39 miles from here..

Welcome to CairnGorm Mountain

Funicular currently on hold while diggers clear the tunnel mouth. Care required on the road from Glenmore, ploughs working.

Snowsports
Run Conditions :
Fresh powdery snow on a firm base will give excellent skiing and boarding.

grantown area had a dump earlier. the neighbour pulled into the road at the back of the house and had his front end covered in snow so i take it he just drove from aviemore area to Inverness. cairngorm looks like its filling in fairly well at the base station too.

I am always trying to focus up ahead at all the spots where cars might be about to pull out etc but you cant always be observing well enough for unmarked police cars.. especially when they are sitting about 100ft up a farm track in a dark grey mondeo.
I got caught doing 83 on a 60 and there was no way i would be scanning up farm tracks to scope out lurking police cars. when they pulled me over one of them asked if i saw where they were sitting. i replied no. i was waiting for him to preach about observation and at that point i would have told him that in the motorcycle test i had since learnt to always focus as far away as possible to try and suss out the dangers as early as possible.I was watching the vanishing point and also the two farm tracks either side of me (one of them had the police further up the hill) but to look up the track to where the police were sitting,that would have been too dangerous at those speeds.They might have seen that as poor observation but looking at it from another point of view, i seen it as doing the right thing.

I dont rag around at those speeds by the way, i had just overtook a lorry that was crawling up a hill. the car was running crap with a dodgy injector since i left the house and i thought i would give it a bit of a rag up the hill once past the lorry…

chose the wrong moment though!

wicked.someone on here i know had a red anodized alan.I think it was from around 84. the seat tube area had the same sort of arrangement but with gorgeous red tubes plugged into it.

thats not right.243 should be 253?

dan makaskill back in 2005 jumping into it..

http://martin-james.fotopic.net/p16216337.html

the video clips are better. i dont think ive ever posted them though.

watching it.
will look for soundtrack some other time.

you try a climb on a dropped fork at 95/100mm compared to 140mm cynic and get back to us regarding efficiency.

yes,we know it will make it easier to climb really steep stuff due to head tube angle etc but the arguement is efficiency.

I havent read about this vector analysis but its exactly what i feel when riding. driving into the ground. weird, i know.. but thats how it best describes it.

I havent heard anyone else but myself mention that a bike feels like it drives into the ground when a fork is wound down too far for the bike so its good to hear it from others. around 2005 i noticed it on my 5 spot with marzocchi all mountains. the amount they dropped with the eta was awful for the feel of the bike on the climbs and ive noticed it on every bike since.If i can steer a bike on a climb then i will leave the fork, it just seems to climb far more efficiently. I cant say that it definately does.. but if it feels faster and more comfortable, i will continue to do it.

The feel of a bike that is just a tad too low up front can ruin a bike by making it feel sluggish. This is why i have fitted a 29er fork with the wheel kicked out front a little further than what it was all designed for ..and i love it.
http://photos-by-martin.digimig.co.uk/c1914401.html

I find shimano shoes to be spot on sizewise.

The shimano mt90 winter boots i have were bought one size bigger and i manage to fit in an extra pair of insoles and thick merino socks with a nice amount of space left to stop the chill setting in.
This just shows how big they are when i move up a size.They were bought big to get extra insoles in on purpose! They are the best shoes ive had in winter and were used at least once a week over last years bad winter in the snow. so warm but i have to admit they did chill a bit around -7c and below. Thats not anything to complain about though.

i think the ride of it over a lot of other bikes will make it worth the money ;O)

i have a smaller catalogue with the night burner in it. i will look it out some day and scan.

If you pause it at 2 mins 15 seconds and picture yourself in that situation.. then you might see where the excitement comes from.some find it boring to watch but if you have experienced even a small wave hit you on the head and tumble you.. then it might give a better idea of what it might be like.

For most of us the “idea of what it might be like” is the reality and will never be anything more.

The noise inside those waves and the power must be incredible and those guys like to put themselves in those positions.They know they might not make it home.. unlike us on our bikes where we most deffo expect to make it home in one piece. To go out in that surf,its like looking for a head on car crash. you wont find me trying it!

http://photos-by-martin.digimig.co.uk/p68025846.html

Lived here for 37 yeeerz!

