Black Medicine.

I really needed to get out for a 'non-training' type ride. Not necessarily short or easy, just involving stopping if i wanted to, going back to do a section again, rather than keeping the heart rate in a certain zone and maybe a stop somewhere for lunch.



So i headed to edinburgh. It fitted in with other things and allowed me to pit the jones against stoorey b. I also wanted to try and get to know my camera a bit better. Trina had shown me how to use the self timer, so i thought i could maybe get some pics of me riding, instead of the usual handlebar and 'bike-propped-against-tree' shots.



I spent an hour or so up stoorey b, even attempting the drop we all know as 'big red'. This starts off steep, hits some roots with a few curves, then just as traction is truly about to go, you can let off the brakes and hit the fall line. I seldom ride it anymore, probably because after some recent erosion i can only make it 40-50% of the time. When you dont make it, it isnt nice. Rocks, a tangle of roots sticking up from the ground and usually a layer of wet dirt over hard means consequences.

Needless to say my skills with the self timer were poor, so buoyed by confidence from having ridden out big red once, but missed the shot, i saddled up again.



Bam, went down sideways after a front wheel slip: tried to keep control with a foot extended as an outrigger, but no luck. Hit the ground and slid, the bike gaining as it shot down the slope in front of me.

Crap. A few scrapes on me, a few on the bike (4th ride and its already looking like its been in the wars, which is probably a good thing...) and quite a nice shot.



Then i headed for the pentlands and out towards nine mile burn. A screaming tail wind back to flotterstone, and over to mortonhall. After a panini and coffee i dropped down to stockbridge and managed a quick amber nectar prior to installing a new tube (a patch job earlier on stoorey b went bad) and wobbled back along the water of leith.



Just what i needed.

666

This is my 666th post. Spooky eh?

few things, just got 2 rl burnside albums. Dirty swamp rock blues. Played with jon spencer blues explosion, never a bad thing, and generally rocked the house. For the cheekies it will be up soon. You know what im talking about.

Other peoples adventure:

Cass and co are away...see here.
Eric has been out too.
Dude called jeff boatman who makes bags for jones truss forks was out there recently.
And chipps is hitting up the pyraknees. Ill be updating with his progress as it happens. The power of modern technology.

Ride!

And, seeing as its a special post...it needs a special pic.

Shoe goo.

What do you do if you rip the sole off your cycling shoes?



After a wee bit of reading around, and a swift amazon purchase, i used some shoe goo, and with the help of my trusty mole grips, my sidis are back in business.

All smiles.

Questionable decisions. This year has been somewhat of a transition year for me in terms of racing. I have never 'trained' before, i have never changed gear for races before and i have never worked at different feeding and fluid intake strategies. One for the reasons for this is that if something doesn't work, you are likely going to be off the pace.

I have had numerous successes - using nuun tablets, hammer nutrition perpetuem, changing to a lower gear and learning to pedal with a higher cadence by using a 39:16 on my fixed gear a lot.

A lot of this has been about shenandoah for me. I haven't ever done a race that has been so hard. Don't get me wrong, it isn't hard to finish per se. But it is hard to go fast on a rigid singlespeed. There is a lot of climbing, and there is a lot of hard, technical singletrack descending. In order to go faster than last year several things have had to change.

For 10 at kirroughtree i intended to use a small 1 litre wingnut bladder pack, 2 flasks of honey stinger gel (with 9 packets in total in them) and bottles with nuun, restocked every 2 laps.

Each lap is 8.6 miles with 300 m of climbing/descending, and i was hoping for at least 10 laps in the 10+1 hours you have.

All went well for 3 laps, which was good as id felt pretty wabbit the week before and was concerned i had a bit of a cold, or was just plain tired.

Then i started to have wildly fluctuating energy levels. The gel was giving me some energy pretty quickly, that then seemed to cause an absolute crash shortly afterwards. Fluid was a struggle as the course is relentlessly technical, so it is possible that i wasn't actually getting the best from the gels due to poor hydration.

Nevertheless stomach cramps started followed swiftly by catastrophic legs cramps. At hour six i ate a cheese roll and trina made me a bottle with hammer perpetuem and i rolled a couple of slower laps. After that i was able to ride on, albeit with continuing cramps.

Lesson? gels don't work for me. Hydration *is* massively important and the gels seem to require more fluid than i could get on board on a rough course.

So: i need to mount another bottle cage to the jones (thank you King Cage!) and go back to the hammer with occasional other bits and bobs.

