I’ll be there… I’ll also be at a live QnA with Sven Nys tomorrow night, which will be streamed live on the Trek Factory Racing YouTube channel

C15 is narrower. I got the C17 and love it. Plenty miles on it and very comfy… Usually out for 4-5hours.

I do it with my android tablet by always saving my data to the SD card in the Garmin, then putting the card in my tab, and uploading it to STRAVA from there.

There’s a c2c router, off road, up north of Inverness in Scotland… heads over to Ulapool, Think it’s only about 50km.

I live in Innerleithen and know the area really well (on or off road) …. be very happy to show you around.

How are the Rimes for weather proofing?

I’m going through the exact same quandary just now and was leaning toward the Giro… But I’ve always used spesh shoes with success and so, especially after reading this, it may make sense to stick with these

There’s a lot of hiking to do around here, plus walking back up steep sections of trail to try and get them right. My spesh carbon race shoes are really comfy on the bike, and super efficient, but awful to walk in and let ask the grit and grime in during the muddy months.

Also likely to wear them for touring and bike packing, and don’t really want another pair just for that.

fixed that for you

Haha… Yeah, those two are kind of interchangeable. That said, I reckon the Sherpa definitely has more of a ‘purpose’ about it. Still lovely looking, mind.

Been toying with similar quandary myself… And have a similar current setup, in a Scott Genius 150mm 27.5 (err) er, or whatever you call them.

I want a bike for long distance xc type riding, riding through the winter and also some big, old school, proper mountain biking, epics.

I love simplicity and steel, with a stable of steel road and cross bikes, and sometimes I just want to leave the tech of the bounce and droppy post malarky behind.

I also live in Innerleithen and know full well that I’m not likely to shy away from some nice techy steep singletrack if I end up near some and the mood takes me.

I’ve narrowed it down to the Solaris (beautiful), the Sherpa (purposful) and also the Singular Swift (classy).

I’m leaning toward the swift for classy steel, and thinking fully rigid… seems like well proven, good value. However, the sherpa really looks like a bike that could tackle an awful lot.

Not sure if that helps you any.

I’ve got an equilibrium built up for winter and General Nasty weather riding. It’s definitely a road bike, with racy type geometry… Rides great with 25mm or 28mm tyres and still enough room for guards.

Now, I’m slightly biased toward steel bikes, as my summer bike as a steel enigma, with campy group and very light Strada 24spoke wheels. I love the looks and the ride quality, especially over massive distances. I used to ride carbon and just never felt ‘alive’ unless I was feeling super fast… Which is rare.

My equilibrium is built up with campy veloce groupo and proton traing wheels and a lovely set of Portland design works guards. I’ve no trouble ride with my buddies on their posh carbon numbers. Covered 100mile yesterday, in the pi$$ing rain! around the Scottish boards… And was very glad on the comfy ride and lack of spray off the road.

Right – I want all future options available to me, so I’ll be ordering a belt driven, rohloff, stoater plus… with additional dropouts for standard gears, just in case.

After popping in to see the lovely chaps at Shand on last week… I’ve finally decided to push the order button on a Stoater.

Question is, rohloff or derailleur?

And, if rohloff, which I’m leaning toward… chain, or belt drive?

I want a bike that I can take anywhere and ride (almost) anything. This is totally a bike for life.

Ill be keeping the mountain bike, and summer and winter road bikes (both lovely steel afairs, with campy derailleur gearing). But I want a bike I can go traveling on, and take traveling with me. Sometimes it’ll be loaded up for long tours, sometime unloaded for big days. Some times skinny slicks, others knobblies.

Reason for the rohloff the simplicity and low maintenance. I’ll be fitting the frame with S&S couplings and the hub gear will make for simple dismantling and reassembling.

I also have 2 derailleur geared rd bikes, one lf which is the light and fast one, and I’m not interested in selling it.

To that aim, I’m leaning to belt drive too…. but I’m a bit nervous of the technology. Steven Shand had a lot of good stuff to say about his belt driven simglespeed, which is starting to sway me.

So, what are your thoughts people?

Yes. The gap between the plates on the chain is the same for 9 or 10 speed… possibly 8 speed too, IIRC.

so chainring teeth width is also same.

Shimonoseki mt55 seem pretty good if you don’t want to spend much. Mine seem to be holding up well.

Otherwise, if you want posh then I wouldn’t look past hope hoops with stand rims… Crest, arch or flow depending on likely tyre choice and application.

I’ve got the c17 cambium and it’s lovely. Only using it on road, but for lengthy rides on rough roads. Very comfy straight out the box. Road in a downpour on Tuesday and it didn’t seem at all bothered.

Here’s my gryphon en route.

