Al, Rush is 110 each end, Prophet MX 160 front/ 140 rear.

Wasn’t much to choose between the two when the Prophet had 140 Pikes on it but now it’s been Burled Up [TM] with the 36s it’s back in favour.

I’ve got a Rush and a Prophet MX. It’s a good combo.

Rush is built up fast and light and is a superb endurance race bike, great for trail centres and a good long distance mile muncher. It replaced a Spesh FSR120 and is a much better bike than that in every way you can imagine.

Prophet is a good all rounder too – before I got the Rush it got ridden quite a bit, after not so much. Have carved it a new niche with Float 36s, now it’s the daddy again. Great for tech riding in Spain, summer Alps trips, and big days out in Scotland. Also good for confidence, some steps and chutes near home I’ve primed on the Prophet and then gone back and seconded on a lesser bike.

At the moment I like having both and there is enough to differentiate them – if I had to choose one I reckon a Prophet with Pikes and light wheels would do 90% of stuff 90% as well as the Rush or MX, and I could keep my heavy wheels and 36s for the fun stuff. Fortunately I don’t have to compromise at the moment.

I can do an offroad route that’s about 32km – of which about 3km of that is public road and 29km offroad, though some of the “offroad” section is tarmac (farm tracks and cycle paths through parks, for example) so about 7% road.

It is possible to do a route that’s again about 32km with about 1/2 km on public roads (about 20m out the door at home and 400m from the end of Union canal to work in centre of Edinburgh) but I never do that as the bit that misses out the longest bit of road on the route I do use with 7% offroad has 12 stiles in 2km on it and lots of steps and is just too annoying to actually use if trying to go anywhere.

That said, it’s 100% road normally as it’s much quicker and I am not so good at getting up in the morning to do the offroad commute!

1. 6 years, roughly, mostly in Edinburgh. Wildly varying mileage. Probably 10k-15k miles overall?

2. none

3. 3 times.

First one was on my way to a Sat morning MTB ride and a pedestrian just walked out in front of me without looking when I was about 10 feet away – couldn’t do anything, hit him in the stomach with bars and landed hard on top of him. I was OK. He less so. Bus behind me locked up and stopped about 6 feet short. Both very lucky not to get hit by bus I reckon.

Second time a cock in a Golf pulled out on me at a junction – he looked straight at me then went anyway and I went into the side of him hard enough to twist the bars. Then he just smiled at me and drove off. I chased him down the Grassmarket, got a reg and description and went to the Police. No witnesses so not a lot I could do, but police at least followed it up and he was called in for interview under caution which would have hopefully put the shits up him if nothing else.

Third time, about a couple of weeks after #2, a woman did the classic “nearly overtake and turn left” on me and took me off. Lucky not to get squashed between her and barriers. Picked up some bruises and a bit of road rash. Bent bars and scraped shifters which she refused to pay for when I presented her with the bill – BC solicitors went after her and I got my Soul frame with the compo.

1 and 2 I couldn’t have done anything about, 3 taught me a bit about road positioning and a lot about ignoring cycle lanes if they put you in a dangerous position on the road.

My paternal grandparents both spoke Gaelic as a first language, yet my dad doesn’t speak a word of gaelic. The language was seen as backward and a hindrance to progress in the 50s and 60s when he was growing up, so he was never taught it. It is still strong in the Western Isles, to a lesser extent on Skye and rare the further south and east you go.

It never was the language of the whole of Scotland – Scots was widely spoken around the Moray coast, down through Angus and in much of south and east of the country. You can see the boundary as it was around 1800 – 1850 when maps were being made and names documented on OS maps.

I like the bilingual signs, to the extent the placenames ever were in Gaelic. The example of Queen Street Station is a good one, it only came about when Scotrail put Gaelic names on all the West Highland Line stations whether they had originally had one or not.

Gaelic is an essential part of our cultural heritage and should be preserved – not at any expense, but at a reasonable expense. Given the rubbish this country wastes billions of pounds on, I think it’s reasonable to spend something to preserve it.

