Fairly stressed at work at the moment with a big piece of work that really isn’t going well. I took most of today off (was meant to be all but had a couple of things I had to do) and went down to Glentress for a spin this afternoon. Possibly shouldn’t have taken the time out but feel loads better for it – gained a lot of perspective on the project I’m working on and priorities seem clearer now, so will be far more productive for the rest of the week.

I really like commuting by bike, gives a similar thinking space between work and home, and I have a huge variety of routes I can do depending on how I feel, or perhaps I can tell how I feel depending on route choice. Been doing the taxi racing way quite a bit recently which probably isn’t a good thing, but means the stress stays at work…hopefully when this assignment ends I can settle back into the offroad route and enjoy the coming of spring.

It’s probably coming soon to a Howies t-shirt, if it’s not been there already, but cycling is my Prozac :-)

I thought I’d explained WHY I thought it was harder. The Bealach goes over a lump of rock poking into the Atlantic airstream with no civilisation westward until you get to Japan. Many Alpine climbs are twice the height gain but over a far longer ascent so aren’t as steep plus they are generally better surfaced, have a cafe at the top and the weather is better and they don’t have any midge.

That Angrilu thing sounds like it ‘as it though.

Surprised no-one’s mentioned Chimney Bank and posted the pic of the Milk Race peleton walking up it.

I think people are confused by the concept of a singletrack road. It’s like a road that is only wide enough for one vehicle, with passing places to enable traffic to pass. It’s very different to a narrow country lane where you can safely pass the cyclist eventually – in theory you can be stuck behind someone for 20 or 30 miles if they don’t cooperate. It happens – I’ve been stuck behind a c*ntend on singletrack roads plenty of times – Ok for a mile or two but when it’s 30 miles (e.g. Lairg to Laxford Bridge) it’s deeply frustrating and you’d quite happily sell your kidneys for some James Bond gadgets to blow the feckers into the loch you’re dawdling past.

Most people who are used to them (so folk who live in SW England, mid-wales, west of Ireland and Scotland) know that “passing” means enabling both traffic you meet and following traffic to pass. It applies equally regardless of whether you’re on a pedal bike, motorbike, in a car, truck or bus. It’s not just narrow, it’s one vehicle wide only.

The cyclist was clearly in the wrong, both per Highway Code and per etiquette and convention.

Based on what he has written, Smee was in the right to alert the cyclist to his presence, but not to pass him in a dangerous manner.

Bealach isn’t the same length but it’s steep, cold, windswept and badly surfaced which makes it hard work

Amen to that Stu, I’ll do it again and again though. Although it can’t possibly be the hardest climb in western Europe.

And another thing – it hasn’t got a cafe at the top. At least the Joux Plan has a cafe at the top, as do quite a lot of the Alpine cols. Even a burger van on the Bealach would be nice, though possibly not on racesportif day!

The Col du Climpy is probably the hardest road climb in the world. I knew Lance was coming back when I saw him gurning up the North Face of the Climpy, dressed in black.

Talla to the Meggetstane?

Hardest I have done is the south side of the Bealach na Ba, probably harder than the Col de la Joux Plan from Samoens side which is the hardest thing I have done in the Alps.

Bealach isn’t the same length but it’s steep, cold, windswept and badly surfaced which makes it hard work.

Staying not far from Bedoin this summer so I may change my mind by August…

Local – Prince Phillip Woods, anticlockwise loop. But only in summer, cos in winter it’s minging. And it’s only 15 minutes from the front door to the rooty swoopy loveliness, and in a most surprising location where you wouldn’t expect to find a few miles of singletrack – had lived near it for 4 years before even bothered looking. Shame about the smell of chicken and pig units when the wind blows in the wrong direction.

Manmade – Glentress Black. Love the views, the long climbs and descents and the high proportion of singletrack.

Scottish – Lairig Leacach bothy to Meanach. Remote, isolated and beautifully flowing techy singletrack. Stunning views and hard to get to, but well worth the effort.

