That’s me on the left.

Who’s the sad “all the gear no idea” lanky bastard next to you then?

;)

My March pic, 22nd March:

You wanna take the full sus, and make sure you wear plenty of body armour and a Met Parachute helmet, oh and if you haven’t got one then you should go buy yourself an Audi A4 (pref. estate) before rolling up. If you don’t do any of the above you’ll stick out like a sore thumb.

;) :D

but my girlfriend caught me before i got the mountainbike out of the cupboard

Depends what she was catching you for ;) No worries though. Saw a few people out, but pretty quiet given the weather.

I reckoned the same as cynical – just look at the erosion on the Dreghorn side of that track.

From the car park for the hill fort all the way up to where it levels off a bit and turns slowly to the right, the whole thing has been completely infilled and rolled to billiard table spec., with drainage dug either side and all the gorse removed too. It was too dark by the time I got up there or I would have got some photos. You can still do that dog-leg but the main route is now totally rideable (albeit still steep). It only roughens again after the last access point for the army flags.

Well I had a most excellent ride on my own. shorts and tshirt all night, and mostly pretty dry trails.

But wtf have they done to that track past the Castlelaw hill fort! :( Looks like its to provide better access for the army, but you still need a 4×4 given the gradient! Bah, it was always an interesting climb.

Might go out again tomorrow night if it stays nice :)

Whatever they review a good ‘un anyway, they just try and pigeon hole the bike into a niche (or, less cynically, into a riding preference) instead of criticising it.

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Points if you know where I took it :-)

Correct lowey and grumm. Was looking through some very sunny and green photos of Rivington last night, and found that (and a few other) vid.

I guess the place has changed a lot in the 4 years since I was last there :(

bruneep, ssdan – cheers, will email you when I find out if I am indeed moving up there.

Cheers for the other replies. Don’t know how much time I’ll actually get out on the bike though. Don’t mind student-ville having only relatively recently stopped being one :-)

Hit The North, surely?!
Weeing in shoes (someone might already have mentioned it, but I’m reading fast before scooting away for the weekend :) )

Damn, I thought we were in for an A&A teaser thread :(

Well that’s 100 sharki!

Me, photo by sfb.

I used to work in a cinema and would regularly hoover up any left-over pic n’ mix and remains of tubs of maltesers/minstrels/m&m’s. Given how much they cost, I couldn’t believe how much some folk used to leave! Never got ill, although I think it contributed to the 6 fillings and one tooth removal I had at the time… So, yes, eat the cake :D

Your 5″ geared full-sus which you’re clearly not telling us about ;)

Me, a couple of years ago:

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Oh, and don’t live in Fife or anywhere which involves heading west along the City Bypass if you want to commute by car. Nightmare!

Corstorphine, Clermiston, Colinton Mains/Colinton or the Gyle itself would all suit you fine. Depends on your budget though – places like Fairmilehead, Roseburn and Murrayfield would all be good but at a premium!

I don’t believe there’s as many English in Edinburgh as people think. I think most folk confuse the born-and-(in)bred Edinburgh posh ‘English’ accents of the Heriots/Fettes/Academy/Edinburgh Uni crowds with actual English folks.

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Fantastic view from Ben Cleugh.

Loved the Scotland top Simon ;) Nice vid – great change to the pumped-up ultrarad stuff you see.

All of my shimano BBs have outlasted the supposedly better quality/identical-at-worst SSC BB by a loooooong way.

Well that got a glut of replies :-(

Pro surfers Kira Sheppard, Kelly Dahlberg and Anastasia Ashley (courtesy of FHM)

the thing is not to care what people say

If there’s ever a Friday STW Hunky Ugly Bloke thread or whatever, I may reveal myself…

Well I’m only posting B&W naked shots on request (from ladies, sfb!), so I think I’m safe from public humiliation :)

“Kit is bald” shocker

Compared with you Simon, most folk are, relatively speaking ;)

Kit is a red head

Proof:

Here’s my full-frontal, at sfb’s request:

Good Lord, we’ve moved onto nuddie pics now have we? *strokes chin* hmmm… should I or shouldn’t I…

Let’s just hope none of the women try to use YOU as a sex object!

HA! Like that’s ever going to happen.

er…

water,
curry,
then whatever gets played at
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I’m sure tinker-belle has a sense of humour :) Otherwise, I’m mince…

Mine goes in a placcy bag in the top of my Camelbak. Not the most convenient, but in over 2yrs of use its been fine, including a few offs/rolls.

8O

Nice boots

I’ll get ma coat :(

Personally I hated all the slow motion stuff – the appeal of DH is the skill at which these guys at speed. Some slow-mo is fine, but it was overused in the vid I thought. Otherwise it looked great, and I liked the start and the sliding (tilt shift?) effects.

Bikey,

Posh (and I am posh too…)

Hmm, also interested in this. Will be up there Saturday too, but just doing the Queen’s Road route you mentioned.

Freeridespain:

Been twice
You’re made to work for the descents (12k climbs at midday etc), but its always worth it – definitely more XC orientated than I’ve heard the likes of Switchbacks are.
Guides and hosts are friendly (Simon’s a sarcastic bastard though :) ), and very very laidback.
Accommodation is OK.
Llanjaron is a nice place with some decent bars and a tasty ice cream parlour.
From what I’ve heard, Emma’s food doesn’t match up to other guide companies’, but I enjoyed it so no complaints there.

I’m trying to reserve judgement until they’re finished and running. Edinburgh City Council should have spent the £500m on resurfacing every road in the city, providing better bike storage facilities round town, sorting out the traffic flow through the city centre and expanding the park and ride schemes, instead of going for broke with this massive ego-project. But like I said, I’m trying to hold my breath until they’re running.

Chipps @ roughly 30:49 on iPlayer :-)