A language is a living thing, and when it’s gone it’s gone, you can’t get it back. It’s probably too late for Cornish and Manx but Gaelic could be saved, it’s probably in the same state as Welsh and Irish Gaelic were in 20 or 30 years ago. The roadsigns, if nothing else, raise awareness of the language and are a visible signal that it still exists.

Bridge of Orchy hotel is pretty good, have stayed there quite a few times. It’s not _quite_ in your area, but if you run up Loch Etive from Taynuilt and through Glen Kinglass to Loch Tulla, you come out at Bridge of Orchy and from there you can pick up the West Highland Way south as far as you want to go – and it’s parallel with the railway line.

As far as I know there’s nothing decent in Tyndrum or Crianlarich, though coming from East Central Scotland don’t really pass through that area much.

It’s a bit random. I’ve had this discussion with my girlfriend who used to be vegetarian but ate fish and seafood, and now eats venison and outdoor reared “happy” meat occasionally, cooked rare of course…

Does he mean he would eat anything that lives in water? In which case, crustaceans and molluscs should be OK if fish are in the firing line. But what about squid and octopuses, arguably as “clever” as some mammals but molluscs all the same. Any issues with snails, which are basically waterproof shellfish? Then we move onto dolphins and whales – fair game? They live in the sea too. Then there are seals and penguins whose lives are almost entirely linked to the sea and they spend masses of time at sea. And what about otters, hippopotamuses, ducks and swans?

Litter – inner tubes and gel wrappers, especially.

People who are impolite and inconsiderate to others (other riders, walkers, equestrians)

“Excusers” – i.e. people who blame their failings on anything but themselves. Wrong tyre choice/ pressure, not having the big bike, anything other than them being not fit enough or not skilled enough.

Sorry – link FAIL in my post – itinerary came from the “Current Events” page here:

http://www.currieridingofthemarches.tk/

The ride route and timings for 2009 are as follows:-

0920 Depart Heriot Watt University, East Car Park. Parking for trailers and lorries will be here.

0930 Arrive Heriot Watt Statue, exchanging of rosettes with Principal.

0940 Depart Heriot Watt Statue, ride led by outgoing Ensign and Equerry. The ride will leave the back entrance of the campus and proceed up Curriehill Road past the train station turning left on to Riccarton Avenue.

1007 Arrive Weavers Knowe Green, meet other horses/riders

1010 Sashing Ceremony of new Ensign and Equerry with distinguished guests.

1030 Depart Weavers Knowe Green, the Ride will pass along Muir Wood Road to Lanark Road West, Ensign and Equerry to touch the boundary at Juniper Green. The ride will proceed up Blinkbonny Road through Blinkbonny Village.

1055 Rosebank Farm, Kirkgate. Rough Ride section begins, off Road through Pentland Hills Regional Park.

1235 Arrive Bonaly Car Park and continue on to lunch stop at last field on the right before the bypass.

1245 Arrive Lunch Stop

1305 Depart Lunch Stop via Bonaly Road , Munro Drive, Fernielaw Avenue, Woodhall Road, Woodhall Mains Farm, Off Road to Blinkbonny Road, Kirkgate onto Old Station Yard by Currie Kirk.

1345 Depart Currie Goods Yard, We welcome our lead rein riders to join at this point.

1405 Depart Waulkmill Loan, across Lanark Road West, Ensign and Equerry to touch Balerno boundary, Stewart Avenue, Dolphin Road ,Pentland View.

1415 Pentland View/ Curriehill Road

1420 Arrive Riccarton Arms Hotel, preceded by Heriot Watt Pipe Band. Presentation of Best Turned Out Rosette.

1435 Depart Riccarton Arms Hotel for Heriot Watt Campus, via Lanark Road West and Riccarton Mains Road.

1500 Arrive Heriot Watt University East Car Park.

We look forward to seeing you on the day!

