Not sure how much damage is being done to the line around BH but makes sense to change it if he thinks it’s unsustainable. I don't think that was the reason for taking it out - I think it was the remote, uneven, no phone reception, no easy bail-out, very exposed nature of the route there that made ...

still-bloody faced Kerry, grinning like a loon and shouting, ‘Go! Go! Go! I lost my bike in a river!’

This is brilliant! What a legend.

Yes 2015 was a bit special!
2013 was the 440 rather than 550.

Records seem moot, considering Bealach Horn was missed? I don't think Alan is planning to put Bealach Horn back in again. The route has changed (slightly) every year. General trend has been for it to get easier. 2024 vs 2015 I reckoned was maybe ~4 hours quicker having taken out northbound devil's ...

Has Emma's pace eased off a bit? At the rate she was going early on I was assuming she was going for Lee Craigie's course record, but Emma's now a bit behind where Kerry was this time last year (just out of Dornie vs halfway up the climb to Camban). Kerry just missed the record, so looks like it's p...

Seems like it's right before Poolewe after you've passed the first houses. Can't remember a ford there...

Kerry lost her bike in a river near Poolewe late last night! Hope she finds it today!

Where did you get the 9 speed chain from? There are apparently quite a lot of fake shimano chains out there...

1) Favourite outing (not necessarily by bike) Chablais 300 was a hoot - fun trails and stunning scenery and a nice pint waiting at the end. HT550 was great, as always, but I had a strange feeling like I'd sleepwalked around most of it. Getting pretty ill on day 4 was not a highlight but at least I f...

suffering from Rhabdomyolysis That's the same thing that caused Miron Golfman to collapse just before the finish of the Highland Trail a few weeks ago! Sounded nasty. These guys have incredible willpower to defy the messages their body is sending them. I guess it's a fine line between managing your...

The whole thing about trains taking/not taking bikes is a bit of a red herring. Yes it's nice if the train allows your bike to be wheeled on in one piece, but if you can quickly whip the wheels off and put it in a (thin) bag then it just becomes a normal piece of luggage. When I did Paris-Brest-Pari...

The start date seems to be creeping up quickly now... it's next month! How is everone feeling? I'm not too bad, although bruised some ribs crashing on an icy tree root a while back and have had a persistent cough which won't let them heal. Can't complain in general though. The lack of snow in the al...

What I do is just put sleeping bag and therm-a-rest inside my bivvy bag, then roll it all up. So when I want to deploy it I just unroll it, inflate the therm-a-rest and I'm ready to climb into bed.

Yep, it's Andrew's fault I'm in! He emailed me on the morning that entries opened to remind me - otherwise I would have forgotten. Planning to use the ancient Shand (got it in April 2009, so it will be 15 years old by the time of the HT550), but not yet decided whether to use it SS again or geared (...

Yep, as a couple have spotted up thread I'm in! Big excitement, as it's 10 years since my last attempt! I had a place for 2020 (we all know what happened then). That got transferred to 2021 but as I had a 6 month old son and a daughter on chemo I wasn't able to take up my place :sad: Let's hope the ...

Has anyone tried using Fatmap for navigating? I see that the "Explorer" version has OS maps as a layer (as well as lots of other national Topo maps like IGN). I've just signed up for the 7 day free trial, so will see how I get on. If it works well €30 per year seems like reasonable value.

I did a few in 2019 in order to qualify for PBP and then did that. I was kind of astonished how many folks are out there doing this kind of thing all the time and not making any fuss about it. Makes you realise that the old geezer who trundles past might be on a 600km ride rather than just a local 2...

Great job Steve!

Some sticky mud from the Old Bannack Road. There weren't even any trees to borrow sticks from to clean the bike - I ended up using a gnarled old bit of sage.

Invite her to write an article for the site on the legalities of wild camping?

Happy new year!
My daughter's chemotherapy is due to finish this year (though not until October). It's going to be a better one than 2020 and 2021 I'm sure!

I have the same requirement for my daughter who I take to school on a mac ride.

I was planning to make a pair from an old softshell jacket by cutting the sleeves up and stitching some velcro on so they can easily be attached and removed. Haven't got round to it yet though... Will post pics when I do.

I wonder what that birch sap wine tastes like...

Did he say he had 60 gallons of it?!

Some dude did Melbourne to Cairns by skateboard this year. 3,600km in couch surfing style. Good effort.

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/skateb ... ause-62936

mattpage wrote: ↑Thu Sep 23, 2021 1:12 pm

NewRetroTom wrote: ↑Thu Sep 23, 2021 8:08 am Looks reasonably bumpy, but not too bad. I did a 230km race in July with 10,600m of climbing.

Probably not in the UK.

Correct. https://mb-race.com/en/mb-ultime-2/

Write-up here if anyone is interested. https://newretrotom.blogspot.com/2021/0 ... -race.html