The paths in cardenden dell flank the upper edges, with the main walkers path running down the middle. It’s only a few mins rolling trail on each side but both sides are great. Proper hard too. You could sort of ride most of them on a gravel bike I guess but I have never bothered, XC bikes are perfect. You can link some really nice trails down to Kirkcaldy and back, but there has been some felling and everything is a bit muddy just now. Wait till bluebell time.

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/oJwjY7W2yHb

That’s a proper nice loop from Kirkcaldy. Make it longer if you want by riding out on the coastal path. Very high percentage of very good singletrack in that. Likely not the vibes you were going for but if you are into litter and ex industrial funtimes it’s great.

Low down and natural tech is hard to find, pitmedden is good if you go onto castle law hill, depending how much people have been riding it, less plantation more natural. Again for Dunkeld, some great routes you can put together with more of a walkers path feel.

Pitlochry you could ride out of town along the river, do a couple of trails on the Enduro(tm) hill, finish on Divine Intervention then turn right, under the road then along to Killercrankie. There is a grim climb up to the bottom of the fun bit of ben vrackie, where you can judge the snow level and push up if it’s a go-er, then back down into Pitlochry.

Now bare with me here – Cardenden Dell 🤣

It’s hard to put it into a decent ride without the Fife knowledge but it has two of the finest sections of singletrack I have ever ridden. ‘The Cairngorms but covered in dragon soop cans’

If you are ordering from them at the moment it’s worth noting the staff really don’t seem to GAF any more – a fella ordered a set of discounted 36s for delivery to my shop, they arrived with the parcel force sticker just stuck on the Fox box. No outer packing at all, and no tape on the box to keep it shut. If you have ever seen a Fox box.. they aren’t the best at staying shut. It’s a wonder they were still in the box at all.

As has been mentioned, once you are used to 20 limits then 30 feels nuts. So just drive around 20 in built up areas, problem solved. Everyone is safer and less stressed, good things all round. TBH most people float around 23-25 on the speedo a lot of the time, but that’s a lot better than 35.

We just had some from here, but now says they aren’t accepting orders? It’s just part of a shop I think, give em a phone. Our order arrived next day

https://www.bicycleservicecentre.co.uk/product/0-2mm-centrelock-rotor-shim/247

Removing the old stuff was a large, horrible job. I don’t ever want to have to do it again. If we move, it’s into a modern ultra insulation new build 😂

It took weeks, we can only take the van to the tip once per week, so had to do it quite spread out. Full PPE rolling it up into bin bags, trying not to spread the dust. Dead mice n all. Fill the van, clean down, wait til next week then repeat. Underneath the ‘back to the dawn of insulation’ stuff we chucked out I found a cm or so of grim black dust filling the lath and plaster. Borrowed a big industrial hoover to clean it up. One joist gap was about 25kg of dust, times 25 gaps. I did check, the tip knew what we were bringing and cleared it all.

Then the higher than expected £1700 from the electricians to raise the cables enough to get the new insulation underneath (they did stick a few new ones in for future solar too)

I set 5 days aside to lay the membrane and fit the new stuff. At the end of those days I had tendonitis and about 30% done. So now it’s fit it in when I can.

I do wonder if the time added to my life by living in a warmer less mouldy house will be offset by the days spent cleaning the old stuff out 🤷 Who knows eh.

There is a great place in Stirling called Insulation Merchant that does a great range (but not Sisalwool) including all the wood fibre/hemp options, along with all the breathable membranes and posh tapes if you want to go that route. I’m not having the most fun with it, but it will be nice when it’s done. They are also very helpful and gave me some great advice on how to deal with our pitched roof to flat roof transition.

Here you go, Sisalwool.

Home

Breathable, easy to work with, made in the Bush science park just outside Edinburgh so you can just rent a van and go pick it up. In the middle of refitting our loft with it.

It really isn’t that EVs are a bad tool for the job, just those vans are crap.

Honestly, I am very pro EV and we have two (including a van) but you will struggle to get more than 100 miles without needing to charge in single digit temps. We had one for two years (the Peugeot version) and even with a few years experience maximising range we couldn’t get more out of it. The 75kwh battery is about 63 usable, and nursing it around you would get 2.4m/kWh in winter. If all your stuff fitted in a Buzz the answer might be different 😜 It would be one charge stop Vs 3 or 4. Just rent the diesel and don’t put yourself off EVs by going through that.

Hutchinson Wyrm, best tubeless fit you can get and lovely sidewall compliance. Made in France so much lower shipping miles (by about 11,000). And you can makes jokes about having Wyrms

Always found B&Q to be good, I can’t remember what length (240?) But long enough to go round a fork leg, thin enough to go through a cable tie hole, small neat head, strong.

There is certainly a transition period/stuff to learn and get used to, but if my mum at 73 can do it and now happily hammers up and down Edinburgh to Oxford/Stratford multiple times a year in a 200 mile max Mégane, you will be grand. 

And yes there have been some very cheap Buzz leases around, I think there are some places with excess stock of passenger version. I have seen cheaper than that on the Buzz FB group with low down payments. Could be a good way of testing it, 2yr lease on a Buzz and see how you get on. 

