Cheap as chips and good levers here http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-r400-brake-levers/ have some of these and they come with full set of cables (although they are too short for disc brakes you can use one) The road shifters will be two cogs too short for the required pull for the MTB mech, tried th...

Cane creek brake levers are nicer than the tektro ones. Planet X are doing dura Ace 11 speed bar end shifters for 35 quid? Else 9 speed ones can be had for 60 ish

Always got a few dudes doing the Polaris on unicycles - faster than walking and easy on the HAB sections!

Nice one - a home made brocken spectre!

When I built the ice cream truck I used a 27t up front (middleburn rs7 uno) with a one up 42t rear. This is OK for all but the steepest climbs and 27-11 allows pedalling up to 20mph on the big FB wheels which is more than enough. In fact once middleburn sort out there thick thin rings I'm hoping to ...

Decided I needed to do a long day on the Ice Cream Truck in prep for the highland trail. So did most of the Fife coastal path starting from the house and finishing at its end in Newburgh where I'd abandoned the car yesterday evening. 102 miles in 12 and a half hours, legs feeling tired but not shot ...

I'd be interested in doing that except borders midges are fierce and will be in full swing come mid june! Be a laugh riding through glentress with bikepacking kit on

Last year I kind of ignored the various hotels on route thinking I would be too smelly to get served so I'm looking forward to pigging out in them all this year. As well as the pie shop in Lochinver there is a wee caravan parks up on the sea front which does panninis and a variety of fried processed...

Yup, me and my Ice Cream Truck will be celebrating by doing more snow biking in Perthshire somewhere

Seems to be common on fatbike tyres caused by running them at low pressure. Ride and forget. (but carry ark emergency tyre patches just in case)

Its Andy Wood's design (Surly art director)
Weird Surly vid below! http://surlybikes.com/blog/post/feild_day

Re the Troll - I was looking at a Rolloffed Troll in Bothy bikes in Aviemore yesterday and it looked well sorted

200 front and rear as you can never have too much brake. I have a 220 on the front of the Krampus and its ace when your loaded and heading down some horrendously steep / loose / rocky etc descent as you can keep it under control with one finger whilst using the others to hang on for grim death. Sadl...

Depends on the snow - windslab is a total nightmare (unless its 15 - 25degrees downhill), likewise breakable crust. Saturated snow is unrideable on a fatty cos the tyres just float and slide. Proper fluffy powder can be ridden up to daft depths but this rarely occurs in the UK. Pray for a freeze tha...

Tried a 2.4 ardent in both a slotted drop out frame and a vertical drop out frame, both on 24mm rims. Its fits but its tight (like 3mm clearance) and soon clogs with mud. A 2.25 is far better.
My Fargo actually has more clearance. Anyone after a large inbred frame?

Oh god a new genre - the bike packing bike. I thought the whole point of bikepacking (and all the weird shaped bags) was that you could use any mountainbike, even a full bouncer. People may choose to use rigids for simplicity's sake but you don't need to tag them as 'bikepacking' its just a fecking ...

Zerodark bivi. rideable from st andrews.... tenstsmuir for flat forsest riding lots of bombholes and hardened dunes in the woods and a good stretch of sand for a blast. Plenth of interesting buildings and stuff overgrown and forgotten. For hills... lucklawhill has various bits and pieces I like it ...

Fife, just north of Edinburgh - nice countryside and riding locally and easy access to the highlands. Scotland's access legislation tops it all off

voodoo_simon wrote:My FatBike weighs 37lbs, but that's with basic nates, 2x20, rear rack etc. Wouldn't mind putting it on a diet...

Or
My fatbike ways 35lbs and I wouldn't mind going on a diet!

A couple of guys on the fat bike forum have them and rate them. If I hadn't already got a krampus I'd be in the market given that the frameset is half the price
Ideal HT560 bike Dave!

McGroo wrote: rider weight should be sorted first

Absolutely. But try telling that to all the roadies whose bikes weight less than their bellies!

Snow gates being shut doesn't constitute a road closure - its just a barrier to stop folk getting stuck in the snow. For a road to be closed requires a Traffic Regulation Order so your insured no bother

Based on weather and recent snow fall I reckon a fatbike will win it this year

I'm guessing a large Cotix X will be too big? 54cm seat tube and 56.1 ETT...
A bit to wee for me sadly but it'll be cheap if yer interested - frame, steel forks and headset

Thats close to Dec 2010 depths!
Enjoy

A mate built himself a recumbent years ago and used to use it on forest tracks and the like for which it was fine