Too hard to have a favourite abroad, ridden so many great trails.

Ace, cheers for that. What a cracking wee event that was, don’t think anyone, apart from hospitalised bloke, had a bad day.

I’ll mail you my fav route from Ambleside tonight if I remember – will be Tracklogs format. Loads of good riding, this is the full “winter version” – all good riding surfaces apart from a wee bit after High Tibberthwaite which might be a short push. You’re never far from Ambleside so can shortcut at any point.

Basically start at Ambleside – Skelwith Fold – Drunken Duck – Knipe Fold on road, then Arnside – Hodge Close – High Tibberthwaire – Little Langdale – Elterwater – High Close – Loughrigg Terrace – Rydal Water – Ivy Crag – Skelwith Bridge – Ambleside.

One for the Ferrari two stop strategy – food at Britannia in Elterwater then cake at Chesters at Skelwith Bridge near the end. It’s all good.

Ginger.

I have a pint of lager in one glass and a pint of real ale in another glass. Neither glass is full to the rim. I take a teaspoon of lager from the first glass and add it to the real ale mixing thoroughly. I then take a teaspoon of this mixture and put it back in the lager glass.
Is there more lager in the beer, or beer in the lager?

Same amount of lager in beer as there is beer in lager (as long as mixed perfectly).

Start with 100 units of beer in glass 1 and 100 of lager in glass 2, and say your spoon is 5 units

Decant step gives 100 of beer and 5 of lager in glass 1 = 105 units total volume, and 95 units of lager in glass 2

Mix up and decant back – you’ll be moving 5 units back and that will be (100/105) beer and (5/105) lager back into glass 2

At end glass 1 contains 100 units which is 100*(100/105) units beer and 100*(5/105) units lager so 95.238 units beer and 4.762 units lager.

Glass 2 contains 100 units which is 95 + (5*5/105) units of lager and (5*100/105) units of beer so 95.238 lager and 4.762 beer.

I was thinking more of your assertion that there was no airport link and no interchange with Waverley (which is half true), but probably as good as can be done given constraints imposed by geology and the desire to go north of Calton Hill.

Was out at lunchtime and Princes Street is a mess, really sad looking – going to end up with even more empty units and tourist tat shops at this rate. If I was a retailer I’d be livid.

Yes – twice. About £500 disappeared from our bank account, a withdrawl from a cash point in Australia, last year. Front page story on local free rag was about a card skimming scam at local garage with subsequent fraud taking place in Australia and New Zealand. Garage was one of the few places that card ever got used. Haven’t been back since.

Bank sorted it out fairly quickly, though they cancelled all our bank cards and reissued with new PINs, rather than just the one on the account that were scammed, which was a pain as was just before Christmas so lots of postal delays, and when stuff came through had no idea which PIN went with which card…

Wow – nearly a consensus on a thread. Much as I love my cross bike, it has its place and that isn’t a hard surfaced bumpy trail centre…

Mods – close the thread and ban all contributors. We can’t risk a repeat.

Boiled Sevens a couple of times, once in Spain and once in Alps. They come with Dot4 in them as standard, from experience really need to replace it with Dot 5.1 to stand a chance in the mountains.

I usually bleed the brakes before a big holiday and have never had a problem when I do that – the Spain boiling incident was with newish brakes and the Alps one when I hadn’t bothered to bleed them.

The boiling points on Wikipedia probably tell the story – Wet is 3.7% water in there, Dry is fresh fluid, boiling points in Degrees C:

DOT4 dry 230 wet 155
DOT5.1 dry 270 wet 190

GF has Shimano brakes and they have hardly been touched in 4 years, that tells a story as well I reckon!

I’ve done Falla Brae at Glentress on mine just because I had it in the car and was 1/2 hour early for meeting people.

