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[Dr S]

jealousy is an ugly emotion

You'l have to go a long way to find something for me to get jealous about. Irn Bru is as close as you will get








Love you all really XX

 

[therealkw15]

I find all this MacRetro Rider tartan stuff a bit Alba-o-centric, and should start a (by necessity) one-man campaign for RetroViking status for Orkney and Shetland members.

I could suggest the tasteful Orkney flag as a basis, which indeed bears a passing resemblance to that of Norway (unlike the Shetland flag which is a white cross on a blue background, i.e. Finland reversed)

Or how about the Orkney Rebel Flag which I have devised in honour of our indigenous redneck population, and our national anthem Sweet Home Alabama:

But I can't be bothered really. It would be easier just to come along to a ride.

(Although the last time I hammered down a technical trail was in Colorado back in 92, when I slashed my arm open on a broken branch while accelerating down a dusty path on my Tufftrax with both wheels locked. I like to think I cut a dashing figure at the conference I was presenting at a few days later, with my oozing arm and incomprehensible (to Americans) Orcadian accent.)

 

[velomaniac]

You rode a Saracen Tufftracks in Colorado :shock:

I bet the Warwick boys never thought anything they built would see the fabled terrain of the mtb's spiritual home

Class act

 

[Dr S]

Don't diss the Tufftrax. Must have done 10,000 miles on mine. Rode it solid for almost four years- to work, the shops, a-courting, touring, night rides, weekend epics, races, went everywhere and did everything on that thing. I think the frame is still in my dads loft. Super tough paint too.

 

[velomaniac]

Hey, I'm the champion of the underbike, I'm not dissing the Saracen, I like Saracens, I had a Dirttrax and a couple of full susses have passed through my hands. Just find it unusual that such a bike would hit the trails of Colorado

 

[kaiser]

Theres a book called 'Bicycles up Kilimanjaro' by Nick crane, who took a Saracen up there.

 

[therealkw15]

Tufftrax in Colorado

Nostalgia has motivated me enough to dig out a photo from my trip over there. This is my bike and I with my hosts (and pals from Edinburgh) Doug and Rosemary McKnight, who I stayed with in Boulder for a fortnight.

We are at Lake Brainard, 10,000 ft up in the Roosevelt National Forest, although it has to be qualified by the fact that Boulder is itself at 6000 ft (as is Denver). Doug has a Trek 7000, and Rosemary is on a Bridgestone MB-4, for the record.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2724/4151546660_dae355d574_b.jpg

It is an absolutely fantastic place, and the altitude makes some difference. First times out when I was climbing I would get out of the saddle to respond to inclines, then fall off at the next corner as my heart rate shot way, way, past the point where it would normally stabilise.

The Tufftrax performed admirably, bumping over logs and shuddering down mine roads made from not-very-crushed rock with no mechanical troubles at all. It doesn't look out of place in the slightest, in contrast to its owner with the sickly pallor of the Northern European, albeit with weatherbeaten cylists hands.

 

[clockworkgazz]

Love the picture and the shorts :shock:big country out there looks likevan amazing trip. I spent a few days in boulder and loved the town, university towns are great, didn't get any riding done just hiking.