The HT550 is highly varied. To get the distance there are miles of doubletrack and fireroad – but also loads of singletrack, pushing, carrying and technocal riding. The Pennine bridleway is a more urban comparision. To do the HT in 4-5 days you would be doing the Pennine Bridleway every day for several days – it is some undertaking.

AlanG has qualifying rides in order to get in as part of the group start – this is to allow people to see how serious an undertaking it is.

It is a brilliant route, and one that you will find will change your outlook on life.

Did my tib and fib 6 years ago (at Mountain Mayhem), the plate is still in.

The way i would describe mine is for 99% of what i do, walking, biking, circuits etc etc, there is no issue at all. If i try running for a few miles, it isnt comfortable, and i think its because the bone is rigid where the plate is, and flexible elsewhere, and there is almost a bending moment where the plate ends. I think this causes discomfort.

Also, depending on where your plate is it can cause cold or dAmp weather to get to your bones. I am lucky as my plate is buried under muscle so doesnt get cold.

My son on the other hand has screws in his ankle And after 18 months one of the screws has broken and caused a further break in his ankle. That screw gets removed in a few weeks.

I think the point is that we can all give you our tales of good or wo, but your break could be different and you could recover quickly or slowly, depending on lots of factors. Follow the surgeon / physio advice to the letter.

Very interested, just not the 2nd weekend of October as that is the BearBones weekend. Bivvy night is good also

Solo for me, but I like the thought of a club ride to increase my speed. I like racing off road, but this is mainly a solo effort, whereas road is a bit more social if you can breathe. Have a couple of biking mates but we only get together once a month for an evening ride.

Does mtb attract loners, or is it only loners who come on here?

My 800 did this a while ago. There is a barometric pressure sensor hole that I suspect when wet stops the real air pressure being sensed, hence it shows less altitude. The only solution is to keep the unit drier (maybe used one of those silicon covers or something).

Did a big mtb ride in the Peak, including a push down Cavedale. Looking at strava for Cavedale the KOM is 26km/hr down it. That is faster than a fast thing! If I had that I would talk about it for weeks in the cafe…..

Your problem is likely to be under inflation and load rating. The T5 needs a loád rating of at least 103, and that gives a stiffer sidewall that will hold 50psi.

You’ll see a big improvement in handling with a higher load rated tyre.

Simply put, torque gives acceleration, power gives top speed, so just knowing power won’t help with acceleration times. However power and torque are related, but you would need more info than you have supplied to predict numbers…

I mowed our moss earlier. You can grow to like it…..

I had this issue, and fixed it by adding an extra lock ring washer to the lock ring. Even though it’s only .2mm thick it seems to have done the trick.

I can’t stand littering. I’ve been litter picking our lane for the past year and get a bin bag of crap every 2-3 months. Suspect the same people as the litter follows a trend (why do people tie their rubbish in a carrier bag and bin the whole bag? If you are a scumbag litter dropper, why go to the effort of bagging it?)

Question, why can’t we get the community service lot or prison inmates to litter pick? I don’t understand why council cuts have to get in the way of litter picking. There’s thousands of criminals who spend their days banged up when they could be improving the environment….

Not sure if you can discharge into a burn. If the tank discharges grey fluid you need to have some distance between the outlet/soak away and any water course. Fines are prohibitive!

We get ours emptied annually, and it costs around £130 for 1200litres, but it is the solids that need emptying, not the fluids. And don’t put fat down the drain – fat bergs clog up the pipes and stop it all working.

For the solos they are going to get us near the pits / trackside. Teams and pairs might be further away,

I’m riding as a solo, and I think they are going to email us all next week with more info.

Molgrips, the CO2 vs emissions trade is all about how you condition the catalyst. Even a dirty engine that burns lots of fuel can have a clean tailpipe by using a very effective catalyst and managing it properly. (By dirty I don’t mean that Cortina engine from the 70’s, I mean a modern but comparatively dirty engine). (This is mainly applicable to petrol engines, but can also apply to diesels).

