Shoot the breeze here.
Hi folks
Seems to be a lot of bike theft going on. My friend asked if I could post this, as he’s lost a really lovely bike and was hoping folk might keep an eye out for it (see below for description).
I was also wondering if anyone marks their bikes (like with a police regisration scheme or pens or electronic tags that go in your frame). I just know know if any of it is worth doing. Any thoughts? Continue reading
Did anyone make it to Carron Valley last night? Wondering how the trails have faired after the storms?
Heya all…. happy new year.
I was wondering if anyone is riding local at the weekend (14th/15th) .. Sat or Sunday or both?? Would love to get out for a spin or two.
Zoe
Given that the weather has played havoc with so many forests and paths I’m planning a trip to the relative clear and well drained centre that is Glentress on Sunday. I’m heading down ready to ride for about 10.30 am. Do holler if you fancy it, the more the merrier. Probably riding a mixture of trails dependant on conditions etc. Meet you in the new caff.
cheers
D
Hi All,
Hoping you all looking forward to the Oak Tree Inn weekend on the 28th Jan! There is still one space available in the bunkroom, £15 for bed and breakfast! If your interested let me know. Continue reading
FEB
11
10:00 AM
Trail Maintenance – Mugdock Park
Mugdock Visitor Centre
Craigallion Road , Glasgow
20 attending
Give something back to the club and help out with some trail maintenance in Mugdock park. Come prepared to work outdoors, wellies, waterproofs, hats, gloves, packed lunch. Jobs will be allocated on the day but my understanding is we will be helpi…… MORE
RSVP →
MAR
10
10:00 AM
Trail Maintenance – Mugdock Park
Mugdock Visitor Centre
Craigallion Road , Glasgow
10 attending
Give something back to the club and help out with some trail maintenance in Mugdock park. Come prepared to work outdoors, wellies, waterproofs, hats, gloves, packed lunch. Jobs will be allocated on the day but my understanding is we will be helpi……
I have upgraded our facebook page, as its been yelling at me to do this or loose it and as Iain righlty said, it would be good to keep this active and up to date.
I know there is a way for wordpress to automatically upload content to facebook, but after searching the wordpress site, I am now stuck. It tells me to login to WP and open “plugins”then install the link thingy may boaby- but cannae find this.
Does anyone else done this? Can do this?
This’ll mean that our content on FB is kept current without us having to add to multiple pages, and we may also generate content the other way too. Not sure how though.
Waht with all the crap weather, I thought I’d try some techncal computer stuff, but its failed me at the first hurdle, or should i say the first hill-climb. No change there i hear you cry!
Sam
The fabulous four (Gerry, Alison, Ryszard and myself) turned up in a rather damp and misty Ardgaten visitor center today at 10am. After all of us trying to win the verbal competition on who had done the least biking and who had eaten too mince pies over the festive period we decided to get cracking and let the trail determine who had been secret training and who in actual fact had eaten too many mince pies. (place your bets now please)
The Ardgaten Route isnt a technical route, its mostly fireroad with 7km of singletrack which is nothing really too techy if your on a mtb…. thing is I wasnt and nether was Alison or Ryszard. So this made things….. errr …. interesting? Gerry was on his full suss (and was still as fast if not faster up the hills than us)… all about the gear ratios thou…. apparently… this made for an interesting topic the whole way throughout the ride. It was noticed that I had a mtb cassette on the CX and was sporting a triple chainset which technically means I should have been flying up those hills but unlike some I wasn’t lying at the start of the ride when i said I’d lost all the Ironman status that I had built up the previous year, I was cycling more like couchpotato man (I managed to surgically remove the remote control from my paw in time for the ride).
The route is undulating to say the least – I think riding a CX bike makes it more fun, if not a little more bone rattling on the descents.
The route just before the half way point drops down into Lochgilhead after following 7km of “singletrack” (more like narrower and steeper firetrack with sections of rough ground, still fun thou) before this we were treated to fantastic scenic views of Loch Fyne and Loch Goil, ……at least we would have been if the damn mist had lifted – so we all imagined the views from the last time we were there. Gerry kept us going by talking about food, I love cycling with Gerry hes one of the only people that shares in my belief that exercise should be followed up by eating something horrendously calorific and tasty – more talk resumed after that of slow cookers and the “carvery restaurant which sells good top nosh for only £3.69 and desserts for a mere £1.39”.
Anyway back to the ride – so on the trip down to Lochgoilhead we came across many horizontal trees, Q the fabulous 4 and the teamwork we performed to get through em. Finally upon entering Lochgoilhead we went through a section of fireroad that sported some highland cattle, one was on the path, those that know me know I have an infinite fear of cattle be it the fluffy ones or not. Cows should be in a bun or on the other side of the fence … the other side of the fence to me that is. I handled it all with style and finesse….. I’ll let you guess how I actually handled that.
Out of Lochgoilhead is a NEVER ENDING FIRETRACK HILL which follows the main road beneath you and takes you up and over the rest and be thankful, thankful I reckon cos you’ve never been so F’kin thankful to be at the top in all your life!
Finally if your looking for a fabulous workout on those bingo wings then a rigid bike on the final descent is a great workout and comes highly recommended.
Every ride has an order of ability/fitness that naturally occurs as the ride progress – I can confirm that I won the competition of being totally truthful about my fitness, ie it doesn’t exist. Alison did amazing on really skinny tyres (and a compact) Ryszard is just plain stubborn and will grunt and groan his way up any hill, and Gerry did fantastic on his mtb and most of the time was seen way out in front of us with CX bikes including up the hills!
We were totally soaked through by the time we arrived back at the car park, the weather was pretty dire. I personally had been dreaming of dry pants a good portion of the way round the route. Rides like this are made all the better when you have people to share it with, somehow its easier to laugh off the less than perfect conditions and the pain of going uphill… FOREVER. Left to just me and Ryszard riding I think I would have just swore at him the whole way up the hill, so thanks Alison and Gerry for a great day out.
ps Gerry am still considering the slow cooker but I really am not interested in the Carvery.
It’s really good to see the interest growing for the maintenance days, and I’ve seen some activity on the Meetup mailing list too, so here’s hoping that we can get a good turnout and actually make a difference. I guess we are all getting fed up with not being able to ride our usual trails…..
On that idea, the Ardgartan loop on cx bikes would be a cracker, unfortunately I couldn’t make today’s one, but it has got me thinking about what other relatively nearby routes could be spiced up by doing on cx bikes while the trails are so gubbed ?
I could well be up for Ardgartan Again next Sun, weather permitting…. ?
Hi all – Happy New Year.
Ryz and I are heading out tom on the crossbikes around the Ardgarten Peninsula tomorrow, we might also take in the corrigrogan loop which is short jaunt down the road on the bikes from the argarten penisular to take in a hilly fun 13 mile trail which starts from the base of the Ben Narnain/Cobbler car park after completion of the Ardgarten Peninsula (provided am still alive)
This is my first proper post festive ride so am likely to be like a snails pace. As always any company very welcome especially if they’re willing to push me up the big hills 🙂
Aim to ride at 10am from the Ardgarten Car Park just past Arochar car parks for Cobbler and Narnain.
I’ll check the link again later this evening
Dawn
