ive used this method forever and never had any issues. (not even sure where i picked it up from)

in your riding gear and shoes, lean the bike against a wall, pedal backwards (if your running flats, the ball of your foot is just in front of the axle)  and place your finger on your hip bone.

saddle too low – your hips rock, too high – your hips rock. the sweet spot between is when your hips dont rock.

i can even feel a difference when wearing different shoes or bibs/shorts.

following on from the worse kind of trail excrement thread, what the best kind..

haha!

Lichens – The Psychic Nature Of Being

Got it when it came out (2005), listened causally a few time, put it on the shelf, forgot about it for a decade and then randomly tuned in a few years back and was blown away…

I’ve now got 20+ his (Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe) other albums on the back of this.

If you are into odd electronic droney stuff, he’s highly recommended.

There is a vague story of a woman who lived in an old Napoleonic fort at the top of a nearby hill in Midlothian, centuries back. 

 

Meg as she was known, lived alone and in order to draw less attention to herself she always dressed as a man. She was amazingly gifted at healing sick and injured animals and local farmers often called on her to assist.

 

She had a horse called ‘Skewball’ and a dog that had the best possible name in terms of pure function ever, given her need to be wary of folk – the dog was called ‘Help’.

 

However, her unusual lifestyle made others weary and she was commonly regarded as a witch, and whilst the records are far from accurate, it seems she may have ultimately been tried as one…

 

In fact, I’ve learned that until fairly recently, misbehaving local children were threatened ‘Meg will get you’ when in fact she should be celebrated as an early vet and absolute folk hero (who had a dog with the most functional and still somehow coolest name I’ve heard).

crisp packets etc stuck in summit cairns, and general lack of respect for being outdoors.

our neighbours.

I’ve ridden/hiked from Gladhouse Reservoir to Glentress before. The actual forestry and fire roads (that you’d come east towards) between Bowbeat Hill and the top of Dunslair Heights is actually pretty lovely stuff.

The remote and unloved Moorfoots giving way to very quiet and overlooked lumpy forestry, some big ups and downs, then quite suddenly being at the top of a bustling trail centre.

Maybe overall its a different vibe (I love remote and seldom visited places) but if you want a sense of the place it’s worth doing…

another long time jones looper here.

i actually did initially run the bars with a 110mm stem but quickly realised i was only using the very end of the bars in that set up. then switched to 45mm stem and surprise surprise, the bars usage opened up!

one other thing that maybe many folk don’t try is to run the bars upside down – so the loop curves slightly downward rather than upwards. it also helped me massively finding that ultra comfortable wrist / hand position.

I’ve had a few nightmares with WD produces, the latest being an update that now makes my sonos system not speak to ‘my cloud’ drive. @frogstomp solution isn’t available on my drive so I’m currently not sure what my options are (other than move away from igital stuff to actual cd and records again). the drive was only used for sonos library storage (my sonos system is older – i don’t want any new features just to be able to stream my own library as it worked for almost a decade).

I’ve found WD incredibly frustrating over the years, when i have a bit extra cash, I’ll definitely look at other options

a few years back i was boring my wife with the tale of that days epic 8 hour ride (over the moorfoot hills). at one point, i mentioned ‘we’ and she picked up on that and said ‘i thought you were your own?’ she then quickly realised i meant the bike and me!!

Elaine Radigue

i dont name my bikes but was boring my wife a few years back about my latest epic adventure up the pentlands. i happened to say ‘we’ at some point and she asked ‘i thought you were alone?’ i awkwardly admitted i meant me + the bike!

1. Raleigh Strika
2. Raleigh Grifter
3. Raleigh Bomber
4. Ridgeback 601
5. Cannondale SM1000
6. Cannondale M1000
7. Specialized Stumpjumper Epic
8. Jones Spaceframe
9. Kona Unit
10. Stooge Dirtbomb

‘all the gear but nae bell!’

thank you all for your responses, very useful.

i think ill look at the router option.

rigid 29+ and yes, im overbiked.

i was out yesterday on a local trail (midlothian) and there were 4 or 5 trees that had blown over. sizeable conifers totally upended. it’s very remote and seldom visited but it’s the worst storm damage i’ve seen in a long time.

i decided last year simply to experiment with flats after only using spds since they first came out decades ago.

