>Oh STFU.<

Why of course – my apologies for failing to agree with you.

>Did capture this stupid arse trying to push me off the road<

Err no.

What he was trying to do, as far as I can see, was to give the other cyclist a very wide berth. And in doing so, he misjudged the situation.

No point bleating about it on here – if you think it was “that close” take it up with the Polis.

Just blowing up your screen-grab I can see a few issues:

Croftown > Dundonnel. Would be very bad in that direction – particularly loaded up. Avoid.

Is that Coulin Pass > Coire Lair? Might want to rethink the latter in that direction.

Inverbain > Applecross Bay? Hellish – go from Kenmore though its a better ride in the other direction (like Coire Lair)

Is that LochCarron > Glen Ling > Killilan > Glomach? If so ok but taking a loaded bike up the side of the falls? I’d say no it’s very steep terrain.

Presume Bealach an Sgairne to Alltbeath? Nice but wrong direction – lots of pushing. Gleann Lichd> Camban would be easier in that direction.

The rest sounds ok

Depends what you are used to – beautiful route but as above often not in th best direction from a riding p.o.v. Fair bit of that is demanding / far better suited to fast and light i.e not tooled up with frame bags et al.

You should be able to get hold of FCS mapping for CV (usually highly detailed and up to date)in digital format.

FCS also owns a large chunk of the land to the West of the Crow Road.

The guy you need to speak to is Malcolm Crosby (or his replacement) at the Scottish Lowlands District Office. He’ll doubtless warble on about Crown copywrite but he can email you it in pdf format.

>Bling or stealth and does it depend on age?<

Sadly not – plenty off old duffers around sporting some truly tasteless creations.

Having said that I’m currently using a pair of gold bars and a gold stem but only because they were dirt cheap. I’m long past caring what anyone thinks about my bike…

Google Trespa

Hash Brown’s? Pfft…Tattie Scones more like.

And Spaghetti Hoops / Haggis? Come on guys there’s a time and a place.

Laphroaig – drunk enough of it to be sure.

I’d describe it more as a badge of honour / rite of passage / something you suffer to humour your host type whisky. But it will always come in handy on the battlefield. 😉

As others have said there is world of difference between the OP repairing or having the frame repaired (and riding it himself) and passing it off as having been satisfactorily repaired. Besides, there isn’t enough intrinsic value in that particular frame to make the latter a viable proposition.

Finding the car repair analogy quite amusing – there are many innocents driving around in cut and shut deathtraps.

This is not an insurance write off it’s a warranty issue. Very surprised at Cube’s laissez-faire attitude – they have a brand rep to protect. IMO they should only have delivered up the new frame on receipt of the fcuked one.

Hooja – Seriously? Think you’ve been sniffing too many field bandages.

Each to his own and all that but I find Laphroaig absolutely god awful stuff.

Caol Isla on the other hand…

Use the search function – this problem was covered fairly comprehensively in a recent ‘ovalised headtube’ thread.

>Ideally you need to comply with the tax system but then you are stuffed if it needs warrantied…<

FTFY

IIRC:

1. Cost of frame + 2. Shipping + 3. Import Duty on sum of 1 +2 + 3. VAT on sum of 1, 2 and 3.

That will be converted by HMRC from $ to £.

Then you have UK charges in £:

1. Clearance and handling (including a charge for the use of the Clearer deferment account)+ 2. UK delivery charges.

I have no doubt it will still be cheaper than sourcing UK. However, good luck with any warranty issues.

As the saying goes: if it were that easy….

I remember reading Bob Sharps story at the time – his credentials are fairly unimpeachable.

Two of us were up Meikle Bin for a night ride a few months ago and decided to come back off the South face. Despite the fact we know the area quite well we thought better of bushwhacking our way to the forest road once we’d descended to the treeline. So, back up and down we went by our ascent route. There are some huge tracts of impenetrable growth in that forest – a big cat would have space to hide out there undisturbed imo. Lennox would easily be within its range. Incidentally, CV had Wildcats until fairly recently.

