I’ve been using Hermiston (and occasionally Ingilston) for years to park and cycle.

Quite a few people use Hermiston like that, though the height barriers installed about a year ago are a pain as cant get in with bike on roof any more. Not sure whether Ingilston has barriers…

The girl that plays Emma on the Thick Of It. A Posh Totty thing, probably.

15 months. Bought something (road bike brake calliper that had seized), forgot about it as old one freed up with some GT85. then it stopped working again, tried to fit it and turned out I needed a long drop brake. Sent speculative email, they aid send it back no problem we will refund you. Think they refunded what I paid rather than the lower current price.

A6 is lovely and a big step up from Passat in build quality, which is a bit nicer than a Superb. Mondeos are nice and big and well put together too, would look at them too if depreciation wasn’t so alarming.

I love mines. Downsides – dealer servicing isnt cheap and the boot is huge but not very tall as seats don’t fold completely flat. Can’t get a 29er in upright and have to let air out forks on 26 inch bikes – both went fine in Passat I had before. I get 40-42mpg on long runs with nothing on roof so 50ish from a 2.0 should be doable. The TDIe is probably a bit sluggish but I economy is main concern do it. And you can rock up at a trail centre and live the STW dream! Yeah!

200kph with bikes on the roof on the autobahn? **** that. Don’t want the bike barrel rolling under a 530D trynig to keep up. Manky bikes on 30 miles to Glentress? Roof every time. Keep the car clean and tidy.

In my experience yes. I had an 07 plate passat – in the 18 months i had it with extended warranty it covered new lambda sensor, new seals or pipes on the turbo (or something like that anyway) and the biggie which was new electronic handbrake control units when the handbrake stuck on when we were on holiday in the Alps (€1200 bill for that one).

it also includes top level RAC cover Europe wide which is worth quite a bit on its own, and covered a hire car for two weeks while my car had a holiday within a holiday.

Everything dealt with no hassle -UK stuff you don’t pay for, the French bill was refunded in a week or two.

I don’t have the car any more though. Quelle surprise!

I’ve seen things with “police aware” stickers on them parked better than that.

Actually – think this is what you are after?

http://www.easthighlandway.com/

And looks like the Fersit gap is filled.

Don’t think there is anything signposted/ waymarked. But you can go through Leanachan forest and up the south side of the Spean to Monnessie then onto the A86 from there to Fersit. You’re on the A86 for about 5k then come off at Fersit and through the forest to Laggan Dam. It’s a fair few years since I did it but it all “worked”.

Rode a week out of Samoens on a Scandal 29er. It was fine. Bit rattly on the rocky downs but coped just grand 99% of the time. Just go a bit slower and enjoy it for longer :-)

Light covering around Keswick by mid-afternoon. Blizzard conditions at Beattock summit on M74 but nowt to speak of north of Abingdon.

Re Salsa rims/ tubeless, been running regular Salsa 29er rims tubeless with a Stan’s kit for 2 years (Maxxis Ardent 2.25 tyres). Bit of a pain to get inflated and seated, needed a compressor but once up and running have had zero issues.

I guess they are covering their asses.

Really don’t like them much at all I’m afraid (as an Audi fan), they are far smaller inside than they ought to be. I’d far rather have a normal car – new S3 looks really sweet. I reckon you’d regret it.

There’s probably only a couple of dozen people in the world who could do my job. Not sure if that makes me a specialist or an expert. But people do come to me, so maybe I have them fooled.

Sadly, it’s no use in STW debates which is why I spend so little time on here. That, and I’m really rather busy. I’m only here because Citrix is taking a lifetime to boot up.

Been sitting in a city link depot while they look for my parcel. For FORTY **** MINUTES. They have found bits of someone else’s and there are two people behind me in queue. Just as well my Saturday morning is not valuable to me. Oh – wait a minute, it is!

Ah, Bikemagic. I can’t even remember what I used to post as, but it was a lot.

Then I stopped being a student, got a job and drifted away as I actually had stuff to do with my life.

Emily Green and the Friday Afternoon Thread Wreckers – them were the days…

Didn’t it used to show banned people (ahem…) their posts in threads – but not anyone else – so it looked like they were posting but being ignored?

