Ships and giggles!

Have you ever been to the Isle of Arran?

It's quite an extraordinary place and once described to me in my youth as "Scotland in miniature" It's not a bad metaphor actually as with it's highlands in the north, lowlands in the south and it's thriving central belt it does feel instantly familiar if you've done your locational research beforehand.

This is probably why the mountain bike component company Gamut USA wanted it's UK distributor to make a short edit of a point-to-point ride featuring their products as ridden by Andy Dodds one of their training guys. As i have just made some investment in getting back into making some AV content I offered my services as an "elbow in the water" and a low stake equipment test.

In my experience it's a bit of a truism that most americans have a view of Scotland that suggests wilderness, remoteness and a general "roughness" that simply has to be experienced if you want to have stories to tell. As a young Munro bagger, the "Yanks" we used to meet had mostly one phrase they used to roll out. It came in many forms but the basic gist was "It's SO GREEN up here"

Yeah, it's green because it rains...a LOT! The day we chose to get the ferry to Arran was no exception. 7mm of rain forecast with 50-70mph gusts on the hills, and yes it was very accurate on this occasion. We got it all.

Troopers both. Andy and Chris endured some serious weather to earn these smiles.

That in mind, here was the remit: A short 2-3 minute movie featuring a local rider that would be proven to be "Scottish island enough" through the following visuals.

A ferry ride.
A mountain.
A bothy.
A cup of tea AT a Bothy.
A hike-a-bike section.
A view of the sea.
Shit weather.

Truth is that we did catch all of these at some point in the day, but there was a problem. The final edit was almost 5 minutes long. The problem was we only had 5 hours to film due to the ferry times and the irony is that the more footage you get, the shorter you can make the video, but also, telling a "there and back again" story is difficult to do in such a short space of time. (it took Tolkien three books!)

So yeah, it's a bit over-cooked and I didn't really want shorten it as I didn't really know how to tell the story in a shorter fashion. They did ask me, but I made the case for something different from the 2 minute "style-up" movies that have preceded their "at home" series of rider made movies. They took it on board and ran with it, so as my first attempt in years with software that I learned enough to use in a day I think I'm OK with it.

"Icebike" is one of the cycle trade's biggest shows of the year. the company that hosts the event (Madison) is also the UK distributor for Gamut USA and the guys were over from the US to promote their equipment at the event and also rolling the film in the background for the trade to see. I'm unsure what the reaction was in the sterile trade only environment, but I've not heard any negative feedback yet so I'll take it that it was at least a neutral response, which is fine by me for a short, barely prepared foray back into film.

Anyway, i hope you enjoy the video of Andy "At home" let me know what you think in the comments or back on facebook if you came from there?

Cheers.

A very quick word on bikepacking luggage (very quick)

This week shit got real!

My luggage arrived and I could not be happier with it. As the Stache is a bonafide trail mountain bike, choosing luggage was actually quite tricky due to the compact nature of the frame and the tiny dimensions of the internal front triangle.

Firstly these dimensions are not friendly to big frame bags. With 2 water bottles in place there was no way that any type of frame bag was going to fit, so one was going to have to be sacrificed and there was no way to avoid it. With only 40cm of top tube to deal with inside the top tube area of the front triangle, my original plan of staying uniformly with the Apidura brand immediately fell to pieces. The frame bag I wanted to use from their range was 6cm too big in overall length, far from a huge measurement but these are finite dimensions and if there's no space then theres just no space.

So the search was on and one name kept cropping up as good value and great construction and so began the search for objective reviews of the Alpkit Possum frame bag.

Now the historic problem with Alpkit direct is that stock is always terrible in popular sizes and colours. This product was no different as my first choice (silver) to match the Apidura stuff I had already ordered was out of stock then Black (out of stock) both of which only said they were out of stock when I had gone to checkout. Very frustrating indeed! In the end I settled for the red colour as my bike has some red detailing on it which actually looks very cool when attached. The possum is well constructed and exactly the dimensions that were advertised so it fits under my teensy top tube perfectly. With deep full capacity access on one side and a thinner side pocket on the other its as simple as it is easy to access via the very good quality zips that can be opened and closed with one finger.

There will be plenty of time for colour shots. Here's some moody black and white for now.

The apidura stuff was a lot simpler but for one problem, the distance between the seat rails and the tyre. The seat pack I ended up with was the "small" version. You can see in the picture above that there is just a few inches between the tyre and the bottom of the pack. This just has an old jacket inside as a test so I expect when its fully loaded that it may be a little tighter in this area. I suspect that Apidura themselves knew the score here as the bottom of this pack is made from a different textile that seems to be a lot tougher than the material, easily 3 times as thick to take some serious abuse. But it fits, so panic over!

Lastly we have the handlebar roll; Apidura again for this one and it did not disappoint. The quality is fantastic and capacity is excellent for what is supposed to be a "medium" sized unit. It mounts at three points; two on the bars and one behind the fork cathead or steerer tube, depending on your frame. It doesn't seem to bounce around or inhibit any brake or gear operations.

