The sign is definitely up as of a month or so ago. You can buy fridge magnets of the sign as well.

Ta all; going for the Terrenao Dry’s.

And @scotroutes (who has been incredibly helpful over the years!) as an American in Scotland, they will always be tires for me.

I’m following for answer. We have bats around us, so I put up two bat boxes about 5 years ago, in what I thought would be bat-friendly places. They are still empty five years on, but we still have lots of bats flying around, just not roosting in my posh bat boxes.

GXP utter crapola in my experience. I’ve tried a bunch of different brands, and have come the conclusion that in Scotland at least, GXP BBs have a lifetime between a couple of months to max 12 months, no matter what I do and how much I spend. So I buy whatever is cheapest, and keep a spare handy at all times.

Does he have a car, or looking to stay within walking/biking distance?

Depends on timing you are looking for, weight of bicycle, weather etc etc. For most mortals it *will* be a push up from GGW low level to the high level bit from Invermorriston, but if weather is good it is well worth it.

The low level trail is forestry road, through the forest, with only a couple of opportunities to get the views of Loch Ness that you’ve been cycling alongside for a day!

High level trail is more interesting (mostly singletrack), with great views, but does involve a push to get up to it. Also – not sure the status right now, but there is some felling work going on in the area. I heard from a runner doing the high level route (I was doing the low) that it was blocked off; I can’t vouch for accuracy, but will add that unless it’s totally blocked I would (and often have!) just go through anyway.

For bike: I would argue an MTB is *slightly* better for the 360 than gravel bike; you can do it on a gravel bike, but there are some sections (mostly South side of Loch Ness) that I personally would find a bit scarier on drop bars. Rereading your post – I think you are thinking MTB anyway.

One more tip: Coming out of Fort Augustus up to Loch Tarff, I would recommend taking the B road instead of the path; the path is soul-sucking gravel chips.

Thanks all and especially @alanl for the kind offer… I’ve managed to bodge enough to get a few more mows in with fiberglass repair kit from Amazon and some spokes. That should get me through the summer, when I’m going to finally have to splash out on a new mower, for first time ever…

Thanks again!

Just wanted to say – really enjoyed the article and pics. Thanks!

At least you have the full body for identification. Our cats usually just leave some random innards, and occasionally the head. From that bit of Dexter/CSI evidence we have to do the guessing game of “vole, shrew, mouse, or rat?”

In my hometown in the US they are in a few neighborhoods, roosting on house roofs, etc. Lovely to look at, noisy AF, and have heard from folks living there that their claws (feet?) will do a right number on the paint of your car.

It’s been shown time and again that on balance, buying a used car (really – any used car – diesel, petrol, hybrid or EV) is environmentally friendlier than any new EV.

Now that doesn’t have to be the only reason to purchase a new EV (running costs, etc come into play for everyone), but trotting out the old “You don’t care about climate change or people’s health” trope is counterproductive.

When you arrive, ask some locals what they do for dinner?

I’ll get my coat…

Bought two bikes online from them, one via C2W, and had them do some tweaks to both before sending. Totally rate them. Shipped bikes were packed very well – clearly the mechanics know what they are doing.

Ta @Waderider!

Barlinnie, Castlemilk and Easterhouse?

OK, not turbine-electric, and not production, but both pre-date the Jag!

1963 Chrysler turbine car, 50-ish made, back in the days when cars had style!

And some bloke’s home-made turbine-powered Porsche 928:

Lived there for a year, been doing business there for nearly twenty years. Mostly in Seoul, haven’t been to Ulsan (where I presume your ship is being built?), but Busan is a great city too.

Normal rules for any new (to you) country: don’t be an @rse, especially don’t be a drunk @rse, and sample as much of the local food and drink as you can. I’ve found Koreans are incredibly generous, proud and welcoming people.

If you are in Seoul, try to rent/borrow a bicycle – the Han River cycle path is an amazing (albeit mostly flat) experience of what urban planning can achieve, and a great counterpoint to the mostly lacking urban planning of the rest of the city!

#Edit: Just re-read your post – oof, going in winter? You’re gonna be frozen! Forget the Han River cycle path. Do all the eat/drink you can (still), and see if you can get someone to take you to one of the amazing, and totally family-friendly, bathhouse (jjimjilbang).

Use ‘em, love ‘em. Which reminds me – I’ll go out and tape some rims I need for the Puffer in half a year.

So yes – recommend.

This!

Will probably be your saddle

It’s ALWAYS the saddle. Unless it’s a frame crack.

At risk of sounding unlike the card-carrying libtard snowflake I truly am, all the hand-wringing about inclusivity for e-bikes, etc feels off to me. The outdoors, even nicely graded trails, is not inherently inclusive, and some trails or trail features are simply unsuited to some people.

If I’m understanding correctly, this is private property, the landowner seems to have graciously allowed some trail users and wishes to exclude others (motorbikes), and livestock.

Kissing gates always feel like the most bike-friendly solution to me. Pop up on the back wheel, push in, swing the gate, back out. Not perfect, and if you have a bike with gear on it you may have problems, but per above – this doesn’t feel to me like a situation that requires solving for every possible bicycle use case.

Bumping. Plus #edit – if not recommended for DIY service, who does servicing in Scotland (bike was purchased down South)? My usual fork go-to, TF Tuned don’t seem to list Ocho as one of the forks they service.

