Oh dear. Shall give them a miss then.

Well OK, so it is legal, an they did say it – somewhere. But, the comms are poor. Why should I wait for a week to hear they are having trouble? They have my email address. Other shops (like CRC) are better. Or even better, say in the advert ‘not in stock but can get in X days’. Just be open I guess.

Or aliens.

+ another for TandemJeremy

When you kit it out next check out the angle of the hanger. In a ‘sensible’ gear is it hanging straight down (like your old fella), or being pulled forward? Have all three breaks occurred with the same chain (or same length chain)?

That’s the beauty of it. It is reasonable, proportionate and requires thought on both sides. I think us humans are much better thinking than blindly following orders. That automaton thing has got us into a whole lot of trouble in the past.

The Scottish Land Reform Act is beautiful and something I think us Johnny English types should aspire to. But, I wonder if it is impossible given the sheer number of recreational users down here?

There is a certain type of person that seems incapable of thinking for themselves. They are the first to berate anyone transgressing a law (like cycling on a footpath) whilst failing to appreciate the sad irony of their ridiculous X5 in the car park and driven 3 miles to walk their dog. I wish we could all be a bit more intelligent about it.

I agree that motorised bikes tend to churn up paths more than non-motorised bikes. And in turn us MTB’ers mess it up more than walkers. Not to mention horses which seem as effective as a plough on muddy tracks. The argument is quite an old one and needs to be seen in context.

I have been passed by groups of motor bike riders on several occasions in the Dales. On each and every one they have slowed down, thanked me for giving them space. Give and take. I respect their sport as they respect mine.

And reflecting on some earlier posts I wonder if it boils down to numbers? Being passed by half a dozen noisy bikers once in a day wouldn’t bother me. Twice. Three times. Every five minutes? Yes.
There must be space allocated for all of us. I think the NPA is doing a pretty good job of moderating what is and is not fit for purpose for motorised vehicles.

Descent of Bainbridge expressway last Saturday was comical to say the least. Firstly too deep to get going. Then fast on a cracking surface with occasion from end wipe outs. The stupidly fast on ice. Then in a ditch. Brilliant.

Holy shit, it is more complicated than I thought!
Thanks for the link. I will attempt to work out what I need – or run away to my LBS…

There is a bear living on Otley Chevin.

All the above advice makes sense to me. I run 150psi rear and 75psi front (F120) and am 13st 9lb. Best bet is just to set your sag right and then try to remember the psi’s! I fine the 1st pp setting does fine on ascents. How you pedal is important too – you can learn not to bounce like a kid on a space hopper eventually.

Fettling front dérailleurs.
Fitting mudguards. Almost prefer to get muddy.
Setting up disc pads on forks that aren’t faced properly.
Servicing a Fox air fork and forgetting to remove the air – and watching the fork fly up and stick in my garage ceiling.

I have an Uncle John with Hope discs. Brilliant, stops beautifully quickly, controlled and with one finger. I use it as a commuter all round road bike and won’t ever go back to rim brakes.

Simple. I want to walk into a bike shop and meet staff who give a shit. Not greasy sales types. Actual riders. A real workshop I can see – with dirt. I want to talk to the mechanic. No bullshit. And if you say you’ll call me back you do. And when you say you’ll order my a part you actually do and don’t just chuck the piece of paper in the bin once I’ve left. Reasonable prices and good customer service. Works every time.

The White Bike (not Whyte). Me and my dad picked it up from a council tip and rebuilt it with bits from (apparently) washing machines, bedsteads etc. It was so rusty we painted it white. I think it had brakes. It was great. Absolutely great. Right up until the time I pulled a wheelie at speed and watched the front wheel come out and roll away in front of me. I don’t remember the landing but the forks splayed out like a Cardiff hooker. Man that bike was shit.

Soft as cheese? Shit. It did seem to require a little faffing to get it stop spinning in situ (tightening a lot before wedging in). But it’s only job is to allow you to tighten the headset enough to crank up your stem bolts. It’s not critical after that, right? ‘Cos I’d hate to smear my face on the road…

Yup, and it’s a Hope Head Doctor! Only found out they existed last week and it (a) worked fine and (b) was piece of piss to fit.
£15 online.