i felt there were times when being clipped in was just not required on long remote solo rides were boggy conditions, ice and snow, or simply that cleated shoes weren’t as great on big hike sections (which often happens)

now, i tend to swap my pedals around based on mood and conditions. i still love being clipped in but also love the slightly more casual feeling of thrashing around on my flats. its morphing into a pattern of spring summer – spd / autumn winter – flats. i do similar with my tyres.

the only minor issue ive had with flats (completely shoe-related) is that whilst my shimano shoes grip the flats like glue, they are terrible when hiking in mud!

both have merits and downsides, so i pick BOTH!

an auntie of mine was at one of my cousin’s parents’ night. each group of parents queued outside the classroom before being invited in by the teacher when ready.

nearest the door, some seats had been placed in the corridor. my auntie attempted to ‘sit down’ next to the last chair, not realising there was no chair beneath her.

as it quickly dawned on her – she was falling, she let rip loudly and flapped her arms in a vain attempt to stay on her feet but fell down and rolled onto the floor inelegantly in a farty blushing heap.

the entire corridor filled with other parents and the freshly emerged teacher burst into fits of laughter. my auntie is still mortified by this!!

haha

I think there is a realisation that you never really ‘arrive’ in life, it’s just a series of slowly changing elements, some bits are good and some bits are challenging.

I fell down a mental black hole in my early 30’s. Frightened and dismayed that I’d got that far and hadn’t really done much of note. Life was all a bit of an unhealthy blur. Eventually, I came back to cycling and made more and more of an effort for it to be a regular feature of my life.

I’m now 48 and smashing around on my Stooge is a huge ingredient in my mental health. Sure, exercise and fresh air are all great but it’s time away from all the nagging doubt and frustrations, and work etc… Thinking about that crap on the trail and you’ll hit that tree or big rock…

It sounds easy to say but actually just trying to relax a bit is really important. The world is a hard place, I lost two close friends this summer (one in a car accident, the other murdered) and it’s hard to find any kind of positives. Then im out in the wilds on a bike or foot and I spot a deer or find some wild new fungi or a sweet new singletrack and somehow I feel better.

And to totally blow my hippy vibe – I think it’s in Hindu, a theory about 9 permanent emotions – 4 white (positive) and 4 black (negative), and between both is tranquillity. There is a point between happy and sad where you are totally ‘still’ and clutter free. Granted, it perhaps sounds like nonsense but it works for me…

It’s the nearest I’ve found to a brain restart!

totally irrelevant but i remember the original pace bike (square tubed) promo shots i use to drool over as a teenager had the rear qr lever on the same side as the rear mech and i thought it was super cool.
i replicate it on my cannondale for about a week until i realise it was just way more awkward.

I’m a lefty tree hugger. I’ve been involved in major design projects for the political party im a member of.

Whilst it’s great in a way to been involved with something I care deeply about (and the campaign I was involved in was deemed a success) there is always that sense seeing behind the scenes is a little deflating. The outside passion and enthusiasm get watered down by internal stuff that often highlights why seemingly obvious things can’t happen.

Politics for me at the moment is completely stale across the board. A huge chunk of folk still seem happy to vote Tory, Labour thrashes around and somehow can’t form any meaningful opposition, SNP are in some vague holding pattern, and the fringe parties are too fringe to count for much.

Covid, Brexit and up here, independence have muddied the water as much have clarified anything. We all seem to be much clearer on what we don’t want, rather than what we actually do want.

To the op, I’d say set up a blog, write some articles and offer folk a way to structure their seethe a little? If nothing else it’s an outlet for your thoughts, a way to rage constructive a bit and it may develop into something more!

Sorry if this all seems a bit bleak – I’m fried by all this as well!

Thank **** for my bike!

@funkmaterp

ive only had the bike (and bars) for a few months but it been great. ive done a few big 7/8 hour rides (southern pentlands etc) and countless local loops in midlothian. the only thing im still getting my head around is the much longer wheelbase than on my old jones.

i run the bar with 30mm of spacers and a 45mm stem (im 6ft 2″) and its high enough so the brake levers dont hit the top tube but still low enough to feel im still in a fairly aggressive position for singletrack and still very confidence-inspiring when things get steep or rough.

i tend to tinker a lot with bars when i get a new bike /set up but I’ve got on with these pretty much right out the box.

im running one on my dirtbomb and love it. its clearly lower than the junker bar and thats what i wanted. its been great so far…

ultimately it’s a shame not to see how the race might have panned out with MVDP potentially sparring with Pidcock…

MVDP said he could ride the course with his eyes closed, so to me, he had every line, rock and root all mapped out into some managed plan. my guess is in the heat and stress of it all, this minor change to the racecourse turned into a major oversite.

it’s a shame but there’s a hard lesson learned.

overall, he’s still not had a bad year!