Boilermaker

First proper ride. Impressed. Thoughts shortly. Meanwhile im supping a brew, eating beef, and boilermaker beans.

Mix:
2 cans pinto beans,
3 chopped yellow oinons,
4 heapoed table spoons molasses,
2 table spoons worcester sauce,
a good number of dashes of hot chili sauce,
a half jar of hot salsa (commercial),
a triple of bourbon (at least),
1/3 jar of FRESH dijon mustard,
a half pint of amber or dark beer,
4 rashers of charred bacon.

Cook in oven at 180c, or 350f for 30 mins with lid on, then 30 mins with lid off after a stir. Keep looking and take out when reduced to a nice slop.

Yo.

Member

Adventure cycling, a good bunch. There is an interesting article in the latest issue of their magazine of the pros and cons of how to load a bike. Front vs rear, high versus low.

And also, Aaron teasdale has a great gallery of TDR/GDR pics.

Go lookee...

Pinner.

Ready for action.

Explosive power.

Monday: took the 'maiden out for a run. Read about it at vc moulin. A top ride and saved not once but twice by bruce dickinson. Then yesterday slotted in a super tight twisty ride with chris and dan. Swift pint then home on the train, as ac-dc fans spilled out of glasgow. Awesome.

On the move: at peace.

Its ben a busy couple of weeks, as ever. We were down in london visiting the G funk and (....wait....) helen. A top time had. Friday was traveling and chilling, we were in Hackney, a fine spot, really like it. Saturday was all about coffee, crosswords, the barbican (amazing - reminiscent of JG Ballard's stories of the descent of the middle classes, whilst at the same time being oddly serene) and incredible breakfasting. We popped in to see ben at his gallery, Austin, and watched as the fixed fashinistas rolled by (photo from tipped.co.uk).The number of singlespeeds decked out like fixies (ie no rear brake) is frightening. After a glass or 2 of belgium's finest in the Dove, we dropped in to Moro for a world class meal. Amazing food, better company.

We failed at the karaoke. We were aiming for something against the run of the mill, eye of the tiger perhaps, but it didnt happen. Sleep. Sunday after a wander through the flower market, we did another crossword while waiting for food. Who knew about the apse? We thought arse, hence the moustache...

Making room.

Spent the whole day moving stuff around.



Found some tubes as well.

Wide load...

So, thinking and thinking as i am want to do. I have a 29er 50 wide single wall Uma rim from Speedway cycles. The original plan was to build this on to a whub for the new bike. Then i got to thinking. Dangerous stuff. Kris Holm has a new 47mm wide, pre drilled, eyeletted double-wall rim available. It weighs just shy of 800g. The Uma weighs pretty much the same, but is inherently weaker due to the singlewall construction. Hmmmm.



Then i thought, at 800g it is unlikely i am going to use either for racing. A duster weighs ~500g, so why have 300g of extra rotating weight. Using the old multiply-by-4 rule for rotating mass, that is a colossal increase in weight.

What about a Salsa cycles Gordo? It is welded and double wall and eyeletted, but at a measley 35mm wide and 700g it is hardly a better compromise.

So now i am thinking of an Edge composites 40mm wide rim. (they are going to be coming out with a neato seat post also) Only issue...it ain't available yet...

xXc magazine.

Found xXc magazine recently. Well worth a read, and some nice photos in there from some names i recognise.

Spending some time on the dt spoke calculator. The 29er uma rim to whub is going to rip. Dress it up all nice in a maxxis ardent and feed the monster.

Something wicked this way comes...

More.

DEEEEE de, de di deh diddah.

Its back on, and mtb cast has it covered.

Going far...

New link added...check it....

Go fargo.

ParaSITE.

I cant remember where i got this from, but it was designed for homeless folk, who could link it up to air-con out flows and thus fill it up with warm air to create an insulated bivi shelter.

Know what im talking about?

Makes you wonder doesn't it. Anyways, i found another link about it...gizmag and from there to the designers page.

Times they are a changing.

The above photo is linked from Jason Sager's site. He works with the Jamis pro mtb team. They are currently using Edge carbon *tubular* rims for their mtb's.

Look closely at the scale. See the number?

The Geax tyres they are running are not heavy either.

Imagine dropping a full pound of rotating weight from your wheels. Wow

What else?

The bicycle escape had a pic of an IF they built recently, designed to take a hammerschmidt.



For some reason that is appealing to me...

