@fin25 – yeah, frame bags too, but bags for the loop bar get a specific mention on page 1 🙂

@clink – cheers fella 😉

@whitestone

That’s true to a point. Wildcat tackled the handlebar and saddle harnesses differently to anyone else (thanks to Jameso for highlighting this). At the time we were small and doing it mainly as an extension of our requirements and our own pursuits

Interestingly, Revelate came out with the terrapin, which had been “18 months in development”, which was exactly 18 months after we released the Tiger. It does the same thing, but differently. Alpkit produced their handlebar harness that mounted off the fork crown, same principle as our design from two years earlier. Does the same thing, but differently.

The cost of patenting our designs, and then challenging anyone who chose to copy them would be prohibitively expensive, given the relative size of the Bikepacking market.

Question for Biff – why speak to Alpkit about a bag for the Jones Loop? We’ve had one available for ages* 🙂

*which is another Wildcat idea that’s been copied around the world…

Fraser MacBeath finished early hours of the morning
3rd place in total time of 5 days 17 hrs 38 mins. He rode the last 46 hrs without sleep. Outstanding effort!!

Andy Williamson has just gone across the line for 4th place in 5 days 22 hours 33 mins. Well done Andy!

Jenny is on the move again. Crosses fingers xx

Fraser MacBeath at top of the Devil’s Staircase. 20 miles to go. Remember Fraser has been riding since 5:30am YESTERDAY. 40 hrs straight!

I’ve just done some analysis of routes taken to cross the loch mouth using the replay function on Trackleaders.

It seems all the other riders made the Fisherfield crossing nearer the loch mouth than Jenny has.
This is what it looks like: https://www.flickr.com/photos/reizkultur/14154646477/

With recent rain, the beach may be submerged, forcing Jenny upstream, so what appears to be her “crossing too early” may the closest she can physically get in the current conditions.

The beach/ shore must be submerged for a proportion of the time, otherwise it would be vegetated. Plus, if the level is up to that extent, it’ll look dead wide. Factor in strong wind, waves coming up the loch etc, I bet it looks practically impossible without a boat.

I think it’s running high by anyones measure, Nik.

Alan G’s text from yesterday morning: https://twitter.com/ht_550/status/603499126072946691

But I agree, best chance nearer the mouth, though it looks a lot wider and therefore “worse”.

The diversion is only permitted after you’ve been to the loch and decided not to cross. But, yes, she could have backtracked earlier in the day, and been well round the coast by now. She’d even have seen Ilan, which would have been good for morale.

Won’t have to wait long to see whether he stops at Camban. He stopped there last year, arriving at 12:08am, so he’s almost bang on for the same time…

Josh – sorry to see your ride ended the way it did. Great performance to that point though – didn’t look like an effort from someone who had massively underestimated it!

Funny that, as Rickie Cotter and Steven Sloof did exactly the same thing this morning on the Ullapool track…

Looking forward to see how Rich and Tom go today 🙂
Carnmore bothy might make a good target, given the severity of the terrain.

Well, yes – 3 singlespeeds in the top four in 2013 can’t be wrong 😉

Pretty much what Greg said. Days of 100 miles should be easily attainable, and repeatable. I finished 2nd in 2013, but DNF’d in 2014. It’s that kind of route. Some much to get right, and so much to go wrong.

Looks like Alan has finished. Awesome effort – sub 6 days, with a cold.

5 days, 22 hours, 59 mins

Hope there’s some birthday cake left for him at the Cafe

I was there, going for the Most Niche Bike award on my belt drive SS Qoroz Lefty 29er

I though I’d try one-cranked SS fat bike for a bit on the first lap 😕 😳
Felt it was probably a niche too far, so bolted crank back on for laps 2 and 3

Great event though. Really enjoyed the course. Singletrack was brilliant on the Singular Puffin.
5th Open male fat bike, fwiw. Maybe first SS, not sure…

That ride in the Beacons was a real blast. Ridden half-fat before, but 4″ all round makes such a difference over the big rocks. Lots of fun indeed (and a bit of to-ing and fro-ing getting the various shots) 🙂

Re the weight – serious question – has anyone weighed their frame bag, saddle bag etc all together?

I went out last weekend with a base gear weight of about 2.5kg (excl. food and water). Admittedly that was a deliberate attempt to get my total set up (bike plus gear) as close to 25lbs as I could, but I was still adequately prepared. http://www.geargrams.com/list?id=14119
I had three bags strapped ALL over my bike – they weighed 450g on their own, split evenly over the bike. Nothing on my back.

Your mate’s wife owns Wildcat Gear – why don’t you go an see him? 😉

Thanks all. It was fun to write, so glad you enjoyed reading.

Waiting on Greg’s write up now – looking forward to reading that.

And perhaps one from Aidan? The view from the front?

If anyone is still with me, the final instalment is here:

Highland Trail Race – The Final Push

Here’s the next instalment:

Highland Trail Race – Day 3

I’ve started the write-up of my race. It’s split into several parts, and I’ve yet to get to the 3rd/final day, but here’s what I’ve got so far:

http://ianbarrington.com/2013/06/01/highland-trail-race-an-introduction/
http://ianbarrington.com/2013/06/02/highland-trail-race-day-1/
http://ianbarrington.com/2013/06/02/highland-trail-race-day-2/

Enjoy 🙂

Hi Guys,

Great fun ready all this afterwards. Thanks for all the comments.
I never saw Alan on my run in to the finish, but knew he was no more than an hour back. Had to push hard all day, but had a crash on the fast descent from the ski resort. Tiredness and poor judgement nearly put me out entirely. I left he Fisherfield emergency bothy at 6.30am Monday, arrived at Camban bothy at 3.40am Tuesday, saw Mark’s bike through the window. Elected to bivvy outside until 5.30am before pushing on again. So, about 200 miles in 41 hours with 1.5 hours sleep… The run in from Fort Bill was utterly punishing.