Les Rallizes Dénudés – Night Of The Assassins

the holy mountain

(an absolutely incredible film – my favourite ever. the soundtrack is also an absolute beauty, featuring my all-time jazz hero – don cherry!)

forgiving is easier said than actually done.

i have a mate that cheated 20 years ago, was found out, and realised he’d had made a terrible error. they decided to stay together. he’s spent the last 20 years being continually reminded of the fact, every time he does anything, or says anything out of line, he has this thrown back in his face… its always in the background.

forgiving needs to be fully worked through, why it happened and what it means. was it boredom, or evidence of it is not ultimately meant to be, or just a blip? it’s also perhaps an opportunity for you to talk about how you feel as well in general and really clear the air.

once you know everything, you can at least be clear about how you feel about the whole thing and act accordingly…

This is a game I often play being home-based for the last 6 years.

I genuinely love playing albums that are really long (Roland Kayn, La Monte Young Eliane Radigue, Jean Claude Eloy and Jim O’Rourke pieces I have are all at least 4 hours long), proper adventures in sound that are great as ‘working music’ whilst doing creative stuff.

My favourite for all-day looping as I work is John Fahey’s ‎– Fare Forward Voyagers (Soldier’s Choice).

The Bicycle Works is always my first answer for Edinburgh folk!

Always spinning loads – current mindblowers

Haino/O’Rourke/Ambarchi: Each side has a depth of 5 seconds A polka dot pattern in horizontal array A flickering that moves vertically

Jeffrey Alexander: Reyes

Rose Bolton: The Lost Clock

Owen Gardner: Sammusik

Endless Boogie: Life at WFMU

my cannondale f1000 was supposed to be infinitely better than my 10 year old sm1000 it replaced but it wasn’t.

the xt v-brakes were so powerful that the seatstays flexed giving that very unnerving ‘its gonna snap’ feeling every time you really needed to slow down. and the whole bike was so super twitchy.

i never really gelled with the bike but eventually managed to sell it to guy that i couldn’t stand so the bike ultimately made me smile…

I’m finding the whole thing pretty chaotic. Every option is fairly mediocre but I think we just need to use the current options to get where we want to be. for me, getting nukes removed, better looking after wildlife and the environment, and independence are my main drivers.

I’ve always tried to avoid the passionate aspect of independence but now think it’s actually a really sober and sensible option. I’d probably still choose the whole union thing to work and for us to all be part of the EU (and work on making it better from the inside) but I think that’s hugely unlikely for now.

Im not sure if Salmond’s Alba makes things better or worse (we already have pro-indy a super majority – they’ve just made the word up).

I’ll be voting Green / SNP.

loving mine so far!

I read the book – The Source Family: The Untold Story of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13 and the Source Family, a great book about a wild time full of awesome hippy vibes and psychedelic music. Much of the early days centres on the fact the group ran a vegetarian restaurant on sunset boulevard in the early 70’s and John Lennon/Yoko, Zappa, Warren Beatty, Earth Wind and Fire etc all use to eat there regularly…

One line in the book – ‘it occurred to me I could live without anything dying’ and I thought, it will never be clearer put. That was in 2007.

i recently decided to stop using diary milk, my wife and I are veggie but always looking at ways to cut diary out of our diet.

we only use milk in tea/coffee, and on our cereal. we got 4 different types to try – innocent oat / hazelnut / almond / coconut

they all taste pretty good, coconut curdles in hot drinks, oat is too watery in hot drinks but tastes ok. almond is pretty good but for me, hazlenut is a total winner.

looks the least like milk (slightly brown) but makes a lovely creamy tea and great on cereal.

definitely depends on what your taste buds like, but there are really solid options now that are better for your body… and don’t feel like a comprise on flavour.

smell yir ma! am yir da!