As is this super clean disc placement from vertigo cycles.



So: when do i get my internal geared/2 speed, ti, super light & fat rim wheeled bike. eh?

Just sitting...

Woke up this morning feeling a little weird. A bit sweaty, heart rate a bit fast. Really tired. I'd wanted to go for a ride, but i think the sensible thing to do is sit tight, and hydrate. It also means i a) avoid the torrential rain we seem to be in for, and b) get time to write up some thoughts about some kit i'm using and the trip to the Picos we did.

The last week has seen a fair bit of bike admin. The pinkster got pretty wet before being packed up for return from the Picos, so i needed to redo the rear brake cable routing and clean the steerer ( i could see some rust when i took the bars off).



It also gave me a chance to inspect the fosketset. This is my 'tuned' king headset, that has seen quite a few loaded bike rides since it was fitted and i was curious to see fi there would be any signs of unusual wear and tear on the bearings, steerer or compression ring.

Nope. None. Rock solid.



A bit of a rub down with grey scothbrite pad and rust-be-gone.

The other thing was to mess about with the cable routing. The pinkster, in order to use seat stay mounted rack mounts runs the brake cable down the underside of the stay prior to it routing into the calliper. The issue was the angle with which it entered the bb7 unit - it added a lot of friction. So, i bent up some steel conduit and shortened the cable, dripped some triflow down there and now it is smoooooth. Yeah, its probably a bit boring, but i do like to take care of the details...

Andy Cathcart memorial ride.

Drumlanrig. A bunch of people connected by one thing - calling Andy a friend. We rode in a bunch around the forest. We rode roots, rocks and put our backs into it when we climbed. The sun shone, the rain poured and the smiles and effort made it a special day.

Photos are on the flickr group. Apologies for the blur. I think my wee camera was a little underpowered for the lower light areas in the trees.

Bristol 12.

This is now up on the VC Moulin site. Go there for the full skinny.

Ready as i'll ever be...

Bristol 12 this weekend.

12 hour solo which is the first race for the season for me, since the blairadam bash actually, and one i am looking forward to immensely. Prep has included riding my bike, rescuing the cat from a tree, burning lots of garden refuse, and sleeping.

Bring it on!

Trans Portugal.

Jac and Chris (fellow vc mouliners) are currently racing the trans portugal. This is an 8 day race down the length of portugal, with some up and down thrown in for good measure.

It seems the freaky hot weather has been a little tough on jac, and chris had a bike issue (cracked frame) that was a little difficult to surmount.

Nevertheless, it seems as though they march on ... chris on a new (?) bike!

Go brah!

Watch it on: sleepmonsters.co.uk

Andy Cathcart Ride.

From John Parker:


I’d like to invite you all to get together and commemorate the life of Andy by riding the trails of Drumlanrig Castle on Sunday 14th June. This was one of Andy’s favourite riding locations due to its twisty technical singletrack. Although in all my time riding there with Andy he never revealed the fact that Drumlanrig actually offers less challenging trails graded green and blue for the saner among us so even if you know someone who would like to come along but is a bit unsure of the trails this could be an option.

Here’s a couple of websites to get the juices flowing:

http://www.drumlanrig.com/pages/content.asp?PageID=144
http://cycling.visitscotland.com/mountain_biking/mb_centre/mountain_biking_drumlanrig
http://www.hollygarden.co.cc (Copy of the trail map)

There’s also a kids adventure playground which I can personally recommend and the gardens of the castle also make for a nice day out so if you want to bring the family along then it would be a great day out for all.

The only thing we ask of you is to ride with the same fury and passion which Andy did, but this may involve de-tuning your trusty steed by removing a brake or snapping a bolt or two ;-)

The plan is to meet in the lower car park around 10:30am and try and set off around 11:00 am. Rik (The hands that carved the course) at the bike shed has secured enough spaces for us all in this car park

I may have missed people off the list of emails address so I would be grateful if you could pass on the invite to anyone you think would like to come along and share memories.

Looking forward to seeing you all on the day.

John

The Number of the Beast.

Built. It rides so damn nice its ridiculous...fast and relaxed, poised and sharp. It will be such a nice tool for the job.

So its not a proper cross bike, but what it *is*, is a machine ready and willing to do the dirty on road and trail for as long as my legs can keep it moving forward, right from the door. Mix it up, it will cope. Biomechanically, its silhouette means i wont get anything funky going on when i jump on the tIF to ride proper trails or the pinkster to do some touring.