A few fairly random things that might help..

For biking: puffer – 20 miles. fort bill – 66 miles. skye – 100 miles? torridon – 80ish? coulags – 80ish? golspie – 65? learnie – 23ish?laggan – 55miles? aviemore – 33miles. Its just a great place to be if you want to head to each of these places from time to time without the ballache of having to drive around the moray firth (like if you lived elgin/aberdeen direction then you have a bit of a journey before you even get to Inverness… if,for example, you wanted to go to thurso. (5 hour trip ugh)

road riding: Heading out of Inverness you can be on quiet roads within 5 mins. The list of loops etc are endless on the southern side of lochness.scenery,fresh air..wildlife.roads arent the smoothest but still great.

Rockness/lochness: 8 miles.

surfing: Thurso – 2 hours 20 mins.120 miles? All the other places near to thurso are within 25 miles so no big deal.

climbing/walking: aviemore,fort william,cuillins.33,66,120miles?

other places: aberdeen 115 miles? edinburgh 155miles? glasgow 176?

Being at the end of the great glen,it can often be a bit hazy,foggy etc in the mornings. I worked with a few guys that lived in Tomatin (15 miles south of Inverness) and quite often they would arrive at work on Monday morning with sunburn from the weekend.. after Inverness suffered in mist. It can clear up/be nice and clear just south of town quite often.I worked in Aviemore for about 12 years and i would often return home to a foggy build up. I would have a look for a house near Moy,Daviot or Tomatin rather than in the city to be honest.even Tomatin is only a 15 min drive to Inverness.

4 bike shops in Inverness, bothybikes 33 miles away,square wheels 18 miles.

dolphins : 2 miles from town.lol.

fishing: some great rivers all within 40 miles.lochs for wild trout fishing within 5 miles.

driving/motorbike riding: great starting point to get you onto some of the best roads in the country.An evening trip over to the west coast and back can be done within a few hours.

general driving: yes, like everywhere.. folk seem to be missing indicators! but at least theres no grans racing for each traffic light like they do in Edinburgh. so much more relaxing to drive around here.

random info but it might help,Ton!

oh ok!

dura ace 10 speed chain on the 9 speed cassette.. a bit oddball.
xtr ss mech.. something you cant buy.
29er fork on the 26″ frame.. another oddball mix.

The fork on it to begin with was a pike that i enjoyed at 130-140mm.I liked the stiffness but i didnt like the amount of travel.It was the length i craved. The fork i would have liked would be around 80mm with the same axle to crown length as the pike but this 100mm version will have to do.I dont like 130mm+ travel on hardtails.Ive been enjoying the extra top tube length/short stem of the other bike i have thats a large,not a medium.same chainstay length but a bit longer up front from the medium version feels good on certain things.. especially steeper stuff.The 29er fork is placing the wheel out front a little bit more so i cant wait to see how it all feels on the marin.

there is a dustcap missing, the headset is a bit oddball too as its a mixture of canecreeks with a stack height thats a bit more than normal.

the high roller in the mud was a bit of a nightmare so thats coming off.The bars need trimmed down a bit and a mud tyre up front is going on in the next 20 mins. I cant brake up front so a tyre that can steer me out of ruts will be a big help.I dont know if rear only braking will help me or teach me anything on corners regarding lines and how to get out of sticky situations in mud etc.. i might go up the mast in Inverness soon to try it out on the descents.I will report back on how right or wrong it feels to go offroad on something like a big bmx.it could end in tears with one brake.

looks like two skelfs from the rim embedded to me!

:::wakes up::

yeah some of you got it. the xtr mech is ss.

3)..

1) 29er 100mm fork with 26″ wheel. this is the easy one.

2)

3)

<watches nana swan off in the other direction… after being very close>

theres about 3-4mm between the stay. it does look close in the pic.

no,not odd cranks.

nana is on the right scent for one of the “things”

but you have to get more specific.

the crank is complete. the bike is obviously missing 2 rings front mech,shifter and a front brake but its nothing to do with those.

lol. what about the rear wheel?!

