Not quite a delivery from the postman, but Wildcat have been busy with a new prototype Mountain Lion:


Wildcat Gear Mountain Lion SL by ianbarrington, on Flickr

It's both shorter and narrower than a normal Mountain Lion, with a slightly different strap configuration for go around smaller diameter/narrower dry bags 2-4 litres in size.

take my now Fixed Wheel Lynskey 69er to 16lb 10oz

Calm down chaps, its only being used atm for sub 5mile singletrack rides with my 4yr old so its not got any brakes on atm!

I'm going to put a single Hope Race X2 on the front when funds allow which will add sub 300g. The spec is actually fairly sensible, just a culmination of lightish parts and no gears/suspension! In its current guise its the best handling hardtail I have ridden for a long time, which strangely usually isn't the case with lightweight builds.

What I love about the Tune QRs is that they have an internal cam making them as good as Shimano for reliability. I did have the KCNC ones but just couldn't trust them.

Tried my Dutch tarp flyz out this eveing and I'm distinctly unimpressed.
Far too fiddly to adjust and it'll be a nightmare with cold hands or gloved hands so I've put my prussic with Fig 9 back on which means a weight penalty of 1.6gms.
Oh well.

I know what you mean but I find them quite good. Are you particularly sausage fingered?

If you decide you really don't want them let me know, I'll find a good home / use for them.

No, not sausage fingered at all.
Just found a prussic is so much easier to slide along the ridge line especially with gloved hands in the winter.
Suppose I could try a flyz on a prussic.

My favourite set up so far is a dutch hook on the end of the ridgeline, round tree to a prussik to create the V. Other end is a Fly, creating a second V. There's then two prussiks on the line (between the Vs) with a hook on each to clip to little loops of zing it on the tarp. Lets in all slide along to get coverage.

Sometimes it is a fiddle to set up (and I have delicate lady fingers ). Other times it goes up no hassle, I guess it depends whether the spacings fit with the positions of various bits on the line.

Give one a go on a prussik. The hook on the fly lets you crank tension into the guy line easily and "tieing" off to the antennaes is equally easy but also quick and secure without loosing any tension. This may or may not matter to you depending on how good your previous set up was 8-)

Previous set up worked great for me, I was ordering some stuff from Dutch anyway so I thought I'd try a couple at $2 each, what could possibly go wrong.
I have two ridgelines available to myself.
One has the knotbone on the end, the other has a Dutch hook.
Then I have fig 9 at the other end for tensioning.
In the middle there's two prussics, one with a Alpkit mini clipper the other has a toggle. Push the prussic loop through the tarp eyelet then the toggle through the prussic. When theres tension on the prussic it can be difficult to release the prussic so I just pull the toggle and the whole tarp is released with no effort.

Cunning

A pair of these from eBay US.
http://www.bikerumor.com/2011/12/09/ini ... ter-glove/

A mate gave me a shot of his last year, they don't have a uk distributor set up yet, but are in the process of doing so. vaguely exciting gloves, bring on the cold n wet!

38 dollars delivered.

Ian, that tiny Mountain Lion looks cute!

After shamelessly allowing Ian to be the guinea-pig for Ruta Locura's carbon tarp pole, I proceeded to order my own & it just arrived...



80 grams and it looks & feels a whole lot stronger than the Zpacks pole...



At $12, I also thought I'd take a punt on their head lamp. With 20 watts and weighing 33 grams, it's not bright enough for riding but ideal for around camp. It takes CR2032 batteries (which weigh nothing and are tiny) and apparently they last 20 hours...

Mark, is that pole the larger diameter of the two they do? ... I reckon the bigger one might hold my Trailstar up

This one is the .450 (not the bigger .600). I'd say the latter would definitely be a good option for the Trailstar if this one is anything to go by.

The bigger one is somewhere over the atlantic on it's way to me.
Expecting it any day now.

The bigger one is somewhere over the atlantic on it's way to me.

Did you get the adjuster?

flatfishy wrote:The bigger one is somewhere over the atlantic on it's way to me.
Expecting it any day now.

btw, no customs charges

@Norm
Yes to the adjuster

@Mark
Hope your right. How long did yours take?

flatfishy wrote: @Mark
Hope your right. How long did yours take?

Posted on Sept 29th, received Oct 10th.

.600 carbon pole with adjuster. 102g of lightness.



No taxes.
He's obviously aware of it and marks it down as $15. :D

ahem, allegedly

That looks proper beefy!

Any chance of bringing it with you at weekend so I can have a look?

Ta

s8tannorm wrote:Any chance of bringing it with you at weekend so I can have a look?

As long as there's a sausage and egg roll for me.

As long as there's a sausage and egg roll for me.

You'll have to speak to the boss about that one

Today, Llyn the post lady came and not only brought dog treats (as usual) but also my long awaited magical fuel pipe for the 22g RF stoves ... I can only imagine that the US airforce had bought up all previous stocks :?

Alpkit Mytipot and free Myticup.

No specific reason other than it was a good deal, I like Ti, and at some point it's bound to be useful as the lad gets into more camping / hammocking / backpacking (and still can't carry all his own gear ).

Hope. Race. X2. EVO. Stealth.

Sadly no where near as powerful as my XTR Trail' but oh so lovely and oh so black!!

22g methanol stove, thanks Stu