Exactly what i wanted. As ever, thank you tim and thank you indy fab.

And yes, i used an end mill getting this together...i had an old dt swiss thru bolt rws skewer that needed the nut 'massaged' as it was prior to the final relieved nut they make now.



Issues - how to make the fixed rear wheel i built work with a chainline that sits at 47mm at the chainring sits when the velosolo ring sits at 54mm chainline on the hub. Best idea so far (thank you phil!) is to send the hub to a friendly lathe to have its excesses removed and space the ring out a few mm...

Blammo

Back. Lots to tell, but prolly for singletrack. Will post some Picos thoughts as they come though. Biff's shopper held together just fine and we had a supreme time.

In other news the 'Maiden is almost ready. Only hitch: (i had wondered if this would happen) setting it up to take a fixed 135mm/disc attachment cog *and* a singlespeed wheel with road cranks is proving.....tricky. We'll see. At the moment it is freewheeled, because it is meant to be a training tool for the most part, so it mimics the tIF.

Pictures when done. I am especially pleased with the cable routing for the rear brake...

Me and my man.

Are off to the picos. He's packed too...

Project: Iron Maiden.

End mills are your friend.

----sorry for the bluuuueurgh-----


I have mentioned swapping disc rotors. The sharper tacks amongst you will notice im using a 180 rotor with an 185 avid adapter/BB7. Isn't that a bad idea? especially if the pads wear and then hit each other before they hit the disc because 2.5mm of the pad material never gets worn by the rotor?

Well, it would be, but i used an end mill and removed some material from the adapter to allow a good solid contact.

:-)~ All good.

Thats it...

So, kit sorted, and im packing the rest of the stuff up.

In terms of the bike...i have a total weight of 15.1 kg. The bike itself weighs 12kg so i have 3.1kg of kit on it. That is including everything i am taking except water.

My wingnut weighs 1.95 kg. Again, thats inclusive except water. So that puts my kit total for the trip at 5.05kg, or 11.1 lb. Pretty good, i think, and it is noticeable when i am riding that the bike is lighter. It is easy to pick up and carry, which is good.

I only got 20 mins riding today as i have a million and one things to sort out, so i need to get a little more time in to brake (!) the rotors in, then its tear down and shove it in the trico.

Bike prepped.

One of the things i wanted to do prior to heading to the picos was fit new disc rotors. The shimano rotors seem to have a better feel than the avid stock rotors, I wanted to use a rotor with an alloy carrier so it is stiffer, and less likely to bend, and also as it doesnt have the slightly annoying rotational play that the avid 6 bolt to center lock adapter allows.

I got hold of a shiamno xt RT79 rotors - 180 front, 160 rear. Unfortunately, the rear alloy carrier interfered with the disc caliper. The front was ok due to the greater diameter. Chipps had mentioned this might happen, so i wasnt too surprised and instead fitted an SLX RT64 which has a smaller alloy carrier but a similar steel disc. All done and the end mill didnt need to be utilised as the rotors sit slightly more out from the flange, thus making adjustment of the brake easier.

All good.



Next up will be replacing the rotors on the tIF with the same rear and probably a new XT RT76 6 bolt rotor when they come into stock.

The tIF got an ardent fitted on the front (thanks andy!) and this tyre belies its unmounted size with a pretty beefy volume. Hopefully this will be the tyre for shenandoah...more once its ridden.



Now, time to pack stuff up and work out a layering system for the picos...i think i may have to take something primaloft - mainly to bolster the sleeping bags warmth over night...

Locked and loaded.

Today i finally had a chance to get the pinkster loaded up with the new Epic Designs bags, with an approximation of the kit ill take to the Picos de Europa. All works well. I have a few bits and bobs to do to the bike, then we are away. I serviced the rear hub mechanism, replaced front pads and bedded them in. I did notice there is a compatibility issue with the front rotor, brake and fork. The rotor is sitting too far to the left at maximum adjustment of the caliper. Still, it works. I might replace the rotor, as i want to use the alloy armed shimano rotors but we'll see. They have better braking power, are stiffer and lighter than the avids.



The packs are (predictably) amazing. Holding all the gear well without interference to my legs or the bike. They have good adjustment in order to keep everything snug. Front bag is currently holding waterproof and primaloft jackets, along with a thermarest and the bivvi sack. The rear has a wool top, sleeping bag, gas, kettle, coffee maker (thanks shaggy!) porridge and cup. I will likely re-stow stuff and put a little more in the rear, but this gives a good idea of how it will all ride. The kilo lost weight - from removing the Old Man Mountain racks - from the bike is noticeable. The bike weighs 32lb without water, so it'll be pretty light considering.



