I had a dream about a Simple Minds song

Uncannily accurate and no need for an interpretation of the symbolism from the depths of Hora’s unconscious 😀

Hey Mr Agreeable – are you going to be up in June at all this year? Would be great ride round with you and Celia

(sorry for all the hijacks)

Gilles

Well good on you for having a go. I took my bike up to McMoab, took one look at what looks like a near vertical drop, and thought no way! But then I didnt do that first chute either. Hpoefully if I ride with someone next time I’ll at least do the first chute on the singletrack.

Cool – I should be doing a good few of these in June, assuming I can get the time off work. Will have to ride Glentrool too as I havent done that one. And it will be nice riding Drumlanrig in what hopefully will be dry weather.

Good news too about Ae – I do like riding it.

Glentrool is a huge loop on forest tracks – a nice big day out but maybe something you wont want to do.

Ae is a bit of a marmite track, and suffers closures due to forestry work. I love it but others havent enjoyed it so much in the past.

I ride the black routes and tend to jump off the black obstacles. A lot of the black routes can be ridden by red route riders like myself, and are sometimes black due to length. Don’t be put off.

Newcastleton I think may be a bit short, but check with others who have ridden it.

Glentress – you may want to avoid at the weekends as it is busy, but it’s good fun.

And finally, there is another “centre” Drumlanrig, which isn’t a Stane, but well worth a visit, about 15 miles north of Dumfries. Very rooty and old school.

FallOutBoy – that’s useful info. Are there any popular science books that you would recommend then? What about “The Road to Reality” by Roger Penrose?

If it makes you feel better about surreal dreams, last night in my dream I was somehow descending a tarmac mountain road, and three guys (who were all members of The Temptations) were descending too on bikes that had front skis designed for snow. There was a coach too, and I could see that they were all out of control. I was then in front of the bus and saw them slam into it. I went to a hotel at the bottom of the mountain to call 999 but even though there were lots of phones available, none of the staff would let me phone. I knew the three were all dead at this point in time. I was really in tiers as I was getting no help from no one.

So yeah, not just you 🙂

Flaperon – thanks for that link. Am going to watch Man U tonight but will save these for later.

No – nothing wrong with dying in a dream, as in the same way the death card in tarot is not bad.

It could signify a rebirth of some kind, or alternatively you may need to take stock of some aspect of your life that needs changing.

In Native American lore, the mountain lion represents “leadership”. Interesting that you had your throat ripped out – could be some kind of communication plus leadersyhip issues going on in your life that need looking at.

However, Lynx interestingly represents “secrets”. Are you keeping secrets from others, or is your dream telling you to keep your big mouth shut? Are you worthy of being trusted? I don’t know how to interpret this for you of course, just suggesting a number of aspects of “secrets” that you may want to think about.

I enjoyed reading Plato’s beliefs about Atlantis 😀

No – I can understand one dimension, but how come superstrings are a “loop”? I am more than happy with multiple dimensions, it’s this dimension I can’t get my head around. Later on in the book, it then says that superstrings do occupy space, but then special relativity breaks down at distances of the plank magnitude.

I suspect you are right, I do need a bike ride.

ALL beliefs are inherently stupid as they are baseless rationalisations

Including that one, by sheer logic?

SFB Lol

Ok – “atheist and agnostic/ god neutral” 🙂

I was riding it in London as a commuter to begin with. Then when I moved back to Dumfries, I rode to Mabie, which was my first proper “mountain bike” ride. Only made it half way round to be honest and had to push up a lot of hills. Next time i went I hired a Kona Caldera and was hooked! Realised it wasn’t me it was the bike 😀

I got as few wierd looks of the kids and all as I had a panier on the side for my sarnies, water bottle and bits n bobs.

Have I read this thread correctly? All of you are atheist, but are still getting into a massive argument with each other, arguing between yourselves and upsetting each other about other people getting upset (if that makes sense)?

Nothing changed on my all steel Stealth Falcon, bought 1997/8 ish.

Some great pics and glad you had a great time. All over Andalucia there are still huge swathes of countryside yet to be fully explored and ridden. I’ve been google earthing a lot myself down this neck of the woods too.

I suppose Rudeboy’s posts on this thread aern’t as bad as trying to do a joint venture on Monopoly and scuppering the wives and girlfriends though? I mean everything’s relative.

Ayahuasca 😀

Oh cool – when are you coming down?

BTW – if you are in the Leeds area Stainburn would be good practice before attempting it 😀

Is this the version with Clive Owen?

I’m with Merlin in this version. Arthur I feel chose the wrong team to side with.

Chappy1

I know there are many great women bikers out there but there is an even larger proportion of women out there who would like to do it but are not so sure.

Just curious, but is this your gut feeling, or have you proved this with previous research? If you have proved that this is so, then you second question should maybe be re-phrased?

