Alex, nope, no lateral thinking applied. I bought a new belt. £15 for a strip of leather with a fairly basic buckle.

For that money I could have gone to Greggs and lined up 30 scotch pies, that would have ensured my trousers stayed up too and be much more pleasant.

The advantage of city centre office is that shopping is no bother and I am unlikely to ened to do the office equivalent of “forgotten PE kit” lucky dip.

No belt today.

A lunchtime shopping mission beckons…

There’s an occasional bug that stops the history transferring to PC; goes back quite a while (was an issue for me last summer anyway). It seems to only happen when I do a lot of rides without connecting to a PC.

If you connect to PC then go into the folder structure and delete the oldest folder in the “Laps” folder (I think this is in the “history” section, but I don’t have my Garmin in front of me) then the history and data for the subsequent rides will transfer. You loose the datapoints for the one ride that was stored in “laps”, but it holds total distance/ time/ kCal data for that somehow (that is using Training Center – haven’t used Connect).

For avoiding the bug, resetting the GPS before switching off the unit or connecting it to a PC seems to stop it happening if it’s the same bug I was getting (reset by holding lap for 3 seconds, not a hard reset!).

EDIT: Backing everyting up onto your hard drive before trying this isn’t a bad idea!

molgrips, yes, which was kind of the problem.

The traditional model would be to colonise and either wipe out the natives or put them to work for you (not that there were many in Darien, being basically a malarial swamp), fortify and make it yours, then start making money out of it.

I take it you mean the deliberate sabotaging of it by English financial and imperial interests.

That was part of the problem, to be sure, but the Spanish weren’t too keen on anyone setting up shop in their territory either (and why would any rival get one over them if they could easily avoid it).

The Darien Company wasn’t well managed and Scotland simply wasn’t strong enough to back it up when the going got tough.

Go on, google “Darien Adventure”.

Compare and contrast to our recent banking misadventures.

Freedom from what exactly?

Braveheart rhetoric doesn’t fund public services or pay of Scotland’s share of the national debt, sadly.

We’re on the road to the “arc of prosperity”.

Bugger.

We would have saved £20 for a two car policy with Admiral. The benefits didn’t seem so good as separate policies and rollover of “no claims” to separate policies if you leave them weren’t at all clear. So we didn’tbother

Sweet. We went to the ‘tress today. It was rad, but wasn’t half as rad as that. Chapeau.

Hill reps.

I popped ribs out last summer and had to get strength back PDQ for a sportive (Bealach Mor). Found a short quiet hill on the road about 10-15 mins pedal from home. Was about 40m climb in 400m and got steeper towards the top so pretty much perfect.

Did an hour session – 15 mins out, smash myself in up and down it 10-12 times (alternating seated and standing) and 15 mins home. Made a huge difference to my climbing strength for an hour a week for a month.

At risk of stating the obvious – losing weight helps too (if you have any to loose). Climbing is all about power to weight – hill reps help with power, diet helps with weight.

Just had a bottle of Brewdog Hardcore IPA, and very nice it was too.

MM, Google Maps, Tracklogs all work fine when you’re going uphill or downhill, but not when you are crossing slopes.

They work by holding a matrix of altitude data (typically a 100m grid of spot heights) and then they interpolate between them to get the height at a specific point. So on the flat it should return the right heights, and if you’re pretty much going straight up a steep slope it’s good too. Problem is, if you’re crossing a slope then MM puts you as crossing a flat surface between its spots – a real track will pretty much be level in real life (or steadily up or steadily down on a 100m scale), but because horizontal position is “true” and vertical is “approx” it will look to the software like there are loads of little ups and downs as it wiggles about on the surface of it’s elevation model.

If you want to see an extreme version of the problem, have a look in 3D at the road that runs round Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh when it’s on the south side of the hill (in Tracklogs at least this is all over the shop). Or look at pretty much any view of sea cliffs – the sea will run up and down the cliffs quite a lot when you know the sea is really (for this purpose!) level in real life.

Robgairrioch – by an Edge 605, the Bealach Mor was 2050m ascent/ descent in 2008 and 2020m in 2010.

Was so wet in 2009 the GPS got confused (the “blowhole” gets blocked and it goes bonkers as it can’t reconcile air pressure to GPS alt data).

Your ride is an average of 11% gradient all the way around. 2700m of ascent + 2700m of descent = 5400m of altitude change in 50km = 11% average; that is both ups and downs.

GT black, which feels like entirely up or down is +/-1000m in about 27km = 7.4% average.

Are you sure the stats you have are accurate? If so, sounds like a beast.

Did 1500m in 52km in 4h 20min (all per GPS with barometric altitude) on Saturday from Pitlochry and that felt like a lot of climbing. The last climb was mostly on grass which was the real killer…

I guess a lot will depend on surface you’re riding on, wind, weather etc. Go for it and if able, report back!

Rode it Summer 2009. Started from Bedoin (only did it as an up and down) and went up via Chalet Reynard – on my Cannondale Synapse with a triple.

