1. 13 years (three years within Edinburgh, seven years Linlithgow-Edinburgh, three years Burntisland-Edinburgh)
2. 0
3. twice, no injuries. both were on same commute!

bad things do happen, but they’re extremely rare. close calls mainly a result of poor driving, but on a handful of occasions it’s been a deliberate act by a bawbag showing off to his mates. taken out by a puddle that turned out to be a massive pothole once.

every time i have to commute by car, i’m reminded how much nicer riding is.

still just a work in progress at the moment – just back from the powdercoaters.

but is scotrail bad for that on all routes? was planning to tour a bit via train…
generally pretty good. i commute in on the fife line in the mornings with a bike most days and haven’t had a problem with Scotrail in 2.5 years. Scotrail’s customers on the other hand…

ss? go fixed…

So where can I get shorted chain raing bolts
Kev@escape route?

what ratio for a fat biffer on slightly undulating terrain?
42×16 for me.

so i hear.

wonder how much money FCS/SNH/VisitScotland/Homecoming Scotland/other partners lost on this?

badgers are the 2nd hardest thing on this planet next to chuck norris!
yer standard badger mebbe, honey badgers significantly out-chuck chuck.

Do honey badgers emasculate their prey?
Honey badgers are reputed to go for the scrotum when attacking large animals. The first published record of this behaviour was a circumstantial account by Stevenson- Hamilton (1947) where a badger reportedly castrated an adult Buffalo. Other animals alleged to have been emasculated by honey badgers include wildebeest, waterbuck, kudu, zebra and man. This has also been reported by other African tribes, but no direct evidence exists to support this behaviour.
http://www.honeybadger.com/FactFile/F.A.Q.htm

🙂

here’s where the collision happened. cycle lane on the left, pedestrian lane on the right. what you can just about make out is that the cycleway changes direction slightly when it comes off the suspension section, so with obstruction N/S bound cyclists can’t see each other if riding in middle of lane.

just for TJ:

there’s 5 of them…

ambulance approached crash from north, but had come across bridge from edinburgh and would have been heading back to edinburgh presumably.

edit: not that it really matters…

going slowly towards edinburgh, so presumably without any passengers
accident was N of the northern tower. ambulance would have to have reversed off to get back on road. going slowly due to head injury?

i passed by just before the ambulance got to them (police and FETA staff giving first aid so didn’t stop). hope the guy is OK.

Jeepers. its 20 ft wide. How did they manage that?
currently some equipment fenced off which narrows the available width of the cycling side significantly. was bound to be an accident at some point, obstructions are not fenced/lit as they would be on a road.

It always makes me laugh the signs on it saying “cyclists obey speed limits” but its really hard to find any signs telling you what the speed limit is
not really. 15mph.

p.s. southbound footway reference is misleading. the collision was on the eastern cycleway which carries north and south bike/foot traffic. western cycleway has been closed for ages.

we stayed at bun roy campsite at roy bridge last year. pretty quiet. walking distance to two pubs. 10 minute drive to the shuttle buses at spean bridge.

ta – so what ratios was Shaggy using then?
55×11.

is this for S(cottish)XC races*? some of the categories are a bit different up here.

open category replaced the over 16 fun (or novice) class of previous years and generally do two laps. the change of cateogry name might attract a slightly different entry.

masters normally sees good fields with a range of abilities (waves from the back of the field) and generally do four laps. some of the faster masters will race with the Elite/Expert race. can make it as serious as you want to.

* um, might have guessed wrongly on this. still, worth the effort to come north and race the best XC courses in the UK… 🙂

Remember, some folk run the length of the West Highland Way (96 miles) in less than a day.
a lot less than a day too. record is 15:44:50! took me about than that to ride it over two days …

both for me. get the bulky light stuff (bivvy bag/sleeping bag/mat) out on a rear rack in a drysack. food, stove, spare clothes book and booze in a small backpack.

yup. mainly clearing brambles and fallen trees.

great event. well done and thanks to the organisers.

would make a braw race course for a Scottish SS Champs. does the No1 Goth in Kelty have a function room?

the beer is flandrian
the donuts are chocolate

first come, first served.

had problems with unrecognised payments with mine. think it was down to using a hijacked website. M&S were helpful and rogue items cancelled quickly.

what smee said (washes hands). 🙂

This deal has effectively removed cycling from terrestrial TV for the next 5 years.
remind me what cycling was on terrestrial TV before?

narrow minded mountain bikers wouldn’t watch stuff on other aspects of cycling.

