Mountain Bike on eBothy Blog

applecross mtb loop

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

It seems the north west has inherited the weather from the Caribbean as we've had about a month of wall to wall sunshine and barely any precipitation, although it's been tempered by a bitingly cold east wind that's kept the Cuillin white. It was in these conditions that Penguin and I headed across the Bealach na Ba road which goes up to about 2000 feet and is a great candidate for a Matt Munro job. Not quite the same number of hairpins but you get the idea.

Our destination was Applecross and a fantastic romp cross country on manageable singletrack to Kenmore on the old coffin road and back by the coast road. So we parked just before the bridge across the River Applecross and cycled up Srath Maolchaluim on the landrover track. The Gaelic name for Applecross is A'Chomraich (ih-chom-a-reech) and means The Sanctuary, from the days when St. Maelrubha founded a monastery in 673 and had links with Ashaig on Skye.

pea soup with a wild camp ben avon and beinn abhuird

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

At long last, after too long away from big hills, I loaded the car with bike, panniers, tent and rucksack and headed for the southern ‘gorms. I’d attempted this same getaway about a month ago but the car failed to start as the starter motor finally packed in. So, with a new one fitted, a great forecast and bags of enthusiasm, I roared off into the sunset on the 4 hour trip from Skye to Braemar. The plan was to cycle up to Slugain lodge ruin, camp overnight on the Friday and then head round Ben Avon and Beinn a’Bhuird on the Saturday. New ground, new area, brimful of excitement. These were two of my last three munros and I was raring to get into the wilds again.

the power of instruction bleeding your brakes

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve got a task to perform which I’ve never done before. Bleed my mountain bike disc brake. On a trip to the ‘gorms I was cycling out from Red Bothy and the front wheel locked solid. I had to stop every couple of minutes to let the caliper cool down and prise the pads from the rotor. I’ve since found out it’s because I haven’t changed the fluid in ages and you should ideally bleed them every 6 months. The slightest rubbing of the pads on the rotor causes the calipers to heat up, which in turn transfers heat to the brake fluid, which being rather old and hydrophilic by nature, had been contaminated by minute amounts of water. The water then heats up and expands, causing the pressure in the cable to increase, pushing the pistons out and the pads to contact the rotor, which increases the heating effect and creates a vicious cycle, quite literally. The net effect is a wheel that is increasingly difficult to turn and so I had to stop every couple of minutes all the way back to the Linn of Dee. I suspect the crossing of the Geldie Burn on the way to and from Carn an Fhidhleir and An Sgarsoch had made the problem worse as the water was knee deep and the caliper had been submerged. The cycle back to Red Bothy was fine but in the morning, the brakes had become locked up as soon as I left for Linn of Dee.