I’m 6’1″ and ride a 58cm Croix de Fer and it fits me fine. It does weigh quite a bit although I’ve never weighed it. Comfy though. I had to up the disc from 160mm to 180mm as I wasn’t entirely happy with the original performance. Overall a good ‘do anything’ bike.

Have worked on the railways in the Highlands and found that only 100% DEET is really effective against midgies when you’re out and about all the time. It does strip the paint off pencils and makes your lips go pins and needles if you get it on them.

I once met a round-the-world cyclist in Spean Bridge who had cycled the length of the Americas and had chased a bear in canada and had snakes in Central America and was on his way south from John O’Groats. He was thinking of getting the train south from Fort William because of the midgies. He said it was the only beastie he’d met that when you kill one of them, a million of his mates came to the funeral…

Got bitten twice by mosquitos for the first time in Scotland in July 2010 at the Moray Monster Trails. Saw the liitle feckers so I know they were mosquitos.

The uprights were put there years ago because ‘some’ bikers were hooning down the boardwalk (it is downhill toward the WHW) and nearly colliding with/pi$$ing off walkers. I can see this happening even more nowadays if they weren’t there as you could pick up a fair bit of speed down it. They are rideable and I feel add a challenge to an otherwise relatively boring section.

Grum, you can also come along to a Glasgow Mountain Bike Club ride on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening or Sunday morning – we’ve been riding these trails for over 20years…

http://www.gmbc.org.uk

and

http://glasgowmbc.wordpress.com/

It works fine – just extend it to the second hole.

Ticks have been getting worse (well, here to the north of Glasgow). i was speaking to a Gamekeeper about this and he reickons it’s due to two reasons: 1) less potent sheep dip is allowed nowadays (something to do with organo-phosphates or something; and 2) the local deer population has exploded and they are hosts and move the little critters around. Picked up my first tick of the year in mid-May, having put Autan on my legs but still he got me. i have found that only a Deet product works.

I have photocromatic prescription glasses from Optilabs. Generally happy with them although they darken/lighten pretty slowly and not to the dark/clear extremes I had hoped for. The polarising effect can sometimes make wet tarmac look a bit weird if the sun’s shining.

Burncrooks to Loch Humphrey is the wrong way to do it IMHO. I’ve done it the other way numerous times over 20 years and, yes it can be boggy, but if you pick your day, it is rideable. There are also a couple of alternative ways up to Loch Humphrey without using all of the steep track up from the Erskine bridge…

“The gene pool could use a little chlorine.”

Did Mike Harding not do a documentary series years ago when he cycled in the UK or US? I seem to remember him with Karrimor panniers and a ‘Skid’Lid’ helmet, which was one of the very first hard-shell helmets.

I seem to remember the strangest things…

On a cycling theme…: went for a road ride with Lance Armstrong from Paisley (the route, not Lance) back in August 2009. He was an absolute gent and took the time to speak to individuals in the 30-odd strong bunch that remained after a frantic blast out of Paisley and up onto the Glennifer Braes which shredded the 300-odd ‘peleton’.

Was at the World MTB Champs in Chateau D’Oex in 1997 and John Tomac stayed in the apartment above ours for the week. Spoke to him a few times and a mate even blagged some of his old tyres out of the bin in the basement. Whilst a the the event i took a piss whilst Gary Fisher used the adjoining urinal :|.

I have the same problem on with a rear Elixir 5 with a 185mm G3 rotor which I put onto a Ti hardtail. Brakes never had this issue on my old hardtail they were on originally although I now use a SRAMM XX mount adaptor. I’m going to try new pads and then a less lightweight adaptor to see if that fixes it…

Wallace,

The route between Humphrey and Burncrooks is 99% rideable, albeit in that direction only. Only the burn crossing at the SW end of Burncrooks Reservoir is where you have to dismount. I’ve been doing it for 22 years now.

The Whangie is one best left to after a bit of a dry spell though – much more fun.

