Maxxis chronicles due in end of October, V tyre trax fatty out now but no uk dealer has them....
Panaracer are bringing one out as well aledgedly....

29er Nimbus dominator rims are 42mm wide and 35 quid from unicycle.co.uk if you want to try a wide rim on the cheap(er)

I like mine so much I'm in the middle of buying another

Some extreme hike a bike up the in pin there

Satmap for me - its a bit of a brick but the big screen is good and its fairly idiot proof. Uses 3 x AA's or a 12hr life rechargable battery. Satmap have also acknowledged and passed on the OS's price drop on all its mapping unlike Garmin.

Oyah! I'm thinking he needs a set of leathers. Or a least some armour.....

At the Abhain rath crossing by the Meanannach bothy pick up the tour-de ben Nevis route back to fort bill - North up over the bump to the right, great descent down to the Bothy in the Lairig Leachach then down the double track towards spean br. You can get into the forest (as per the td bn route) an...

That Giro shoe actually looks OK - is the upper leather?, its hard to tell from the description and pic. The shimano MT91 boots were comfy (if you could get a pair to fit you) but the cheapo upper absorbed gallons of water and fell apart. My northwave gran canyon gtx have done very well this year - ...

I've found on techy stuff, its better to go for bulk and light weight on the bars as its much easier to hoick the front up and maneuver the beast in the nadgery stuff

Back as less chance of going over the bars; but better a bit of both

Hair dryer, shaving kit, bottles of beer, deck chair, radio, bbq etc....!?

After many epic hike a bikes, years a go I vowed never to ride a trail again that wasn't 90 - 95% rideable. This resulted in seriously limiting rides away from the beaten track so over the years I've got back into the hang of carrying the bike, especially after getting the fat bike which tends to en...

I ask this question pretty much everytime I see a cycle tourer (particularly ones from Germany) or motorcycle tourer. I think people seem to think you need tons of spare kit like spare shoes, riding kit, evening kit etc. On my travels this year plenty of folk have been amazed at my lack of kit when ...

The lakes is a great place to learn technical riding - after dragging / swearing your bike up a massive climb to then face the prospect of dragging it back down again, the resulting raging temper tends to make you try stuff you otherwise wouldn't. Well it did for me back in the late '80's! http://i1...

You'll be able to get a train down to Galashiels from Embra starting at some point next year

I full on broke mine a year gone May. They only gave me a sling and said not to worry about using it if you can - basically if it doesn't hurt too much then your fine. Despite having the two broken ends of the bone waving around at each other with no plate or proper support it joined in 5 weeks and ...

Cheers all! What made the river crossings worse was my close scrutiny of the SEPA river level data which suggested they would all be fine. For many it wasn't the actual level per-se, it was more the fact that they had eroded themselves into narrow, deep swift flowing channels rather than their usual...

Salsa hubs are re-badged formula and the last time I checked were pretty much the same price as hopes. Kona fit joytechs to their Wo's but feck knows where you'd get them from. I looked into this a couple of years a go and came to the conclusion you either had to buy on one wheels or stump up for a ...

Google buy out of date aerial photos from OS so it depends when they get updated. For example Fife on google earth is 2001 (whereas at my work I have 2011 pics) but it varies a lot across the country. If you google forestrycommission.maps you should get a link to the Forestry commission scotland's p...

So I did the Cairngorms loop last weekend so I thought I would write up my tale on a blog. There's no photos as I didn't have the camera with me so its just text which I've tried to make interesting........
See what you think anyways

http://philbike.blog.com/2014/08/31/a-t ... 13-rivers/

Was a bit chilly on Saturday (especially the fords of avon) but Sunday was fine

Ridden rigid forks with normal QR's for donkeys - fargo, kramp, mukluk, on-one inbred with karate monkey forks, 531 custom made 26er with ultra flexi forks - all with no bother. Avoid weedy 'lightweight' QR's and use bog standard shimano ones. Hopes are good too if you are feeling flush

Cairngorms loop = done

You can bang them out the wrong way if you hit them hard enough (steel bar and big hammer) won't cause any more damage than when they went in. You can then hurl it into the neighbours garden and fit an expanding wedge type one which don't slip or gouge the inside of your forks.

Cairngorms loop, river levels permitting....