That’s a difficult distance to do around there as easy to do a shorter or longer loop. Using the train opens up a lot of options though.

Would recommend any of these:

1) Get the train to Corrour Halt and ride back via Loch Trieg, Ciaran path, Blackwater Dam, the awesome path on the N side of River Leven then WHW through Lairig Mor to Fort William.

2) Train to Corrour, then ride back via Loch Treig, Allt na Lairig to Lairig Leacach Bothy (a fair section from Loch to Bothy will be a push unless it is VERY dry), drop down Landrover track to junction at GR253793, use bridge at 238784 then follow track up W side of burn to reconnect with tramway at 230768 (the tramway between the path to the bothy to this point is not worth the bother, missing bridges etc so not worth attempting) and follow this W until you’re virtually under the Gondola – you can then pick up bits of Witches Trail to take you out at the North Face car park (at 148770) and pick up the cycleway they built for the World Cup. Pay respects to Jason McIntyre as you pass the Roads Depot, then back into Fort William via Great Glen Way along the shore. This probably works better in reverse from a pure riding point of view, but doing it as I have suggested avoids the stress of needing to be at Corrour by a given time to get a particular train!

3) Get train to Bridge of Orchy and ride back along WHW over Rannoch Moor, Devil’s Staircase, Kinlochleven and Lairig Mor.

4) Start in Fort William, follow (2) in reverse then from Lairig Leacach Bothy head for Luibielt, down the side of Loch Eilides Mor and Beag, then stay high past Mamore Lodge hotel to pick up the WHW back to Fort William. Don’t ever be tempted to cut down to Glen Nevis from Luibielt, there lies MADNESS.

They are all good days, would recommend any of them, though definitely full days out. (1) is the most Tech followed by (4). Not sure on distance but probably most nearer 40 miles than 30, all offroad though all have quite a lot of landrover track so are reasonably quick riding for a lot of them.

Great, thanks both.

We usually do this one:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/roast-cauliflower-with-venison-haggis-and-gamekeepers-sauce-1365942.html

Prefer to replace the haggis with good black pudding though.

For doing the joint, we usually cook it using a meat thermometer to control the cooking. Basically start with the meat at room temperatute, seal the joint thoroughly and all over it in a very hot pan then whack it in a hot oven (about 230C) until the joint is heading for its cooked temperature. For rare we do cook to 50C, then move it into a warm place until it hits about 60C, for medium about 55 and 65 respectively. Top oven or grill above oven is ideal. Cook uncovered or in a loose wrap – the pan seal and hot oven should stop it drying out. Cooking time depends on the thickness of the joint, roughly 5 mins per cm thickness in the oven and same again in the warm oven.

For drinking, we usually avoid a Cabernet Sauvignon based wine as the dry mouth feel from the tannins doesn’t go terribly well with the roast venison (and we can’t afford the sort of Cab Sauv that would go well!) – an Australian Shiraz is usually a winner, or a St Emillion or similar Merlot-driven Bordeaux.

Anyone who claims Glentress is smooth and groomed is going to a different Glentress to the one I know.

Hardtail for shits and giggles, full suspension for outright speed on the downs and “coming back the next day reasonably freshness”.

Mast to Deliverance gets my money’s worth out of the Prophet; fair enough, it’s not as rough and rocky as a lot of the realmountain(TM) trails in Scotland or Spain but if you rode it with a cup of water on your crossbar you’d definitely spill it all within seconds. SCIENCE FACT.

Star Singletrack
Valley Path
Playground steps
Bus Stop of Certain Doom
Cinder Path (top or bottom)
Under Railway
Climb of Slime
Choice of Old Tramway, Normal Way, Prince Philip Woods and Hedgehog Rim
Stone of Destiny
Almond Bridge (though actually it’s not over the Almond, but I thought it was)
Shortcut Path
Back of Sewerage Works
Badger Path
Dan’s Steps
MacPuppy Path
Sustrans Path
Pothole Path
Choice of Ned Estate Run or Knacker Chipshop
Buckfast Path
Lodge St John Gate
Back of Cemetary
Behind the Houses
Dadump Steps
River Path
Star Singletrack

And can I say, it is riding lovely at the moment.

