North Face traction mules - with a rubber sole they're great all terrain slippers, much more robust than anything with a fabric sole.

I like the concept and the effort put in to it, though like Marcus Stitz's Central Belter how many people will do the whole thing? There are a few odd bits around Edinburgh though Deeside looks mostly ok. I think it's been stitched together from actual rides as a look like there are a few wrong turn...

Have some TRP Spyres which I was going to use for a project but never got round to - let me know if you're still looking and I can track them down.

I put the Deeside Trail together so happy to answer any questions on it. When I come across write ups/reviews of the ride I put them up on the website so there are a few linked there on the About page. The first 3/4 of the route is all pretty solid fun mountain biking, a bit technical in places but ...

Saw that. I filled in their survey with lots of "Ah dinnae kens" - the questions were all about local groups to link up with, where to have outdoor events etc...... What I couldn't find was its location.... Same here, I gave up on the survey quite quickly. Still good to see although If I ...

Stans rims and WTB tyres are pretty famously incompatible. I think because Stans attempt to make tubeless easy for any tyre with their rims by making them a slightly larger diameter, while WTB do the same for their tyres on any rim by making them a slightly smaller diameter. When combined they unfor...

The Rock 'n road might be worth a look? https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYPARR/rock-n-road-folding-tyre I've got these and really like them. Decent grip but roll well too. I have the non tubeless version but they've set up tubeless fine on 29er stans rims although didn't on novatec 700c rims. No leak...

I have a carbon 29er fork I've been meaning to sell for a while. Bought second hand from ebay about 2 years ago for a project that never quite happened. 48cm axle to crown and the steerer is 18cm long. 100x15 axle, post mount brakes, no mounting points. 580g including the axle and in very good condi...

The Luibeg ford isn't normally much bother and there's the bridge upstream anyway. There are two crossings that can be wetter - first is the Quoich after Clais Fhearnaig which is usually ankle deep, and second the Gairn by the new lodge north of Culardoch which is more like knee deep if you put your...

It's pretty well drained on the south side of the Dee. After that it gets boggy from Glen Quoich in to Glen Gairn, shouldn't be too bad this year though. There will be a few short muddy sections after that and then definitely up on to the Hill of Fare will be muddy. As mentioned Charr bothy is a goo...

Fell out with the domain provider... Back up and running at www.deesidetrail.com.

Pick any of Ballater, Braemar, Pitlochry and Aviemore and there are enough days rides at each to keep you going for a while. The hills and scenery are a bit more rugged than the borders, the weather is likely to be drier than the west coast and the towns are big enough to give you good options for p...

Looks like you had a good trip and good to read about it. Yes there's a wee track on the corner above the missing corner which you can use to short cut to the bridge at Mill of Sterin but you don't miss much, it's just doubletrack up to the same point on the path up to Lochnagar. You get to the path...

Good to hear you enjoyed it. I haven't really tried to promote it, the riding in the North East is pretty low key but under rated as a whole so I just hope the route helps people to slowly realise that. Ballater's a great spot to be based for a few days as there's a lot of riding around and I'd put ...

There are quite often cars in the little layby by the bridge so that should be fine, not sure on the gate though. The normal Clachnaben car park fine too though it's a bit more of a walk. Mtbtrails has a lot of useful info for the area, much of the high stuff is pretty peaty and boggy all year thoug...

I had a similar idea a while ago and put all of the Scottish routes on selfsupporteduk into one place to get an idea of where they all went - result is here (may not be exactly right for all of them as I think some are old versions of gpx files but it's a good start) https://drive.google.com/open?id...

I'm hoping to do it in April but I came off the bike on ice over Christmas and landed pretty hard on my shoulder. Turns out it's a grade 3 AC joint separation which is pretty unhelpful but I should be back on the bike in a few weeks and able to get training for this. For anyone that can't make this ...

We've used the CTC bags for road touring when flying to one airport and coming back from another. Mine has lasted three trips so far but I don't think it'll do many more as it's starting to get pretty worn. On the last trip I couldn't find the frame spacers on the way back so chanced it - rear dropo...

Depending on what you're looking for there are some interesting bits between Braemar and Aberdeen. The Deeside trail does most of the ones close to the North side of the river although it would be quicker to skip the section on Morvern (the descent down on the east side of Morvern is a nice challeng...

Some nice riding between Ballater and Braemar - lots of firetrack in Ballochbuie to Balmoral, round Loch Muick, good singletrack - Green mile etc. A few bothies in the area too. Also some good single track descending the top end of Glen Quioch, Gleann an-t Slugainn, Clais Fhearnaig between the Qouic...

I've updated the GPX but it hasn't changed much, just around Lumphanan for a mile or so. I had done the white bridge to derry lodge section on one off ride before but it's a different matter after a full day of riding. It's easy to burn a lot of energy trying to ride some of the really soft bits as ...

So I did the route at the weekend and it was really good to put it all together. It's pretty challenging all at once and great if you like technical riding - there are 9 good length 2km+ singletrack descents (some forestry near Lumphanan has unfortunately written one off) and a fair bit of climbing....

Feshie to Linn of Dee is fine, one of the easier bits of riding in the Cairngorms I think (if you're worried about technical then the Deeside Trail's pretty technical in places...). It's better east to west as the descent into Feshie is a good one. The bridge at Carnachuin washed away years ago so n...

Howard emailed me some examples - they were just zoom level issues or the OS map not quite matching reality. I've ridden all of the route in stages apart from the White Bridge to Derry Lodge section this year so it's definitely all there. I'm doing it fully next weekend so I'll probably put a new GP...

Oooh looks interesting and I'm planning to have a cycling a trip sooth early September but not sure I'd want to compete in an ITT. I'll have a closer look and think.... It's a good route to pick and choose bits of - had a great two short day rides from Ballater a few weeks ago, Green mile then up G...