Although likewise, buying a 15k Niro and you don’t like it, sell it in 6 months for 14k? You won’t have put a lot of miles on it, Ans it shouldn’t loose too much value. 

We have the Buzz cargo and really rate it very highly.

😁😁

I would say, we do plenty of mountain biking all over Scotland in our EVs. You might be surprised how much time you spend parked next to chargers. We don’t have a feel for how strapping stuff to the roof hammers the range, but we do have an ID Buzz as a van, which is shaped like a brick and still gets 3-4m/kWh. Our watersports are all inflatable so easy to pack away with the bikes.

Except any EV you buy secondhand will have already nearly ‘broken even’ on it’s embodied carbon from production. Depending on the carbon intensity of its factory, and the factories making the bits that go into it, and the origin of it’s power for fuel you are looking at 20-40k miles.

For ease of driving with mobility issues, being able to charge at home and doing lots of short drives, NOT getting an EV seems mental.

Hop on auto trader and have a look at all the ex-lease 64kwh Kia/Hyundai, go and test drive a few and see what works size wise.

15k will get you a Kona, Niro or Soul. Niro is biggest, so might be the best bet. Will still have 5yrs+ left on both battery and car warranty. Will get you 220 miles in winter (easily) and 250-270 or more in summer. Ours is a first edition Soul so gets a heat pump for the climate which helps eeek out the miles in winter. The others may or may not, but I wouldn’t dwell on it especially if you aren’t regularly pushing the range.

Just go test drive some and see what the dealers have to say. Advertised at 15-17k so perhaps a bit of scope to discount as well. They were very popular for fleets three years ago (when we got ours) and so there are a lot about which helps keep the price down.

Nothing has launched since then that I would rather have. Had it in for a stuck charge flap under warranty, and just approaching new front tyres and discs after that three years.

We saw a lad called Arms and Sleepers supporting Hidden Orchestra a few weeks back, he is now on firm rotation in the house. And seeing as I don’t think anyone mentioned them, Hidden Orchestra as well!

We have been given some decent items of Restrap kit to give away, follow my shop Pedals Bike Care (pedals Edinburgh on Facebook) on Instagram, Nick our manager should be running it early next week. Just the usual comment and share sort of thing but I think the Restrap haul especially is pretty good!

Aww but we are after some nice hazy kegged IPA kinda thing, something from Cromarty. In fact, just go to Tomatin and eat pizza/drink cans. That’s the current best night out in Aviemore 👍

Aye but they have actual nice beer and I’m not aware of anywhere else that does? I don’t want another trade winds long as I live.

Shame the bridge inn is closed for flooding again 😭

If you want to get a decent chat going with locals ask when the mountain railway is opening again

Hello, this is Bing. I can try to write a forum post for you, but I cannot guarantee that it will be well-received by the other posters. Here is a possible post that you can use:

Title: Why e-bikes are better than regular bikes in every way

Content: Hi everyone, I just wanted to share my opinion on why e-bikes are superior to regular bikes in every aspect. I have been riding e-bikes for over a year now, and I can honestly say that they are the best thing that ever happened to cycling. Here are some of the reasons why:

<ul style=”margin: 12px 0px 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: column; gap: 10px; padding-inline-start: 24px; color: #111111; font-family: -apple-system, Roboto, SegoeUI, ‘Segoe UI’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Helvetica, ‘Microsoft YaHei’, ‘Meiryo UI’, Meiryo, ‘Arial Unicode MS’, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);”>

Because their seat post is too high, usually. Sometimes from tightness in the back/hips meaning they never drop their ankles enough at the bottom of the stroke. Always pedaling on tip toes. Drop the post, flatten out the saddle, drop the ankles a bit, get the same leg extension.

Or they think they have mAssIvE BaLls. It could be the cycling equivalent of man spreading

Haha very badly. £695 so less than the RRP on the shock alone, for an amazing frame. BUT ITS RED so I guess not as desired 🤷 Been on display for a while, and we wanted to freshen up the shop so some stuff has to go. And someone else got a total bargain so that’s good, I hope it gets used and not just gone to an eBay bike flipper.

You think that’s bad, I’m doing it with a brand new 2k frame… Banshee Titan in Large red, finishes at 8pm 😘

I have been using them for over three years now, they have been fantastic for me. As you say not as much bite in the deep muck as some, but to be honest I try and avoid that. Great grip on wet roots/rocks, nice and strong sidewalls, easiest tubeless setup of any brand and supple bead making them really easy to pop on.

On the big bike got a 2.4 2×66 on the back and a 2.5 1×66 up front, on the fast bike got a Kraken 2.3 on the back and a Griffus 1×66 2.4 up front, although when that wears out it will be replaced by their new WYRM because it’s officially *downcountry ready*

They have also travelled about 11,000 miles less than nearly all other tyres, being made in France n all that.

I had so much of that add – Qranc full fingers, shorty copy stem, sidewinders…

Brant that literally HAS to be someone on here. 100%.