If he’d gone to his doctor and shown him a pic of the wife, I’m sure he’d get porn on the NHS. The prescription charge would probably have gone through expenses all the same though.

0730 up
0840 out the house
0950 at Balmaha
1020 riding in SW highlands in wonderful sunshine – really is that dream time of year where trails are dry, weather is good and the midge isn’t out. Could have got away with shorts, just about.
Rode Balmaha – Garadnban Forest – Drymen Road Cottage – Loch Ard Forest – Loch Chon – Loch Arklet – Inversnaid – Loch Lomondside section of WHW – Balmaha
1640 stop riding 43 miles later, a grand day out indeed. Crisps and Irn Bru as a post ride snack (when in Balmaha, act like a weegie)
1830 home
1900 pizza, Cotes du Rhone, garlic bread, salad
2011 finish random post on internet.

Is it not all an elaborate cover-up to divert people away from the fact she claimed for watching Oceans 13 not once but twice? That’s far more shocking if you ask me.

Once, I can just about understand but to go through that again smacks of stupidity.

Out of interest, who on here reckons they would get fired for claiming adult movies on their work expenses? I reckon it would leave me with at least an uncomfortable discussion with boss/ HR.

was the13thdeadmonk or something similar. Most excellent posts, I had saved links to some of them before hack as inspiration.

He’s about with a similar username (13thfloormonk maybe) and still posting.

Cheap bearings can’t be done in my experience (though I’d love to be proved wrong). They are some freak bearing size that none of the bearing suppliers I’ve tried can get hold of. I usually get them from Chelmer Cycles or Thumbprint Tuning.

Swapping them is OK as long as you work out how to get the steerer out. Top tip – remove the plastic “plug” in the top before you knock it, they are quite easily damaged. Ahem.

There there are two designs I’m aware of.
– The newer design (about 2007 onwards), you undo the bolts and drift the steerer out from the middle and take the fork off sideways.
– The old one with bolt on clamp at the top and a bonded clamp at the bottom needs the lefty leg top cap removed. You usually need to remove rebound adjusters and lockout levers first – they either just pull off or have small grub screws for a very small hex key in the side. Most older top caps unscrew with a big spanner (like 32mm or more) or a pin spanner. Some newer ones use a HT2 bottom bracket tool. You can basically lift the top clamp off and the steerer/ lower clamp will just drop out.

The bearings should come out easy enough without the steerer in there. They are an interference fit, there’s no preload wedge like on an Aheadset, so usually requires a bit of hammer action to refit them. At risk of stating the obvious, put a smear of grease on metal to metal contacts so they don’t sieze, and use a soft faced hammer, or a bit of wood when you hit stuff so you don’t dent it. The bottom bearing will seat itself as you knock the steerer back in but the top one can be a bit tricky – I have a bit of fat aluminium tube I use that fits over it, might need a bit of cunning as there’s not many things big enough to go round the steerer to get pressure on both sides of the bearing so it goes in square.

Hope this helps!

I’m about 30 – 35 miles from Carron Valley, Glentress and Blairadam.

Can be offroad in 20 metres from the door and now it’s sort of like Spring, can ride for a couple of hours, without using more than a few hundred metres of road at a time and with very limited repeats. And I reckon about 2/3rds of that would be on singletrack.

I like where I live.

I’ve always flown before last year but also had just gone for a week of biking. If I was doing that again then I would just fly as its quicker and gives you less time travelling and more time riding.

On the other hand, if you drive you can do more stuff and make it more of a holiday. Last year we had a few days in Morzine, a few days with a mate near Grenoble, a week with BikeVillage and a couple of nights in nice hotels in wine villages on the way home. We took MTBs and road bikes and did both, did some touristing and came back with a couple of cases of very nice wine (which we are still working our way through!).