To be honest it wasn’t a lot of fun – climbing up was OK but the descent was just too bumpy and painful and slow to be much fun. I’m not keen for a repeat performance. I’m sure the bike could stand it but the rider couldn’t. :-P

Tandemjeremy, are you this ill-informed about every topic you post on?

Trams will be worse than the bus for the station – none of them go into Waverley either. Even rail replacement buses go from Waverley Bridge sometimes. I guess there is simply not space to put trams into the station, and no space on either side as it’s the bottom of a valley and then you couldn’t go down Leith Walk as Calton Hill is in the way.

TJ – there will be a stop at the top of Waverley Steps as well I believe, which really isn’t very far from Waverley station is it?

I’ve got a 2006 alloy Rush 4000. Builds up nice and light, climbs well, very stable descender and great for long rides and endurance events. Very capable bike – have a Prophet as well and ended up putting 160mm forks on it to open up a worthwhile gap between the two.

The only downsides are arguably the low BB, which takes a little getting used to but isn’t as much of an issue as a lot of the magazines make out, and the back end is a little bit flexy (relative to the Lefty up front, anyway). It’s also not the most exciting, involving bike in tight and twisty singletrack but still pretty competent.

I’m very, very happy with mine.

I’m just glad I ride in and out of work at the moment, the traffic was absolutely stupid on Lothian Road this morning as they have closed Princes Street but no work going ahead until they sort out a dispute with the contractor.

My understanding was that the trams WILL be going all the way to the airport but could be wrong on that – otherwise hard to see the benefit for most of the city, but would like to see it work out. Less people in cars the better really, it is really not a great city for driving in.

Not convinced how tram lines and bike wheels will fit together – presumably the on-road bits could get a bit dicy where you have to cross the lines at an angle, but I guess they manage everywhere else?

And a side-proiduct is the entertainment, amazement and feelings of superiority you can get from a read of the comments bit on every Scotsman.com tram story – “speke you’re branes” at it’s best.

raddogair, I love the A70 heading westwards, especially the bit coming off the high point at the South Lanarkshire/ West Lothian Boundary just west of Tarbrax where feels like you can sit in the drops at 25+mph all the way to Balerno – even the rise by Harperigg Reservoir doesn’t seem so bad with the gale behind you. Going the other way is never so good :0)

haribo – are you who I think you are, the lithgae connection and 48cm bike may be the giveaways :-) Lots of good road riding to explore in Bathgate Alps and south towards Forth and Carnwath.

There was a wee track next to the ski slope, open briefly in late 90s. Basically more like a one-person dual track. Apparently it was unsustainable as it pretty much went straight down the hill and wasn’t built very well so eroded really badly and would have cost too much to maintain. I think Emma Guy has told me about racing there (though could be making that up) and there used to be some stuff on Interweb about it but can’t find anything.

Glentress today. Did the red route without any adulterations (except for a wee bit of Mushroom Pie) for the first time in a very, very, long time. All good. And setting off hungover meant I felt better at the end than I did at the start :-)

Yesterday put some love into my seriously neglected CXommuter and took it for a spin up towards the Pentlands for a couple of hours to check it still worked after its protective layer of sh1te had been removed. Went up a path on the way home that I’d been meaning to explore for ages and found about a mile of beautiful twisty woodsy singletrack with stunning views to the nearby hills. Definitely one to do again, and yet more proof that CX bikes are ace for linking up short bits of offroad you probably would never find otherwise and are too much of a drag to do on MTB.

racing_ralph – apply 1 second of thought and the answer should be obvious.

If not, look at your Prophet, remembering these two pictures, and imagine which one would fit and which one would be underneath the swing arm.

Fray Bentos Pie in a tin.

VERY drunk at the time.

Couldn’t recommend it.

Pizza + salad (gone)
Glass of Cotes du Rhone Village (just to keep morale up)
Killers new album

Fortnight of freezing weather and fairly hefty snowfalls will almost inevitably turn to ice. Like the conditions site says – couldn’t really be much clearer to my eyes. What more of a “warning” do you want them to “put out?”???