Cheers,

Ian

Difficult to sum it up. It was hard, obviously, but the route selection was good overall. Less than 40% of it was tarmac, and most of that was narrow lane work so not a push over. The rest was forest road, mixed moorland trails, some bog but mostly stuff that was pleasant to ride on a typical day ride. There was 6100m of ascent. The bits I didn’t think I’d enjoy weren’t as a bad as I expected and bits I’d passed off as straight forward were more punishing than I thought they would be.

There’s an account on my blog. Part one includes a bit of a recap on the Welsh Ride Thing, which is kind of relevant to the BB200, but you can just read part 2 if you’re pushed for time or can’t be bothered.

http://ianbarrington.com/2011/10/18/bear-bones-200-part-1/
http://ianbarrington.com/2011/10/19/bear-bones-200-part-2/

Ian

I think it was kinda fortunate that Aidan was past Steamboat, so he could back track on the route. Don’t know what his options would have been otherwise. Still, great news that he’s back up and riding.

Or rather I won’t, as your email isn’t in your profile 😕

Matt Whedon was chatting to someone on the stand about frame bags for Salsa/ Surly bikes, and recommended to me that I got in touch, except he didn’t get the name of the chap he was talking to – hence this thread. If you wouldn’t mind dropping me an email, I can got into more detail.

Thanks,

Ian

Gee, thanks I will mail you.

Good excuse for a ride in some proper hills again too

I can certainly take you up a few around here 😉

I rode one and thought it was very good.

Yeah, me too a looong time ago on a Scalpel. My recent sighting did look very much like the whole wheel was flexing under the weight of the bike/ rider though, even taking into account the difference between front and rear tracking. Didn’t clock just how big the bloke on it was though, or where he had his weight.

It is possible that part of the issue is the Lefty I’m using…gonna look closely at that before making any final decision on figures

Interesting that. I like the handling with the On-One carbon rigid on the front. All very subjective, but I’ve been OK with it on some steep/ techy stuff in the Beacons. If you wanna pop over my way for ride, you’re welcome to try my set up to save splashing out on kit “just to see”.

Slightly off topic, but on the lefty front the LBS here has started stocking Cannondales, and I’m seeing more lefty’s about now. Saw a guy lent hard into a tight left hand turn in town – saw it front on and was really surprised to see how much his front wheel was out of line with the back one. Didn’t look good.

My gird ref is correct – isolated building marked Claerddu 3km NW of the west end of Claerwen res. Approach is from the SSE off the tarmac road.

Descent down to Strata Florida is good if you take the bridleway past Teifi Pools- years since I’ve done it though. You’ll most certainly get wet feet from the numerous river crossings on the approach to Moel Prysgau. The trail is the one on the left:

Not much other good riding in Twyi Forest that I’ve found – lots of fireroad. Further down towards Irfon/ Trallwm there’s a lot more choice, but once you get that far down I regard that riding area as Llanwrtyd Wells and not Elan Valley 😉

I like yr.no – nice interface to look at with lots of info on amount of rain, wind speed & direction etc

And to answer your Moel Prysgau question – yes, the bridleways south of Elan village are a bit hike-a-bike, but still do-able. It’s a bit better to tackle that area from the south Abergwesyn side where you can also get a ride in down the Doethie valley.

From Elan Village take the road up towards Talwrn, and then follow the bridleway SE of Caban-Coch past Gro Hill. Continue westwards on bridleway/ RUPP towards Claerwen, and ride the track around the North. Stop overnight in the bothy at Claerddu (SN 792687). In the morning, ride over Monks Trod ancient road, and then either take the route south past Craig Coch and over Esgair Perfedd, or direct to Penrhiw Wen and come down past Maen Serth – know locally as the Golf links. Last descent is absolutely top drawer!

Contacted the buyer, so will see what happens. I need to be more specific about my postage details on future auctions I think…

I agree, not complicated – I was canvassing opinion, and as I said earlier wanted to check the facts as I wasn’t expecting to have to send the thing to the other side of the world. Thanks for the responses.

I specified postage to UK under the main P&P details, but also said in the description that postage to EU would be £7.00. I hadn’t realised the buyer was US based until I saw his shipping address on the paypal receipt.

No idea where the £7.50 came from. I didn’t specifically exclude any areas, which I perhaps should have done, but given that I wasn’t advertising postage outside the EU, the buyer was making an assumption that I’d post to the US.

Going to have to email the buyer at some point, but wanted to check the facts first.

Edit: the item is a vinyl record: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180677515912

It has to be said I do a lot less than I used to…

Anyone else happen to read this post and able to comment on the original topic??? Emailed Ebay, but they say response within three days, which is about as much help as toothache.

From time to time, yes.

Do banks ever duplicate account numbers, but with different sort codes?

In my experience, yes. I once had a large sum credited to my account in error for precisely this reason. I was a bit disappointed when they realised…

bump for the morning crowd

I pop over from time to time 🙂

Plus, the item in question wasn’t strictly bike related…