I was allowed in to USA last month on my Irish passport which is one of the modern ones.

Can also confirm that if you land in Canada (no stop over in USA) you do not need an ESTA to enter USA by land. At Port of Roosville you have to fill in a form and hand over a few dollars ~$10 to get into Trump country.

Some one asked me today to head over to Td in 2017, doubt permission will be forthcoming .

Blackhound wrote:I was allowed in to USA last month on my Irish passport which is one of the modern ones.

Can also confirm that if you land in Canada (no stop over in USA) you do not need an ESTA to enter USA by land. At Port of Roosville you have to fill in a form and hand over a few dollars ~$10 to get into Trump country.

Some one asked me today to head over to Td in 2017, doubt permission will be forthcoming .

Phew, I was having a mini flap as I tried getting an esta and couldn't see how if I flew into Canada and had decided I didn't need one!

Well I haven't managed to get the seized BB out of my frame yet. Thanks for the suggestions - tried soaking it in WD40 specialist penetrant for a few days, applied as much leverage as I was comfortable with and tried hitting the spanner with a hammer.

The frame has now gone to meet its maker... I don't mean it's dead - I've dropped it off at Shand Cycles to see if they can sort it.

GregMay wrote: When you flying in to Calgary? If same time we could ride over to Banff together.

I'm arriving 5 June late and riding up on Monday as far as Canmore if yr interested

Brian (NZ)

tanadog wrote:

GregMay wrote: When you flying in to Calgary? If same time we could ride over to Banff together.

I'm arriving 5 June late and riding up on Monday as far as Canmore if yr interested

Brian (NZ)

I will still be in the UK at that stage :) But will be in Banff from the 8th!

What day does the race start?

Start is always the second Friday in June at about 8am

Blackhound wrote:Start is always the second Friday in June at about 8am

Cheers. Had it in my head the 1st week of July, thought everyone was going out a bit early!

Yay! Mr Shand has removed the seized BB after applying some heat!

Now I need to collect the frame and get it built up tomorrow evening ready to go to Slovenia for the European Singlespeed Champs on Wednesday!

Final weekend training for me coming up - ride from Manchester to Holyhead for the 2.30am ferry over to Ireland - meet mates at 6am at the port for a ride to my old local trails - few hours there - breakfast - then ride 50km or so to meet my mum for lunch - another 100km or so to meet my niece and her parents for dinner (smooshed up paste of some form for her) - then back to the ferry port to Wales. Sleep in a ditch on Holyhead on Sunday night - then ride home to Hebden Bridge. Then in and out to work on Monday.

Bike needs a bit of love so Shona and Rich in Keep Pedalling will be getting it sorted for me again. Then it's the hell of taper. I am not a good person to be around then. Not quite certain what to do with the BHol weekend. Have a day and evening when my wife is away so I'm thinking I may go for a pootle in the Dales with a tarp and some whisky.

Game on Wayne, game on.

Very. Very. Envious. (About the TD, not so much the Holyhead ditch part).

In Banff at the start, if you run into an old bloke, white hair and beard on a Specialized Crave with Salsa carbon forks, it's most likely Jean Fankhauser. Tell him Scott says Giddy Up and crush it :)

Greetz

S.

Greg, Newborough Forest is a good spot to camp rather than Holyhead but to be fair, Anglesey is full of good spots on the west coast, the Menai coast is not so good.

Menai bridge has a 24hour petrol station too, or at least I think it does as it was open at 550am on a Sunday!

voodoo_simon wrote:Greg, Newborough Forest is a good spot to camp rather than Holyhead but to be fair, Anglesey is full of good spots on the west coast, the Menai coast is not so good.

Menai bridge has a 24hour petrol station too, or at least I think it does as it was open at 550am on a Sunday!

I know a few spots on Anglesea - so won't be near the town :)

Ferry gets in at 00:03 so will ride for an hour, sleep for 4, then bob on towards Bangor. Might get breakfast in the Mecca that is Rhyl

The harbour hub cafe is worth a look in at Rhyl

Did my final 'biggie' before June last week - mate and I went up and did 400 miles of the HTR550 over 6 days. Doesn't sound too bad but I took the fat bike and properly loaded it up - think I mainly developed my hike-a-bike muscles...

Haven't managed much since as we moved house the day after I got back from Scotland, but managed a long road one on the TD bicycle today to check a few things over, then hopefully a two-dayer early next week before tapering. Pretty good, this not-working malarkey - think I could get used to it...

Nice work John. I spied some nice photos on FB, sounds like you're getting the good rest period in now. Bet you can't wait!

Trackleaders registration is now open.

And then we had Topo maps - after much cursing with Basecamp on my Mac:

NewRetroTom wrote:Yay! Mr Shand has removed the seized BB after applying some heat!

Now I need to collect the frame and get it built up tomorrow evening ready to go to Slovenia for the European Singlespeed Champs on Wednesday!

Good luck there, Tom. It was in my list of events but maybe dates too close to htr.

Bored. Stupid tapering. Writing kit lists for you all. Bike breakdown here:

http://www.gregorymay.ie/?p=2933

Have you mounted one KCNC smart bar to the other?

ctznsmith wrote:Have you mounted one KCNC smart bar to the other?

Nope, one mounts the light - Plug3 and it's internals. The other raises up the eTrex which is now glued to it's bracket and has the back Dremmeled to get to the quarter turn screw for the battery compartment.

Ah ok...yeah I see what you've done. Forgot that the Exposure mount was so tall.

Seeing as Greg has posted up his bike here's mine! Currently no clothes in the seat pack as I'm waiting on some alpkit mesh bags to separate riding/insulation/dirty clothes.
All sleep kit/shelter in the bar bag.
Nothing in front pocket/stem cells and only mini pump/pole/pegs in top half of frame bag.
Top tube bags only have tiny head torch and rear blinky for now.
Bottom half has spares and tools (4x brake pads!) Quite pleased at the spare space I have. Also going to take wing nut 2.5 for basin water duties.

Oh yeah, extreme close up!