Coming soon to STW – “no-one told me Pope has Balcony and pointy hat”, “someones should have warned me that bears defacate in dense forest before I stood in it”. Do you want the Forestry to come round and wipe your hole for you as well?

Glentress – updated 9th February
Please note: the wallride on the Essentials Free Ride trail is closed until further notice. Sorry for inconvenience.

Hub café and bike shop: Hub café and bikeshop are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays until Easter (open rest of week).

Parking restrictions: Buzzards Nest Car Park, The Red Squirrel car park and the access road to these are closed to vehicles due to snow.

Trails: all open except for Wallrides section in Freeride Park (closed until further notice for review of timber features) and Super G on Red Route – closed until 20th February for maintenance work with digger. See diversion info.

Conditions: Snow on all trails – slippy and icy. From Buzzards Nest height and upwards the depth of snow makes riding v.difficult.

Diversions: Diversion at start of Super G on Red Route, via Betty Blue (Blue Route), rejoining Red Route at post 44 (start of Hit Squad Hill). Minor diversions on the final third of Electric Blue on the Blue Route until mid February due to timber flyover bridge construction and trail maintenance works.

More info: Contact Andy the MTB ranger on 07834 435380, or see the info board next to the parking meter at Osprey Car Park.

I’d consider doing it clockwise – i.e. start at Nevis Range and head up to tramway, follow as far as The Cour, drop down to bridge at 120m contour (singletrack), head east to Lairig Leacach then up the landrover track to bothy. Then take the track on the flank of Stob Ban to Meanach Bothy – this is mostly rideable in the dry but goes up to almost 600m so probably has a lot of snow on it, then descend down to the river (cracking descent, I loved it so I did). Cross river and take rough landrover track to Loch Eilidhes Mor and Beag and out towards Mamore Lodge. If you need supplies drop down to Kinlochleven on one of the paths (not done any of them but some are pretty sporting from what I’ve been told) and regain height up tarmac to Mamore Lodge. From there WHW into Glen Nevis then north up A82 to Mallaig turn – there is a cycleway from there that runs parallel to Torlundy then back into Leanachan forest picking up some of Witches Trail by the River Lundy if you have the legs for it.

It’s an amazing day out in the hills – 40-45 miles from memory and a lot of climbing – one for a nice day in late spring/ early summer or late autumn.

As others have said it’s mostly pretty quick riding but with quite a few nice techy bits. Definitely do it anticlockwise though, you do most of the climbing on good tracks and most of the descending on singletrack.

Park Tool FTW

The bolt will push the crank onto the axle. It’s not just a hand fit like Hollowtech 2 cranks, more like the original Octolink/ ISIS sort of splined fitting cranks where they have a bit more of an interference fit.

Just be very sure the splines are lined up perfectly – if there is undue resistance then don’t force it.

The guide on park tool website is very clear, better than the Shimano instructions anyway.

Best bacon ever – Nick Nairn and I agree on that :-)

http://www.puddledub.co.uk/

There’s a takeaway no more than 10 yards from my route into work that does puddledub bacon rolls. I have to be VERY strong!

Bit far from Manch but they do mail order.

Blackberries are good for keeping up with work e-mail and tolerable for basic web stuff, like news, train times and simple low-graphics websites (best on sites with a separate PDA version). The browser on mine (an 8310 Curve) doesn’t handle tables all that well so sites using them are at best a bit random and at worst illegible or misleading.

Basically if your work are giving you one so you can suck on the corporate cock when out of the office then that’s fine, but otherwise must be something better out there for what you want.

It took me a CO2 cartridge to seat a “Tubeless Ready” Bontrager Mud X onto a Mavic 819 rim (which is a full UST rim like Crossmaxes). Was the first new and undamaged tyre I’ve failed to inflate with a track pump for a while, been using Maxxis, Hutchinson and Schwalbe tyres recently.