This was our decent route. Might even be worth a bit of a drive to do if you have nothing local.

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/oe_1miCs8bc

Blois is incredibly flat and arable, so doesn’t look like much potential.

We were a bit further west, near Bourgiel (about half way between Tours and Saumur) and actually found a whole pile of waymarked riding. The secret is to keep an eye out for the FCC VTT markers – they look like this:

[/url]
Wed 5 – MTB Loire[/url] by Stu_N[/url], on Flickr

You then need to find yourself a map; most of the villages the routes pass through will have a board somewhere and the Tourist Office in the nearest reasonable sized town will usually have paper maps. The waymarking is a bit vague in places, particularly where routes join or overlap so definitely sort out some sort of map (the first day we worked from an IGN map and a photo of the map board). We ended up doing a 70k route that was almost entirely offroad from Gizeaux down to Bourgueil and back through the forest and vines. Was mostly forest double track – but way better than expected; only had MTBs as we were going to the Alps the following week. If you go back and forward from the marker pic you’ll get an idea.

There’s a whole network of FCC centres in France – they seem a bit variable from full-on MTB in ski areas to a few waymarked routes on forest roads – so you may get lucky. We did have a map with various routes in the department around Tours (Indre-et-Loire) but I can’t find it, guess didn’t bring it home.

Shame we live in a society wher occupying land with a car is seen as a right. That is wrong.

£3 for a day at GT is a bargain. I am happy to pay that if it pays (in full or part) for the infrastructure. I hope the new enforcement policy is working for them, and especially they use it on **** that park a minibus and trailer across nine car spaces (yes I did count them).

Orange Crush’s truck stop is J42 – Golden Fleece Services I think it’s called.

Rheghed also good – J40, head for Keswick and just at the Ullswater rounabout. Tidy.

We use these and have an old tent groundsheet in the boot as well:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ctc-plastic-bike-bag/

Had a couple after work last Friday, but that was unusual. Usually Thursday is beverage evening.

Friday is long way home on bike or gym – then pizza, wine and DVDs.

You should ask this Friday afternoon when all the young ‘uns or cool kids are looking forward to their evening.

Yep, it’s doable. I’ve done it a few times. I’ve done black Hub to Hub, then red but skipped Falla Brae at the end (as it is a repeat of the Black finish), then a full blue to finish. Doing that is about 55k I think; took me about 5 hours including a quick pitstop at the Hub. You could slot the Buzzard’s Nest Green in there too; the one from the Peel is a repeat of other stuff you will do anyway.

Adding Innerleithen Red plus the ~10k each way on the road would probably be beyond me in winter.

It would be properly dark about 4 but it gets very dark under the thick canopy on overcast days a lot earlier than that.

2 lights – one head and one bar. Brightest light on bars for depth perception, less bright light on head for seeing round corners.

Currently using an Exposure Strada (yes I know it’s a road light but it just works!) and Diablo headlamp; rarely use the Diablo on more than medium though as it just seems to “blow out” detail on full.

2 also gives a bit of a safety margin and you can manage them to give longer burn time. That said, not had probs with Exposures but I have had a few older lights that run flat unexpectedly or have been damaged by (ahem!) impacts or water getting in there.

And trust me, you don’t want to be at the bottom of Deliverance with some broken lumicycles and a micro headtorch.

Been using an Exposure Flare for a while now, seems to do the trick in all conditions. As long as it is on and I out a spot of Vaseline on the threads every few months it keeps on keeping on. Ultra reliable and very visible without being offensive using the seat post mount. Only modification was to put a bit of rubber between the mount and seat post which seems to stop it switching itself from steady to flash on bumps.

I have a Smart Lunar on my bag and have just got a RedEye for my helmet light too. SMIDSY my arse.

Not directly relevant, but if they give you tramadol or similar opiate based painkillers, keep a dream diary. I had some awesome dreams but never wrote them down, most disappointing.

Yep – used it as a return from the Gaick pass a couple of times. It’s part of one of the national cycle network routes, basically follows the line of the A9 from Perth to Inverness on a mix of (relatively) quiet roads and purpose built cycle path.

