Tuesdays 4 hour drive to Edinburgh. Summer tyres caused no probs so tell them to get into work or they will lose their job! Edit: Notice how nobody knew about this dump of snow as they didnt make a fuss about it on the news? Imagine this dumped down in southern parts. It would have made the deadlines. [/url]
southbound snow dump drumochter 2 tue 13th Dec[/url] by martinxyz[/url], on Flickr

No, you make PIE contact by throwing their food back into their car! ;O)

The frozen snow has turned to ice and its about -1c right now. I couldnt complete a ride this afternoon because of the ice so after dark will only be worse.

“My wife has decided to go out – how dare she, not even a quick run it by the husband to see if he’s planned a ride, no just a simple i’m going out, end of chat. Bloody women, can’t live with em, can’t kill em!
Actually not that bothered given the forecast for tonight, means i’ll be in credit for next time. Hope she doesn’t make a habit of having a life though!”

Not meeting up with wca in Cardiff is she? :O)

I found that while i was looking for another thread from months back where i posted about riding two abreast out on country roads where two cars,both going 60mph minimum towards each other could arrive on a bend at the same time… just as one of them approaches a cyclist.

If the cyclist/two abreast cyclists are riding around 15mph and the cars are hurtling towards each other with a 120mph impact waiting around the corner.. do you think the driver on the cyclists side of the road will automatically choose to hit the car head on or plough into the cyclists? If this happens,the driver will try his hardest to brake (if he has time to do so) but without a doubt he will probably be braking towards the cyclist and not the other vehicle. To swerve from the biggest danger is what i would consider a natural reaction for anyone.. not to mention that the cyclist would barely be noticed in the great scheme of things when two cars are about to collide without any warning.

Next time any of you two abreast riders/gutter dodgers are out on the country roads in the car.. consider the above and ask yourself if two abreast/gutter dodging is always the best policy. Youll find it isnt. Todays topic is talking about an incident on a straight road in a 30? zone. I explained why i chose to ride close to the kerb in this situation (sleepy gits and text messagers)and i think its the best option. In 30 zones i would say most cars seem to be averaging around 35mph these days.. If i ride at 15mph, i dont want to get in the path of a snoozer or text messager hitting me with a 20mph impact. I think ill stick to getting swiped from the side and deal with the falling squirrels.

Motorcycle riding and road positioning is all very well but we cant forget that although it is two wheels,the speeds arent the same.The above instance wouldnt be a problem to the cars as the motorcycle would be travelling around the same speed. Totally different ballgame. Motorcycle safety awareness can help with cyclists in some ways but we cant put everything that they taught us during the test into practice on a bicycle. The above proves it. Oldgits accident most likely proved it for him,too! (hope yer well,old git)

edit: why do commas mess up my font? Grr.

Jeremy.. riding away from the kerb to make drivers overtake correctly is the least of your worries ;O)

8 weeks ago you told us about the road rage incident where you played cat & mouse through the Burgh getting chased by a couple in a bmw!

“On the next block by dint of driving very aggressively the car gets alongside and surprise surprise – the rubbish comes flying out hitting the back of the bike to the accompaniment of very angry roars and offers to kick my head in. I leg it, down some side streets and away. A couple of miles later I get back on my route and get overtaken by him again – bugger – I thought I had lost him. Swerves at me very aggressively trying to force me to stop. I attempt to leg it again but crash taking a corner too fast into a housing estate – he then drives off at high speed ( I guess I was lucky at that point) But there was witnesses around including another car that stopped to make sure I was OK.”

You must have been apexing it through every street that day! 😆

Molgrips wrote: “When it’s busy I hug the kerb as much as possible so that if someone doesn’t see me at all or is changing the CD or texting or something they will just blast past me and I’ll end up with ruffled hair rather than splatted across their windscreen”

Aye,exactly.

