Winter Highland riding - Top loop of the Highland Trail 550

It's been a while since we've been this far North in Scotland.

Once we'd closed up the shop on Christmas Eve, dropped Olive the Dog at the minders and had a chip supper we headed 431 miles North to Oykel Bridge. We arrived reasonably early and grabbed a couple of hours sleep before heading even more North, on our bikes of course. It got quite chilly the higher we got naturally.

We bottomed out at -4* and being blown off the hill. Thankfully the wind/snow/hail was behind us.

This was the view from across the valley, not quite so snowy but the wind picked up a bit.

Down into the valley and the continuation of the deserted town/village/everything trip - not a lot open around here this time of year.

The eastern section of the loop and where we were closest to the sea - no filters needed here!

Third night and we hid from what sounded like awful weather about to tear the roof off. If we'd been in our tent it wouldn't have stayed up long. Had no idea the bothy was on our route, just lucky.

Final day was pretty much hike-a-bike for most of it. Once we left the double track the trail was designed for walking...

There's a trail over there - only visible as a purple line on the gps mind you.

Before we hit the road for the last 20k back to the van we sat on a beach.
Ate some, drank some and looked at the view.
It's a long way from Manchester but it sure is worth the trip - if only for the overwhelming sense of bugger all as far as you can see and then some.

Vargo Hexagon Wood Stove

A not so regular look at ways to heat your food.

We first tried the Hexagon wood stove in sunny Morocco last December - its burn anything attitude is ideal for desert riding. Dry river beds are ideal hunting grounds for fuel sources, mostly wood of course.

It folds flat, packs into a pouch and being titanium is very light. Never worry about running out of gas, on trips where the availability of dry fuel is certain and gas isn't. It would certainly cut down on your pack weight as you're not carrying a fuel can and it's 100 percent reliable - you can always find stuff to burn!

Wales

Back end of the Rhinogs to be more accurate. We went searching for dusty summer trails. Couldn't see much past the mist to be frank.

There were some wild and stormy nights, though some of us slept through most of that. 

Horizontal = sleep 

There were some sunny spells.

saw some wildlife

29er Plus rocks

It was great in the end :o)

Two Travellin Trolloffs

So a couple of customers have decided to do what we all dream of doing, selling up, grabbing their bikes and heading off round the world with no fixed agenda or timescale. Perfect!

We were asked to build them two bikes that would be capable of taking on the rigors of long term touring, but that would also be fun to ride. They'd previously seen a picture of Rich's 'Travellin Trolloff' and decided that was the sort of thing they wanted.

So- take 2 Surly Troll frame sets.

Cut them apart and have some S&S couplings installed.

Send them off to be powder coated in this case one in ECR green and the other back to it's original colour  of Steve's Pants.

Airfix bikes!

Next we built the wheels using a combination of Rohloff and SP dynamo hubs married to the new Velocity Cliffhanger rims. These would give them a good strong touring wheelset with reliable bombproof gears plus the ability to charge things up as they go along. 

 

Shiny hubs and tidy cable routing.

Next came a wishlist of components including, Chris King headsets, Hope bottom brackets, Renthal chainrings, Jones bars, Brooks saddles and grips, Tubus racks, Schwalbe Mondial tyres, Cinq 5 Plug charger and Ortleib luggage. Some custom decals were made for one of the frames by Gil at the Cycleshed - a very personal and private joke...

The result two very fine looking bikes.

remember the old Surly 1x1?

a few years ago now, in a time before Keep Pedalling Limited, I bought a 1x1 frame - it was 2005 according to the frame number. Did you know you can tell when a Surly frame was produced from the frame number? All is explained here

anyway, it's had a few adventures over the years and been ridden the hell out of. Some time ago Shona even treated it to a silver head badge from Jen Green and I glued and screwed it on. This probably stopped me from giving it a fresh lick of powder sooner but Armourtex assured me they'd treat it good and so off it went to be reborn. The canti bosses were removed, the cable stops repositioned and it got a lick of super yellow powdercoat. All looking very modern.

the great thing about this old frame is the massive tyre clearance. Veetire's 27.5 x 2.8 on Stans Hugo (52mm!) rim fits with plenty of room. Remember this is a frameset designed for 26" wheels 10+ years ago.

it may not look a lot but even the super muddiness at this years Bristol BikeFest didn't leave a mark on the frame. 

did we mention that we podiumed? Is that even a word?

so, Fatties Fit Fine and this means more grip and comfort. Go try it. Fatter tyres and lower pressure, that's the new black whatever you may be riding.

1 x 1 x 2

Quite old and quite new Surly 1 x 1 in summery bright colours

(Trolls hiding under the bridge)

Whoa, it's been a long time!

To check out what we're up to more regularly it's probably best to look here...

www.facebook.com/keeppedalling

In the meantime we'll make more of an effort with this blogging.

In other news someone got a new bike. This Genesis Volare stainless Di2 is really rather good.