This year we’re driving again. Excellent.

My grandad was a merchant seaman, racked up dozens of crossings of the north atlantic and a couple of convoys to Archangel. Through his stories I gained an affection for these things:

And a disaffection for these:

LOL@theflatboy

and if that’s stream of conciousness i want some of what the op is on

I had BirdNav which worked surprisingly well (as the bird isn’t so good at reading in a car without being sick).

She got a bit confused near Lille due to mad numbering of roads and Flemish/ French place names but we headed for the placename we didn’t recognise as I knew the others were in the wrong direction and that panned out just fine, haven’t seen the cheeky lane changes on “Police! Camera! Action!” yet anyway…

We got the Rosyth – Zeebrugge ferry last year and battered down the Autoroutes straight to Morzine. Off the boat at 1200 on a Sunday, and were sinking a cheeky beer in L’Etale at 2101 having checked in with Endlessride and unpacked. As others have said the motorway rest stops are pretty good in France and it’s easy to maintain a decent rate of progress on the autoroute without driving like a ****. That said, took 2mpg off the total fuel consumption between Cluses and Les Gets – it’s a big hill and the road was clear, what do you do?

We did about 2000km and kept it at around 90mph (or 145km/h) and were very much moving with the traffic. I reckon traffic is moving more slowly since I was last there 10 years ago – back then doing 90 you’d be pretty much passed by everything. Stopped just south of Reims and somewhere near Bourg-en-Bresse for food and coffee on the way down.

On the way back (from Bourg St Maurice), we did things in a much more civilised way. Left BSM on Saturday, up as far as Burgandy so had lunch in Pouilly-Fuisse, an overnight in Puligny-Montrachet, a morning in Beaune, late lunch and afternoon/ evening wine tasting in Chablis, then back up to Zeebrugge on Monday. Dreadfully civilised, even Captain Flashheart would approve!

This year, we’re breaking the journey both ways. Excellent.

That’s not a gun.

THIS is a gun

AC-130 Spooky II with it’s little old 105mm Howitzer poking out the left hand side.

Sounds like it wasn’t so great – would be keen on reprise if or when that happens.

Anyway, a bad day on the bike is better than a good day in the office, and I didn’t even have a good day at work. :-S

Still, sneaked out for an hour on CX bike in local woods before the Scotland game and only had to de-clog it once so that has to be a sign that spring is here!

Big fat FAIL here. Need to go into work tomorrow morning (cucking funts) so not going to make it to Pitlochry by 10.

Hope you have a good one.

Might have to go into work but hopefully not – forecast looks reasonable too. Put me at 80% chance of making it.

Which cafe are you thinking of?

Report it. I was run off the road by a First Bus driver in Edinburgh a while back (overtook me on a 90 degree bend into oncoming traffic), caught him at the next lights. He told me to F88k off and if he saw me again he’d make sure I’d have an accident. What a nice chap.

Wrote them a letter with reg plate, route number and description of the driver. Got a standard “thank-you for your enquiry to First Bus, you may find the answer to your query on our website” letter with a few days…FAQ didn’t contain ” why do you employ halfwits to drive your buses?”

Then a letter about 6 months later saying the driver in question had no recollection of the incident and had since retired from the company. Aye right, he was 40 absolute max.

Don’t expect much to happen

We’ve bought 3 Cannondales mail order in the past couple of years, from 2 different dealers.

Smee, if you’d gone riding instead of posting up about not riding you’d be home by now :-)

Ewok village has been dismantled because it was built six years ago from untreated timber and has started to rot. FC have decided it’s unsafe so have pulled it down instead of leaving it to fall apart with risk of someone getting hurt. Sad, as I never did clean it (hahahaha who am I kidding never came close) but it’s not there to taunt me any more…

Just back from an hour and 2 mins on CX bike. Rode out for 35 mins into what can only be described as sleet blizzard, and back in the sunshine. Took in 2 short bits of singletrack, enough to confirm trails are still in full winter condition, and got blown back at 20mph soft pedalling.