There is a trail in the woods to the west and north of the scout centre and we ride it sonetimes to link in with a sheep track and quad bike track that drops you down to the West Highland Way near the burnt-out Arlehaven Cottage. GMBC occasionally do it as a Wednesday night ride…

I had the same problem and got new seal kits from UKBikeStore iirc. Brakes work a treat now.

Will be riding Mugdock area on Sunday am / early pm. you been over there? Loads of crackin singletrack, if you know where to find it. Weather forecast looks promising too. Lovely.

Colleague of my wife’s card was stopped today due to fraudulent activity. Might just be coincidence but he shopped at CRC last week…

Seems it is still going on! :roll:

I now have bigdugsbaws one! It’s much greener than that ^^^^ pic up there suggests! Still nice though.

Just received a pair of these at £160:

Superstar 29er wheels

So far I’m very impressed. Nice build quality. Haven’t ridden them yet mind…

I’ve done it a couple of times in the past few years. It’s an OK ride – either on the ‘old’ A9 or on bespoke grit path beside the current A9. You’re pretty limited for roads heading north in the area so it’s the best of a bad bunch of road routes if you like. I last did it on a LEJoG ride and it was much more preferable to riding up the A9 or A82. Some of the old road surfaces are a bit rough (frost affected I suspect). I did it on road bikes with 25C and 28C tyres (28C were ideal) and a friend did it on 23Cs – he had no punctures but it was a bit rough going. It certainly beats mixing it with the traffic…

Know a couple of guys who got theirs done by ESP in Stronend Street who did an excellent job both times.

[Slight hijack]

You still wanting the Octalink Cranks? Or do I stick em on fleabay? :roll:

I have a LED3 XPG and like it a lot. Good spread of light and, once you get used to the sequence of the toggle switch, very easy to use. Looks well made too. Recommended.

Grant,

Don’t have a Flickr account or the like to host pics that i can post on the forum. Could email a couple of pics to you?

Grantus,

It is doable. Only got a 1:50,000 map here but you follow the water board track south out of Killearn, and turn left at High Lettre to begin the climb (there is also a faint single track from the woods to the east of killearn behind ‘Auchenibert’ and ‘Kilmore’ which cuts south across the moor to meet this track). You follow the track up until the junction at approx. NS 543 844 where the 1:50K OS map only shows a hairpin. A track actually continues up towards the sadlle between Dumgoyne and Garloch Hill. Once you get up onto that saddle you turn left and follow a quad bike track to the trig point of Earl’s Seat. Some of it is pretty steep but can be done if it’s dry and you’re fit.

I did it last May with a couple of mates and from E’s Seat we headed south along the campsies towards Slackdhu (cracking views from the top of the cliffs) via Graham’s Cairn before turning back north along the cliff top where there is a faint track (all rideable) which descends steeply to the south of the stream, which you cross near the foot of the descent, to Cantywheery where you can rejoin the water board track. I have photos of the route whaich I can email you if you want.

There is a track from Earl’s Seat to Fintry that goes behind the Corrie of Balglass. My mate Sanny has done it recently and hopefully he’ll be on here shortly to tell you about it.

Aye, both my boys did this. They grow out of it. Quite scary at first until you realise they aren’t actually awake even though they are sitting up with their eyes open (usually wailing). We found the best approach was to be calm and try to soothe them and they usually went back to sleep. If that failed we ended up taking them into a lit room and talking normally and doing stuff noisily in the room and they eventually woke up/came out of it and quietened down, although they were pretty confused as to why we’d dragged them out of bed in the middle of the night :roll:

Rickos,

From memory the Zafira’s back seats are not nearly as flexible – I think the middle seat base on the zafira is a bench? Wheres the C4GP has 5 individual seats..?

Had one now for 2 years and it has been great. Got it after getting rid of a Galaxy (new shape) which was a **** donkey! Everything went wrong with that and it was in the garage more than it wasn’t for the 9 months we had it. Ford’s customer service was frankly shocking.

Was bit wary of buying a Citreon with French electrics but that has been proved unfounded. We have a 2.0 HDi Exclusive and it is loaded with kit. It has the EGS gearbox which has been fine (the car is now 3 years old and 25,000 miles). the clutch was getting a wee bit juddery last year but at the service they did a software upgrade and that sorted it. That’s the only issue we’ve had with the car. I think Citreon have upped their game in recent years.