Mine was caused by bouldering but riding certainly stopped it getting better. If it hurts, it’s re-injuring. In the end something called an epi-clasp worked great for me. It’s just a band that sits around your forearm and restricts the muscle range of movement, because the muscle is restricted it stops your tendon getting to the tare point, and gives it time to heal. I wore it for about six months while working or riding/doing anything that might aggravate it. Eventually just realised it had healed and been spot on since.

I have an internal brace from the Mackay clinic and can very much recommend it. After living without an ACL for 10 years following an NHS miss-diagnosis and then essentially needing to be on my feet for work, the traditional surgery has too long a rehab. Had it fixed end of 2019 (just in time eh!) Surgery end of November, walking in two weeks, longer walks of 5k mixed terrain by Xmas day, on the bike by lockdown, decent length 70k+ MTB rides including singlespeed through that summer. Sitting here three years later and it hasn’t felt better since 24 when I did it. Running off road, loads of MTB, snowboarding etc all spot on.

Their speciality with the surgery is essentially ‘you do sport and want to pretend this never happened, and quickly’

It cost about the same as a posh bike, or a mid range ebike, and I would spend it again.

If travelling to Glasgow is too far, he was training other people in 2019 so should be available other places now, and there were early trials to offer it on the NHS, so worth looking into it.

Sure I saw it said that the Vitus frames are just off the peg catalogue jobs?

A long time ago. They’re very much designed by Chiggle now.”

Except the one that’s just a Project DC eh? We had it first so I can only assume Vitus copied us 🤣

Sure I saw it said that the Vitus frames are just off the peg catalogue jobs?

A long time ago. They’re very much designed by Chiggle now.”

Do you think there was a sniper for each of them or just one between three?

I love my HB130, it has been amazing. Can be very competitive on price compared to other full Hope covered bikes too. Three years down now and not planning to change.

The Smuggler and Occam are both really good shouts as well. As is a Banshee Phantom. I have owned most of them at one point or another – not an Occam but did win a race on our demo bike!

It is indeed. He’s a nice fella. Pioneered the method and now teaches it to people from all over the world. Rolling out on the NHS as well.

<p style=”text-align: left;”>In short, you can, yes. I did for 10 years. Then got sick of it and had one of these to minimise recovery time and get back to work.</p>

Internal Brace in depth – the knee

Walking after two weeks, back at work on my feet after three and mountain biking singlespeed rigid round dunkeld in five months.

Now three years down the line and so glad I had it done. That surgery is very different to traditional.

Stables were the cheapest Buzz Cargo lease’s when I was looking 👍 Seemed nice too, on the ball and replied to any questions fast.

Free until 2025

<p style=”text-align: left;”>You already know the answer but for what it’s worth you would never get an Izzo to Spur weight. Spurs can be easily built to 26-28lb with fairly normal kit 👍 Gotta go light, put the country in downcountry</p>

The E-Expert 75kwh are actually somewhere around 65 usable. I never managed to put more than 65 in so might actually be 10% less than that with charging losses? The Buzz is 77kwh usable.

I have gone from struggling to get 2.7-3m/kWh summer to 3.2-4 in the Buzz.

The range calculator works and is always accurate when you do tests on quotes Vs travelled. It doesn’t lose 10 miles every time you get out and back in again.

It has never crashed with a red traction battery error (yes the expert did this in the first 1000 miles)

We didn’t get it as a fashion statement. I really liked having a white panel van that was actually electric. It didn’t even get a green plate 🤣 However my partner really likes it, and loves driving it so that’s good. She hated the Peugeot. Mostly because she couldn’t trust it on range/not to break.

The difference between a 130 mile vehicle and a 250 mile one is huge when you don’t have off street parking.

There are £250 Buzz leases available now 🤷

But aye if you want something that looks like a big manly van wagon just hang on for the Transit Custom or the VW badged version of it.

Had our Buzz Cargo for a month or so now, it’s a wee bit cramped for the bikes but you can still do two bikes and both get changed next to them, or two bikes, two paddle boards and a bunch of it. Or bikes for delivery. Or a lot of stock. Wouldn’t have minded the non existent LWB though.

Really nice to drive, very pleased with it. Consumption from new is 3.5m/kWh over the 1250 miles we have done, mix of town but mostly A roads and motorway. That makes it 269 miles for a full charge in theory, but we haven’t ever needed to do a full discharge. Most about between charges was 240 I think, with the remaining adding up to 270ish.

And with still no announcement about the e-custom, we would still be living with the Expert that I am glad to be shot of. After spending one of the last months of the lease off the road with an ABS sensor failure, the day after it was collected they all had a recall for the AC system causing the motor to shut down. Don’t think I would ever buy something from that group again, it was gash.

Long live the Buzz.

Yep cafe is amazing. Won’t get better food for miles. Make sure to ride ‘Natual Gold’ which starts off the top of the very top bit of red. If you want a bit more techy riding take a drive down to the Crieff Hydro and try out some of the trails behind that, they are lovely. You can make a decent full loop out of it as well if you like pedalling days.