for her. The tick had buried itself quite deeply among some quite delicate folds. Needless to say, gloves and head torch were required.

The important skill is in the gentle rotation or twisting of the offending beastie; you are attempting to disengage the barbs around its mouthparts, without squeezing any gut contents into the wound site.

The only vaguely sensible thing I’d like to add to the above is to do with fuel; those engines do seem to prefer branded fuel and better still, a regular dose of V-Power or similar to extend EGR life.  My garage tells me that  this is vital; they’ve very rarely seen one go past 100k without needing replaced, often fails at 50-70k depending on quality of fuel and whether yours has been unlucky enough to have the coolant leak into the sensor.  As it’s more recent, I’d hope that’s a non-issue for you on a newer engine.

My Superb: 10 plate, 2.0, 140ps diesel estate, bought as a one-owner, 42k miles at 6 years old.  Garaged, main dealer serviced and well looked after.  Currently at 104k; it’s still a brilliant workhorse.

Faults so far: That EGR at 94k; passenger side front electric window cassette changed when it failed.  Parking sensors.  A couple of LEDs inside.  A fuel hose up on top of the engine when mice chewed through it.  That was messy… But changed for free by the garage, as they were laughing so much.

Maintenance: cam belt at 70k. Discs all round in the last two years.

Pleasant surprises: Suspension links are already lasting well beyond what I used to get on previous Passats but cannot last forever… Same for coil springs.  It takes the same steel winter wheels as my older Passats, so that was a bonus too.  I’ve no plans to change it yet.  It’s paid for itself over and over, been to the Alps, all around UK & Ireland.  Still a joy to drive, tight, capable.

P&O = vile organisation.  Please avoid…

Bow Fiddle rock on the Moray Coastal Trail.

The Ardnamurchan Crater.  Now that one really shows up on google satellite view or OS 50k mapping, as well as when you’re there, nearly surrounded by the escarpment.  Nearby, Sanna beach (most westerly on mainland UK) and Camus nan Gael, overlooked by another volcano, Ben Hiant.

Perhaps starting at Kilchoan, you could build up an interesting, challenging circular route to most of these by taking in the trail sections along the north coast, Glendrian, Fascadale, then via Kilmory and Ockle.  It all connects up and would be a great day out.  There are gaps on the OS 50k but the trail’s there on the ground.

Does anyone know if the GlenBorrowdale – Acharacle trail goes on a bike?  that might be better than the road from Acharacle to Salen and along to Kilchoan.  @Dovebiker ?

Suggestion:

Drop bags off near Derry Lodge, continue west and then north onto the trail up towards the base of the Sron Roach trail. Up the glen is a challenging but fun ascent, until the point where it suddenly gets too steep and you’re pushing the rest of the way up. Climb steeply, it’s a good trail most of the way up… Summit, then descend via Etchachan and past the Hutchison hut into Glen Derry. Cross the river at the little steel bridge and continue back to your bags.

With, I suspect, a very big grin on.

It’s one of the very best ‘black’ grade descents in the UK, technical but not crazy. A few short features are very challenging but the vast majority is just great fun.

VFM: Exactly. I’ll not ever forget seeing him at Murrayfield last year.  A hair under 70,000 folk there and he was on stage two minutes early!  The atmosphere grew and grew throughout.

Mind you, I’m actually in no position to comment about the value for money, as I was paid to be there as part of the medical support team.  I’d have happily paid, even with having to be out and about on duty.  Only had one shout all night…

Just been passing through the Bute, Tarbert, Argyll and Oban areas right now on a bikepacking trip. Thoroughly recommend, per Poly’s advice above although around Loch Sween is much nicer than the village of Lochgilphead, which is quite run down now. As are a few places out here now, suffering from a lack of staff, so some surprises when expecting to find cafes open. Seems to be a universal problem.

Sunset on Sanna beach tonight was stunning; rode back to Kilchoan in the gloaming.

Here in Angus it’s finally dark enough to see… And it’s more visible in the southern sky, coloured beams all the way down the sky to the southern horizon! To the north, the sky is still too bright with the post sunset gloaming.

Like a lot of the advice dished out from the strange BC world, that’s not much use for normal human beans.

If you’re a genuinely competitive racer, keen on top performing, then get a well educated coach to help you formulate a plan that actually works for you and then practice and work at it.  Many people cannot train their gut to absorb that level of exclusively sugary carbs and will require a much broader spectrum of nutrition in order to be able to ride all day; that’s long after your glycogen stores are gone and you’re needing support while switching to fat burning.

For the other 99.8% of the cycling community, then you’re much like my ultra running people and will also probably benefit from the way I cope on my own, longer and harder bike rides and runs.  Eat real food; eat early, eat often.  Just as TJ and others have said, short chain carbs (sugary stuff) comes with physiological and endocrinological baggage.  If you’re eating real food both before and early in a long ride and can keep a lid on your adrenaline pre-, early and mid ride, then you’ll keep your guts active and in absorption mode for much longer.  So much better able to take in what is being offered.   And not throw it up again in protest..  Lots of runners at the Highland Fling at the weekend were throwing up as soon as the sun warmed the course, they begin to feel a bit odd in the unaccustomed warmth of a highland spring, their gels become impossible to face and a DNF is inbound.  Just remember, everyone is different.

