The start

The plan was to try do it in 12 hours and be in the pub in fort william for 7.30, and things were going to plan the 1st 15 miles is fast, it had been a cold night and it was icy but the morning sun was warm.

Fast trails

Soon you get to conic hill, your first climb. Bit of a push and a bit of riding not bad at all, really nice view over the southern end of loch lomond.

conic hill

A steep rocky descent that had my brakes cooking led me down to Balmaha where the route sticks to the side of loch lomond on nice singletrack passing by nice beaches and lovely scenery.

nice camping spot

There was some nice steep climbs and fast singletrack runnning all the way to Rowardennan which i really enjoyed.

ben lomond coming into view

I was making good time, i was ahead of schedule this was to good. flying down fast fire roads at 30mph the miles were getting in. Then i arrived at that dreaded place where everyone gets the ferry and wimps out of the last bit of loch lomond, Inversnaid Hotel. No way was i doing that i was doing the full trail. Well its pretty grim as far as riding goes an hour and a half of walking in fact. I tried to ride but ended up with a puncture from a sharp rock. The views are nice and you get to visit rob roys cave.

techy riding

robs house

After the dreaded hike a bike i was glad to get back riding the views back down the loch were ace.

End of loch lomond

I was soon heading down nice singletrack and arriving at beinglas campsite a place ive stayed before and rode over to meet liz at the drovers pub for a quick drink and a mars bar.
The next few miles were easy going on fast landrover tracks passing by the falls of falloch.

Falls of falloch

A rather long climb that i wasn’t expecting that cuts round crianlarich was good fun and all rideable with a fast track down into the flat glen at the bottom as i headed towards tyndrum.

Snow capped Ben More

The weather was excellent, and i had a slight problem that my chain was running dry, i had no lube with me and needed some badly. I made it to Tyndrum and stopped for half an hour where i stuffed my face with food and refilled my camelbak. I bought some 3 in 1 oil to put on my chain which did the job for an emergency issue, Gears and stiff links now running smooth i carried on and made the bridge of orchy quickly. The climb from the hotel is fairly long and can be avoided by traveling on the b road next to it but its worth the climb for the descent down its another cracker.
Heading up onto Rannoch moor was a long drag, i had a slight headwind that didn’t help matters but i had good weather so the views made up for it.

Climbing over the moor

Again a cracking descent led down to the Kings house hotel where Liz was waiting with some more food and drink for me, I rested for a while as deer chilled out in the afternoon sun.

View from Kings house hotel

Had a couple of gels and forced myself on knowing i had the devils staircase to deal with, a steep climb, rode a bit and pushed a bit, your pretty high when your at the top.

Top of devils staircase

Now this next bit of trail is something special i really need to go back and do it on a long travel full suspension bike cause its one of the best downhills around it really is that good i cant say a bad thing about it. 2000 foot drop into Kinlochleven and it gave me the rush i needed to complete the whole ride.

Trail to Kinlochleven

Still on a high off the descent i headed up the last big climb round the edge of the mamore mountain range. Again it was steep and i rode bits and walked bits it passed quickly for a 1000 foot climb.

Looking down to Kinlochleven

I found energy and blasted along the high mountain pass knowing if i blew up it would be bad but i just had to press on it was getting late.

Trail on the tops

I came round a corner of a hill and the view i had been waiting for was there, Ben Nevis, its all downhill from here.

Ben Nevis

Through a forest and a fast fire road descent into glen nevis and then the road into fort william, Mission complete.
13 hours 50 mins in total, 12 hours 10 mins riding, 11,000 foot of climbing. 98 miles.
Thanks to Liz who came up and helped me through the bad patchs i had.

The End

The temp was around 3 degrees when i set off and i knew about it, nearly a 1500 foot decent into glencoe straight away woke me up. I felt good on the bike and just went out hard from the word go. The course was so fast I managed to do the first 60 miles in under 3 hours riding completely on my own.
The weather just got nicer which was excellent for the views but not so good for me, i was cooking in my winter gear, i had to ride with my coat pretty much unzipped to keep me cool.
There was so many highlights in this ride for me, one was this singletrack road (the B8074) it was around 10miles long up the most scenic glen i’ve ever seen, google it its excellent you have to ride it. The only let down on this ride was i snapped a spoke in my rear wheel which just made the last climb a killer as the brake was rubbing on the rim where it had come out of true. I completed the course in 5 hours 35 which i was quite happy with.

View from the start

Last climb on the A82

If you like riding sportives then i recommend getting yourself booked onto there 2nd one at the end of September cause the route looks like another cracker.