I would like to know if you think there is a need to encourage women and what do you think would encourage them to get on their bikes

I don’t want to be accused of being a pedant, but it seems that you have already proved that there is a large body of women who wish to cycle, and you have already proved that they are “not so sure”, so surely you already have the research capability to examine what would encourage them? If your previous research showed that they are “not sure”, would you not have been better asking the women who formed your research what would encourage them?

Also, have you approached mountain bike manufacturers as some of them I am sure will have already done extensive marketing in this area?

Just curious as to what research you have already undertaken, what your methodologies were, and who the research is for. It’s an interesting subject.

I was on a tad downer after this weekend’s ride to be honest as it was somewhat too technical and I just felt like not that good a rider. Physically my legs only got me to the summit (i.e half way along, it was a there and back ride) and I was really low on energy trying to get back.

But you know, next weekend I’ll ride somewhere more within my capabilities and the big smiles will return. Just get back on your bike and ride somewhere you love!

I’m going to spend 5 or 6 weeks in the rainforests in Peru then will spend a week or 2 in Cusco. Can’t wait!

Mistere – sorry – i was just being silly – great photos!

Gingerflash – ah – a man of your great stature and hardness could only ever wish for a double cafe cortado then and none of this cappucino nonsense 🙂

Where’s the coffee?

Eh?

Alan

Hi – cheers for the info. I was waiting for some mountain bike colleagues to get relocated before maybe getting in touch as we all really want some local guiding. However, I think I will be leaving before they make it over, but I will be sending them in your direction for the guiding.

I’ve seen a lot of your rides on your website and would love to join but always worried about being a tad on the slow side and also am not great doing technical and loose and rocky switchbacks, so wouldnt want to get in the way so to speak.

Yeah – El Chorro is amazing – Roper and I were there in 2007. I also have the Montes de Malaga map and route guide in Bikefax and want to give it a go. I saw the Castano Santo de Istan route too, and will have to get a friend to do the driving so i can do it one way. Roper did that route plus the ride back to the cars at the start but that would have been way too much riding for me. I can do around 5 hours riding, including say 30 minutes for lunch.

Mistere – you can put your willy away now lol. I wasn’t boasting, just felt it was an achievement for myself without getting competitive or comparing myself to others. Lord knows i walked a lot of the way back down too as it was too techy for me. I see plenty of photos of other amazing rides, and know that say starting at the base of Snowdon and then riding up and down is more of an achievement than starting at 1300 metres 🙂

Steve

Hi – I have had a quick look on my Sierra de las Nieves map and can’t see a Pico de Valete (although I could have missed it). The peak is around 20km SW of Ronda as the crow flies.

Not been to Caminito del Rey – where about’s is that?

I don’t have too many rides left until I leave. I want to try the Montes de Malaga route, another in Montes de los Barrios (to try and find a monastery that I have failed to reach on 2 previous rides), and also try and get to the Castano Santo de Istan (the holy tree of Istan).

I am quite sure I have missed out on some awesome rides in this area, but then I am looking forward to many more UK rides too.

Cheers cuckoo – one of my better sets of ride photos I think, aided and abetted by some great views.

Alpin – I think it would have been awesome if you were a very technical rider. It was somewhat beyond my abilities and as such didn’t flow. For me it was all stop and start and a lot of pushing as my legs didn’t have the oomph needed (epsecially on the way back) when you need those short blasts to get you over rocky sections. After saying that, I did clear sections that maybe I would have walked over when I first moved down here so I think I have improved a little bit, but not enough to really enjoy this ride.

Druid – yeah, most Spanish MTB riders still stick to roads and farm vehicle roads so I think the Spanish walkers thought I was somewhat daft, but still got plenty of Holas and encouragement. It makes a great walk, one that’s even better when not pushing a bike up and down the tricky bits 🙂

Right now I am also exploring around Casares. There’s a huge descent that is doubletrack, but it was covered in leaves and super slippy but loads of fun. Around Casares is probably stuff more in line with what I am able to ride. I’ll probably take Roper there next week when he’s back in Spain rather than this again.

I always thought Dalbettie was one of the under-rated Stanes. In 2004 it was very chilled (i.e. not many people went there) but they have added more bits I think since then and more people are “getting” it yeah?

Yeah, I had Irish Stew at the Irish pub in Sotogrande to recover!

BTW – 400 to 1700 is an excellent effort!

That’s the drop off on the “Your House to Starbucks” trail?

That’s a shame. I had a really really bad fall at Ae which shouldn’t have been too bad, apart from the fact that my arm landed on a rock causing a pretty bad injury. I was at the bottom of the first big descent.

A bloke in the next group of lads to come down ensured to all others that they slow down or stop as me and my bike were sprawled across the trail. The next people to pass were a couple, and they gave me first aid from their first aid kit.

Then the next guy to come down changed my tyre as I only had the use of one arm.

Others who then subsequently passed all slowed to check that I was OK and if I needed help.

So yeah, don’t know if maybe it is just Glentress? Really hope your wife is OK and isn’t put off biking.

How to change my tyres

Was it RocketDog?

Don’t be daft – these are bike socks!