OT : Nice Break & Bike 4 Sale.

Boring mini break review with a mountain bike ad at the end.

Flew up to EDI on Friday morning (BA - Flight delayed by 1hr 10mins due to
them losing some connecting Canadian OAPs).

Hired a Peugeot 307cc from Avis (corp discount) and drove up to Inverness
where we stayed Fri & Sat. Nice motah when you find out how to get it into
Sport Mode.

On Friday night we ate at the Cawdor Tavern, very nice food and terrific
local ale - well worth a visit if you're in the vicinity.

Bought some new hiking boots in Inverness on Saturday morning - chuffed -
1/2 price £60 - last years last pair of size 8s.

Had a wander out to look round Fort George in the afternoon - impressive if
you like that sort of thing.

Took mum to the Runrig concert at Loch Ness in the afternoon. (Not my cup of
tea - although I did enjoy one of the supporting bands
http://www.greatbigsea.com/)

Spent 7hrs stood in the rain and found out that my boots and trousers are
waterproof, but my cammo goretex jacket isn't anymore.

It was a 2 mile trek back to the car park through some of the soupiest mud
I've ever seen. We arrived to find that the officials who were directing
people in to the car park and collecting £6 for the privalage, had all
fucked off now that around 4000 cars needed to be pushed out of the bog that
used to be a parking field. It was now that I also realised an automatic
coupe convertible is not the easiest thing to try extracting from a mudbath.
Thankfully we were eventually rescued around 2hrs later by a local in a swb
landy who was making a tidy profit on the night. Got back to the hotel in
Inverness around 2am - bar was shut - fuggit.

Drove up to Ullapool on Sunday, diverting to take in the occaisional
waterfall etc en route. Stayed in the Royal Hotel which was v nice and had a
cracking view over the Loch from my room's Balcony.

On Monday we carried on up the west coast - the satnav said it was an "A"
road - it looked more like a kart track in places. Triffic scenery though.
Went via Durness / Bettyhill / John O'Scrotes / Wick and stayed in
Helmsdale, again a lovely hotel with a great menu (Local Red Stag Steaks -
mmmmm) http://www.bridgehotel.net/

Yesterday travelled back to EDI in time to be delayed by BA again - this
time they had more bags in the hold than they should have had. This delayed
us long enough to allow EDI ATC to delay us even longer as the stack at LHR
was full due to the evening rush hour.

All in all a lovely part of the world that I hadn't seen before and am glad
I have now.

PS - My new mountain bike arrived whilst I was away - so my old one is now
up on fleabay - Item 170142207832 - Its a Scott Comp Aluminium Frame with
some nice bits on it.

 

It's wrong that I'm laughing, but I am.

 

Good lord, did you meet my ghost.

 

How lite is it compared to a decent road bike?

 

Amazingly Mum suddenly remembered how to drive an automagic; when there was
pushing in knee deep mud to be done !

First Picture -
http://s56.photobucket.com/albums/g195/dwbrown/Scotland Aug 07/

 

Are you from up that way originally then ?

 

Fairly similar to a £299 road bike, but quite a bit heavier than a £2000
road bike ;-)

I'll weigh it tomorrow.

 

I am not at all ashamed to say that there are times when reminding folks
of my dicky ticker is something I am want[1] to do.



[1] My Baby and I are currently disagreeing over my use of the word want
in this manner. She says it sounds like very bad English, I say it is a
proper form but not current which she is arguing the toss makes it old
English and thus not English but she has no counter for the class thing
cos having slaved for toffs I am much more familiar with the way what
they talks and as you don't get toffs like you used to she probably has
never come across it's use. So which of us is right?

 

Lived there, rode there

 

cheers

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, steve auvache

You're right, it's perfectly good English.

She's right, it's 'wont', not 'want'.

To summarise: you're both wrong.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - "He's hopeless, but he's honest"

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Fallen apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Honda ST1100 wiv trailer Norton 850 Commando
Kawasaki GTR1400

 

Well yes but not really no. See the reason why we were talking about it
in the first place is because I wasn't sure about the spelling and as
she has got a gcse in English asked if she knew and she got all hormonal
on me and the general meaning seemed near enough that in the absence of
a clue from my spell checker I went for want not wont. So I am not all
wrong but she is but I ain't going near her to tell her. I had
forgotten all about hormones and I ain't enjoying this I can tell you
right here and right now.

 

ITYF the word is "wont" not "want"

 

Well, the west coast was the more enjoyable side, definately more scenic
than the east coast.

Both sides very friendly though.

Stopped in a little Cafe in Durness where the lovely young Polish waitress
served up the nicest Cullen Skink I've ever tasted.

That amazed me though - tiniest little cafe that sat about 10 peeps max -
miles from civilisation - and still they'd hired a polish waitress.

Same with all the hotels, I expect it down here, but up in the wild remote
places oop there - all the receptionists / waiters / etc were either polish
or czech.

 

I'd guess it's somewhere between 27 and 30 lbs.

An average road bike will be 20-25, a good one 15-20, and a top notch
one 10 - 15.

Not to put off potential buyers of Brownz bike, but if you're only
riding on the road buy a road bike. MTBs with slicks are ok, but a
road bike is just vastly better and oddly, more comfortable.

 

Depends doesn't it, I know a lot of people that are hugely uncomfortable on
road bikes with drop bars.

I've just bought a hybrid for that very reason. (Specialized Sirrus Elite 08
[1]).

I would recommend a road bike if your serious about putting a lot of miles
in on the blacktop.

But for commutes and general fitness then a hybrid (road frame / flat bars)
makes a lot more sense.


[1] - Black with extra black bits as well !

 

Is a surprise given how hard work is to find. Locals don't want to work for
cunts paying shit wages I guess.

I would take the West coast every time as far as Cape Wrath.

 

I appreciate assistance from you and Ben.

I want a bike for covering 10 or 20 mile distances at weekends but also for
getting around town and up to the construction site.
The roads are shit here so a bit of suspension is welcome. It has to look
slightly tatty and not attractive. I want it to be very light though. I do
not want dropped bars, I like the flat tri-athlon style. Decent brakes that
work wet. Tyres that don't make road work an effort. *Puncture Proof*

 

Must admit, I've never understood that reasoning, and I've ridden a
lot of bikes.

The tops of drop bars are in exactly the same place as flats on a
hybrid if it's correctly set up.

Personally, I think it's confidence thing with brakes on drops myself.

 

I think a secondhand cyclo-cross bike would be perfect and fit flat
bars to it if you must have them. No 'proper' suspension but decent
cx tyres will give you enough comfort.

Summat like this with flats fitted...

http://sports.search.ebay.co.uk/jake-the-snake_Sporting-Goods_W0QQcatrefZC12QQsacatZ382

If you want 'proper' suspension and light then you'll need a full on
mtb like my race bike and it's associated price tag of over 4 grand.