nah, not so much, i'm not cycling
just checking out the beluga whales
inshallah
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Questions/Support/Help
kit list queries for mountain bike touring
(102 posts)- Started 6 years ago by unhurt
- Latest reply from I were right about that saddle
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Posted 6 years ago #
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anyway, enough about me
whats your itinerary
Posted 6 years ago # -
(i still think that saddles too low)
Posted 6 years ago # -
And horny moose but I will stay away from them too.
Moose have antlers rather than horns, don't they? Ohhhhhh....I see...
Posted 6 years ago # -
One the same Radio 3 programme where I heard Stan Rogers' Northwest Passage they also played Wade Hemsworth's The Black Fly Song.
I was worried about sandflies when we went to NZ but they're amateurs compared to midges.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@wingpig i'm not sure that's helping. That sounds like my kind of programme, mind.
@bax i had a bike fit and everything. If it was higher I'd be stretching on the downstroke. But I have a 120mm stem on her, so I'm definitely not wanting a smaller frame.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@unhurt, have a blast. I am with Bax San despite your bike fit you could get the saddle up given all the stuff packed. I mean only if it occurs to you tht you are a bit uncomfortable.?
I have the Pictish big back wee leg structure too. So feel qualified to wonder how much you paid for the bike fit?
Posted 6 years ago # -
I'm not sure how a higher saddle will be more comfortable given my legs will still be the same length and this the distance they would like to be from the pedals will remain the same? I mean yes it would put me above my gear but it would also mean rocking in the saddle on every downstroke. Both bike fits on different bikes have had me lower the saddle as I had it set slightly too high. Perhaps in part because men had helpfully told me that it looked a bit low? Anyway the change led to instant increases in both speed (by my standards) and comfort so I'm minded to leave it be.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@unhurt, men, typical.
If it works at that tiny height, go for it.
Or bug some big platforms and batter up the saddle height
:-)
Posted 6 years ago # -
Posted 6 years ago #
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Hows it going Unhut?
Posted 6 years ago # -
Follow @bear_buffet on Twitter for some updates https://twitter.com/bear_buffet
Posted 6 years ago # -
Thanks @sallyhinch, unpaid comms work always welcome!
@steveo can confirm I have stayed in no huts as such.
Am typing from a very very dark Parks Canada campground that has Confirmed Bears (but probably scared off so don't expect to meet them).
310km of mostly gravel (but some very wet, hilly, headwindy highway in the mix too) has taught me that riding a mountain bike with full camping kit plus Accoutrements lashed to it is slow. And quite hard work. I wish I'd bought that fancy pump now as I'm spending quite a lot of time playing "guess the best PSI for this surface" - low enough to make even the soupiest gravel and most washboardy sections easy peasy and everything else is a sluggish, energy-sooking grind (especially uphill), slightly too high and the juddering (not to mention the pinging of gravel in all directions, including at my face, erk!) gets v tiring v fast. There IS a sweet spot I know it... Anyway. I was NOT fit enough but that may be resolving itself through having to do it again every day regardless of the feelings of upstart muscle groups. I'll show them!
Weather started out too hot and with ominous creaking on every pedal stroke. Creaking seems to have stopped, possibly washed away in Wed / Thursday's Noahesque rainfall. Questionable motel decisions last night have returned tent and clothes to dryness - though not goretex boots which having filled up with water from the top down seem disinclined to ever get properly dry again...
No bears. Several squirrels, some of which have told me off very angrily. One pretty grey cat with a pretty brown native songbird in her mouth. Millions of gorgeous big dragonflies, one of which flew into my (happily closed) mouth. No moose either. Loons (not your kind @Frenchy) calling and coming so close on an upland pond I could hear the splash as they dived. Endless pine trees, peaty boglands, late summer wildflowers along the trailside, and so much standing water - a thousand ponds (that I want to call lochans) and then some. Also some mosquitos and blackfly and clegs - two of which can bite through merino and bike shorts ow - but so far not too terrible - and I've discovered Icaridine based repellent which, miraculously, doesn't melt plastic on contact! And seems to work.
Anyway, it's late, it's dark, and I have had my serving of campsite wine so I had better go to bed and continue the quest for a comfortable pillow setup.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@chdot remind me when I have WiFi again and I'll download...
Posted 6 years ago # -
Oh, yes, tomorrow or the day after I shall be in Gambo. I could deface the town sign for CCE I suppose?
Posted 6 years ago # -
There is grafitti in the Easter hailes gait tunnel that says Too Much Gambo then a drawing of a Cat with a spiff.
Take care out there Unhurt it is a Big Country and dreams stay with you..
Posted 6 years ago # -
Gambo proving very hospitable, with beer and free camping.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Which is nice, as today has been an exciting series of mechanicals, starting with tyre valve failure (total decompression), passing through shifting problems - fixed small ring problems, then discovered now the big ring was out of action, fixed both, then chain wedged solid as I shifted up on a big downhill. Finally realised the bits (I know not the name) that determine where on the horizontal rear dropouts the wheel sits were squint and the chain was wedged against it. All this faffery meant it took 2.5 hours to ride 14km (up a bloody great hill).
Have also located an actual salad, so life is looking better!
Posted 6 years ago # -
T'railway not flat then?
Posted 6 years ago # -
Highway detour due to broken bridge at Terra Nova River.
I'm a very bad tempered cyclist this AM after my lovely camping spot turned out to be next to Sunday night party central - music escalated from 11pm till 2am. Earplugs insufficient. So tired today! I feel a rest day coming on at Grand Falls-Windsor...
Posted 6 years ago # -
This all sounds good. Weather overcome, mechanicals overcome, biting flies overcome, salad vacuum abhorred, overcome.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Not sure biting things have been "overcome" so much as accepted. Mostly. Other women may sympathise when I note that you tend to forget to put insect repellent on your bum. And yet, when you stop to perform a natural process you expose prime flesh to blooduckers. Ow. I have itchy bites that cannot be scratched in public.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Hmm, were you not telling me a story about kilts and midgies that suggested (true) Scottish men would also sympathise with your plight?
Posted 6 years ago # -
I can confirm that I have been bitten everywhere by midges at some point right down to my eardrums and inner folds.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Bagsy "Salad Vacuum" for a band name.
Posted 6 years ago # -
As long as I can have Inner Folds.
Posted 6 years ago # -
A friend tells the story of going to a university friend's wedding in India. He went in his kilt and got the inevitable question about if he was wearing anything under it. His response - "There are mosquitoes here...."
Posted 6 years ago # -
Got the anticipatory fear tonight. 30km to Badger tomorrow morning, a coffee and donut stop - and then it's 102 km of trail going far, far away from the highway with no options to quit till the next place that's really a place at Howley. 102 km of gravel won't be done in a day, so I'll be camped far away from humans and possibly not so far away from bears. Six months ago this seemed exciting. Now I'm just feart.
Guess I'd better get packed up. Early start the morn.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@unhurt Bon chance
Posted 6 years ago # -
@unhurt
Sounds like fun. Great pub material. May I suggest The Joker as your 'hello bears I am here' song?
Posted 6 years ago #
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