On the Sunday it was time to see how it got on in singletrack, first section Ali wasn’t sure so we headed back up and switched bikes. I didn’t like the tyres (I prefer a bit more grip) but even in a too bikg size the bike was nice. Switching back and Ali was flying. I tried going faster but I couldn’t shake her. Back at the car after a couple of laps and she was grinning.

The only problem she has now is should she get a full-suspension Superfly100 or the hardtail Superfly?

I’d certainly recommend a 29er and getting a ride on a demo bike is a great way to try one out. Give the shop a ring and I’m sure they’d be happy to help (unfortunately we had to give the bike back.)

Trek EX 8 – we have 2 of these in a 17.5″ frame and also a 19.5″ frame
Cracking bike to ride xc with a 120mm of travel.
http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/mountain/singletrack_trail/fuel_ex/

Trek ex 8

Lapierre Zesty 314 – Medium (46cm), 140mm of travel. Excellent xc bike which fly’s on the descents. Take this bike out and you wont be disappointed.
http://www.lapierre-bikes.co.uk/mtb/all-mountain/zesty

Lapierre 314 medium

Trek Remedy 8 – 17.5″ frame, Fancy a bike to ride our local lee and cragg quarry this is the bike for you. 150mm of travel.
http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/mountain/technical_trail/remedy/

Remedy 8 17.5

Trek garyfisher Superfly 100 – 17.5″ frame. Take a spin on our 100mm travel 29er and you’ll love it, xc riding, super smooth, fast, long distance machine.

http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/collections/gary_fisher/mountain/cross_country/superfly_100/

Garyfisher superfly 100 17.5"

I didn’t feel like we’d done half as much training as we should have, both Shaun and i had been ill for a couple of weeks in December and back on the bike with 2 weeks to go before  the event we both felt slow. We hammered it for those 2 weeks and hoped we’d be fine on the day.

In the caravan Friday night it was grim, the wind was howling and the rain came down yet come 1 hour before the start it brightened up and cleared up. Shaun did the starting lap and after the run he was 3rd person on the bike, he flew round his lap and came in 1st with 2 other riders. I set off and took the lead, i didn’t feel to great but held onto 1st overall as i came in off my lap.

Chris heading out on 1st lap

Shaun final descent

Everyone goes through bad patch’s in 24 hour races, mine just came on lap 3 which had me pretty worried. I was lapping 2 mins slower than Shaun and not feeling great.  I had a major ill moment like i never had before in a race and was sick for a good 5 mins while riding, I thought i was going to lose our 1st place but somehow managed to  come through still leading. After being sick i felt brand new and my lap times showed,  we kept gaining time on 2nd and come half way through the race lapped them.  We just settled down into a rhythm and plodded on from there still gaining time.

1st proper night lap

The weather held off and it turned out to be a very mild strathpuffer race, no snow, ice, sleet or rain. The course was running quick and there really wasn’t much in the way of mud.

Come dawn we were 3 laps up and had the race in the bag, we were pretty worn out and really tired. We called it a day knowing we couldn’t be beaten and had a shower and watched the final 2 hours of the race as a spectator.  Phil a friend of ours won the overall solo and also Jason took 1st place for solo singlspeed. The podium had a very north Manchester feel to it!

Paired podium

A big thank you to Mike and Liz who came up to look after us both while racing, cleaning bikes, cooking food, making drinks, keeping me awake ect. Couldn’t of done it without you.

so we currently have full XTR, Easton Haven bars, stem and wheels, Fox 36 180 Talas forks, Reverb post, Fizik Saddle, Panaracer UST Cedric tires, Chris King headset… frame now in, but we are not telling you what it is until its built!

The Trek Lush range start from £1800. Call in to see the rest of the range and get sized up.

We’ll be updating our blog as parts arrive for this build and you can watch the bike come to life.

Today a full XTR groupset and easton stem arrived.

Cameras start from £169.99 for the HD Hero 960 and go up to £299.99 for the HD Hero 2.

These have to be the best outdoor cameras and one of today’s top gadgets. They can be used under water up to 60M, stuck on your helmet for MTB or track days, stuck to the end of your surf board, ski or snowboard, mounted to your wrist, handle bars, head and just about anywhere else – if you have two cameras you can even make your videos 3D!

Have a look on our site for the full range of Cameras and Accessories all with 10% off and free shipping too! www.cooksoncycles.co.uk/gopro

For more ideas take a look at the official site http://gopro.com/videos/bike/