(its normal) well,apart from being an oddball build of 317 and dt 440.

no,keep trying mama.

aye, i always leave the date thing wrong on fotopic.its fresh,honest.

Its not the front brake missing,the front hub IS a front and not a rear.

..and i know its missing barend plugs and dustcaps.

The fork is one of the three,though.

2 more!

http://photos-by-martin.digimig.co.uk/p68022166.html

argh. i have left this to try and figure out where i go wrong when posting pics. can anyone point out where i dont get it? Ive tried before by trying to follow the instructions.. but cant follow them. sorry!

Is it trickier with fotopic?

went out on new hardtail, clear sky,chilly and no wind. stopped at bottom of first climb to put seat up a bit and a winter training roadie passed me.. he stood up all the way up the climb and i sat and watched him creep off into the distance.. only to get to the dead end at the top and roll past me before i reached the top. grrr! lungs suffered after that with the lack of biking and the 4c temp.

came home,changed into motorbike gear and went for short local bursts.came off a dry roundabout and felt both tyres beginning to slide so had to straighten up a bit.. they were stone cold and i thought it was going the wrong way.it didnt.. now home and going to watch motogp.

Great shots. i wish i could add a few but they are all on disc kicking about god knows where. Not worth searching for either!

I know someone that has started collecting nos decks. he owns about 7 decks totalling around £4000! He has a s.stix chris miller,a vision gator,new deal ed templeton and others i cant remember.

argh. i want to go for a roll now! might see if he fancies going out one night. i`m 38 soon and he is around 34.

for starters you would want to get a hold of a large bevel. this is to get the right angle (see what i did there? :O) ) at the top of the door. theres no point in cutting to length and leccy planing it to width and finding out that its not running parallel along the top (where everyone is going to spot it wrong)

sort out the correct angle at the top if it needs it, then cut to length. If you dont then you will cut it to length and find that you will have to trim it down at the top to sort things out.. leaving you with a door shorter than you wanted in the first place (1980 “snake” draught excluders could be bought on ebay im sure but wouldnt look good with yer fancy doors ;O)

hardwoods are no problem to pare down when chiseling the hinge checks with sharp tools. a wee router would help but you would need to make a template up for the diffrence in depth from front to back of the hinge. i remember using one on doors years ago but most were done by hand.

Get someone in.

Ive just pictured someone fitting hinges on expensive doors as their first hinge fitting experience and honestly, it will go seriously titz up! it would be very likely that you would burst right through the whole thickness of the door with the chisel whilst paring out for hinges. Not worth the bother.

Theres a lot better elsewhere.I think its all for walkers so it would probably be a bit of an ear battering ride if you bumped into folk out walking on it.Its very short compared to the other stuff close by.

Mark would push his dh bike up in the snow during his lunchbreak at bothy,he would phone the shop so we would be able to see when and where he was on the summit (you could see it from the front door of the old bothy shop),then descend back down.All done in thick snow so no damage ;O)

Oh i thought he was using that centertrack. It was at interbike wasnt it? This has surely got to be the way forward for a centertracked belt driven 11spd alfine snow floater to combat snowy puffers! float over the snow,dump the bike without having to clean and lube the chain,go back out for another lap.

::ponders for a moment:::

I just pictured it ridden at the puffer with snow crushing into ice between the teeth and the centretrack sprockets. I wonder how it would cope?

right,bedtime.

coffee over your keyboard? i lost control of my weetabix and luckily had the bowl underneath!

one of the best rims out there. also one of my fav bits of kit. if youcan easily wreck an 819 on this kind of bike then you really need to sort yer choice of parts for the job at hand,not to mention yer riding style.

“whats the issue”

“WE ARE TRAFFIC”

To me it doesnt matter what the issues are. Its the consequences. Some still have the aggro mindset on this forum from reading through the thread and i will admit to having that attitude at times in the past. The reality is, if you get hit by a car by a careful driver or someone speeding it wont matter how nice they are,how assholey they are,how careful or how careless they were.If they kill you,none of it matters.

