Sorry to here that, we had a great ride today up Milngavie way, where you from, you could possibly meet up with us for a ride if your interested
http://www.meetup.com/Mountainbikeglasgow/

these things happen every now and then, aw well, off to plan the next run!

aye, i’ve saw that site posted a few times, cheers, may well be up for that at some point, will keep it bookmarked, i think i’d like to up my fitness a good bit before i do mind, don’t fancy being the one keeping everyone back, which i reckon i would be at the moment.

well that was rubbish, late instead of early strart, got train out and boat cancelled due to fog, asked the guy what’d be the chances of getting stuck over there if i did get a boat over, told don’t travell unless you had to… so trip abandoned, went a wee scoot on the roads the when i got back to stretch my legs, but pretty scunnered so just came home…ah well, note to self beware fog and boats, and it’s no spring yet..:D will go a local run tomorrow to make up…

part and parcel of discovering new places, i think you get better at reading maps, satelite data etc etc, but still, it’s bound to happen and impossible to avoid at times..

I did the Corlarach loop last year, its a fair old climb mainly on forest roads with very little singletrack, excellent views over and down the the firth of clyde though. Theres plenty of riding to be done over in the forests in Dunoon its just finding them.

aye pretty much what i’m expecting, it’s hills rather than singletrack i’m really after the now, looking to test my lack of fitness! just hope the fog lifts thru the day to get some of the views to keep it interesting..

I don’t know where i’m getting this from but i’m getting a strange urge to photograph my bike next to a monument!:D

i was last up in the summer, no idea how much they are going to develop it further or when, but they have cut a grass track around that’s fairly easy to follow, if a bit of a pain in places, alot of it is still grass, which is crap to cycle on at times.. don’t know if they developed it any further.. loads of tracks up there though, you can keep yourself entertained for a few hours.

exploring is a big part of mountain biking for me, plus i’m pretty unfit, uplifts would defeat the trying to get fitter part of my riding also..

Only uplift i’ve ever done was a couple of times at wolftrax to get half way up, tbh it was a bit pointless i thought, only reason i did it was because i had 4 days of riding ahead of me, so wanted to take the first day easy..

walking through lights seems insane to me, if it’s safe to walk through lights it’s safe to cycle through them.

has that bike ever been ridden? always amazes me how shiny and chip free alot of bike pictures are on this and other forums!

i tightened some of mine the other week with a shifting spanner, seemed to work ok, i’d imagine a spoke key is much better though… saying that though, i just put my bike into the shop last night to get the wheels checked properly, wheel truing is a voodoo art that i’ve yet to learn.

a black and gold bmx that said Harrier on it if i remember right, great wee bike, I learned everything i know on that thing!:D Think i must have had something before that though, as i remember riding it on christmas day, but i don’t remember learning how to ride.

then i got shady a 18″ 18 speed white raleigh marauder “mountain” bike, horribly heavy and far too big for me, considering my current bike is 16.5″, still loved it at the time.

after that i finally got my hands on my brothers saracen eiger, that i loved, felt like the lightest bike in the world compared to the previous ones, i rode that off and on until i eventually bought my current bike in early 2007.

and have a fine to prove it (from the Glasgow polis ironically).

Aye, where did that happen? Quite surprised at that. Only time i ever got stopped by the polis was for using the road at night with out lights(I was in the pub and had forgot them), they just told me to get on the pavement.

Watch out for the Rozzers though

I have to say i don’t feel the need to up here really(glasgow), the polis on bikes run reds lights and cycle on the pavements up here anyhow, so if it’s good enough for them it’s good enough for me.

decide for yourself, and use your awareness, whether a red light is safe to jump or not depends entirely on the circumstances that surround you at a particular time/junction…in my mind safe = acceptable at all times when playing with the traffic!

ime, chains just snap every now and then, mind you i’m a heavier rider weighing in somewhere between 16-17st, soo maybe that makes a difference to mine…lesson here is though, never leave home without a chain too.

also generally if a chain snaps easily like you mention, i reckon it’s been burst at one side and you’ve just not noticed it for the last 30 odd miles, your chain will slip if it’s like that too, obvious tell tale.

cyclist, i just like getting about on the bike, whether offroad or road, my one and only bike will go most places, albiet slowly, well that’s just me not the bike, but it’s all good. Mind you i try to go offroad most weekends, the road is really just for commuting or getting from A to B.

