Just to point out bike spaces can be booked online.The only exception I’m aware of is the Caledonian Sleeper.

Book at http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/

After choosing your tickets reserve seats. Only after this step is there a bike space option. Just picked up £10 singles from Glasgow – Inverness then Aberdeen – Glasgow in April.

“Is that the same Glenmore that takes walkers and climbers over the plateau on an almost daily basis? “

Don’t do as they do, do as they say!

I’ll be on the plateau this summer sometime. Maybe walking, maybe biking. I’ll report back here on the number of walkers V the number of bikers up there.

I didn’t see the article. I’d be interested in how many other bikers/walkers were seen during the ride.

IMO most of the damage to the environment in the Cairngorms has nothing to do with walkers or MTBs. Look at the Larig Ghru for example. Hundreds of walkers go through every year. almost none go more than 10 yards either side of the path. Riding the tops will be the same.

Most of the damage to the hills and glens is caused by the over population of deer. Almost nobody talks about it. I’ve been visiting Glen Feshie for the last 40 years. It used to be a bit of a heather desert. Lots of old pines but no young trees. Thousands of deer though. The current owners have cut deer numbers to a fraction, maybe 10% of former numbers. The glen is recovering without fencing. It’s incredible seeing the young growth all up the glen now.

That’s private owners. Meanwhile the part of the Gorms in public ownership continued the old way with deer overgrazing the place to death. Seems to be changing now though.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2010/12/13/top-gamekeeper-quits-famous-estate-over-deer-slaughter-86908-22780647/

I appreciate the tops are more fragile than lower areas but I still say in the big picture a few MTBs riding on the paths make no difference.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

I used this guide for building my first wheels. Much easier than I expected. The hardest thing is getting the right length of spokes.
I still buy handbuilt wheels for my tourer. I’m not going to risk my own wheels over several thousand miles away from home. Like many other skills learning a little makes you appreciate the skills of a pro. Spa Cycles are my choice. I’m 16 stone and have always broken spokes in factory wheels after a couple of thousand miles touring or commuting. My rear wheel from Spa is still perfectly tensioned and true after 6k miles loaded touring.

The main benefit IMO for building a wheel or two is that I am now competely confident I could deal with any spoke tuning/replacement needed on the road. I used an old scrap frame with a couple of bolts through the stays to true the rim. Dishing was done by turning the wheel round to make sure it was still centred. Works Ok for the odd wheel. A proper wheel jig would make like easier for regular builds.

The plateaux is Kms wide, the paths yards wide. Riding the existing paths? No problem. Seems Ok for the northside of Cairngorm to have ski facilities visible from the moon but a few MTBs use the paths on the tops and the treehuggers are up in arms.

Some years ago a former workmate of mine and a friend did the full round of the Munros one summer by, or maybe with, MTB. There is a photo of them climbing the Innaccessible Pinnicle in Skye.

He had a nice print in his house of him abseiling off the short side of the Pinn with his bike over his shoulder. I think the bike he used was a rigid Rockhopper.

http://www.john.macpherson.btinternet.co.uk/fullimagepeopleg.html

Saw a thread somewhere about this framebuilder. THe guy that ordered this bike was happy with it. Certainly non standard. Seem to remember there was a waiting time for orders though due to popularity/workload.

http://www.shandcycles.com/2010/08/15/mor-dearg/

High Climber said “I personally think if you don’t wear a helmet of your own volition then you are an idiot.”

I take it you wear a helmet when driving, walking or any time you are drinking because those activities are responsible for more head injuries than cycling.

“around 135,000 people are admitted to hospital each year as a consequence of brain injury”

http://www.headway.org.uk/facts.aspx

In 2008 2,565 cyclists were killed or seriously injured in road crashes of which 49% had injuries to the head or face. Say around 1300 cyclists with head or face injuries.

http://www.bma.org.uk/health_promotion_ethics/transport/promotingsafecycling.jsp?page=2

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that every face injury was a head injury a helmet might have helped. So around 1% of head injuries are to cyclists but we are the group getting singled out for compulsion?