Tried all the tricks but resorted to CO2 after going at it with a large volume track pump like a traveling salesman during his 5 minute adult channel preview. The drive resembled an explosion on a porn set at the end of it all.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230323493200

You can put a wrap of insulating tape round the leg, then make a guide from a zip tie and a washer.

Old domed v brake brake washers are best, put flat end of zip tie through washer, round hose and back through washer and secure the zip tie round the bit of the fork leg with insulating tape on it.

Weighs about 3 grams, can probably be made with stuff you have around the house already, looks neat, costs virtually nothing, hose doesn’t rub against fork leg as it’s held away from it and zip tie doesn’t move about as the hose can slide up and down a fraction if necessary.

Job Done.

To be fair you’re not going to get people on this thread admitting to having massive CC debts they can barely manage, are you? On the whole CC debt is a mugs game – probably not many worse ways to borrow money aside from logbook loans and loan sharks.

Credit cards are OK for short term borrowing to get you out of a hole – when I started working on a paltry graduate salary things like car repairs went on a CC if I couldn’t afford them when they needed done. First expensive bike (Orange Patriot) was bought on a 0% card and paid off over a year as well at zero interest cost to me. Now I use my main card quite a lot but pay it off in full every month – should really look at a cashback card I guess.

Also have a few hundred quid on a 0% Barclaycard as well after last year’s summer holidays, we overspent a bit so it worked out cheaper to transfer the balance than not clear the card I had, they do you over for months if you don’t clear in full. Will clear that card just before the interest free period runs out – might as well get the paltry interest I’m earning on the money I’ve put aside to pay it off than none at all – at worst should cover the balance transfer fee.

Quite a bit here too (West Lothian). Been out on the road bike to Carnwath and back along A70, Pentlands looked stunning, a good thick covering on them. Harperigg Reservoir was completely frozen and covered in snow too – I guess Harlaw etc are frozen too?

Same for Ochils and Ben Vorlich/ Stuc a Chroin and the hills beyond. Must be an amazing day on the hills. Sadly no pics, didn’t take my camera and fingers would probably have been too cold to work it anyway :S

Used to have an original model Focus (02 plate) – very little intrusion into the boot space. Don’t have it any more so can’t measure it. You could get a standard sized bath into it though (don’t ask!) with not much room to spare if that’s a guide. I’ll measure the bath if you want!

Current model Passat is bigger overall but has more wheelarches so a narrower “pinch” – will probably over budget but will measure it up if you want. The previous Passat has a better shape boot and might be in your budget.

Well behaved dogs are fine at trail centres. There’s a guy with a beautiful border collie I’ve seen a few times at Glentress and it basically follows his wheel like a tag-along on the downs and runs up off-trail on the ups, well impressive.

Sadly, not all are well behaved and really only the very best behaved dogs should be out on a weekend at Glentress.

There was a clown with a husky type thing a couple of weeks ago that he had no control over – he should have been shot and the dog rehomed. It was straightlining the hairpin climbs, stopping in the middle of the trail and waiting for it’s ignorant owner to catch up, causing everyone else to go round it. And repeat every hairpin. “Just ride at it” he said, except it’s not you that gets bitten when the dog gets angry, and not you that gets a bike into your side.

I love all dogs but detest ignorant dog owners. If your dog has behavioural issues you need to manage it not let it lark around and annoy other people and dogs.

Yes, it is Venus. I checked after seeing it above home last week, I thought it was a police helicopter chasing neds on motocross bikes.

Then I saw it in the same sort of place in the sky above Glentress last week, was proper bright.

So I looked it up on the internet.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article5605609.ece

Caution – do not look up Venus on Google Images with safe search off.

EDIT – the photoshop of Venus and Serena Williams is no longer on first page. Phew.

2″ in West Lothian. Quite spicy driving to airport this morning at 6am – was meant to be in London today but City airport is closed so haven’t made it (don’t know why even bothered getting up early, should have canned it and stayed in bed – it’s bad enough on a normal Monday).