Quality!

I use the saddle nose over the shoulder method but i grab hold of the down tube just below the crud catcher. Holds the bike securely to your body and the dropped front wheel keeps the bars out of the way. Low front wheel catches on things (this used to be a nightmare when I had a 6" travel fork...

Only through sat map but they are cheap - £45 for full UK 1:50k

My way of dealing with the real nadgery trails is to not look at the clock and just pick away at them bit by bit - it'll be done when its done. When it gets really grim, I just think about the alternative - being stuck in the office staring at a fecking computer....

No your normal - full suss has had its day and people will realise this very soon. We are just ahead of the pack
(a fellow kramp rider)

Absolutely fantastic mate - hit lots of nails on head with your comments and well done for fighting your way up the northern bit (which I never reached!) A few interesting points from your vid: Did anyone see how dry the Strathglass to Orrin res trail was - when we did it in May it was a mess with t...

Been using my satmap for the last 6 months. The standard bike mount does make it sit rather high and would make it vulnerable of you go arse over but it holds the unit securely. I've also used an exped smart phone pouch which has enough loops to attach it to a harness / revelate pocket setup but it ...

Summit of helvelyn, 1988. Rigid 26er (there was nowt else in those days!) I rode styhead, blacksail, scarth gap as well as the Helvelyn route. Being 17 helped mind you!

Funnily enough whilst planning my forthcoming trip down to Yorkshire to see t' Tour I was just thinking someone should do a lowland trail race - plenty of scope if you include D&G plus you could make it a 560 and include the Ochills, possibly by way of riding through the middle of Edinburgh to a...

Excellent story - interesting reading his comments on the weather - it looks like he missed Sundays rain as he was ahead of it! Where were you when it hit? I woke up in my bivi a few miles beyond Blackburn and it rained for a few hours, but it was fine by the time I hit Cannich and was just mist on...

Excellent story - interesting reading his comments on the weather - it looks like he missed Sundays rain as he was ahead of it!

I think its fair do's and the events Alan's listed will make good training rides in any case. I plan to have a wander round the Cairngorm loop in July and I'd like to give the Lakeland route a go, maybe over two days in September. I suppose my only thought is that this year only 36 made it to the st...

Eric Great report and a good photo record of the the route - I followed your tracks on the single track a few miles before Ullapool after I'd decided to quit at Oykel bridge and head to Ullapool for R&R. Unfortunately my legs and spirit were shot so I limped back to Inverness and a train instead...

A good read, but I'm slightly embarrassed to see that my pace on the first 40 miles upset Phils race plan! If I'd known I'd have said as I passed him 'Don't worry my plan is to blow up in 50 miles time and then scratch at the end of day 2....'

20 miles in hilly but downhill overall. 23 miles back, hillier and uphill over all. I try and do it three times a week but usually end up taking the train for part of the journey one way on one or two days. Great way of keeping the miles up in winter plus I treat going in as a time trial so I tend t...

On Friday it occurred to me that Saturday was the longest day and the weather forecast was looking good for saturday with rain coming in on Sunday. A route round the cairngorms seemed the easiest option as Blair Atholl was only an hour up the road. There followed some frantic packing of bags and thr...

We can't have it always - without the estate management there would be no hill tracks and no stalking paths plus the heather would be 3' high in between the areas of impenetrable forest. So you have a pristine environment full of lots of flora and fauna, but you can't access it.... A balance is requ...

Its progress, like 10 years ago if you rode across the Annat to Coulin path in Torridon you'd be lucky to see a tyre print let alone another bike, now every bugger is riding it including the rad full suspension and body armour dudes. You just have to look for wilder places - I can't imagine crowds o...

Just read this
http://bearbonesbikepacking.blogspot.co ... front.html
He's some man

+1 for snack pork pies - twas a schoolboy error of mine not to have a stock of them with me. Food is critical I reckon and the only way to suss it is to try different things on long rides and find out whats best - better training than hammering up hills on a road bike day after day. I ended up with ...

Following the tyre tracks was one of the things that I really liked about the ride - its a great comfort to know that some other poor buggers were suffering the same as you! Was interesting checking out peoples lines round the wet bits and floods on the Orrin res track and deciding which ones to fol...

Nice one Keith, you looked to be riding a steady tactical race and your result proves it. Somewhat unlike my effort.....
http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpBB ... =10&t=3740

PS - I did say yours and Andy's Mavic shoes looked a bit dodgy being white!

Cheers
Phil C

Thanks for the comments folks looks like next years race is in the calendar! Except it'll probably be the HT700 if Alan Goldsmith continues his development of this route.... Had a spin round the local woods yesterday and the legs appear to be functioning again looking at your photo they need rotatin...

So the HT560 is coming to an end and I'm sorry to report I binned it after day 2. Mucho pissedoffo as I'd trained my baws of all winter and thought I was well capable of knocking it off. My failure was for a number of reasons but the following sumarises my learning points from this sorry debacle, ju...

Just went for a run up to the NW on the motorbike as part of my recovery from my failed attempt. Entire NW Scotland baking in Sunshine! Got a text from Iona to say she's having a great time and doesn't care about the 8 day cut off!