I notice a glass bottle for the whisky in the pics.
You can use listerene bottle or other mouthwash of your choice,washed thoroughly(dishwaher) and rinsed rinsed with crap whisky to transport it. Much lighter bottle and holds 600ml of whisky! 😀

shake down ride for testing the new gears and loading for next week's tour. Techy stepp singletrack was surprisingly ok.

Note to self don't pack the stove in the bag right beside the rack as it wears a hole in the brand new drybag. DOH!

OK so if we exit glen afric via glenshiel lodge does that make more sense?

Could we then ride to cluanie inn and then over to kingie?

Or use the old military road on half way between shiel bridge and the inn?

Yeah I kow about ist getting drained in september, just wondering if the water levels were low already. Unfortunately being a teacher precludes long tours in september time.

Anyone got any info whether the water is low enough to cross loch loyne?
What about the track out of glen affric via caorrann mor?

Tahnks for the input. The last bit of the route is still up for analysis as everyone needs to get back to different places at the end.

Ive got this
http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/samsung-b2100?WT.mc_id=ConMarGoMob_1059&WT.srch=1&cd_source=Automedon&shopSource=onlineSearch?sissr=1

It has beeen pretty fine so far and stops sand ingress. ( I live at the beach)

Near aberdeen? on the south deeside road?
I seem to recall they are mainly fire road but could be wrong. go and have a pootle?

I like these on the new salsa el mariachi

Ben Loyal and rainbow.

All from last week's trip to the north/kyle of tongue.

44:20? 34:15? I am not worthy 😉
or do you live in Holland?

And nine posts in before mention of a dose of MTFU.

Stw standards are slipping I feel 😀

normally ride 34:18 but think with the extra weight will need some easier gearing. And the trip will be along the lines of 13thfloormonks but in the opposite direction and into the cairngorms. And shorter. Much shorter.

Check out highland cycles in ballater.
http://www.ecurieneep.co.uk/ should also be of some help. There are loads of smuggleres trails that walkers use which seem ripe for some exploration.

Tf – are you l;ooking to get rid of your alfine then?

Just goes to prove its the rider not the bike. 🙂

Not sure about the bars but i kind of like that. The geometry looks good (might pinch some ideas) but i'm not sure about the cruiser toptube bits.

There is a place further down the hill towards tomintoul called well of lecht. It is one of teh smugglers paths. Could be worth a peruse of a map and some investigation? 🙂

The bit from Barrisdale to kinloch hourn would involve a fair bit of hike a bike if memory serves me correct.

Firstly, looks like a great trip.
Looking forward to seeing how oyu got to alt beithe as i am thinking of reversng that part of the route in the summer. I take it you wouldn't recommend going along kinlochhourn and over to knoydart then? I would mind seeing some mapping for this either to be honest 😀

Cheers
Dan

These Cycling jerseys[/url]are pretty nice and fit well too. The roadie jerseys are not too skin tight.

Sorry for the hijack but what size is your jones stu? and how tall are you?

Learnie red rock
Fi is unable not to close eyes or make funy faces in photos.

Learnie red rock today. B****r me sideways there are some tricky sections on the black. Pussied out today :o(

Nice nicolai, though that is not so much what i'm after.
That spanner bikes Ti bride is interesting. And woryingly affordable. Food for thought…..

jon1973 – Member

They think there is some kind of kudos associated with coming first.

My wife doesn't buy this argument

Ha ha ha 🙂

Actually ayatollah, i don't recall having ridden your ego chariot. I had a go of a gryphon that you were mincing about on had borrowed which was actually pretty nice. Are you bring the ego chariots up north later this year? maybe will have to have a comaprative ride. 😀
And to be fair, it is also a little out of my price bracket currently.

That rourke and t'lynskey are very nice

t'lynskey – yorkshire, through and through*

* May haev been drinking quite alot. 🙂

Nicknoxx – is it a 29er?
Who is building it, looks nice, and is it designed for a rohloff?

have jsut seen drJons vertigo fruther up and it looks very nice. That is a nice black sheep.
This

is real nice from ride monkey. I particularly like the 20mm bolt through rigid forks.
don't know who's it is but its got me thinking….

its a blackburn EX1 from madison. Sorry meant to mention that in the original post. The clearance was pretty tight and to use it woth a dry bag lashed on top i think will take some diy plastic insert on the shelf part. with panniers shoulf be fine.