Got my MV third hand and ridden it to death so find it hard to believe I could walk into my LBS and just say ‘hey, replace my bearings please’, but the idea is appealing. Not bought the replacements yet, just found them. Think a full set (2 x 2 x 2 = 8?) was something like £70!
Cheers, Will

We had to decide if educating our population was a business like any other or something more profoundly important, of intrinsic importance to our society and future. Well, we decided all right. And I think we are about to decide in the same direction regarding the health service. Trouble is, I am not sure now how to vote to express displeasure in this trend given that all the main parties are centre right. Or does this mean I am simply wrong and/or naive and that we should let Lord Sugar run the UK PLC?

I ride red usually but think the blue at GT is brilliant. OK, so not so technical but the smooth fast flowing nature of the trail is a delight. The final descent with optional red feature is awesome and a great place to learn – presumably precisely how/why it was designed like this. Very well done to the builders. If you want something harder just do Spooky Wood, or try your luck on Cadon down the road. Horses for courses and GT has them all.

Marin Wolf Ridge (2005). Geometry all wrong, felt like a begging dog, sore back etc. Fannied about with stems/saddle etc but no good. Got rid and bought a 2nd hand Marin Mount Vison (2005) – brilliant. Still ride it now and will be sad when something massive goes wrong with it. Great XC bike.

Garry – thanks for this, I hadn’t seen it and it makes complete sense. My ego is somewhat rebuilt! Shame this info didn’t make it into the first edition but there you go. As Kenny suggests the ‘there and back’ route would would still make a cracking ride – the single track section was great (the kind of thing trail centre builders aspire to).

As I said, I find Kenny’s book inspirational. It led to an experiemental attempt to link the Feshie and Tromie by tracks. This was also a bit of a fk up – but still a great day out and any irritation at carrying *down* a very boggy hill soon removed by a slab of Inshriach cake 🙂

Just back from a week MTBing in the gloriously sunny Highlands – with Kenny’s infamous book.

What I like: the brevity of the text (get the OS map), matter of fact descriptions (no ‘radical dude!’ rubbish), some amazing and inspirational rides.

What I don’t like: some route grading is woefully inconsistent, and when Kenny says it might be ‘challenging’ it can often be translated as ‘Danny MacKaskill found it hard’.

By way of an example. The Inshriach single track route gets ‘Advanced’ (red) and seemed to me to be spot on. The Loch Fada route also got ‘Advanced’ and the final descent down Glen Biannasdail is largely unridable. Now, I realise this might be because I am too shit – but I really cannot see how anyone could truly ride a majority of this descent. I reckoned it was almost as hard as the Ciaran path (given Expert+ in Kenny’s book – and one I got sandbagged on by the evil Glentress girls a few years back, before anyone told me they were competitive DH-ers!).

In balance though, Wilson’s book is about having adventures. This means taking everything the wilds can throw at you. Yes, I would like better grading and realistic descriptions of terrain, but just attempting the routes will get you into some fantastic places.

Just back from great wunny week in the Gorms. Attempted the obvious Feshie-Tromie link shown on OS maps (up west bank of Feshie, past lochan an-t’Sluic, up around the plantations, down to Allt Bhran and track down Tromie). Well, all great until end of the marked landrover track at 810899 then a very boggy (even now after the dry period) vague track down the end of the forest. We made a beeline for the river (790891) through pathless heather and bog – mostly unridable.
Once at the dam all is good again but not really recommended. I really dislike DHC/R (downhill carry/ride) Typically the whole day was greatly enhanced with a visit to the Inshriach Nursery for cake 🙂

RobArnold – think I might have the same problem. Been having a weird sticky rear hub. I open it up, clean out any kak, maybe replace a rough bearing (but still not seized) and rebuild. Seems fine. A ride or two later and the thing has turned fixie! I looks at my DS end cap and it did look a bit uneven, like it had been rubbing on the outer bearing. In a last ditch attempt, and not having a lathe, I filed the end cap surface flat with a file. It already seems better but I might be imagining it. Is the end cap surface supposed to be flat though or should there be some raised areas to locate on the bearing?