@Stuart, did I dream it or didn’t you indicate that the grid refs for the WRT would be sent about now. It’s not leaving me enough time to build the strategically placed log cabin I was planning. Any news on the car that has gone into Clywedog this afternoon, it all sounds a bit grim.

Try Emmy Hoyes of this parish, she runs courses in Marple/Roman Lakes area of E Manchester. I’ve had 2 friends, both female, do a day course and come back much more confident. 1 in particular was a nightmare, would get off at the slightest obstacle. She does intermediate as well as beginners and in reasonably small groups. Here[/url]

What vaporises my urine is where inexperienced riders take delivery of fairly expensive bikes, £600 plus, and the pdi is a joke. A freind recently bought an XS Kona from Evans’ and none of the cables or hoses had been shortened to allow for the very small frame, the front end looked like an explosion of spaghetti. It took 20 mins and £5 for olives and inserts for me to sort it.

My nephew had one of those, was £45 IIRC. If it fell on a small child it would kill them. £10’s worth of new cables had it running 100% better than it came away from the shop

You spent 22% of the bike’s value on cables? Are you mad??

I bought a pair of Rudy Project Rydon glasses with reactolite lenses and the best thing to say is they are totally unobtrusive, the lens changes quickly enough that riding in and out of trees is no problem, I’ve worn them all over Europe and possibly on very bright days in the mountains of Spain, they don’t darken quite enough, it’s still worth the compromise for variable UK conditions. I would recommend them.

I suppose wood is just a younger version of carbon 😉

I guess the answer is how much do you respect the law? It’s not really about who you might meet, landowners like to think they own the footpaths but the clue is in the title, they are Public Footpaths and maintained as such by the council on our behalf. If there are proper finger posts at either end they are almost certainly footpaths and illegal to ride a bike or horse on, if you aren’t sure, the Definitive Maps showing exactly their status are available from county archives wherever they are held, usually County Hall, or several Counties have posted copies online. The evidence of a path on an OS Map is no guarantee of its legal status.

Looks like I’m going to have to christen my Gelert Solo on this year’s event, last year I planned my route around bothies but it seems that isn’t an option now. Can anyone point me in the direction of where to get aluminium poles for said tent, obviously I don’t want to spend a fortune on Easton alloy having got the tent for £25 but I understand the fibreglass poles it comes with are a bit fragile and heavy.

I suggested they have a go at it 12 months ago when the waiting list from Revelate was about 4 months, they said it was on their radar but low numbers and the variation of frame shapes was an issue, better response than Carradice who just said “we don’t do one offs” By the way, my Wildcat one is ace, holds a Jetboil stood up down the seat tube, very pleased. 🙂

Thanks Bob, I’m sure it must be possible to copy ICC mapping, just my poor Spanish and IT knowledge standing in the way.

Novel solution as to where to pack a balloon mat 😯

A WRT’er earlier

Thanks Uplink, tried to load up the contour add on but my City Navigator 08 didn’t want to play. I’ve used the ICC mapping and printed off specific maps in the past but I was hoping that there was a way of getting it onto my Oregon in the same way as the OS mapping is loaded, too much to hope for?

And for the flattiephile Is this Stuart on his day off?

Thanks for the link Bob but you’re right the topo detail is poor. The ICC mapping is very good and in my experience quite accurate, if anyone with good Spanish or Catalan could have a look to see if the file is downloadable en masse onto a Garmin platform, I would be eternally grateful.

The only ones I have found online are of Cataluna, HereReally trying to find a way of saving them to a micro SD card and using on my Oregon

Thanks HH I’ve looked at this but it doesn’t seem to have topo information, certainly not as good as the ICC mapping, is there any other similar mapping software I could try?

Came home in a rush last night, picked up my singlespeed to go out to watch a local fell race, pumped up the tyres, fixed on the lights, jumped on to realise I’d nicked the chain off it about a month ago for my new Alfine bike which is at the shop atm, bugger!

My pet hate is the use of disinterested when the word should be uninterested, disinterested means unbiased, not swayed by outside influences.

At last, a box for Women cricketers.

Did the Earth move for you then?

P*iss off early tomorrow’s Saturday

Basking Shark whilst riding on a lovely singletrack on the E coast of Arran, it was about 10m off shore and easily visible in the clear water. It swam along side us for a fair while. Guessing it was about 5m long.

The mod I did to the chain tug on the drive side involved getting the tug with the small hole in it and carefully filing the profile of the axle at the correct angle in it, it may not be quite as accurate as the original non turn washer but it doesn’t turn. I also tighten the axle nuts pretty well. I’ll try to get the original NTW in white and see if it helps, thanks.

Shimano MT60? Goretex as well.Again come up about 1 euro size small.

