I scratched in Fort Augustus. Had an ace day’s riding and good to meet Phil IRL, but I’d just not recovered enough (from the crash I mentioned up there ^) and don’t have the shoulder strength back to lift front wheel over water bars nor manhandle the bike through bogs or around obstacles without rea...

So, I'm likely tempting fate by even mentioning it, but at what point do we start to trust the weather forecast? And very much related, any thoughts on bunging a rear 'guard on?

20 years of athletes foot … 10 years of fungal big toe nails …  watery blisters … shrivelled foot issues! And perhaps I'll leave my breakfast till later on. :YMSICK: Seriously though, this is useful stuff. I usually lean towards managing rather than preventing wet feet as, as I mentioned above, it ...

Ta Both, Plan is to go with merino socks carrying a couple of pairs of the same as spare: there's something uplifting about sticking on a fresh pair of socks mid-ride. I've done the Dexshell waterproof sock thing in the past but reckon they're of diminishing return for multi-day rides as they're alw...

@sean_iow, @fatbikephil, @whitestone, any thoughts on taking sandals for river crossings? Or is that more faff that it's worth for what are quite likely to be already bog-soaked feet?

However the ticks were atrocious, I removed more ticks from my legs on this trip than in all previous 15 years of tramping across Scotland combined. *adds tick remover to 'to pack' list.* I'm back on solid-ish food as of today and have been back on the turbo for the past few days so making the star...

I was all set and ready for it—albeit completing rather than competing—but am now in a race against time to be fit, having had a big off last week. I think my body'll be ok given a few more days, but my face is a right mess and I'm currently on a liquid/chocolate milk diet as it's too painful to eat...

Thanks for the replies and the advice, all. I've sorted gearing, 34:51 now with a 32 ring on the way to try too, switched tyres and stuck inserts in as well. Gave them a good ~8 hour workout today, and they're definitely waterproof if nothing else. :lol: Re. Garburn, bearing in mind it was dark on t...

Hello! Long time lurker, finally a member, by way of an introduction, here's my write up of a Lakeland 200 ride a couple of weekends ago.