If this is a private car park then neither careless driving or reporting a road accident apply so it is not a police matter.

If the car park is public then careless driving laws apply and any accident needs to be reported (or details exchanged/owner informed etc)

As per RTA 1988 section 3 and section 170, both as amended by RTA 1991.

Climate always has changed and always will. So far though there has been no unprecendented climate change. There has only been an 0.8C increase in temp since 1850. Which is to be expected as the climate recovered from the little ice age and isn’t out of step with climate change in previous centuries.

Increased atmospheric CO2 will cause some increase in temp but the numbers are just guesses and computer models. The past record for climate predictions isn’t good.

If CO2 was the main driver of temp changes then why was there similar increases between 1910 and 1940 and between 1970 and 2000 despite CO2 levels being far higher during the second period?

And of course there was no statistically significant global warming between 2002 and 2010.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8511670.stm

http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/

“never seen the need to jump red lights…you can get into the habit of jumping light and put yourself in a stupid situation where someone might get hurt (either yourself or a pedestrian)

if anything does happen (an accident – for example you run over a pedestrian you did not see) and it turns out you jumped a red light you have no defence…

you save so little time jumping light, its not worth the grief”

Good grief. Since when did habit mean we didn’t check both ways at give ways and stop signs before proceeding. Jumping a red light is just one more junction to be treated like a stop/give way. How is habit going to mean less care?

As for hitting a ped. You are going to be in trouble any time you hit a ped. Red light or not. Though I wouldn’t jump any light there was peds crossing at.

As for not saving time. I beg to differ. Each light can be up to 2 minutes depending on the junction. Add that up on a long commute. Anyway regardless of time waiting each time a red light or anything else forces a complete halt it is like adding 100m on to your journey.

http://www.wolvesonwheels.co.uk/docs/why%20cyclists%20won%27t%20stop.pdf

£41 single is robbery. There are cheaper fares booking in advance. Checking on Trainline.com for example the 7.06 Sat 29th Jan Glasgow – Dalwhinnie single is £19. Though book on the same train for Glw – Inverness and it is £10. Not much Scotrail can do if you get off early?

On the Inverness line if you booked a ticket to Inverness with the idea of getting of early you would just have to make sure your train stopped at every station. I believe some fast trains don’t stop at every station.

The drawback with Trainline.com is you can’t book bikes online. There is another site http://tickets.eastcoast.co.uk which allows online bike bookings.

No other traffic in sight? Sensor not detecting bikes? No question, go through ton the red.

I regularly ignore red lights late at night or early in the morning. Even during the day in heavy gridlocked traffic.

AS for the school of thought that it gives car drivers a bad impression of cyclists? Well when they stop speeding, parking on pavements, overtaking too close, texting and using mobiles while driving then I’ll start stopping at every red.

Bells or other cooking whisky goes well with Irn Bru. Both your national drinks in the one glass!

A malt? With water or neat depending on the whisky and your taste. I had a drink at the Oban Distillery after fdoing a job there. The manager of the suggested mixing with a small amount of water.the best water to mix it with according to him is from the same source the distillery draws it’s water.

Got a 12 yr old Highland Single Malt reduced from £18 to £13.50 today at Asda. Passed the taste test. Nice mellow Speyside style malt. A bargain whatever distillery it came from.

What about the Acer Aspire 5551A at Argos.

Decent graphics card and 3 year Acer warranty included for £399

Software includes lifetime versions of Word and Excel.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5083345/c_1/1|category_root|Office%2C+PCs+and+phones|14418968/c_2/3|cat_15701344|Laptops+and+Netbooks|16164797.htm

Hadn't noticed the much large numbers of walkers on the high tops resulting in a walking ban. Although I doubt either could be banned under access law.

Anyway walkers and riders tend to use narrow paths with the vast majority of the area being unaffected. How many users do you ever see off the paths? Anywhere? Very few I would say.