Where to start? I have built up a slotted dropout scandal with the sole purpose of running an alfine 11 as a go anywhere, low maintenence, bikepacking bike. Waited and waited for the hub, no joy, finally ordered one from Germany where there didn’t seem to be any supply issues. The hub came and had it built onto a Stans rim by the good people at 18 bikes. I particularly wanted to run the cassette arm up the seatstay as the scandal routes the gear cables this way and it looks neat. Had a devil of a job getting the correct non turn washers or even finding out which ones I needed. Eventually I made a washer from an OnOne chain tug which works well combined with a silver non turn washer on the non drive side. I set up the shifter exactly as it states and aligned the marks on the hub to ensure accurate shifting. Now the bad bit, it jumps badly in 3rd and 4th gear, not immediately after shifting but sometimes 30 seconds later. It makes a sickening crack which I’m sure is not a good thing and once or twice has caused me nearly to go over the bars as it is about 1/4 of a pedal rev. It also takes an age to change from 10 to 11th gear, I’ve checked that the actuator is moving freely. I’m currently waiting for 18 bikes to get hold of the dissasembly tools from Madison to open it up and see if there is any damage, and at least do an oil change. I’m quite disappointed as I specifically built it to do a 4 day trip along the Pennine Bridleway next month and the Welsh Ride Thing in May. All along there seems to have been issues, initially it was Madison sending out hub bodies but no fitting kits, now I’m worried that its longevity and reliability is suspect.
I’m not selling this very well am I?

Lightweight and flexible, what more do you need in a pole? 🙂

It’s a bit like Morcambe and Wise, all the bits are there but not neccesarily in the right order, it starts well enough but runs out of steam when you get to the downhill courses area and as for waymarking, I think the locals use them for firelighters. Also suffers from motocrossers damage.

with some sort of pole to hold it off your face?

Is this the type of Pole you have in mind TJ?

You’re right, it does benefit from a light touch but the jumping can occur anything around 30 seconds after the gear change. I’ve only done about 150 light miles but am going to get an oil change if only to see what debris comes out.

Yes that makes perfect sense, it looks exactly how I wanted mine to be but given that I am running a 32t chainring on an FSA external BB crankset, I’ve had to get a dished sprocket to get the chain line somewhere near, this leaves less space for the cassette joint arm to fit. I positioned the cable nut exactly the distance as stated in the fitting instructions and lined up the yellow lines but I’m getting a worrying snatching in 3rd, it is about 1/4 of a pedal stroke and goodness knows what internal damage it is doing. I’m waiting for some feedback via 18bikes and will be dropping it in soon for them to pull apart to see how many bits of aluminium fall out. 😥

I have done the same thing with a slotted dropout Scandal which looks very similar about the back end, getting the shifter arm to run up the seatstay but in front of it was a real palarva, I had to fashion my own no turn washer setup from a chain tug. Bristolbiker, is it running ok, not jumping in 3rd and 4th gear? Did you use the supplied green and blue no turn washers? If so how? I’m using the supplied rapidfire shifter but it should be the same setup.

Spring Bank Holiday Weekend 28th-30th May inclusive, starts about 2.00pm and finishes at a similar time on the Monday but no penalties for lateness, in fact no penalties for anything, or points for doing things. Does that clarify it sufficiently?
More a happening than an event.

I’m going there on Friday, I’ll report back on my findings.

What sort of staying?
Camping, the Woodlands in Devils Bridge has a nice campsite in a bowl with toilets and showers. I’ve got a static caravan there.
B&B, several in Devils Bridge, the one about 1/2 mile out of the villiage on the Aberystwyth road is good, sorry can’t name it atm.
Hotel Hafod Arms has been done up and has a bar and restaurant, can be a bit pricy.
Look carefully at the map if you are planning to ride off road to or from Nant Yr Arian, there’s a huge drop down into the Rheidol valley and steep climb up the other side to Ystumtuen, it’s a hard start to the day and even harder at the other end, I usually ride round the road via Ponterwyd.
There’s also good riding in the forest South of Devils Bridge, the RUPP from the wind farm down into Blaen Myherin is a stunner.

Issue 62, Page 52 to be precise.

Magazine feature anyone *cough* (or is it not that interesting a route)

Try that little known periodical Singletrack from about 3 months ago 😉

I have been told it is, the Yorkshire Dales Ranger Peter Lambert Peter.Lambert@yorkshiredales.org.uk has given me a summary of the route and Bill Brady sent me a Memory Map overlay, from what I’ve seen on the ground, it’s all there and the bridge over the Ribble at Selside is finished which avoids a big detour to Horton In Ribblesdale and back. I’ll forward you the mail if you want.

I guess the main thing you should be aware of is that it doesn’t end in Tod any more, currently it goes all the way up to Kirkby Stephen and is planned to go further. A group of us are riding from KS to Penistone where we live next month, that’s 140 miles taking in the Eastern half of the Mary Towneley Way, the whole route is currently about 200 miles, in our route, I’ve measured about 20 miles of tarmac, the rest is a mixture of Water Board access tracks, farm tracks and old routes through the Yorkshire Dales. Looking forward to the challenge, I’ve calculated our route at 6,000 metres of climbing so no cake walk.

Assuming we are talking about 11 speed as the 8 doesn’t run in an oil bath, is this correct?