If it happens its going to be a diffrent story. We cant be ignorant and think that its always going to end with a shake of the fist as the driver speeds off past you. This is no bmx,4x or track race where elbows are involved,tempers flare and black flags get waved at the finish line while officials sort out “who has won”. On a country road this could be lumps of metal weighing a ton+ travelling around 60mph towards someone weighing 80kg made up mainly of water travelling at 20mph..

good luck folks!

Well there you go,Oldgit.. its nice to be able to hear you tell the story.You have just lived through another moment!

Drivers/motorcycle riders that also cycle are the folk that can hopefully see the dangers from sitting in the saddle and also being behind the wheel.

Most of us have something in common and thats becoming a cyclist long before becoming a motor driver.. be it car or motorbike.For a lot of us on here,the roads were quite quiet when we were kids and i see that as being quite lucky.I feel lucky because when out riding with other folk on the road you take everything for granted. you dont know the story from behind the wheel when aproaching cyclists and everything feels fine,safe.. and nothing jumps out at you to tell you that you just had a near death experience.

It can happen easily.All it takes on a country road is a pair of cyclists doing “what they are perfectly entitled to” by cycling two abreast and they could be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They might be on a corner when old hilary comes up behind them at 50mph but cant react in time and still manages to take them out despite being below the speed limit.. it might be two great drivers approaching a bend within the speed limit and just happen to meet the cyclists at that very moment.

what do you do when you have the cyclists on your side of the road? with two vehicles approaching each other at 120mph,do you swerve into the car to miss the cyclists or brake into the pack?

Then theres the country road speeder approaching the corner (on the same side as the cyclists) with the good driver sticking to the 60mph limit on the other side. bingo! 140mph+ impact coming right up.. all on a nice quiet country road.

Has anyone ever had those moments driving on the road and someone does something that annoys you? you manage to flash the lights,wave fists,honk the horn. well some folk consider these moments to be near misses.

Now has anyone experienced near misses where there was no time to wave fists,honk or flash lights? Those are moments a step closer to death. when they happen they leave you speechless and you dont show anything for quite some time. I see these moments aa those piggy in the middle moments.Somewhere between the waving the fist moment and the getting killed moment.

A few weeks ago the instructor that taught me to ride the motorbike and get me through my test was riding on his side of the road and found a vw polo sliding across his path.The marks are still on the road,the wall at the side of the road is obviously smashed and he had no chance of avoiding it.

His funeral was last week.An amazing rider that did this as his job yet still got taken out by something he would have never expected.

If he did manage to avoid it i know for sure he would have swore a dozen times at the woman and shook his fist but unfortunately he was on the wrong side of that Piggy in the middle moment and didnt get the chance to shake the fist,shout and swear.. honk the horn.

With what i see on the roads i can see that theres so many of these moments waiting to happen. We often come so close to them without thinking about it.. but try and evaluate it next time you have a moment and ask yourself how close it was to death.
Riding two abreast is legal,its great.. but dont think that you will always get the chance to give the V sign and wave the fist to make you feel better and for the driver to feel bad (or irritated).
A lot of us will have this in us, the feeling that you are invincible on the road,you are in your rights to be two abreast,entitled to do this or that… but unlike someone cutting you up on the trail and managing to have an arguement over it. The roads are the real deal and wether the driver is careless or a good driver,any of them can take you out in an instant and you wont have a say in any of it. Its just not worth it.

Think about how you ride and who you ride alongside depending on the road conditions etc as you wont get a second chance.

::has a chuckle at the “sittin in it rather than on it” talk and pictures my grandma sitting on a Z-Bed we once had::

I wont tell you what happened as it will just open up another can of worms!

:::passes him a new chain…

…waits over the road with cassette in hand::

lol. i saw your camera and have been searching for a lumix avchd lite for the past 5 mins.. then i noticed the last post. looks nice.

redthunder.. what bird is in the 4th pic down from the top? I took pics of a three birds above the mountains in glen shiel yesterday and i thought they were golden eagles. Your 4th pic looks most like what i took pics of going by shape of wings etc. Not sure if they were eagles though.