I’m jealous – it’s a stunning place.

I’d take the MTB, definitely.

Like others have said there are some fun trails through the Machair, and you don’t need a fatbike to ride the beaches on the West coast – the sand is pretty firm around the tide line – we managed most of the west coast like that on heavily laden MTBs with touring tyres.

If you’re coming in from Lochboisdale, head straight on at the crossroads at Dalabrog and to the end of the road – you can pick up the machair trail (through the “golf course” :-)) or get onto the beach from there.

There are a few bits of rocky coastal singletrack around Loch Sgioport on South Uist – old paths to deserted crofts etc. You need to negotiate a fair few “off piste” boggy sections to link them up though – all good fun.

Stunning scenery everywhere but I particularly liked the NW coast of North Uist – some more offroad options up there (including the only forest on the islands!), but again a bit difficult to link up – don’t let that put you off though – it’s all worth exploring.

We didn’t ride it but there is also a trail bisecting Benbecula which also looks like it may be rideable in places at least.

You can (apparently) even ride across to Vallay on a low tide if you’re feeling brave

Don’t miss the Balranald nature reserve – lovely beach – heaven on a nice day.

“I could tell you that I can do <1>, but that’s really not practical in the timescales, and although that would be the long term aspiration, let’s talk about <2>…”

Are the people moaning about SS dropouts on this thread for real?

Are you sure you’re not looking for a solution to a problem which doesn’t exist..

Surly 1×1 with track ends + tuggnut. NEVER slipped. No bother. Job done

Relatively new to the area and still finding my way round but would definitely be up for a ride depending on family commitments etc… that is of course provided that no-one’s going to take exception to the lack of boingy bits at either end of my particularly sturdy bicycle.

Sprocket jockey you got any route maps for the What you’ve described??

Not route maps as such – we pretty much bought a few OS maps and strung out a route on the fly, including lots of beach riding and a fair bit of offroad :-)

Drop me a mail (in profile) and will happily send you a route description and some pointers.

Cheers

Some good links on Sheldon Brown regarding magic ratio, including this one:

http://eehouse.org/fixin/formfmu.php

Surly 1×1. Cheapish, completely bombproof and an absolute hoot to ride. Mine is the older version which has quite “traditional” geometry which might not suit some. The newer ones are a bit more compact with a dropped top tube etc.

And midges – lots and lots of midges….

Far fewer than the mainland to be fair… mainly because of the constant wind! We went in early May. Had great weather and hardly saw any midges apart from at one spot on Harris.

Outer Hebrides. If you get the weather (and admittedly it’s a big if), there’s nowhere quite like it. Stunning beaches, amazing wildlife, friendly folk. Not much there but there are a few really nice places to stay scattered about (Langass Lodge….mmmm!). Can also be done on public transport. We got the train to Oban, ferry to South Uist – rode up through the Uists to Harris and then back down to Barra and Vatersay. Ferry back from Castlebay. We did it fairly leisurely – biggest day was about 40 miles or so. Genuinely one of our best holidays ever.

Hub shell got damaged too. Cheapo Shimano hub and entry level Bonty rims. Not really economically viable to repair unfortunately.

On ones look like a good deal.

Snowing here on Dartmoor this morning….did a great ride out onto the moor when everything was was nice and hard-packed first thing. Glad I headed out when I did as it’s gone all drizzly and blustery now.

Bike 1 – Whippet quick through the singletrack. Great climber

Bike 2 – Needs a bit more work to get up to speed but once it’s there, is pretty much unstoppable. Really comfy for longer rides and a bit more forgiving on techie stuff.

Weirdly, despite the additional dangly bits at the back it doesn’t climb as well as bike 1.

Not that I’m brand loyal or anything, you understand…

I don’t know the Okehampton area itself but even if there’s nothing suitable in the immediate vicinity, there’s loads of options on East Dartmoor within half an hour or so if you’re prepared to drive a bit….Lustleigh Cleave, Hamel Down etc are all withing easy striking distance and on the right day can be fantastic.

Shame you didn’t get on with the Finisterre sizing as their stuff is great – really lightweight and quick to dry. I pretty much live in my Bise.

Sure the next size up would be too big?

Is there any other sort then? Here’s my two…

90kg weight limit and i’m 100kg without kit!)

That certainly ain’t going to work for me either!

Cheers guys.