First couple of km is fine, then it starts to kick up to its steady 9-10% as you go into the forest. Really a case of settling into a steady climbing rythym up through the forest to Chalet Reynard and keeping the pedals turning. It’s weird as the gradient is so consistent (as it is pretty much straight up with very few hairpins) and you can’t see very far as it is quite dense woodland with few breaks to give you any sort of view – as long as you can keep the legs turning over it’s fine. I found that quite hard towards the top as I was used to using the gradient to determine seated or out of the saddle and you can’t really do that on Ventoux. After Chalet Reynard you pop out into the open and it’s just weird – landscape, altitude, scenery. The wind can be a mega factor and the gradient fluctuates all over the place. And you can see the summit observatory and you don’t realise how big it is so it never seems to get closer. Last couple of km were a killer as they are after the relatively easy bit after Chalet Reynard so feel all the steeper, plus you’ll have close to a vertical mile in your legs. Very glad to get to the top, so I was.

It’s hard, but it’s not the hardest climb ever. Thing about it is, if you do MTB stuff then it’s not too bad at any one point, and there are worse, if shorter, climbs in the Alps (Col de la Joux Plan from Samoens to Morzine is harder IMO).

Top tips
– set off early in summer. We were riding at 8 (the bars in Bedoin are open at that time). Was 20C when we set off and 40C when we got back – it was like descending into a hand dryer.
– take extra layers. I took a gilet and armwarmers and was glad of it.
– have a bike you are very comfortable with, and with gearing you can pull it off on. A triple with a 27 in my case, though I only used 30-27 at the very end.
– drink and eat when you can (mainly bottom and Chalet Reynaud)
– the observatory is really f*ing huge. So if it is small, it is really far away.
– watch the wind. We did it on a windless day at the bottom and it was still pretty breezy at the top. Proper wind will kill you.
– be really, really careful on the descent.

Most of all, enjoy it. I rode it in a oner, without stopping, or crying, or being sick and I am well chuffed by that (though clearing the Moronne climb out of Braemar on a heavy bike was, I feel, a bigger achievement for a fat lad). I think I was about 1h 50 – 1h 55.

[/url]
Mont Ventoux – summit pic[/url] by Stu_N[/url], on Flickr

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Mont Ventoux – summit from Tom Simpson monument[/url] by Stu_N[/url], on Flickr

2 hours outta Edinburgh = Bandit Country in all directions I reckon. Don’t know if they are open in the evening but possibilities:

Sunflower, Peebles
Pines at Eddleston
Tearoom at Broughton
Cafe at Carnwath (if you go out through West Lothian and back via Dunseyre/ Leadburn)
Whitmuir Organics (between Leadburn and Romano Bridge on the A701)
Biker’s place at St Mary’s Loch
Somewhere in Dolphinton I think (but never been)

Struggling for other ideas to be fair.

Wanted

Rover 3500 (SD1)

or

Ford Capri 2.8i special

or

Audi Quattro

Probably varied almost daily at that age.

Had

VW Jetta Mk.1.

Pretty good IME – a match for Amazon etc, if not a massive saving over them. They discount everything a bit too, even stuff (iPads for example) that isn’t normally discounted. I bought an iPod there a couple of years ago – used one of the laptops to confirm it was actually cheaper than Amazon. 🙂

It’s not a classic IPA for sure, but as a light hoppy ale I like it.

The new recipe for Punk isn’t entirely to my liking, preferred the old one, but as long as they don’t **** with Trashy Blonde I don’t mind.

I had a bottle of Riptide Imperial Stout last night that was most delightful.

I like their Trashy Blonde, 77 lager and Punk IPA best though. Look forward to having a pop at Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink The Bismark when the opporchancity presents itself.

Barra to Butt surely depends more on wind and ferry timings than riding skillz?

We speaks the truth innit.

Sleeper trains are AMAZING.

I was on a secondment to London for a while and the sleeper-enabled weekend at Fort William World Cup was one of the best weekends of my life.

Top moment – the dude at the tube barrier at Canary Wharf on a Monday morning being so flabberghasted at the £300ish return fare he let me through despite that just including Zone 1 underground 🙂

Euston to Aviemore FTW.

Be sure to have a few scoops so you sleep OK. Wake up in Aviemore, sort out a bag drop at your B&B. Breakfast at Mountain Cafe, some of best riding in the entire world beckons.

Dinner at Old Bridge Inn. Sleep. Repeat riding experience on Sunday on different trails. Dinner in Aviemore then train home.

Sleep.

Back to work on Monday.

Job done.

TJ -not mutually exclusive.

I did a road ride from Aberdeen – Dundee – Glasgow – Edinburgh – Gala – Newcastle last year for charidee. 350 miles and £600 for Alzheimers Scotland.

And really enjoyed it (apart from the bit where it was raining so hard we had to hide in a bus shelter near Arbroath, and the bit when I got clipped by a car that overtook me at a traffic island, got into an arguement with driver who insisted there was loads of room to pass, and got punched by said angry driver. But that’s another story. And the polis took him away anyway).