Well at least you will know its spot on for lubricant. Peace of mind! :O)

I would ride just to the left of the S on a cycle. Motorbike would mostly be in the middle depending on whats up ahead/crests of hills etc. I can see some of the dangers riding to the left but i just feel safer not having to worry about someone not looking ahead,tuning the radio,texting a friend.. and ploughing right into me (if i was bang on in the middle)

Maybe i am hoping for the best when i say that its more likely that someone texting might manage to dodge me a little easier at the last moment if i ride to the left of the S. :o/

The van driver would have been thinking that they were being smart asses about their rights and thought they were taking the piss a bit considering the location/build up of traffic.

To be honest, if he calmed down just a tad i reckon he would admit to feeling a bit worried for the cyclists. I dont think he was raging,he just wanted to give them his take on it all. He obviously saw them as being inconsiderate. I do too,to an extent. Kind of like driving down the motorway in the right hand lane,bang on the speed limit with the idea of “well im going the speed limit and im gradually passing the car to my left thats still 300 yards ahead of me but its definitely going slower than me so ill stay in this lane because im in the right”

Arse-in around with being in the right doesnt always add up to be a good or safe way to be.

It reminds me of the group of around a dozen roadies cycling over the Kessock bridge in the left lane when it was still busy after the morning rush hour. In their rights but.. ffs.. are they trying to get fitter to live a longer healthier life or are they quite content at the thought of being killed instantly? Some folk would be better off drinking every night with a couple of brisk walks over the weekend. Probably live longer.

Laws/whose in the right doesnt matter when you have already contributed to getting into a coffin earlier than expected.

Its a busy looking road but they are in their rights.Obviously expecting confrontation with the camera filming it all.Is it really worth it if you run the risk of ending up in a coffin? No time for silly arguements once that happens and the white van man will have the final say.

Either that or they die young of high blood pressure from all the grief they have given themselves!

This is one of the worst things folk do to forks when they arent fitted to a bike. If theres a rebound adjuster low down.. you risk damaging it on the ground. If theres dials bolted to delicate rods up top,you risk messing those up too.

If you cycle them by putting your palms on the top of the dials either side you can mess it up. Ive seen a pike weep up top after this was done.It had been dry all its life. Not to mention the top cap sitting squint on the (bent?) rod after its “push” :O/

The fork will take around a dozen cycles to start to feel like its working but you really need to get out on it and forget the palm push of death to judge how good a fork is functioning on the shag pile rug. ;O)

I think its a trigger happy scene for Dom Jolly to maybe think about. Turning up on a night ride balancing it on the top of the helmet!

Ahh the grey man of Ben Macdui.

Ive seen a few reigns now,some thrashed,some good condition, and none of them have had a problem at this end of the shock. Strange.

That puts the raw in Braw.

To the rrp of around 7k. First brand new complete bike in around 12 years. Also a few frames both new and 2nd hand. Some of the stuff was heavily discounted so it helped a lot.

The guy is perfectly fine.

Watch closely and you will see that he instantly needs to cover up his gut before anything else! His brain is functioning spot on lol

what do you weigh again,Ton?

If i go out in a group (once every 6 years) and folk start burning through puddles and mud i will keep up and join in. Not really into the mess of the bike and clothes these days.

I remember going out on sunday group rides when i was about 24years old wearing a thermal long sleeve top with a base layer through the whole winter and never feeling really cold. Even when i left the house i didnt feel like i had to warm up quickly. I only had summer socks and shoes on with lycra shorts too. These days,15 years on, i over dress as i would rather not get caught out and start shivering half way through a ride if theres a few stops. I wear a merino base layer,maybe a fleece or a windstopper and an event jacket over the top with a buff on the head (sometimes one around the neck if it drops to around 3c)showerproof or waterproof altura longs with trail shoes or winter spds.

Anyone else feel the cold as bad as i do? Maybe i`m just not riding hard enough!

<laughing out loud at jo with her starfish swiping story. Maybe you hit a cyclist.Was it a marmite starfish?!

EDIT: You need some motrax earplugs for motorbiking. I sleep with them in most nights and sleep really well.I can still hear the alarm clock fine enough with them.