How do Conti Mountain Kings handle the mud? They seem to be pretty popular as an all rounder with the big-wheel fraternity.

I’d heard mixed reports on that… some reviews I’ve read said that they were OK, but I suspect they were preferring to Californian style mud!

I used to be almost OCD in by obsession for fettling. Lack of time now means I’ve let things slip. Currently have two bikes in working order. One in bits.

Standard cycling shorts under baggies here. Endura Zyme 3/4s mainly. Don’t see the point of integral liners as they mean you can only wear the baggies once between washes. Separate shorts also mean that you can strip off your muddy kit at the door – thereby gaining spousal points without frightening the neighbours :D

If you’re fitting a BB with external bearings you may need to get the BB shell in the frame properly faced. Bike shop should do this for you for not much money… probably do it free if you buy the chainset from them.

I don’t mean to seem harsh but you say you’ve been stuck in the same role for three years. Have there genuinely been no opportunities to expand your existing role or take on additional responsibilities within the organisation in all that time?

I ask this because I was in exactly the same position after a period of about a year of unemployment post graduation – on the phones in a call centre. It is soul destroying, but for that reason I started volunteering for bits and pieces of offline stuff… just simple stuff like helping out with reporting to start off with. That got me off the phones permanently and eventually led to leading a reporting / data analysis team …. that in turn got me enough experience to jump ship after a few years into a “proper” IT role. From there I went into development, application support, business analysis etc. I’m now managing IT for a small company.

None of it was neccessarily planned, I’ve got no formal IT qualifications to speak of, and my technical knowledge in some areas isn’t all that great to be honest but I’ve generally found that just being enthusiastic and proactive about trying new things and being known as someone who is keen to help out and likes to learn new stuff goes a long way in terms of career development.

Again, I don’t mean to sound rude, but is it possible that your disillusionment with your current role is evident to those around you and may be holding you back from possible opportunities in your current company?

It doesn’t sound like retraining for a complete career change is the answer, particularly as it doesn’t sound like you really know what you want to do – you’ll more than likely end up in the same boat in a few years time, and in the meantime you’ll have lost out on a few years of work experience.

It sounds like you really need to try and get out of the rut you’ve got yourself into and start looking for opportunities to gain wider work experience (either in your current role or elsewhere) and start developing your own career rather than waiting for things to land in your lap.

Beard, singlespeed AND a reverse mullet brake set up…. nicher than niche!

This is another Jamie Oliver one….. with added caffeine! Really good.

http://monsgrantmorg.blogspot.com/2010/03/chilli-con-jamie.html

Moultons, Birdys, Bike Fridays and Airnimals all really great choices but if budget is a consideration I wouldn’t discound the Dahons… I’ve had a couple of them. A Speed D6 and a Jetstream P8 – both of which were used for commuting and occasional longer rides. They can cope with much more than you’d expect and like other posters have said they very much ride like “proper” bikes…apart from the funny looks from other folk! The D6 was actually my only bike for a while and I even slammed it offroad a few times! The Jetstream went like stink – used to drop roadies on expensive carbon bikes on a regular basis on my London commute (small wheels = great acceleration = great fun :D.

No rackmounts on the Jetstream though so for touring the Speed TR is the one to go for – steel frame, 24 speed and ready kitted out with 20″ specific rackage

http://www.dahon.com/bikes/2011/speed-tr

Some deals on for this at around £600 currently… oh and the other thing with all decent folding bikes is that there is a really good resale market if you don’t get on with them.

The one downside with folders for touring is however getting hold of the more niche parts – take spares of anything which is specific to the bike you bought.

Oh and be prepared for people to ask you about the bike everywhere you go… more people have shown an interest in the folders I’ve had than any of my MTBs.

I’ll pick up my anorak and flask of lukewarm orange drink on my way out thanks…

It shames me to say it but I stopped riding to work when the clocks went back as I couldn’t face riding back in the dark….(in my defence my route is really twisty Devon lanes with zero visibility at the best of times).

There’s a 65 year old guy who works at our place who turned up on his bike today though….

I think I need to MTFU and get some serious lights.

I bought one of these for my mum recently – she’s been really pleased with it. Netbook format but reasonably fast and decent sized keyboard and screen. Would meet your requirements and really good build quality too.

Sprocketjockey is there a lot of trail buzz with steel forks?