More as time allows.

Anja

I am certain a report will surface on the moulin site, but anja rocked to a third place at the "rest of the world" singlespeed championships in new zealand.

Ferrari

My man matt got second SS at cohutta 100, first NUE race of the year. Chapeaux.

Yo la.

At shaggy's stag do, we were talking about family guy. I've never seen family guy, so i googled, and look what i found.

Andy Cathcart.

It is with a very heavy heart that I type these words. Andy Cathcart - well known to so many of you - was killed whilst out riding in South Africa this week. All my thoughts are with his partner Rona and his family.

I am proud to call Andy a friend. Over the years I have shared riding, racing and a good deal of sweat and bad music as he produced his excellent work in sports physiology. He has my and many others respect for his tenacious and talented skills as a rider.

The tales that will be told are many, he lived life to the maximum and will be sorely missed. I'll sign off with a comment he made whilst racing across Scotland in the multi-day trans-Scotland race a year or 2 ago:

"Line? what line..."

So with all this Mackaskill...

I thought i'd bring you some... me. Courtesy of a man i owe a lot to for taking such a lovely, flattering picture.

Next generation trials.

The inimitable mr macaskill.

If you can...go see.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

I am getting close to having all the parts to build the new bike. The frame will take how long the frame takes. Having quite a few parts hanging around, it has taken relatively little effort to get the rest - particularly because it will be fixed or singlespeed and rigid.

Despite having parts i like ready to be used, things do change. When they do, it can make for an uncomfortable transition period when i reach for a different bike. Take my recent change to ESI grips. These boring looking tubes of silicon are 'offset bored'. They have more material on one side than the other. Thus they are both narrow, and offer good padding between hand and bar. In addition the silicon is very shock absorbing whilst being incredibly grippy in wet conditions. What this adds up to is less grip strength required to ride. This leads to less fatigue and less forearm burn. All good.

This may sound like a sales pitch. BUT, when i fitted my first pair i was objective as to how they would perform, and actually quite concerned if i did prefer them to what i have used previously. Why?



Well, i can show you my box full of odi lock ons, oury's and bar tape. All of which are now consigned to the useless pile.

I could show you my bikes, that will all require the grips removing and the bars cleaned with elbow grease and iso propyl alcohol to get rid of the sticky goop from old grips.

Even the time required to fit 4 sets (and counting) of ESI grips is not to be sniffed at. Despite this, a package from ESI arrived with my name on it. They are better, rendering my old grips obsolete. Riding the fixed off road for 3 hours on monday and putting most of a day on the tourer made me realise that.

Oh well.

Then of course there is that age old issue of the saddle. Back in the day, I (along with most other people in the known universe) loved the WTB sst saddle. All my bikes had them. Unfortunately some of the rail materials were not the most durable, and then they pulled the design in favour of a more techno look, or maybe because the original partnership dissolved, leaving charlie cunningham and steve potts to pursue other interests. (Incidentally, it was reintroduced this year - back by popular demand?)

After a while, you couldnt find the old sst's without paying exorbitant prices on EBay. Bam, time for a new saddle choice - across the board. I tried a few, initially the selle italia flite as it seemed the most long lived design, and the most widely available. But the flat and hard shell didn't quite work. From there, the slr which was good, but flimsy. Over to selle san marco and the aspide in both triathlon and normal versions. The magmaa came out with similar profile to the sst, which made me wonder. For a year it was very good. Cue investment in 3 of them. Then the magnesium shells started breaking and i wanted to change again. The zoncolan came out, again looking sst-ish with a full nose and hammock shape. It had plain ti rails (which i have found in general to be durable) and a lorica cover which was also long lived. I have now 4 of these saddles with the last 2 having been considerably more expensive and with what the company calls xsilite rails. I hope they are not a lower priced, less durable alternative and that this saddle doesnt get removed from the range too soon.



The longer you ride for the more important these things become. It is almost crippling to learn a new saddle, and once you are there it is nearly worth stocking up on saddles despite the credit crunching price.

Plus ca change...

BMW

I like. From fixie pixie.

All packed up.