I still have the bar roll accessory pouch to buy and a feeding bag for the top tube. These will both be from apidura as the accessory bag directly mounts to the bar roll and they feed bag seems like it will be a perfect fit.

I'll get round to taking better pictures and reviewing these products individually, but I just wanted to go over the basics in a quick blog entry as I'm off into the Highlands on Saturday to give the bike its first backpacking adventure along with my shiny new luggage!

Olaf the Lesser wide

Truth be told I was already writing this entry when a impromptu text conversation took place with an old friend about hardtail mountain bikes and the subject of the Stache in particular. So far from writing it because of him, I think I'll dedicate this entry to my old riding pal Phil Thomson. He's underway on a challenge of his own right now raising money for Cancer Research UK following the loss of Jean, his lovely late Mother who was a cancer survivor and a supporter of the same brilliant charity.

He's riding 1000 miles over 4 events to try and raise the hefty target of £3000! So please click THIS LINK for more details and to his just giving page and drop a few quid on the boy for a worthy cause.

Now, bike stuff...

2016 Trek Stache 5. "Olaf the Lesser Fat"

Pretty isn't it! This is the bike I'm planning on riding on these adventures over the next year or so. Its a 2016 Trek Stache 5 and it may be the most versatile (and prettiest) bike I've ever owned. Now I'm not saying that something better won't come along over the next year or so, but as a segway between an all day "mountain bike" and a bike that could potentially take me round these large rides, its where I've found myself for now. 

Standard talk about "spec" is pretty boring so I'll just post some pictures, describe them and move on to some closing Rhetoric about the bike itself. If you want the corporate blurb about the Stache then click the link to Trek's product page here.

Now don't adjust your set by the way, the colour is "Miami Green" and is notoriously difficult to photograph in varying light conditions. Hence the official Trek picture above.

2016 Stache 5 my weapon of choice.

Non drive side.

So the "only" thing I've really done to this is changed the drivetrain. I'm a big fan of 1x11 so I had bought another bike alongside this one at the same time, stripped the SRAM GX off it and transplanted it to the Stache giving it a huge climbing range despite those huge wheels and tyres. It came with 1x10 Shimano and a 34t front ring which would never take me where I need to go, so this type of upgrade was always going to happen.

It's still not the best super steep climber but grinding out fire roads and longer rides are gobbled up by the new drivetrain, friendly geometry and super compliant wheel set up.

Super cool 1.1/8 tapered to 1.1/5 front end with Trek Bowie carbon fork.

Boost 110 front fork spacing with 15mm bolt through axle.

The clean lines of the Stache continue all the way to every part of the bike.

So keener readers will notice that there are no mudguard or luggage bosses on this bike. I've decided to forgo these often expected features in favour of a lighter package using suspended luggage from Apidura and Alpkit rather than the traditional rack and panniers. I have to ride this bike as my only or "first" bike for the majority of this year, so a lighter, robust mountain bike was preferable to a big Surly, Salsa or similar steed. So far I have not been disappointed and trail centre style MTB performance is actually very good. No-one is leaving me behind so far!

The raised drive side stay is not for show. Its moved further up so as to maintain a standard BB width and fit the tyre width into the frame. So no wide stance width, no fancy BB standards, specific cranks or crazy Q-factors going on. Every drivetrain bit that fits your old bike pretty much fits this bike which offers peace of mind for replacing components.

The raised chain-stay is to accommodate the 3" tyre and as short a wheelbase as possible.

Moveable wheelbase via the Stranglehold dropout and adjustable brake mount.

More beauty around the head-tube area.

Simple, serviceable Shimano Deore brakes with sintered pads fitted are ideal for all types of riding.

I'll be experimenting with a few different wheel set ups too. I've already decided on a set of Hope Pro-4 Boost hubs for the actual ride as the reliability is assured. Some triple butted spokes will also be fitted as a preference for weight versus strength with the only sticking point being the rims. With 29+ in its infancy, the options are very limited in this format, so I'll take my time making up my mind and see what becomes available in the meantime.

The Sun Mule rims seem adequate and the wheels with tyres are actually very light despite the aesthetic of "fat" tyres. The Bontrager Chupacabra tyres are also super light but also super fragile, so these will probably go when an ideal tyre is introduced to the market. One problem right now is that there is no integrated tubeless "system" on the bike like Bontrager's famous TLR making it a bit hit and miss for reliability. Again, solutions will no doubt present themselves.

Remember the name...

Ok, so a short run-down of the bike that I at least intend to use for my attempts at these rides. Nothing to deep as I'll get into the guts of the bits and bobs as I find my way around it with component changes and logistical "portage" problems with luggage etc.

No doubt you'll see a lot more pictures of this bike "leaning on things" in the coming months. Meanwhile here's a picture of it leaning on a shed...

My bike leaning against a shed.