For reference, a 5.0 V8 Jag or LR does properly meet Euro 6b emissions standard. Gaseous emissions are easily mopped up by a properly managed catalyst, and the particulate emissions are managed by properly managed combustion. Euro 6c is where it gets tougher as the particulate emission standards will be 10x lower, so will need more work to meet, and the Real Driving Emissions requirements will see mobile test kit fitted to cars by the manufacturers and by authorities to test over a much wider range of speeds and loads than a standard drive cycle.

For info also, for VW to have announced the recall now, they will have been in discussions with EPA and ARB for well over a year. Software and calibration changes across the range of cars they have had to fix will have taken many many months to get fully validated. Normally ARB only go public when the recall is announced, which is after the technical and timing discussions have concluded.

And don’t confuse CO2 and emissions. Often fuel economy and emissions can be traded – and it is highly likely with VW that to meet certain fuel economy targets, they will have traded some off cycle emissions. FE gets sales, people don’t understand emissions.

All manufacturers know the penalty for knowingly contravening legislation. Only the stupid ones actually do it – test methods change with time, and your old cars are in the market for a long time (and in the US the emissions legislation covers key components up to 10 years and 150,000 miles), so the likelihood of getting caught increases with time……

Yes, return it better than you borrowed it. That might just be a good clean, but to hand something back a bit more broken would not be acceptable to me (both as a lender and borrower)

I’ll drive in for a change. The roads will be empty and the showers packed so am looking forward to the peace and quiet on the roads. Having got my hopes up it’ll probably be no different to normal and I will wish I biked the 16 miles in to avoid sitting in traffic.

An alarm rigged up to 5 or 6 sounders. They might get your bikes but they won’t hear anything for a good long time. A couple of strobes or a smoke machine will make their lives miserable when they’re in your garage . And slow them down with big locks. Make life very very unpleasant, even by their standards.

It’s a personal thing, but for me it’s like wearing a seat belt in the car (even before that became legal). The vast vast majority of the time it’s completely pointless and unnecessary, but once in a blue moon it might just come in handy. And I kind of feel naked without it…

So it’s not true – you don’t all work in IT. Seems like teaching is a popular choice for the average mountain biker.

I’m a manager for a large UK based premium car manufacturer – specifically developing engine control systems and in the lat 2 weeks have moved to a role developing hybrid vehicle technology. I like the role, am comfortable in it, can commute by bike which means a lot to me, but am looking forward 6-7 years when I can scale back and do 3 days a week working and 4 days leisure.

you could end up with the end of the spring coming out of the new hole as it is under too much tension – then you lose the rear mech springiness altogether. Happened to me with an unmodified rear mech.

I would be more tempted to get a narrow/wide chainring and go 1×10, that way the chain is shorter and less likely to rattle.
(It’s what I have done and with the shorter chain I’ve now done 4 races and not dropped a chain)

Tubeless or tubed? Can run lower pressure tubeless, and it can still feel fine. I tend to run 25psi tubeless as there’s bags of grip and no pinch flats, but i am careful on rocky stuff and am 70kg

My GArmin battery died on Saturdays ride and changed my ride from 195km to over 5000km. It’s the 1700km/hr that should have clinched a few KOMs but there weren’t any segments between South Wales and the equator. I can’t believe people intentionally hack strava data though – who are they trying to kid? Must be a tiny number of people of the total number of strava users.

If it helps, every day on my commute I pass a guy going the other way and we always say hello. He had a 2 year stint where I didn’t see him, then he’s back cycling every day. I have never said anything to him other than hello though.

There’s happy people, normal people and miserable people everywhere. Some of them ride bikes.