Despite the initial clearance from the film taken at the time, I’d be cautious about completely ruling out the possibility of the shoulder harbouring an evulsion fracture.  These don’t always show up that clearly on a quick initial examination, so injuries are written up as soft tissue when a physio might help you identify something that will eventually heal a lot faster and more thoroughly.  Just chucking that out there, as it’s worth bearing in mind.

*Evulsion fracture: where a tendon pulls a small flake of bone out of a structure.  Usually heals very effectively with minimal intervention, besides smart physio input.

Just ospreys in Angus so far, none of the others yet.  Must pop up the Sidlaws soon and see if the cuckoo has arrived on Auchterhouse hill yet; that’s usually around the 30th April.

Every 125 that I’ve been on in recent times has had the new, additional upgrade to add space for 4 in a big open gap where seats have been removed. That’s in addition to the 2 vertical spaces in the cupboard and in reality, this extra space will easily take 6 bikes.  There’s a telltale big green stripe painted on eh outside of those carriages.

Yes, it’s fine. Northbound up the Capel, you simply need to go past the original entrance by the bridge and look for the rough path on your right, just outside the boundary of the original forest. It rejoins the traditional trail up by the big fenceposts, @200m away from the estate road.

Port Charlotte hotel, just along from Bruichladdich.

Anyone running at the Highland Fling this coming weekend..?

Feel free to come and say hello at the medical tent.  That is, if you’ve not already landed yourself there from some bout of particularly bad behaviour…

A positive slant; not bikes but clothing repairs.

Last Wednesday, we sent a pair of Montane Featherlight trousers to them for the repair of two rips.

That’s them back today, fixed.  The repairs are very neat and barely visible.  Happy days..

Nice to hear about the short eared owls on S Uist; we had much the same sort of sighting while riding on N Uist on a tour a few years ago, away out on the western road.

Then came around a corner to find a little owl sitting on a fencepost, which (nearly) ignored us riding past, just rotated its head to keep us in view… shortly followed by a golden eagle overhead.  fabulous.

St Kilda boat trip….? We did last September.  the run out in a big rib from Leverborough was lumpy as hell.  Sun came out as we arrived and zagged among the stacks, under clouds of seabirds.  Ashore on Hirta, the sun stayed with us; another highlight being the St Kilda ‘big’ wrens.  They’re quite tame.

The double beach on Vatersay is the place where I’ve had my best corncrake experience.  Whilst picnicing on proper prawns, crusty bread and salad, sat on the sand at the edge of the Machair.  Absolute bliss.

You also pass a memorial to the crew of a crashed Catalina on the way there, right at the roadside and there’s still bits of wreckage just sitting on the grass.

Either two species, or two generations of the same species.  That’s an interesting collection!

Hushinish for beaches, a short wander about & the old whaling station on the road out.

If he’s after a slightly longer wander, out and back to the high point on the Postman’s Path to Reinigeadal.  Or north along Loch Lacasdail and back.

Then lunch at the Scalpay cafe.  Which also does superb seafood when in its evening guise as a restaurant.

There’s another pleasant walk out to the lighthouse there too.

Folk museum at Mingarry on S Uist.

@matt_outandabout could you please point me towards that paper?  I’ve had a quick look and cannot find it so far.

As an event safety officer in remote events in the Highlands I’m often asked about the quality of our flowing water, both by locals and overseas participants, who often have very different experiences and expectations of hill water.  If there’s some sensible work on this, I ought to pursue it.

Evidence that RockShox have been contracting out assembly to Boeing technicians…?

Good thinking @dyna-ti as among other problems in water there’s now been a few cases of reported Giardia from folk who are certain they picked it up in the wilds of the Highlands.  There’s a debate over how the bug may have got out there – carried there by infected, imported dogs from eastern Europe, or by people from N America camping near water courses and not being careful about their camp hygiene.  Either way, it’s there; a small risk but real.

That of course is over and above all the conventional risks of people & livestock, upstream from your chosen water source.  If neither of those are possible, water should be safe.  ‘Do you feel lucky, punk..?’

Matt, one of those gas bottle heaters inside the house..?  Er no ta, I’d not want to breath second hand air after that thing has been using it.  I’d rather have a stove indoors.

Spooky, I’ve the Apidura frame bag internal bladder from Apidura.  It’s fine, works well in a large frame bag and avoids muck issues on sub-optimally positioned bottles.  You do have to be careful about making sure it’s properly closed up though but with the hose routed out and up to the side of a stem bag, it is very convenient and keeps the weight of water very low down.  Downsides?  You can’t see how much is left but if you’re wise to your water needs and consumption rate, that’s no hardship.

One bike has seat stay bottle cages on both sides and that’s a decent and modestly priced option, if you can arrange secure mounting.

As above, Wester Ross/Torridon + Ballater twin centre trip.

I’d put a carry up Big Mac and ride down Coire Etchachan as one optional day on Deeside.  You could easily spend a whole week in Deeside alone, between forest trails around Aboyne & Ballater, plus big mountain days on the likes of Lochnagar, descending west to Loch Callater, via t’Saggairt Mor; Ben Avon, Bhuird, not forgetting Tarland for a wet day.

Sgorr Gaoith (Mule Trail descent) for a day with a different feel.

Fhadda circuit anti-clockwise.

As above, fill your boots up in Torridon.