Most unusual animal I’ve encountered (quite literally on the trail) was quite recently in fact – an adult Dolphin which had been washed up @ Blackness. Dead unfortunately…

No disrespect but this is a bit of a non story. You found someone else property but did nothing about it. Someone else has probably half inched the poor guys pannier / contents by now.

>Do you run a hotel !?

Seriously, “at the hosts discretion” ? <

Err no and yes.

I think you missed my point.

>I tend not to, and treat it as a gift.<

This.

Actually gets on my tits. I have one or two friends that “bring their own wine” and “expect” it to get opened. Even to the point of mentioning it. To me this is actually quite rude.

If I’m doing dinner it is just that – dinner and my choice / my supply of alcohol to accompany it. If a guests booze gets served later in the evening all well and good but I think that should be at the hosts discretion.

FWIW the previous occupant of our hoose fitted expensive ceramic tiles in the en suite. Was liking walking across sheet ice if you needed a slash in the middle of the night. I know you can heat them but through the night? That’s the one time I don’t want to be woken up completely ;-)Now fitted bambooesque Amtico

Amtico is kick ass – take another look. Did a Honister slate in my other bathroom (with grout lines etc) fitted 7 years ago, 3 teenage boys hammering it night and day, not a scratch / still looks like the real McCoy. Recently did my Dining room in Cheery strip and you really do struggle to tell if it’s real wood or not from standing height (and I have a furniture background)

Bath width is a good idea – I think my shower tray is 35mm however, I have 10mm ply fitted up to it then then the adhesive / Amtico adds say 4mm so I’m only 21mm proud of the FFL – still looks very good. 20mm threshold strip under the door takes care of the difference between the FFL’s in the bathroom / bedroom.

There are trays as low as 25mm (possibly even 20mm) but you may struggle to get them in the width / material you want) Make sure you get a short 90 degree return fin on the glass if you are anything under 1500 / 1600. Particularly if you use a shower pump.

Pff…. this is just shifting so called ‘public ownership’ from one unaccountable monopoly to another.

Andy Wightman’s views on this make a lot of sense to me. More here:

http://www.andywightman.com/

Toyed with the idea and ruled it out as being >£ prohibitive / completely unnecessary / not a public swimming pool ;-).

Went with 1450 x 900 shower tray (all but) fully flush with FFL, Glass shower screen with 200mm curved return. 3 bar Power shower and nothing gets on the floor. Properly fitted Amtico floor which is all but waterproof anyway and is “warm” underfoot without the need to heat the floor.

http://www.canecreek.com/resources/products/headsets/technical-specifications/headset-tech-specs-rev-e.pdf

First things first:

1. Beer
2. Kitchen table
3. Kitchen sink
4. Parts washing kit stolen from partners baking / cooking collection
5. White Spirit
6. Swarfega

Lube, Grease Gun, Ball Pein hammer, Mallet (plastic one end / alu or copper the other), decent set ball ended Allen keys, 1/4″ drive socket set up to 13mm with Torx and hex bits, Needle nosed Mole Grips, Combo set of open ended / ratchet spanners up to 13mm, Set of Pliers, Set of Screwdrivers, Circlip Pliers, Shifting Spanner (Bahco), Set of Mini /Precision Screwdrivers, Junior Hacksaw, Craft knife, Stanley knife, Chainwip, Cass Lockring and BB tools, Cheapo digital vernier, Bikestand of some decsription.

Not essential but a bench and vice are very useful esp if you are going to change DU bushes (add the Du bushing tool) and or B&D Workmate.

Depends on how much DIY you do around the house (little by the sounds of it or you would have most of these tools anyway 😉

>I’m planning on starting in the wee hours (maybe 2am) to get the best daylight hours where I need them. Has anybody done this and worked out how to get a proper restful sleep beforehand?<

Few beers and half a bottle of wine. Worked for me 😉

2 is early though – your body is definitely crying sleep at that point. Besides mid-summers day or thereabouts it doesn’t really get dark so worst case scenario a DX torch on your lid is going to get you to FW.

