Well done Philip. However you do know that it's the months of Dec, Jan and Feb that come under the heading of winter and March is officially the first month of spring

Great stuff, well done, .

Bearbonesnorm wrote:Well done Philip. However you do know that it's the months of Dec, Jan and Feb that come under the heading of winter and March is officially the first month of spring

I think I said that I wanted to complete within the clock change of British Winter Time.
It was definitely winter conditions. Sorry.

I'm only messing about. It certainly looked wintery enough to count in anyones book.

That Colin chap you met sounds like a right shady character. I wouldn't trust anything he told you about the conditions...

Nice one Philip. The Fealar Lodge loop is just salt in the wounds at that point of the ride, if Braemar or Aviemore were the start points then I don't think anyone would be bothered. I'm sure there are better 14km sections to replace it.

I did work out an extra loop involving all of glen gairn and Glen an t Slugain which means you could eliminate the fealar lodge bit and still make it 300k but I'm not sure if this would be any better given the extra river crossing involved....

The Fealar loop is very tough, not only physically but psychologically because you are deviating off the obvious route, which you don't really do anywhere else.
Perversely, if the route was run in reverse, you would just drop down from Fealar and continue up the Tilt. You would also have a relatively easy final 80km from Bynack More back to Blair Atholl.
However, just because I didn't succeed in doing the full route is no reason to disrespect Steve's original route. This would also be disrespectful of those riders who have completed it fully, especially Chris and Jenny with best male and female times.
Not being able to take that bloody left off the Tilt so near to home makes me admire the few who have.
Amen.

Yep, the Fealar Lodge climb was definitely the low point on my ride in September 2017. Took me a lot longer than 3 hours too! Sounds like you were were out the same weekend as me and a buddy. We were planning just one of the loops to give him a taster before a future attempt, but ended up just doing Gaick, Feshie, Geldie and Tilt after his feet nearly froze off due to insufficient footwear!

Absolutely top effort by you though, the snow was plentiful but just enough to keep the rideable bits rideable.

A proper ride that Philip, great effort in those conditions..

Interesting about the full sus too...

Philip, I wasn't being disrespectful, it was more an observation that with a very straightforward blast back down Glen Tilt (headwind permitting) turning left to Fealar Lodge is mentally tough. The route is what it is, I've no problem with that.

On the 2017 group start I missed the Fealar Loop out for two reasons: I'd already missed the Abernethy Forest to Burn o' Brown section following Steve's email about the Burn being impassable; and the pads on my front brake had worn away - they died at the top of the descent to Invercauld House, which was interesting.

padonbike wrote: However, just because I didn't succeed in doing the full route is no reason to disrespect Steve's original route.
Amen.

Which is why I didn't suggest any changes to Steve - however its good to think of these things when your pushing your bike up that bloody climb out of the tilt though.

The only changes I'd suggest are on the approaches to Aviemore where the Speyside Way would give an off-road alternative to the tarmac section. I don't think it would affect length/difficulty much though,

Yep, the Speyside way would be a good way to keep it more offroad, whilst still feeling like it gives you a fast easy stretch of riding. Also avoids the puddle of doom on the way to Tulloch!

Lake of Doom at the moment!

There was a boardwalk section built around the puddle when I did CL last year. Has it gone now?