;)*0.5

Much as I love my cross bike, it has its place and that isn’t a hard surfaced bumpy trail centre…
it’s a lot closer to the sort of bike you need for most trail centres than the sort of things people seem to think they need… 🙂

not sure i’m obsessed, but glad i live in a digital world…

inners and glentress red a few time. good fun in a hurty way. most cx bikes will handle a lot more than your average trail centre (i.e. not laggan black) trail can throw at it.

I think the rock garden at inners would be a bit of a pain.
dismount/carry/remount. easy.

will be roadtesting the singlespeeder donuts this week. remember, beer and donuts are for start line only. any intact beer or donuts at the end will be reclaimed.

think the server that http://www.blairadam.com is down (along with a few others).

can pre-enter here – https://www.entryweb.co.uk/event.asp?id=219

I assume when you are saying a ferry that there is alot of water crossings??
ah, just pub chat then? 🙂

can catch ferry (unscheduled) across loch from inversnaid hotel to miss the worst bit of loch lomondside.

other advice would be to fit a bell and get used to grumpy looks from walkers who haven’t bothered to check our awesome access laws.

yes it can be done. three days is generous, two is do-able and one would be a proper challenge.

take the higher forest road option at ptarmigan lodge, the loch side path isn’t great riding. top end of loch lomond (inversnaid to inveruglas) is three hours mainly pushing, but if you chicken out and take the ferry you’ll not be able to tick the WHW off… 😉

better riding to be had elsewhere, but some nice stuff and great scenery most of the way. make sure you start each day with a hangover.

n proper connectin to the airport
er, apart from the trams going to the airport.

no pr[o]per connection to the mainline railways
haymarket interchange?

Uhuh, and I’ve never seen a ‘mountainbike course’ in this country set up specifically for racing where a cross bike wouldn’t be faster. With the exception of any of the downhill courses.
you should try racing up here. if you’re faster across a race course like badaguish, i’ll buy you a beer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00hzlm2/The_Adventure_Show_2008_2009_Quadrathlon/

far from an anachronism. has become absolutely massive in bits of the US – the Cross Crusade races in Oregon can attract 1000 riders over a weekend, with the singlespeed class alone getting 100+ riders.

racing isn’t for everyone (although everyone should try at least one competitive event IMHO), but CX is a great introduction.

the sport is currently evolving towards more speed to differentiate itself from mtb. courses are getting faster and less technical particularly at the top level. this is a good thing. cx should be cx, not mtb-lite. locally, there are some great courses in unexpected places. auchentoshan in clydebank being a great example.

can’t wait for the season to come round again…

certainly more cx bikes now than when i started racing the scottish series (2001?). been a while since someone’s one on a proper mtb though (dan’s flat barred things don’t count…)?

best thing season has been seeing kids on proper cx bikes of various sizes.

it’s as hard as you want it to be. we had some great racing right through the fields at SCX series races last year – part of the beauty is that there’s always someone to chase down or keep ahead of. plus the best turnouts that i can remember, with over 100 at several rounds.

thought TAS captured the spirit of the weekend well. just as well they weren’t in some of the boozers on Friday and Saturday. some of the athletes were letting their hair down. hopefully cyclocrossers can take over tobermory completely this year. great event.

keep an eye on http://www.scottishcyclocross.com for news of the 2009 series over coming months. scottish cycloblog launches soon.

Should be available on Sky (990) or Freesat (970) for those that live in the wrong place.

rothiemurchus for me. facilities are good – as FoxyChick says the new shower block is clean and staff friendly (came under new management a couple of years back). not much of a shop, but it’s easy cycle into town. and an easy wobble back after chucking out time. nice walks/rides into the estate from the back of the site.

this little fellow was our closest neighbour last time we camped there.

been a long time since i camped at glenmore, but it was fine. the guy in the next tent snored really badly.

i remember having to have salt baths to help close my appendectomy wound. back when they cut you properly…

other stand outs from that episode include a suppository and a few days in a convalescence hospital (astley ainslie).

bring it on.

Yes. Maybe. Put the phone down.

i’m guessing that the Bicycle Station[/url] or a bike shop that do lots of repair work (is Bains in Newhaven still going?) will have one kicking about.