Yeah,some of the effects software churn out are shocking. I was thinking about an FD canon tilt shift lens for my A1 a few years back but they were still very expensive. I had ideas about taking pics of a certain street rider in a more arty way using one of these lenses but i lost interest when i looked into it.. and found what people were doing to images at home on Photoshop. The thought of buying the lens,travelling and buying film etc when people could manipulate normal images with ease peeved me off and made my idea look pointless. It kind of spoilt it for me. I had ideas for Black & white shots using film. I think it would have been fairly exciting waiting to get them back from the development to see if any came out well or not. To have them on prints without any fake manipulation was also the attraction.

I feel like theres something special still there about real tilt shift photography after typing this.. and its kind of put the spark back into the idea. :O)

That was great. It reminds me of taking pics of some old red brick buildings in Edinburgh around 8 years ago and a group of 3 or 4 kids wanted to get in front of the camera. I found them a bit of a pain in the arse at first but then i got them to stand beside the wall in front of the building and asked them to do whatever they wanted for the camera with something like a 3 second count down. Kids being kids.. they put on big grins and acted “the goat” for the camera and they came out quite well. It reminded me of this story as you feel like you should go back and show them the pics. I`m sure their parents would love to see the pics now but, like this story… it would be a mission to even go there.

Do any of you photographers ever feel like asking strangers for an email address or to pass on to them a way that they can look at pics you have just taken? At the time,it would be a bit weird for most folk to be asked this but personally if someone took my pic and explained this, i would be quite happy to give them my details.

Ahh,this reminds me of another moment! I was bodyboarding at Melvich one cold winters day and i was the only one in the water. The only other person i can remember was a guy with a rucksack full of camera equipment in the dunes zooming out to sea. After an hour or so of getting hammered i walked back up the beach and got talking with him after he laughed “rather you than me!” Turns out he was taking pics of some migrating birds that were passing by the North of Scotland at the time and he managed to get a few pics of me in the water. I got his card/email address as he said he had a few pics of me getting pummeled under a big wave. He caught the moment before i turned my back on a freak set and curled into a ball hoping for the best. That was my last wave before i stumbled back to the car. I really want these pics now after watching this clip!

I might mail him tomorrow.

Im just glad the bike is getting clarted with virgin puffer snow and not salty slush from the roads! Hope he has oiled it since.

RamseyNeil.. if he wrote it all in french you would have probably found no mistakes. He doesnt live here!

Juan, i have been feeling like this for quite a while now. I get on better when working alone. Looking back, if i have no distractions i can think a few steps ahead and not have to go over the work ive done. Sometimes it might be three times over.This was brought home a few weeks ago when i swapped my frame over in the shed with hardly any tools.. yet i still managed to do it quicker than i would have probably done it at work as full concentration was on the bike build.

I cant say that distractions at work are the main and only problem, it could be ADD like 16stonepig has mentioned. Its now getting to the point where i think i would enjoy working for myself,alone,doing the job from start to finish with no interruptions as,like the bike build has shown, i get more done with less faff happening around me and next to zero faff running through my head.. to the point of it being mentally healthier.

The rain and melt water running down the road in Strathpeffer when heading in the Contin direction was wild. I drove towards Contin earlier and it was like a burn flowing down the main road.Even driving up the fairly steep road the water was deep enough to make the car nearly cut out.As the car got blown with gusts of wind as i crawled up through these streams.. i thought that this was the worst ive seen the weather.Quite jaw dropping heading up through the village! So glad the car didnt flood and die.

No eyed deer.

Aye, i`ll agree with you there and see what you are saying. The feel of the bike on big hauls is a big thing,though. For me i chose to consider 26 as the best happy medium for all round riding but i still plan to get the 29er for a different thing/feel or whatever. Not to compare them and then decide which is the best. I know what i like about each of them and i do fancy a bit of both.

25mph on 26″

24mph on 29″

“It’s a good article written by someone with more testing and riding ability / experience than most of us. It’s also an opinion not a fact.