What do you need support for? If you break it down you’re probably never more than 5 miles from help / food etc and this is one big ride where you can afford to strip things down because you can replenish en route. I’ve read some of the blogs on the WHW and I can’t believe some of the kit some folk load themselves up with. That’s all weight sapping your progress…

>if they’ve blasted that much material away (or disolved in acid before anodising) would you not ne worried about how tin the tubes have got and how likely it is to snap?<

This…

Doubt you could afford to lose a mil around the centre point of any of your tubes. ;-(

Can’t see how shimming the cups will work – the bores are likely to be eccentric and they wont be concentric with each other. Best solution would be to have the HT machined then oversized cups made up / inserted. Or, bang the loctite in and align everything by nipping it up with the fork / stem.

As I say the HT might be the least of your worries – I wouldn’t ride it myself if it’s as bad as you say it is.

Drag one of the remaining sections back over. Dowel, peg and or batten the cut section back in. Find some more logs. Can’t be that difficult if it’s really that important to you…

Depends on the riding conditions. That mileage over 12 months pretty much trashed my Stanchions however, I do ride in very wet conditions.

Short answer is yes, get them serviced.

Tough one to call – gunfight at the o k corral?

Murray is a unit now from a fitness POV and I think the loss of a set will be shrugged off but if he turns up with a low % first serve / the old AM 2nd serve then he’s mincemeat.

Not a fan of Djokovic “to watch” A phenomenal player but I much prefer the Murray / Federer type of match.

Anyway, as a Scot I really hope he pulls it off. Shame on those who give him stick on here – he really is in a different league from anyone else GB has produced in the last X decades.

>Just fly to a cheap european resort with Ryanair – it will be cheaper than driving to Scotland and they have proper ski resorts rather than small runs consisting of mainly heather and rocks with a light dusting of snow gun ice crystals on them.<

You are of course talking out of your arse.

Yup, Scotland can indeed be highly variable however Poly above gives a more balanced take on things. Beyond that I CBA justifying it, it’s probably one of these things you either get or do not.

Best of luck if your Ryanaiar flights get cancelled 😉

OP – ask on here:

http://www.winterhighland.co.uk

Not amusing on any level – this place has gone to the dogs…

That reminds me – must go and soak some Surgical Bandages.

>whats the best way to mount it?<

I’d recommend side saddle.

A wee strategic skelp with your right foot now and again.

I’d wash a fish after gutting it but that’s it.

There was a guy on another thread putting ice in his malt whisky – stw is full of weirdos

Just had my ‘warranty’* claim from Ribble / Charge rejected.

*It was 14 months old and had done 5000km. The cover was worn through to the padding on one side of the nose… However, I did expect the leather version to hold up longer than that – I’ve got Flites, for example, with several times that mileage on them and the leather is still intact…

So, comfy saddle for sure but they don’t last too well and the leather / ti version isn’t worth the £considerable uplift ime.

The Aldi mtb gloves are pretty damn good for the £. Out of sale time you can pick them up on Ebay for £10. Cane Sport is their brand name

>giving birth to a Jacobean table leg.,<

Quote of the day!

*laughs at the old curtains gag*

As for washing meat – WTF? Unless you are going to use disenfectant I think you are more likely to spread germs than prevent them. Cook the food to the correct temperature / job done.

Only takes a tiny amount – I always add a drop (unless I’m in a bothy / past caring)

Been to > 100 whisky tasting evenings and every expert I’ve encountered (incl a few Master Blenders)have encouraged the participants to add a very small amount of water to release the esters.

Each to their own I guess but the guy above that suggested ice – that’s considered a complete and utter no no. This just has the opposite effect – completely kills the taste / aroma.

>i’d prefer non-padded<

Try googling crotchless. Have you considered the benefits of stockings?

FAG, SKF or Enduro.

However, expect to pay at least double the going rate over mid market products. Whether they last at least twice as long is another matter – I’ve found Enduro a good compromise for hubs but their BB bearing is no better then Deore for example as its not as well sealed.