Loads of room in it and very comfortable on long drives. yes it rolls about a bit if you get a bit frisky on winding roads but that’s not what MPVs are about. The Exclusive has self levelling rear suspension which is great when you’re fully loaded with kids/gear/bikes etc. Economy is good with mid 40s mpg in urban driving and 50+ on rural roads. The EGS gearbox is a bit strange at first but you just adapt your driving style to suit and it’s fine.

I can’t really fault it. As a family wagon it’s great.

Hope that helps!

I have one of the first generation DN6 Inbreds which I have been riding since January 2005. Yes it does rust a bit at the down tube gusset and where it gets chipped but hasn’t caused me any problems. Every 2 or 3 months I touch it up with white Smootherite paint. Doesn’t look particularly pretty but the frame’s still going strong after 6 years of abuse (and that includes through 6 wet/frosty/salty scottish winters…) Can’t complain for £125.

Enduro-aid I hear what you are saying and understand (I work in civil engineering). My gripe is that a lot of these pot-holes have been getting ‘temporary’ patches for years now and they just keep getting opened up by the weather and traffic. Another issue is surface water:- the road side drainage ditches do not seem to be maintained any more so the flooding/surface water/puddles are geting worse and the resultant hydraulic and frost action knackers the roads quicker. It just seems a bit of false economy here and some common sense is required in the roads maintenance regime. Prevention is often better than cure and all that.

Coffeeking, I’m in Bishopbriggs and use Balmore Road a lot – it’s pretty shocking at the moment as are most of the roads in East Dunbartonshire and Glasgow.

You should see the holes on Baird Street at the lights opposite the police station – M A S S I V E !! – they keep getting ‘patched’ but within a few days are bigger than ever. Surely it’s better value to fix it PROPERLY once rather than having to come back several times and patch??!? :roll:

I have taken out one of the two drive-side spacers and not moved it to the non-drive-side and it works fine. This is on a steel bike with a skinny seat tube. I say this because on an aluminium bike with a fatter seat tube i needed the two drive-side spacers so that the chainset was more outboard and the front mech had enough space to pull the chain onto the granny ring before the mech hits the frame – it wouldn’t shift easily without both spacers.

Big Pete, YGM.

I found the very slightly slacker head angle improved my bike.

I did the WHW in a day in ’95 and ride bits of it regularly. I think most of it is fine to ride and in nice scenery, the only section that’s a ball ache is Loch Lomondside north of Rowardennan or Inversnaid. But that shouldn’t put people off – just get the wee ferry from Rowardennan or Inversnaid and then rejoin the WHW at the top of the Loch.

so how do you think it rides pistola ie does it feel positive and planted, or does it get into a bind on steep descents? Climbing?

Feels pretty good. I ride a 19.5 so a pretty long ETT at 620mm and a shortish (80mm) stem. I have U-turn Revelation forks (120 – 150mm) and feels planted at around 135 – 140mm. Even at that it doesn’t rear up on the climbs but you can start to fell it lighter at the front when the forks are at 150mm.

I have a bell on my bike as i find it’s worth its weight in gold round Mugdock on a Sunday morning.

Having said that, on the narrow path between Balmore and Cadder there was an elderly couple walking up ahead in the same direction as I was riding. The woman was about 20m behind her husband and she moved to one side after one ring of my bell. I said “Thanks”. Then I came up behind her husband. Three rings of the bell and still no response so I go right up behind him and say very loudly “Excuse me please!”. He grudgingly moves over to the side and, as I pass, he shouts at me: “Get a bell!” 8O I replied with “Get a hearing aid!” I think his wife put him straight and hopefully he was suitably embarassed :lol:

Aha, thanks for that, although 68.5 feels fine to me…

I’ve just built one up and love it. Why didn’t the mag rate it?

Have to say I’ve ordered a few bits’n’bobs from them and they’ve always arrived very quickly with no problems.

I love my CdF (but only once I upped the discs to 180mm).