Macretro - Baltic Bawbags Pitlochry Classic - 30th Jan 2011

the only muscles that should feel the strain will be the ones round yer gob given the pasts events copious levels of talking "shite"

Everyone will be fine and looking forward to TK's report tomorrow of the ground conditions, I'm going to guess a mud fest this year to keep things interesting

your all just as bad

Right, I'm back from my recon of Dunkeld some good - some very bad.

the Good - There is very little mud - it is all still very frozen up there....

I tried to find the route around past the caves, but failed epicly I did find a nice single track climb that would make a fantastic decent but it is pretty hairy with a sheer drop on one side. This was rideable but traction was poor (pine needle surface on frozen ground) so I did walk a fair bit.

I did enjoy this section but 15 of us riding it might make a long thin line with many bottlenecks. It might be better in the summer.

The Bad - alot of it wasn't fun...

The route we normally take up to the mill pond is thick sheet ice with water on top, all the way from the car park up to the end of the pond.
I came down this way and it took me almost an hour to do what would normally be a 10-15 minute ride. It is unrideable in either direction because of the ice, most would say unwalkable.

I was told by walkers that upwards from the mill pond is better and the ice is simply patchy there - (I'm guessing like normal)

Apparently it is better on the other side of the pond (our usual decent) but it does rule out that particular short cut back to the car park - I was hardly able to cycle any of it and I fell over twice whilst walking, and dropped the bike as it slid away on the ice more than once. Icetyres would be advised.

Comments on a postcard please - if we get a warm week there could be enough of a thaw to make it fun - it seems all the problems lie in the north facing slopes as usual. I can post pics later of the routes I found - once I find my camera's USB cable.

That all sounds a bit extreme sport. If nothing else it's helped me make my mind up about tyre choice. Not that I've got ice tyres like, just some with decent tread on them.

I wonder if you can cycle in crampons?

sounds like fun

that sounds a bit to extreme TK, is it worth thinking about an alternative ride as back up if the weather does not improve? ZZ was up the pentlands today and he said they were no to bad, or the sidlaws? or Arran?

clockworkgazz":a7ucda5e said:

that sounds a bit to extreme TK, is it worth thinking about an alternative ride as back up if the weather does not improve? ZZ was up the pentlands today and he said they were no to bad, or the sidlaws? or Arran?

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I'm cool beans man, i'll go anywhere (thats not got sheet ice that is)

Arran would be nice

Might be worth prepping an alternative, I'm open to ideas, if it was snow it would have been fine, and a bit of ice we have all managed in the past but this one section that joins everything up even the hillwalkers had problems with.
We can miss this section out and use either the very steep access landrover track or the single track but it was slow going and very steep in places. I kept thinking the single track was amazing but to be honest I was scared to pick up speed because of the drop at the side. (before that section I was clearing the route and taking debris off the track )

Arran is snow free, TK I reckon you should decide rather than let it drag on for a week. Look at the attendees and pick somewhere equidistal.

why don't we just do one of mikes epic's ? it's around the same area so will be roughly the same amount of traveling time for everyone