Tea and toast never tasted so good :-)

Nope – there’s a couple in Edinburgh it’s pretty easy to pass at speed on a road bike and I’ve never triggered them. Couple on Lanark Road dropping down from Gillespie Crossroads to Slateford, though thinking about it, that may be in a 40 limit… Also one on Colinton Road in Craiglockart but only worth a go if it’s quiet – no point in trying in rush hour.

Tinfoil coat is probably necessary to get the radar excited!

Sounds good – though it looks like I might not actually make it as life stuff could well get in the way.

Clare – are you familiar with the Bathgate Alps (the hills between Lithgae and Bathgate)? If you mail me (in profile) I can send you a couple of route ideas if that would help – easily in striking distance of Edinburgh.

I hope that dog got a rabies and tetanus injection after biting that Rangers punter. Wouldn’t want it to catch anything nasty.

Edinburgh pedestrians are the stupidest beings in the world, down there below sheep with learning difficulties and amoebae. It only gets worse in tourist season. Here a green man means “cross”, flashing green man means “look like you’re going to stop but then just saunter out into the road as the traffic starts to move” and red man means “just go for it big man, they do emergency stops in driving tests for just this situation”.

There’s two crossings on my route into work that are particularly dodgy, one at the end of Gorgie Road by Haymarket Station, through roadworks, where people just stand in front of you in the middle of the f888ing road waiting for a gap in the traffic and you need a swift start when the lights go green to make it through the linked sets, which you can’t do when there are some ignorant ****s holding their Starbucks coffee in one hand and fiddling with iPod in the other oblivious to all traffic. Which pisses me right off because they have a green man for most of the time and there’s only about a 20 second green light coming into town and you can miss most of that because a flock of **** is in front of you. KILL THEM ALL, it’s the only way. I mean, they are only going to work, what’s the hurry?

The other one is East Fountainbridge, just after Lothian Road where people seem oblivious to traffic, wandering out of Starbucks with attention entirely focussed on their tray of coffees and not on the traffic, or status of aforementioned illuminated man. Had a very near miss with a man and his tray of five coffees last week – looked straight at me (on road bike with commuter orange jersey and flashing Joystick so not exactly in stealth mode) and stepped out in the road anyway about 10m in front of me. I yelled at him which sort of induced this “I’ve just stepped on an electric cable” dance, but at least made him freeze so I could go round him, and the taxi (presumably 2” off my wheel as they always are) locked up behind me. The taxi man was leaning out his cab yelling at the **** as I tapped off regaining composure. Not ideal.

You can ride defensively and make allowances for 95% of fuckwittery, but not every last bit or you’d never actually get anywhere. I’m looking for bar mounted grenade launchers as I suspect that is the only language they understand.

Interested too – depends on your approach though, are you planning to batter round or take it at a steady pace? I’m keen to support the local economy by having a cafe stop somewhere as well…(not least because I ain’t doing 80 miles on 2 bottles).

I’m not doing the Etape event, but I did the route solo last spring in a sniff under 6 hours – does that sounds like the sort of pace you’re thinking of?

Still using the cool tool that I got when I bought my first proper mountain bike in 1998 – lives in the saddlebag on my CX commuter and sees service every so often (my last broken chain was fixed with it).

Retired my c.1999 Lusso longs after they literally fell apart at the seams on way into work last winter. Suspect they had been washed too hot or something as they were passable until then. Fortunately they were unpadded so had shorts on underneath, otherwise I’d have been strolling into work on the hour at the cuckoo clock, so to speak.

EDIT – Garagedweller – still have a WTB Greaseguard headset in good condition in a box somewhere, just waiting for the right moment to be wheeled out. It’s red ano though so clashes with everything. Ace bits of kit.