Tour of cairngorms?

http://www.offroadadventures-online.com/rr014.html

Or possibly 2 laps using the shorter version using the Geldie and Feshie between Braemar and Glen Feshie.

IXUS 105 in slightly minging blue for £105?

There was one day on Harris that it was too windy to ride. At one point we were really concerned that the car was going to get blown off the road. And it’s the only place I have seen a significant waterfall go up the way.

Still, once the Atlantic storm had blown over it was one of the most amazing places I have ever been.

Oh, and Edinburgh buses were 80p in 2002 when I moved here – allowing for inflation should be £1.06 now – not £1.30 as they will be next week….

When I started drinking in about 1992 and I could get 4 pints for a fiver. (John Smith’s Magnet was ale of choice – lager was too dear). In real terms (i.e. correcting for inflation on RPI) it should be 2.06 a pint. Fortunately I now need about 1/3 less beer to get happily pished so it all balances out.

Oh, and the current job pays better than the Saturday and Sunday morning newsagent jobs I had back then.

Out one evening a couple of winters ago. Flat canal towpath, just couldn’t get the bike to move forwards into the teeth of the gale and was in serious danger of ending up in the canal.

(Union Canal Towpath at Polwarth for those who know it – the bit between Viewforth and Yeaman Place; high tenements either side and a howling westerly.)

I’ll go for a bit of “usual route to the bridge”.

Long singletrack through some birch woodland, the best bit starts at a tight lefthander with a root across it, where what was a flat trail starts to pick up a bit more gradient. Jink round the fallen silver birch, across a wee gully and out straight over the treestump (but only if it’s dry – otherwise the slower route round it). A few hard pedal strokes to pick up speed, gentle lefthand curve with some little roots to one side that can give you a wee booster as it turns into a sweeping righthander. Straightens up and you rattle over some roots then carve the tightening offcamber lefthander that has just enough berm to hold a bike away from the edge (10-15m steep drop to a river below). Nip between the two birches and the gradient eases and speed carried from the steeper bit bleeds away as you come out into the open. Best 250 yards over. Another km to go.

Classic STW response in that I haven’t read the link (as it’s blocked from here) but seems a bit of an extreme conclusion from the summary you give.

First thing to ask is what is the baseline risk – i.e. that of having a heart attack at your desk? And then, does doubling that risk by exercising make any meaningful difference to the actual risk you face?

Say it’s a one in three risk, doubling it clearly does matter. But say it’s a (more realistic) one in an hundred thousand, putting that up to one in two hundred thousand doesn’t make any meaningful difference to an individual’s risk does it?

Is increased risk of heart attack the only thing covered in the paper?

What about the other risks and benefits of irregular exercise?

Etc Etc Etc.

My Rush.

Never weighed it but shouldn’t be heavy.

Sneak preview of the Innerleithen cafe.

dazzlingboy – Member

Janet’s Brae is OK going from Peebles to Glentress as you get a decent descent out of it, but the other direction not so good

Was thinking Peebles – Hydro – up Janet’s Brae forest road to Buzzard’s Nest then down to Hub via blue/ Falla Brae

Starting from the Hub you climb up to Buzzard’s Nest then down the forest road. I know there are a few wee trails down Janet’s Brae, or you can drop into Soonhope, but I’d be reluctant to haul my ass up to Buzzard’s Nest for that at the end of a day.

GW – Don’t agree.

Say I am staying in Peebles for a weekend – do you drive to Glentress, pay £3 to park or pedal out on a flat path for 10 minutes? I know what I would do.

Janet’s Brae is OK going from Peebles to Glentress as you get a decent descent out of it, but the other direction not so good.

A lot to be said for having a flat linking trail running down the valley – the great climbs and descents don’t all start in the same points so having an offroad trail to ship between them is a good thing IMO.

Thinking routes like Innerleithen – Traquair – Southern Upland Way – Blackwater Farm – Pikestone Hill – Peebles Ridge – Peebles, for example; the return would make good use of the new path.

Linking Innerleithen, Glentress and Peebles is an ace idea IMO.

You can ride into Glentress from Peebles up Janet’s Brae but it’s not a flat route, likewise you can get to Cardrona from GT offroad then Innerleithen by the back road, but it’s neither obvious nor traffic free.

It will be a good link for “serious” MTBers, and should give a nice loop for families and recreational cyclists by going out the new path, back on the B road on the south side of the Tweed from either Cardrona or Innerleithen.

The plan was talked about years ago – looked to refurbish the old railway bridge at Cardrona rather than build an entirely new one but we’ll see what transpires.

I was a pre-order subscriber, but how much I paid I have no idea.

It was 10 years ago after all 🙂

We’ve always driven from Zeebrugge and tolls were about €60 or €70.

If time isn’t crucial, you can save quite a bit of money by going through Belgium and Luxembourg – no tolls until you get to Metz. Luxembourg is also the home to cheap diesel – IIRC was just under €1 a litre when it was €1.30 in France. France is about on a par with the UK for fuel. If you have time and tee it up so the tank is empty in Luxembourg it can save a decent amount of money.