Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

Ha!
I rode the badger divide route last year so the video sparked a few memories too.

cool video!

Tested the Alpkit flared bars this morning.
First impressions: really enjoyed the drop position descending and on technical downhill. Need a shorter stem and more stack/positive angled stem.
Riding on hoods is meh. Need to move brakes further up the bar and down rotate the bars so my hands don’t slip off the drops

Very strange going from 38cm bars to this

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Riding on hoods is meh. Need to move brakes further up the bar and down rotate the bars so my hands don’t slip off the drops

That's one of the thing I always end up tweaking on those bar.

Have a look at adjusting the reach of the levers too, bring it closer to the bar make it easier to reach from the drop while still be able to have a good hood position.

awesome - how did you find the corrieyairack pass ?

Bit grim as I’d bonked and it was raining and blowing a gale. But it’s beautiful up there and amazingly isolated for a Londoner. Shame they defiled it with those electricity pylons though...

I saw stage running across the road at one point. Stunning.

The surface varied from smooth gravel to quite gnarly rocks. 40mm plus is a good idea.

40mm plus is a good idea.

Why so skinny tho?

I think you mistyped 47mm plus.

I think 'plus' covers quite a bit, Ed ;-)

Cheers for the confirmation
I was considering moving the levers in, but I had bb7 before with no barrel adjusters so moving the leaver added more fuckaboutery further down the cable.

Still..it’s one finger braking on the drops

I found this article very helpful when setting up flared drops.

http://www.63xc.com/mattc/midge.htm

I did it on Nanos and they were great. Going full MTB would be nice on some sections but unnecessary on others. My All City with ~40mm tyres feels like it can do anything pretty well. I’m head over heels for that bike. Just wish it was 3kg lighter.

Just wish it was 3kg lighter.

Carbon fork and 650b.

Cheers...it is.
I’m going to try an 80mm stem and if that fails, get one of those old codger 30degree stems

A friend and I arrived at the top, pretty shattered, coming from the North side, and stopped by the concrete shack thing. We must have been there more than 5 minutes when a German lady appeared from behind the shack smoking a cigarette. She asked which direction was Fort Augustus and left. It was hilarious and totally bonkers.

Edit. Top of the corrieyairack pass that is.

Great North Trail..
https://www.cyclinguk.org/route/great-north-trail-full-route-cape-wrath

Bizarre. I almost stopped to sleep in that thing but decided to find Melgarve instead.

Frame recommendation please.

Needs to be 700c x 40 clearance
Double up front
QR front and rear
Disc

Building my brother a bike and currently looking at the Planet X Full Monty.

Needs to be £250 or less as I'm gifting it to him.

Arkose?

Frame only?

Oh are you buying new?

Might be a push anyway for a full build second hand

Trying to buy new, want it quickly. He's signed up this strava 300 in September and I hope he gets the bug.

Wee bit over budget:

https://www.alpkit.com/sonder/bikes/sonder-camino-al-frame-and-fork-V2

Planet X London Road?
https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/FRPXLONROD/planet-x-london-road-frameset

Damn that looks quite nice. Found a Full Monty with a blemish for 150 on planet x...... that's the end of my search.