The Rob Roy's Cave bit just north of Inversnaid.

From the Kingshouse in Glen Coe to Rannoch station there is good track either end with about a 2 1/2 miles push in the middle along a faint path following a line of telegraph poles.

The track up Auch Glen from the viaduct on the WHW is good and gets better at Loch Lyon. No bridges over any of the streams though all fords. And despite not being marked on the map the track is complete along the south side.

TJ
There is a big variation from place to place. I was in central London for a couple of days recently and couldn't believe the amount of bikes on the road. In a way though Edinburgh and London are easy. Congested city centres where anyone can see a bike makes sense. Getting people to choose bikes where the alternatives of the car or the bus or train are faster is the challenge. When there are more people driving to gyms to walk or run on machines than using a bike for short local journeys we have a long way to go.

There are a couple of brothers I've seen cycling home from the local secondary school. They stand out because they the only pupils out of over 1000 that cycle to school regularly as far as I can see. They are cycling properly on the road and taking the centre of the lane at roundabouts and so on while also using as many low traffic roads as possible.

I don't think we'll ever get past 10% of journeys by bike if we can't even get school kids to use bikes. Once people are in their 20s and signed up to the car culture it's hard getting them back.

"Page 15 (I noticed it when I skimmed through earlier"

I stand corrected. It's a bit unambitious though.

"Action 6: To encourage private sector employers to become Cycle
Friendly Employers by offering loan support for workplace cycling
facilities.
Outcome 6: In 2010/11 at least 8 private sector organisations will benefit
from an interest free loan to encourage a minimum of 10% of their
workforce to cycle to work."

8 companies a year? I don't see that making much of a dent in the 99% of non bike journeys. The cash involved for that part is 150K. Hardly throwing money at the problem.

Not that facilities are the problem for most people. I used to work in a building with secure indoor parking and good changing and shower facilities. There were only 2 regular cyclists out of a couple of hundred employees.

The usual comments I got from other employees were that they weren't fit enough to cycle to work, the traffic was too dangerous, and why wasn't I wearing a helmet?

The utility cycling culture in many parts of Scotland is close to non existent. I'd bet my mortgage that the 10% target won't be hit in 10 years.

Dream on. I've had a quick look through the full document at

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/316212/0100657.pdf

Currently 1% of journeys are by bike. So in 10 years they are going to increase bike journeys tenfold?

It proposes loans for people to buy bikes "• cycle loans for those with no access to a bike; currently only 37% of
households have access to a bicycle (Scottish Household Survey,
2008)."

So people can afford laptops, 50" TVs, cars, booze, fags, but they can't buy themselves a bike?

It proposes an online journey planner as it could be crucial in getting people to take short journeys by bike. Surely people know their way round their local area?.

On my quick read through I saw no mention of intermediate targets. I'm always cynical about targets that don't have to be met until another two parliaments from now. By the time this plan has succeeded (yeah right) or failed the politician who proposed it will be long gone.

As for practical measures? To hit 10% we want more people to commute to work. Some employers don't make it easy. There should be steps taken to make employers with more than say 20 employees to provide lockers and a shower.

No mention of anything like that in the document. Last year I did as many miles on my bikes as I did in my car – around 7k for each. This year I'm changing jobs. One base is 12 miles away. Easy cycle commute but no showers.

If you are considering the Kingshouse to Rannoch station route – I did it today (in reverse). There is about 2 1/2 miles of a gap in the middle where I was pushing. Other than that the tracks either end are good. At the Rannoch station end the track goes much further west than the OS map indicates. Well out the forest. You can see the actual track on google maps satelite view.

I did the Gorton to Rannoch Forest gap today as well. Very dry conditions today. On a previous trip I got fairly wet but got through with dry feet today.

Out the two I'd say the Kingshouse – Rannoch bikehike would be drier in average conditions. More a boggy walk unlike the Gorton push which is a walk though a bog.