The bit alongside the A9 from Dalnachardoch (where the minor road from Trinafour joins the A9) to the Dalwbinnie turn is probably the least pleasant.

It’s right beside the road (in places you are feet from traffic doing 50+ mph – not nice in high winds), track often covered in muck and there is a smell of piss and shite by each layby plus loads of litter where mouthbreathing scum have dumped food wrappers down the embankment.

It’s better than the alternative of riding on the A9 and it facilitates a lot of long distance cycles, but as a stand-alone I wouldn’t really recommend it. There is much nicer riding either side of Drumochter – loops from Newtonmore to Aviemore on both sides of the river and similar between Pitlochry and Bruar.

1830 is apparently before “end of day”. Fortunately our nice next door neighbours took it in for us. I hope it enjoyed its 11 hour drive round the Lothians.

I like the way this sits next to the “homeopathy” thread.

Used VPower in Passat 2.0 TDi 170PS – bit smoother and slightly better MPG. Not tried in the new car, might give it a pop. But 10p per litre premium is quite a bit.

Two for Hoy, Al. TWO.

Non-tolls is long and slow if you go through France. We’ve done the trip loads of times and from Zeebrugge it’s about 10 hours drive – found that a bit much to do in a day, we were pretty fed up by Bourg en Bresse last time. Generally go Lille (go E of Lille to avoid the central autoroute) – Troyes – Dijon – Bourg-en-Bresse – Geneva. Stop-offs have been nr Reims in Champagne, and Chablis and Beaune/ Macon area (we generally go wine hunting.)

If you’re doing it over 2 days, looping east through Belgium and Luxembourg will save a lot of tolls – fill up with fuel from empty in Luxembourg should save more than the “extra” kms cost. You will probably end up taking on the Brussels peripherique but it’s not too bad; Lyon and Paris are far, far worse in my experience.

Would recommend a visit to Alsace; it really is beautiful and not too bad to go from Nancy through the Vosges. There is a tunnel with a toll but IIRC the rest of it is free, and about 60% dual carriageway. From Alsace there you’re sets you up for Basel to Geneva through Switzerland – you need to buy a vignette to use Swiss motorways which is about £30, but that doesn’t get you very far in France on the autoroute anyway.

Bikescene have some cracking deals on Specialized, Santa Cruz and Orange bikes; best giving them a phone really as the website isn’t 100% up to date IME. Wiggle have some deals on Giants.

I see the Merlin ones are indeed 2012 – says at the bottom of the page. Think that’s a decision made then. If I really need a bleed kit I can always pick one up later and will still not be out of pocket.

I love it, especially when people “get” why Wiggins won the tour and Froome supported him, why Cav won in Copenhagen but not on The Mall. And really the more popular cycling is, the better*

*as long as our shower room at work expands to cope as it’s bit like tag team greco roman wrestling at the moment.

Thanks for suggestions – keep them coming. Good shout on Bikescene but naturally it would be an 18″ ST4 and they don’t have them.

Things like Megas, El Ciclons and Ariels are all too much bike and are built around 140/160 forks; it’s really a 100-120mm bike I want rather than anything bigger.

Oh, and the bit of the Water of Leith path just after Spylaw tunnel heading into town – is that still a manky swampy mess?

Al – that’s just roads, was more interested in paths really. But it has reminded me that Gillespie Road is closed.

TBC – cheers.

Love mine, no issues at all on long rides, way more comfortable than any hardtail has any right to be.

The soup is French, not the onions. HTH

How are the knee cripples doing? Five months in for me…

I think I wrote the above in mid-May but I’m still not on a real bike – big worry is getting off the bike/ putting a foot down, may be being overcautious but to be honest it’s not like we’ve had great weather anyway.

I can an hour plus on the turbo and been doing some fairly strenuous sessions over the past month or so so a lot of my strength is coming back, but I’d imagine a real bike will find me out quick enough!

I’m doing quite a bit down the gym too – cross trainer and weights – but still walking with a stick if going any distance.

Knees are ace when they work, but when they don’t it’s a major issue.