I have lamps with a choice of batteries, a hid with 2 batteries, and now I have some exposure lights the others are obsolete. I would put them in the same box as video recorders, floppy disc drives, rolls of cat5 cable, and pump action screwdrivers. Too good to throw away, but never going to get used again……

Manufacturers aren’t legally allowed to fiddle MPG figures – they have to abide by Euro regulations for how MPG is calculated. Trouble is that this involves specific drive cycles which may or may not represent “normal” driving. You should complain to the Certification authorities if you think a manufacturer is not complying (but certified MPG and real life might be different, hence the Urban, Motorway and other MPG figures normally quoted). The Eu6c regs in 2018/2019 introduce a new drive cycle that is much more representative.

However, the T6 does look good…

I’ve never got rid of a bike, just turn it into something else. Why not singlespeed it or use it for the odd blast now and again. As long as the money isn’t needed, and you have space to keep it, why get rid?

Just don’t eat the whole tub in one go.

I get the same with a similar setup. I think it is the chain riding up on the chainring then snapping back into place. In a few thousand miles I haven’t lost a chain so I ignore it.

So OP, what are you doing to sort this skiver out? Or are you going to blame everyone but you for his skiving?

Why is this the fault of the police? They don’t prosecute – it’s the CPS who review the evidence and decide whether a conviction is likely. You wouldn’t want them to waste taxpayers money would you?

This race must be followed by loads:
Riding into Fisherfield an on oncoming walker said “I think it’s fantastic what you are all doing” (my reply was that it wasn’t fantastic until we finished)

– after I scratched I was riding the road from Dornie to Invergarry and an oncoming truck stopped and shouted “are you doing the Highland Trail? I’ve been following you all!”

Turns out he’s done the Rovaneimi last year and is doing the Cairngorms Loop this year. Lifted my spirits somewhat!

It’s a brilliant “race” (it isn’t a race really I know), just so easy to get caught out or underestimate. The vastness of the scenery makes you very insignificant. But even with rubbish weather, the scenery is truly epic. Fantastic!

Saw Steve Field eating in Ullapool last night. He’s doing ok, but wasn’t sure where he was going to stop last night ( maybe at the end of the road before the off road section to corrie hallie.

Saw Tom and Rich this morning riding past the garage in Ullapool. They didn’t stop but sounded in good spirits.

Real shame about SteveH.

Mark Mcphillips has just eaten and is aiming for one of the bothies in Fisherfield. Sore knees but good spirits.

Alan G and Philip FraserT also in good spirits. Just leaving Ullapool.

I am waiting for a new free hub then hopefully crack on tomorrow.

It’s a brilliant race, but a bit tough….

Rich, what’s not ready with the tandem? If you are short of bits post them here – I will help if I can

Foodstops are at fort Augustus before 10pm. Pizza or chippy. Then Contin or Cannich slightly off route, then oykel bridge hotel and kylesku hotel, and drumbeg stores. Then Lochinver and. Ullapool. There aren’t loads, but there are some food stocking up places, but hitting them at opening times is crucial. I wouldn’t bother with a stove – it’s a load of space taken up and weight. Just eat loads, and then eat some more. And ride loads, and then ride some more. And drink loads, then drink some more. Then put some sudacrem on your sore bits, sleep for 3 hours and repeat.

For commuting use a clean pair every day to help avoid saddle sores. Then a few cheaper pairs vs one good pair can come in useful.
I have a mixture, from Aldi to endura fs260 and I much prefer the enduros, but for 45 minutes each way the Aldi ones are ok.

I think this year at the ripe age of 49 it has become noticeable. I was getting regular KOMs last year and the year before, and xc races was doing top 10’s in the vets. Now struggling to get near any KOMs and haven’t got the fight to do well in xc races. Some of it is mental, and some of it is losing strength, which I am sure is disappearing.
Supposedly the endurance improves, but the muscle mass declines, so you have to work at the muscle stuff to maintain speed.

Tis a bitch the wind at the moment. Sometimes it’s not just the effort, but the noise past your ears. I like some peace and quiet when riding, but when it’s windy there is no chance of that.

She’s a fantastic athlete and one who deserves respect, as she has achieved more than the vast majority of amateur and professional sportspeople.

I did think that constipation pills were used by some of them though. Having a poo mid run means you are really really desperate!