This is a good line or 2 –

The only thing sluggish of the 29 bike is the indolence of those that are quick to put down these bikes, taking jabs at a subject for who most have absolutely no idea – the 29 is all about speed,”

“ALL about speed?” “The only thing sluggish?” Who wrote that? Thank goodness you said it was his opinion and not a fact! If it was all about speed, “ALL”… then for the same brand of components in both sizes on as near identical bikes as we could get,at which point has he found accelerating up steep climbs on the 29er more efficient (read all about speed) than a 26 inch wheeled version? For the same build,width,thickness,girth etc of parts.. could i go as far as saying that would be impossible on certain terrain given near perfect levels of grip? I think i could.Maybe im posting too soon before reading what i think is correct regarding acceleration of larger wheels as opposed to smaller,correct me if i`m wrong (and at the same time,put everyone that takes part in standing start 1/4 mile racing in cars onto the idea that 22inch spinners are the way forward on the strip while yer at it!)

Ive had a 29er and rode a handful but why would i want to choose the 29er version to slog uphill on when the other bikes i have owned with 26 felt a lot more suitable when it comes to this part of our everyday ride? O.K. rocky climbs you could be flowing (fek,that word again!) over the rocks a little easier but for a lot of the old school riding around the highlands.. the climbs are fairly smooth long hauls.Well the ones that i choose to ride up certainly are.The mountain paths arent rock fests climbing up from Coulags towards Annat,thats for sure. The climbs around Inverness arent rocks fests on the way up either.Same down at Aviemore with the Burma Rd,Cairngorm,Carn ban Mor etc. You will find the odd section that lasts for a short period but would i buy a bike with the more suitable wheel size for 1% of a ride? No.

Yeah,we have now got to the top and we could talk about the 5% of the ride that we will be riding back DOWN the hill and how it could be so much BETTER on the bigger wheel but,yep.. those percentages wont be precise but they arent far from it!

I buy a bike, my first and only bike for the ride that i would enjoy most and the bigger wheeled version isnt for me. If i go out on my day off and find myself climbing for 3 hours and descending for 20 mins i have to say that the bike needs to be as enjoyable as possible and for me,that means 26.

However.. (haha,ill regret this bit) I am building up a 29er shortly.Like folk have said,its different.Ill look forward to the odd ride on it around the lowlands.Nothing more.Just the lowlands ;O)

The first choice will always be 26.

Did the lights go out at all? ;O)

Steves bike is now built up.Its a medium.Its got pressfit bb30,wheels manu adaptors and an xt triple 10spd set up on it. No problems at all with chains jamming or rings being too close to the stay.

Why are folk running a 44t on the blinkin thing anyways? ;O)

Anyone wrapped a chain around a singlespeed setup and cycled it through its travel yet to see how it erm.. cycles?! :O)

“Beauty +” ..the beast. Big hairy one at that! ;O)

“Beauty + ..the beast” Big hairy one at that! ;O)

I had my bike stolen from the car in Edinburgh and it was sold on ebay to someone on here. I went on a group ride and noticed a bike that looked very much like my stolen one in the pack about 10 months after it went missing. After inspection,the titanium bottle bolts were still in place and once i found out the frame number,it matched up and i arranged to meet up to get my frame back. To cut a long story short.. we sussed out where the guy that sold the bike on Ebay worked.The police in Edinburgh were told where he worked and we passed his name etc along with his phone number over to the police to take over from there. (sanny,who was on the group ride,even rang the guys place of work to see if he was still working there, got the receptionist who was about to transfer the call..and he had to hang up!) This confirmed he still worked there.. but the police showed no interest in pulling a finger out and asking where HE got the bike from in the first place.

Its a waste of police time in the big city. I would move on after reporting it and dont waste your time chasing it although it would definitely be worth reporting it as these thieves need stopped.

As before.. I have pointed out that you all need to ask for proof of purchase when buying 2nd hand off the classifieds if you arent sure where it came from in the first place. You dont have to but it sure takes the piss (like the OP has found out) when you find out the reality of where and how it ends up.Especially when it leaves you completely out of pocket.

Was it bought from Evans? Even if it was bought elsewhere why not take it to their nearest store and get them to fit it. Pay for the work and keep the receipt for the work carried out.

When i wrote “why not?” The answer to the question was already explained by the female bear! ;O) I didnt question the possibilities of the 29er winning a DH race for one moment (at the time) but wouldnt be surprised if one did.