This just fits my On-one 29er. Or so the guy in the shop reckoned when we tried it

but there is very little clearance with a big tyre. Might need a bit of bodging

Could either set a yearas a theme or choose a letter to base your theme around. Have been to an F party and dressed as basil fawlty.

I have been missing out on all the decent surfs recently due to uni and work. Hoping for some little waves tomorrow thouhg its been flat in the Northeast (scotland)which is a shame since i recieved this at the end of feb.
😀

Hopefully my flight wont get cancelled again 🙁

What is this riding at speed you speak of? I do not think i will be doing that.

At the current rate of progress if i remember to pack my bike i will be doing well.
Now which one to choose?

Devs i recognise those places from my youf 😀

Damn that sounds like a good trip. Let us know how you get on. I was thinking fort william to glencoe. Glencoe to Pitlochry. Then Glen tilt to Braemar then home to Aberdeen.
However my plan is for later in the summer. good luck

Dan

I think this may be the guardians contribution.

In an audacious new election strategy, Labour is set to embrace Gordon Brown's reputation for anger and physical aggression, presenting the prime minister as a hard man, unafraid of confrontation, who is willing to take on David Cameron in "a bare-knuckle fistfight for the future of Britain", the Guardian has learned.

Following months of allegations about Brown's explosive outbursts and bullying, Downing Street will seize the initiative this week with a national billboard campaign portraying him as "a sort of Dirty Harry figure", in the words of a senior aide. One poster shows a glowering Brown alongside the caption "Step outside, posh boy," while another asks "Do you want some of this?"Brown aides had worried that his reputation for volatility might torpedo Labour's hopes of re-election, but recent internal polls suggest that, on the contrary, stories of Brown's testosterone-fuelled eruptions have been almost entirely responsible for a recent recovery in the party's popularity. As a result, the aide said, Labour was "going all in", staking the election on the hope that voters will be drawn to an alpha-male personality who "is prepared to pummel, punch or even headbutt the British economy into a new era of jobs and prosperity".

Strategists are even understood to be considering engineering a high-profile incident of violence on the campaign trail, and are in urgent consultations on the matter with John Prescott, whose public image improved in 2001 after he punched an egg-throwing protester.

Possible confrontations under discussion include pushing Andrew Marr out of the way while passing him on a staircase, or thumping the back of Jeremy Paxman's chair so hard that he flinches in shock.

One tactic being discussed involves provoking a physical confrontation at one of the three ground-breaking TV debates between the candidates. In this scenario, Brown, instead of responding to a point made by Cameron, would walk over from his microphone with an exaggerated silent display of self-control, bring his face to within an inch of the Tory leader's, and in a subdued voice, ask "what did you just say?", before delivering a single well-aimed blow to his opponent's face, followed by a headlock if required.

The bloodied and bruised Cameron could then be whisked to a nearby hospital, where a previously briefed team of doctors and nurses would demonstrate the efficiency and compassion of the NHS under a Labour government.

Saatchi & Saatchi, the agency behind the poster campaign, are also considering reworked posters from classic movies, casting Brown as The Gordfather, the Terminator, and "Mr Brown" from Reservoir Dogs, or perhaps linking him to Omar Little, the merciless killer in the TV series The Wire, in order to burnish the prime minister's "gangsta" credentials. Another set of designs appropriates the current Conservative anti-Brown poster campaign, employing adapted slogans such as: "I took billions from pensions. Wanna make something of it?"

The Brown team has been buoyed by focus group results suggesting that an outbreak of physical fighting during the campaign, preferably involving bloodshed and broken limbs, could re-engage an electorate increasingly apathetic about politics. They also hope they can exploit the so-called "Putin effect", and are said to be exploring opportunities for Brown to be photographed killing a wild animal, though advisers have recommended that weather, and other considerations, mean Brown should not remove his shirt.

Labour further hopes to "harness the power of internet folksourcing", the aide explained, encouraging supporters to design their own posters, which could then be showcased online. The "design your own poster" initiative has caught the imagination of Downing Street strategists, the aide said, because it is cheap, fosters engagement among voters and, above all, nothing could possibly go wrong with it.

For their part, Conservative strategists are said to be troubled by internal research suggesting that several members of the shadow cabinet – including Cameron and George Osborne – would in fact not "come here and say that" if challenged by Brown, instead turning pale and running away, or arranging for an older brother to wait outside the Houses of Parliament to attack him when he is least expecting it.

I would use it to visit ditilleries if i were you. Have been meaning to go they other way from the coast to tomintoul and then to aviemore but not got round to it yet.