When i started looking at bike packing as a possibility - primarily to ride for longer and see more things, but most importantly to minimise the amount of driving to riding areas - there was a dearth of information available as to what to take. As oft pointed out by folk as able as mike curiak, that is because the learning curve to allow you to travel minimally also helps you travel safely and with minimised discomfort. Not so important in the uk, because over every hill or the next is a town, but worth while dwelling on for sure.

Now there are several websites and forums dedicated to discussion of the kit list and packing essentials. Bikepacking is a good start, as is AK spokes.

I thought i'd run through what i took with me and what i will change for next time. Note: the route was well known to me and the conditions were generally stable and relatively good. I have done a few overnighters now and feel comfortable with less than i started out with.

So: first a picture of the bike is needed so i can refer to the bags and then their innards...



The racks are old man mountain cold springs front and rear. I chose them because they have a good record of surviving actual off road touring, and allow me to swap easily between racks and not racks. They have a high weight rating, which i will never get close to, and this gives me confidence. At the time i spec'ed the bike, the 'rackless systems' now so common and so beautifully made by eric at epic designs and jeff at carousel were in their infancy - a few bugs were worked out and i have a front and rear set coming from eric shortly. By using these, you drop 2 lbs from overall weight as you lose the racks. Once you have a minimal kit list they are easily small enough to not challenge good strong bars or seatposts, wont connect with your legs and arent encumbering enough to through the bike off balance.

But, for my ends so far i have used eric's trunk turtles. I think these were developed due to my requests, added to thoughts that eric had been having for some time. The idea is that there is an easily accessible pocket on top of a roll top expandable dry bag sitting on top of the rack. Stuff you need quickly and frequently, in the top. Sleeping and clothing stuff - in the bags. Stable easy and dry.

On my front rack, in the dry bag i have a sleeping matt - in this instance a thermarest light 3/4 job - folded not rolled, wrapped in a sleeping bag - macpac 400g minimal 1 season bag. In the turtle are a pen, a park mini multitool, and 2 packets of super noodles. Chicken curry and mexican chilli flavours. Try before you eat.

The rear roll top has my bivvi bag and termarest packing sac which inverts to become a fleecy pillow when stuffed with clothing. The trunk turtle has a leatherman, a superlight MSR stove, a small gas cannister (with volume of gas left written on it in sharpie) and also a padlock and cable lock. There is also a plastic spork, mini toothbrush and mini toothpaste, and a guy rope for sinching the bivvi open.

The bottles have nuun charged water in them, but the lower bottle has just water, and also holds a cheeky filter for those HMMMM is that stream going to have decomposed cow in it? moments.

Rucksack is a wingnut. There is no better way to carry weight on your back. In this instance i had a hyper 3.0 which needless to say had a 3 litre camelback bladder fitted, and held an MSR ti kettle, with MSR ti cup and coffee filter inside, with a lighter. There was my spare layer (a 200g icebreaker woolie and a pair of wool arm warmers) a buff, 2 energy bars, 2 honey goo blobs, camera, spare tube, chain link, bolts and levers and patch kit. Two packets oat so simple, ground coffee and TP. All in (separate) ziplocs. Mini Soap. Pump, notebook, keys and ipod shuffle. Oh and a hipflask with highland park in it.

I wore a windproof gilet, short sleeve thin woolie and wind proof endura 3/4. Lid, gloves blah.

Thats it.

The route i took was mixed on/off road and never really ventured far enough away from shops to justify taking so much food with me. In fact i came back with the energy bars, porridge and noodles. I did not weigh the wingnut, but it wasn't heavy. The bike had less than 10lb of kit on it including the bags (not including the racks). Pretty light really.

There you go...

Next time? depending on route: i needed another layer, i was cold overnight. Think that may be it as a starting point...

Destruction

Moulin Homage.

So Thursday i rode up to moulin near pitlochry. It was:
a) a route i roughly knew
b) a chance to pay homage to the new team (see the vc moulin blog for a full write up of the trip)
c) a stepping stone to allow me to bivvi with new (less!) gear and then ride on up to aviemore

All these things came to pass, but the ride also became a homage to Buddy. Rest easy.

Bike pack(ed).

All bivvi/sleeping gear. Dinner. Stove and gas. Kettle. Coffee maker. Tools. Inc. dry bags. Waterproof. 3.9kg.

All that is left is riding clothes, water and some energy bars.

The aim for this year was sub 10lb, and i'm already there. There is plenty of scope to go lighter - use the insulation mat from shaggy, ditch the padlock and cable.

Soon, i'll get my mits on the rackless bags and see what i can do with those.

More when im back.