March 25, 2006

Boingdy Boingdy

Filed under: Biking — Sandy Thomson @ 4:23 pm

Today Postie brought me some new forks. Actually they are the model from 2 years ago, and identical to what I have on the bike at the moment. What gives? Are you kerazy?

Well, looking back in Super Sandy Accounts to December 2003, I paid £347.97, which is a hang of a lot more than the £195 I paid for this ‘new’ (50 miles of use) set. Also I have been weighing up the annoyance and risk of my current forks failing, especially if I am abroad or something, and reckon that new gear is in order. An internal rod is snapped in my current forks, and there is a big gouge out of the front where the brake line used to go - entirely my bad.

New and Old and Older

I had a look to see what equivalent Marzocchi are doing at the moment, and the fork they have available seems to be a bit gimmicky in my opinion. One side air one side coil, TST, TAS, ETA and Rebound Adjustment. My current fork has ETA (quite handy) and Rebound Adjustment (not so handy), but both are broken due to me riding the forks into the ground and trusting Edinburgh Bike Un-Cooperative.

The other manufacturers suspension forks don’t impress me much: Fox forks are twice the price and the sets I have tried aren’t that great, Rock Shox seem to be making better forks these days but I’m not convinced they have the bomb-proofness of bombers, Magura & Manitou I’m steering well clear of! Problem is from experience my new forks will take a good 6-12 months of riding to properly ‘bed in’ and feel sweet, but I’ll be trying to treat these better than my old set, thats for sure.

Some more random photos then, here is one of me ‘quarantined’ in the office when I had the cold at the beginning of February, and a nice picture from a Saturday night ride a few weeks ago when there was deep snow in places.

Must ... Eat ... Brains!
Pretty Picture

March 13, 2006

Kirroughtree

Filed under: Biking, Shorter Rides — Sandy Thomson @ 7:54 pm

I went to Kirroughtree on Saturday, a new man made trail centre which has been built using funding from the Scottish Executive, aka Money Pit.

Compared to the other 7 Stanes routes it is a tad tricky with plenty optional stuff. Its really nice to ride somewhere new once in a while because riding the same stuff over and over makes you sloppy as you know whats coming!

Anyway, the red and black route (the black is an extension of the red) weighs in at roughly 35Km, and its all pretty technical - hard work for sure. When we got to the best bit, a trail built on top of huge expanses of granite (McMoab), I was already getting pretty tired and made loads of mistakes on this black diamond graded feature. Usually I would find it really tough but when you keep starting and stopping your enthusiasm to grit your teeth and keep the rhythm going fades away.

Early on Black feature

The above picture of me riding down a small rock chute was taken near the start. It was a really good day though, probably one of the best of the man made trails in my opinion.

Photo courtesy of Dougie Cowie

March 4, 2006

Pimp my Kettle

Filed under: Gibberish — Sandy Thomson @ 4:48 pm

What do those guys who spend their entire lives modding PC cases for LAN parties do when they ‘grow up’? Become kettle designers of course! My new kettle has windows on either side and blue LED’s inside. Bo.

New Kettle