Not as much as you’d expect but depends on what you’re riding obviously…. it’s a particular riding style too. You need to be prepared to move around the bike a bit more and stay fairly loose rather than holding the bars in a death grip. I started out riding rigid steel bikes so it all feels pretty natural to me and TBH I really struggle on suspension bikes unless I’m riding really technical stuff.

Steel is pretty compliant and having a nice fat tyre on the front and some decent bars and grips helps a lot.

Pretty darn technical, I once had to find the shortest distance between two points in non-Euclidean space.

What tyres did you use?

love my Karate Monkey pretty much does everything

+1 :D

Surly LHT Disc or perhaps the Ogre if you wanted something a bit more suited to rough trails. Both 700C wheels, disks and decent hauling capacity?

http://surlybikes.com/bikes/disc_trucker

http://surlybikes.com/bikes/ogre

I’d also advise against a Roadrat for touring – great bikes but as a previous poster said, bit too springy for heavy loads.

I rode exclusively singlespeed for about 3 years before moving from Kent to Devon back in May. We live on Dartmoor where there are some madly steep hills. Still got one SS, which I use for commuting and shorter blasts, but also have geared bike for bigger days out.

Weirdly I’m still learning to use gears….. still doing contant mis-shifts and sometimes struggle to find the right gear for the conditions. I rode a hill earlier today on the gearie which although really horrible I’ve cleared a few times on the singlespeed and was genuinely struggling by about 3/4s of the way up.

I still much prefer the “feel” and directness of a singlespeed bike, but sadly local terrain makes it impractical (for me at least) as the only option.

Possibly. You need to make sure that as many teeth on the rear sprocket are “wrapped” or engaged as possible, otherwise it may well slip.

Alternatively, have you checked the chain for stiff links?

Perhaps post a pic of the tensioner if you’re still having problems.

Surely you’d be better off with this:

My one and only visit to Glastonbury was in the early 90s. Managed to defer any bowel evacuation to the Sunday afternoon by which time the chemical toilet cubicle I chose had an almost perfectly conical mound of cider-driven poo protruding a good 12inches above the rim, to which someone had added the crowning glory of – I kid you not – half a walnut.

Thanks all. Really useful advice. :-)

I don’t really care what other people think… I really like the retro look, and the bike it would be going on is very much in the trad mould.

The Spoon is a useful reference point… I use one currently. Top tube length isn’t too much of a concern…. it’s pretty long on the Surly, and my current saddle is on the mid point on the rails.

Nickability is a good point… not much chance here in the wilds, but will also be using the bike for some urban jaunts. I don’t use a QR seatpost though.

How about one of those fancy Alpe d’Huez ones?

Nice!…. but not sure budget will stretch.

We had the DPF fail on our Octavia at about 75K about a month after buying it. Replaced under warranty thankfully…. the exhaust pressure valve has also failed recently, but we got a roadside fix for that from Skoda assist. About £50 for the part – I now wonder whether that was the problem in the first place and perhaps the original DPF was actually OK. I’d recommend checking that out before doing anything drastic.

Thrashing it does help clean out the dpf, cos it makes the exhaust gas temperature a lot higher burning off any soot in there, and also elsewhere in the engine.

Advice we’ve been given by all the VAG techs we’ve spoken to was was to run it at a steady 2500 revs for 10 mins or so if the light comes on, rather than completely thrash the thing – ideally in 4th (cruise control helps), but I’ve also managed a regen in 3rd on country lanes. You need a constant running temp to clear the filter apparently rather than loads of peaky revs. It only comes on occasionally now, and the above always clears it pretty quickly.

I’m REALLY bad at pretty much all ball sports. I particularly hate golf and have only played a couple of times on municipal type courses and only then under great sufferance.

One of said occasions was on a mate’s stag weekend where he had a spur of the moment urge to have a go at the local council 9-hole course.

Morning after the night before, deeply hungover yet somehow managed to bag a hole in one off the third tee (rebound off a tree as I remember!).

Complete and utter fluke as I barely know one end of a golf club from the other and wasn’t even able to focus at the time.

The rest of the round was so bad I still lost!

Yep – get a wide footed sprocket.

I ran my RoadRat in absolutely that setup – Drop bar and 42:18 was pretty much on the money for mixed rural road / offroad and a few biggish hills.

I did run it like that in London on a couple of occasions and found it slightly too spinny though. 42:16 would probably be spot on for that type of riding.