depends, i’ve put a new chain on mine recently, had one chain previously, it’ll skip slighty on one gear, which is a pain, but mind you this winter has destroyed my drivetrain, i’ll replace both in march or april, i’ll live with it till then incase we get any further bouts of dodgy weather.

good luck to ye, mr slow here took an easy 2 days to do from tyndrum to fw in july the other year! in fairness, i was having a few pints of guiness in every pub and smoking weed through out, but still aw the best! :lol:

i’d put money on the devils staircase being covered in snow!

my gt avalanche does me for everything, trails, commuting etc, i’d like another 2 bikes mind, road bike and an some sort of light xc full sus effort, but beer kinda stops me buying them so…

my last pair of sealskins fell apart at the stitching, so now i just keep the inside water proof bag and wear 2 pairs of normal thin socks with the bag inbetween, i find they are much better like this, lets me decide how thick i want my socks to be depending on the weather and i still get the waterproofness from them.

btw my opinion on the OP is that you’ve just got incredibly sweaty feet! a cup of water ffs!

good stuff sanny, thanks, off to google some of these.

tandemwarriors, so where do you recommend out dunoon way?

btw, you’d mibbe regret having the fat slow guy who’s scared of uphills keeping you back, so i’ll give ye a pass on that one! :lol:

wackoAk, aye been over to arran a few times, will probably be back no doubt although, i find my self doing more road evertime i get there, usually got camping stuff with us..

aye bikebus, been on that a few times, don’t think he’s running the now, still off after his wean was born..

Cheers all, aye, the inverness train line does seem like the next logical step, been looking at the maps around pitlochry and dunkeld, looks interesting anyhow, booking on is a pain though!

So are the kilpatricks definately crossable, i’ve been looking at a possiblity up there of going out via mugdock to burncrooks reservoirs and trying to make it over to old kilpatrick, looks doable, my thoughts are that it’s a summer only after 4 or 5 dry days kinda thing though?

42mph on the road, i’ll rarely top 30-35mph off road even on fireroads, tbh i’ve not got the balls to go much faster, i’m much slower on single track obviously.

I’ve walked up Nevis, cannot imagine taking the bike down, especially the top half! suppose we should mibbe have another category, one for super-heros and us mere mortals!:D

top of the corrieyarrick pass in august there:)

i snapped mine in 2 when i was 21 playing fives, clean break, just left to heal on its own, 2 and a half months and it felt kinda alright, 3 months before i went back to work, it took 6 months to feel totally strong again due to the 2-3 months on muscule wastage from doing nothing, but even then it was a year before i had any kinda confindence to fall on that side doing anything.

cool, cheers all.

i treid to head out to mugdock today, was solid with ice, cycled in from the milngavie end, it was horrible, i ended up bailing out on to the roads, cycle out for a bit then cycled back home through the city centre, just to get some miles in, mugdock will take another wee while to thaw by the looks of it.

laggan wolftrax for a few days then over the corrieyarrick pass and down the great glen to fw.

aye i’m of the opinion it’ll be fine myself, just curious to others opinions, cheers.

i’ve got swalbe landrangers on my bike just now as a compromise, it’s for commuting and offroad, i’ve rode it with these in the snow and alsorts of mud this year fine, you slide about a bit and you are slower on the dh but you learn to compensate for that, you lose a bit of grip, but i’ve found them reasonable enough, definite comprimise though.

I’ve also had the continental travel contact mentioned above, they are decent enough on the road, but pretty sketchy on wet and loose stuff especially roots, on easy dusty stuff you’ll get by on them though, i gave myself a sore yin with them on earlier in the year though on some roots, no grip and over the handle bars i went….

cracking show!

snow would be nice, i was out in mugdock the other day, ice everywhere! lethal! nice pics

everybody makes sacrifices in life…how much does a professional athlete train a week, 35-40hours, how is that different to anyone elses working life?

extremely hard game, i go once a week or so for a few frames, still feel mighty impressed with myself if i can manage a break of 15! but as said, pool is so much easier when you go back to it! snooker really is a game where you need to practice every day to get good at it, not something i ever see myself doing, still enjoy it though! pound for a bottle of beer in my club helps too!:D

rode in last week and the week before fine, snow is fairly grippy tbh. I doubt this predicted snow will come to much anyway, i think the media and gov, especially up here are just being panic merchants.

Seems to me that this is just an english problem, I never get any hassle up here at all, infact it’s pretty friendly, is it a cultural thing or is it just purely becasue the law is different down there and people thinking they have some legitimate claim to the land? dunno, but this walkers/bikers conflict that i read about on the forums is completely alien to me…