(Speaking as a certified Texan, so I know my BBQ 😀):

If you have the cash, go Weber. They are quality, and will last years longer than anything else.

If you’re looking for a cheap one, my Father’s Day gift was an £80 BBQ from Morrisons, that looks suspiciously like this (cheaper) one from B&Q. I’ve only cooked on it a couple of times, but having gone through a fair few BBQs over the years, I was impressed with the price/quality ratio.

https://www.diy.com/departments/freestanding-charcoal-bbq-grill-portable-cooking-smoker-cooker-w-wheels/5056029888629_BQ.prd?gclid=Cj0KCQjw2MWVBhCQARIsAIjbwoMadqZxUTDyqgN5xargziN3tYdHttJ9gWIk9DUmLsitSpdtrkQSOjMaAtyVEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Clicks like this – regardless of where the noise “seems” to come from – have always been for me either seat/seat post/seat rails. Or cracked frame. Hopefully the former.

Does clicking continue if you stand on the pedals (not sitting)?

Hardtail should be fine, and gearing should be fine. It’s a short twisty course, and nothing – flat/up/down/rough/smooth lasts more than a couple hundred meters before course profile changes.

When I can find the Daily Mixes (why do they keep moving/hiding them?) I find that some of them have interesting/new stuff. The Discover Weekly mix, again when I can find it, also seems to often turn up some interesting stuff I haven’t heard before.

My big problem is that even though we have a family account, in the car the family tend to use my phone for streaming. So every year the Year In Review heavily features Taylor Swift…

Depends if you’d be concerned, for example, if every letter that came to you by post had obviously been opened and read before delivery?

(For an example, read the T & C’s that you have to accept before you can access an aol email account)

That’s not an equivalency to cookies, though. What you are describing is either secure web browsing (https/etc), or as you say – what the Ts & Cs allow.

A better metaphor, but still a crap one, for cookies would be “would you be concerned if every time you moved house you got lots of targeted junk mail sent directly to you, even if you hadn’t informed the senders of your move”. Cookies are about tracking you across the websites you visit, and do not in an of themselves violate (or not) your privacy.

Anyway – I’m not overly happy with cookies but I allow them as the hassle isn’t worth whatever upside I may perceive by not having them.

Possibly, I don’t honestly know. But the idea that Amazon would try to subliminally shove adverts into my eyeballs on a device I paid them money for. It’s horrible and dystopian.

I’ve got news for you, most physical books have ads for other books on them too. Usually for books by the same author, but still… :-)

Anyway – I have an older Paperwhite, with ads, per above only the lock screen and since the lock screen has to show something, I’m happy for it to show ads for books. It’s really not intrusive at all.

Exit email: just send a link to this song?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIjEauGiRLo

That was fantastic! As an American I think it could have benefited from an “Aussie to real English” dictionary to go with it tho! 😝

There is

IANAL but my read of that website (from a couple of clickies) leads me to believe there currently isn’t a right to light, but there’s a group working to create such a right, and have presented a draft bill to government?

Anyway – good luck with the letter, and agree that whether or not this is a law yet, it should be.

**** all bike thieves (I had two bikes stolen almost exactly a year ago), and hope the bikes are recovered and the thieving scum are properly dealt with – either by the judicial system or coupla hard, pipe-hittin’ fellows who will go to work on the lads with a set of Bombers and a blow torch.

Having said that, at best it’s bad form and at worst possibly quite illegal, to post vids of the kids. Suggest you censor them out and repost.

FWIW – and I know this isn’t answering the original question – I’ve had a couple of Sodastreams over the last 10 years. I really want to like them – when they work they are great, but the build quality plus hassle of exchanging CO2 bottles keeps souring me.

When I was looking around last Christmas, I did a quick back of envelope maths, and realized that Aldi and Lidl carbonated water at anywhere from 17p to 30p per bottle meant it was far cheaper for me to just buy cases of bottled water from them, although I’m sure all the shipping of bottles of water around increases my carbon footprint.

Seasucker rack – they are totally safe.

Alternately, I reckon you could fit a Saris rack in there. I put one on my Mom’s Mini Cooper S, which has a silly plastic “go fast” spoiler at the top of the hatch window, much like your pic shows.

I used to have this problem in hot&humid SE Asia, and tried all other solutions. What NickC above said – sunlight. Good luck with that right now!

Where did you order from? My google-fu, searching on variations of e-bike, axs, charger, etc returning nothing useful.

All good feedback, thanks. Shifting is a non-issue for me, as I often use a single-speed on the turbo (a Wahoo KICKR Core wheel-off one, for the record). “Flexiness” may be an issue, though. My bigger concern is – will the turbo’s flywheel foul the frame, due to smaller wheel size. Anyone have experience here?

Go old-school, and get one of the cadence sensors that mount to the chainstay, with a magnet on the crank? Like this?

You can go super posh and get a magnet that fits into the back of the pedal spindle, like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153976207547?hash=item23d9b278bb:g:JY0AAOSw7NNUEBOx

Copper tape across their entry points.

Could you do a video of the tear-down? I suspect I’ll be needing to do one too. My Core was making some noise, although it went away after a few minutes use.

As an aside – is it still possible as an individual to purchase glyphosate? I was under (possibly false) understanding that glyphosate required a license now?