I just built a singular gryphon for that very purpose.

I decided I wanted drop bars to offer increased hand positions for long journeys. .. Particularly for lengthy Road sections where a slightly more aero position will help.

Staying full rigid for simplicity and efficiency. .. dont really miss the bounce on 29 inch wheels.

Loving it so far.

Next step is custom frame bags for multi day adventure. .. and dynamo hub paying a usb point to charge my exposure lights, garmin, smartphone etc

Shame those frame you ‘found’ !!?? are in large… I’ll be needing a med, or a small.

What’s the lead time/waiting list on the Stoater FT just now guys? I’ve been lusting after one for a year and now I’ve had a few rides on the singular gryphon I built up recently, I’m convinced that I can justify it.

BadlyWiredDog
Liking the look of this mountain equipment hybrid down/primaloft bag. Best of both worlds with the hydrophobic down.

That’s worth knowing NorthCountryBoy

I’ll check with the Edinburgh store.

Water resistant down? What is this magical material of which you speak? Any links?

The laminar series do seem to get gery high ratings…. might end up with that.

DrP … That is a basket, but a particularly cool one that would look ace on my charge steamer!

Not quite what I’m after here though.

ElShalimo
the three Brethren it is indeed. Lovely route for a forest ride on the gryphon

Ahhh… These would allow cage mounting to the fork legs
zefal cage gizmo

Yeah. P clips and something like this

otherwise … The anything cage had certainly crossed my mind. My Forks don’t have mounts. Can you get clips to attatch bottle cages where there are no mounts?

I got mine from Wiggle: Lots of colour options too – though I went with boring black.[/url]

Very Sensible ‘b r’

Reckon their must be locals involved – even if it’s just them giving out the information.

Snaily, are you in inners too ? Yeah, I’m hearing same thing.

You’d think someone would know who it was… Must be someone local involved

I have to admit that with Orange getting rid of the 26″ wheel Five, is making me lean toward a 650b bike… hence the Scott.

Little concerned over the amount of ‘technology’ on it that could cause issues though.

Rocky Mountain not on the list unfortunately.

The Mega TR looks like ace fun, but suspect I’d regret it the first time I headed out on a marathon ride.

Thanks for the bumps folks – doubt I’ll get mine back, but keen to keep people aware that there’s clearly someone in the area up to no good 🙁

Hi all….

Hi Chris,
Huge apologies. I haven’t ripped you off, but can understand you being Pi$$3d off with the delay. Ive been away over christmas and new year and only got back on Sunday. I didn’t manage to get your stuff posted before going away and this last couple of weeks has been pretty tough (personal stuff, though not making excuses).

I have your c set and stem boxed and in the car for posting tomorrow but would be more than happy to refund your cash if you’d prefer.

Will email you, but wanted to make a public apology.

Flange: will you be selling the 105 on it?

Hi,
Route mention by Druidh above would work.

I did Innrleithen to Cheshire last summer on a similar route…
A7 out of Edinburgh to just south of Gorebridge… Then turn R onto B709 and follow that through Innerleithen (where I started) to Langholm then back on the A7 to Longtown. …
Then I carried on to Carlisle and then hopped on the A6. All lively until it got busier and flatter at Preston and Lancaster.

That was a 200mile ride, solo, that took my 14.5hours inc lunch and snack stops… And a couple of punctures.

Taking a more easterly route, I just road the A68 to Darlington on my quest for London from Edinburgh – 400miles in 3 days… Raising money for mental health charity, Mind.

There’s info on my challenge inc details on the route, and my training here. Biggestjourney.com

Yep – there’s a lot of truth in that statement. Incredibly inspirational guy,

Thanks Mike,

And, yes, agreed.

Not long to go now! You’ll be able to track my journey live on the homepage of the website next week. Would appreciate some support folks!

And, incase you didn’t catch in the other week in midweek mini movies – here’s a more mountain bike themed video diary from my training.

Thanks Haggis – You can see my route here[/url] … not overly lovely, but it’s direct.

Thanks Alan.

Launch event went really well yesterday. Big thanks to all who came along. Pics and write up on the website soon.

Last couple days of proper training this weekend, before nice taper off this week – the Biggest Journey starts a week on Tuesday, 19th June. You’ll be able to track my progress on the website and twitter, live.

Thanks Kunstler!

Was interesting to see the announcement today that National Health suggest no link between exercise easing symptoms of depression… which is in contradiction to a lot of people I’ve been talking to of late.

Would love to see you on the 19th!

You can still book to come to this – it really helps with knowing numbers…. or if you find you’re free, just turn up on the day.

If you’d like to know more about what I’m doing and why, feel free to ask… I’m very happy to talk openly about this.

Cheers for listening folks 🙂