Posts
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Borders Trail Trip
Three days of 30C heat, tents, and some bikes. What else do three lads need for a short biking trip? Steven, Murray and myself packed our bikes and our bikes, and headed to the borders for a few days.
Day 1 – Drumlanrig Red
First up was Drumlanrig. I’d raced here before, so had a good idea what t expect. The Premier Series races the weekend before had left the trails a ittle cut up, but they were still super fun. Tight and rooty, it’s a lot like riding at home back in Stirling. the only complaint I had was that the signs weren’t the most obvious, and were often quite a distance away from the previous piece of trail and obscured by long grass. ALl good fun though.
Kirroughtree Red
Want to ride something challenging and amazingly good fun? This is for you! The red route at Kirroughtree makes other red routes look like a 4 lane Sustrans route with jumps (You all know which one I’m talking about!). Lots and lots of fast twisty, technical singletrack, all linked by very little fireroad. A few challenges along the way, but overall just super fun, definitely making it worth the drive down. One middle section and the last section are a blast, and you’ll find it hard not to smile all the way down them.
Day 2 – Kirroughtree Black
Following much of the red on the way out and the way back, the black route has had lots of press in the last year or so. McMoab is good fun, but is possibly over-hyped by the press and general chatter. I rode it with my saddle up on a 80mm travel hardtail, and my only fall was on a flat section where you loop back on yourself, landing on my hip and my elbow as the front wheel rolled backwards while turning tightly. The rest of the trail is good fun, although somewhat tiring on a hardtail.
Ae Line
Ae Line was definitely the most hyped trail of 2005, perhaps this is why I was left somewhat disappointed. Some parts are great fun, but any time the trail gets more than 500M away from a fireroad it was as if the trail builders could no longer be bothered.
The section named ‘The Face’ was particularly bad. The berms before the bridge were no more than a steep, twisting, rocky chute as though it had been damaged by water and riders skidding down rather than using the berms (I won’t go off on a rant about the no-skills weekend riders on 2k+ 6inch travel bikes, many of whom frequent STW and talk-the-talk but don’t walk-the-walk). After that you have the climb, which wasn’t just steep, but was covered in loose rocks that ranged in size from tennis balls to bricks, making it very hard to climb, I almost thought about using my granny ring! To be fair a trail is always going to weather and maybe they just don’t have the resources and manpower to repair these bits.
Day 3 – Ae Line: Take 2
After riding Ae Line in the evening in 1hr 40min (Including riding too and from the campsite) I decided to give it ago in the 30C+ heat of midday. No surprises it took exactly the same amount of time, although I did enjoy it a bit more as I could let go on the descents and time my efforts on the climbs knowing what was coming up.
All in all it was a top few fays on the bike, and I certainly enjoyed riding on new trails. I’m sure lots of you will disagree with what I’ve said, so feel free to leave some comments.
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Careful with that Magsafe
A lesson I learnt today was to make sure there are no small metal objects around the magsafe connector, especially when it is unplugged. The picture above was taken just after I removed the connector. The small screw must have been near the connector as it was instantly pulled into the female part. If you’re like me and like to take things apart, make sure you keep all the screws safe and tidy. Saves loosing small important parts also.
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Review: Overcoming
I’m sure I’m not the only person who loves a good cycling documentary. My favourite used to be ‘A Sunday In Hell’ (Follows the 1976 Paris Roubaix as Merckx, Moser and De Vlaeminck fight it out over the cobbles of northern France), but now I am not so sure.
Overcoming follows the CSC team as they take on the 2004 Tour De France, concentrating on the riders and their reltionship with Bjarne Riis. Even the casual cyclist can enjoy this film, as it gives a fascinating insight into the communication, bonding, cooperation and compromises that are made to meet each team members expectations and needs.
It has it’s humorous moments, mostly provided by the riders as they strive to make it through each day. There are also more sombre and serious moments, such as when the Basso is dealing with the news that his mother is terminally ill with cancer. We also see Basso’s stage victory, with Armstrong behind him as he crosses the line.
Strange as it was to get a view into the riders personal lives, and the non-traditional training methods of Riis’ team, it certainly make you want to ride your bike, and that’s definitely something you want from a cycling documentary; inspiration.
The DVD can be had for around £20, with Amazon.co.uk currently having it for around £14.
If you fancy seeing it on the big screen, then the MacRobert Art Centre in Stirling will be showing it on August the 30th. Information can be found here. I’m sure other cinemas will also be showing this excellent film.
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Blender 3D on an Apple Macbook Benchmarks
After reading a Blender benchmarking, I decided to benchmark my new Macbook to compare to the other results.
I tested my Macbook and my flatmate’s Dell PC, just to give a comparison. The specs of these was as follows:
- Dell – Intel P4 2.4Ghz HT, 512MB DDR 400. Windows XP Home SP2.
- MacBook – Intel Core Duo 2.0Ghz, 512MB DDR2 667. Mac OS X 10.4.6.
For each build/machine two test were run, one with multiple threads off, and a second test with multiple threads turned on. This is a new feature which is part of the new render pipeline 2.42.
First up, the Dell running with Blender 2.42 RC 1" – One thread- 2:12. Multi threads- 2:13. (All times in M:SS format)
Next up I benchmarked the Macbook running the OS X PowerPC version of the Blender 2.42 RC1 release, requiring the use of Rosetta to translate the PowerPC instructions to Intel instructions. Times – One thread – 4:37. Multi threads- 3:22.
Lastly I benchmarked an Intel native version of Blender on the Macbook. This is a rather old build from around March. Some of the UI isn’t working as well as it could currently, with menus requiring you to hit F9 (Expose All Windows) twice to get them to render. Times – One thread- 1:37. Multi threads- 1.15.
As expected, the render times for the Intel Version were much faster than the PowerPC times. The times for the Dell were probably hindered by the fact the Windows renderer is known to be much slower than the Linux and OS X versions. I’ll try the linux version on the PC tomorrow, and Windows and Linux versions (If a live-CD exists yet) on the Macbook.
If anyone can point me in the direction of a newer Intel build, that would be greatly appreciated.
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Glentress + Inners Mission
Last monday I had a bit of a nasty crash at Grizedale in the Lake District. This crash resulted in me losing quite a bit of skin from my right leg, and stretching the tendons in the back of my left hand. This prevented me from being able to grip anything with it, as it had no strength, and was painful to move.
By the thursday it was OKish again, so Adam and I decided to ride the Black Route at Glentress, before cycling down the Tweed Valley a bit to ride the XC at Inners. Pretty mad, especially as they are the two rockiest trail centres in the UK.
In total it took 5hours and 20minutes, included an hour wasted for lunch, collapsed on top of Minch Moor, and Adam having two punctures 1 2. Not too bad. I did have one over-the-bars on the big rocky section at Inners, but the worst that gave me was a cut elbow, two bruised palms, and cramp in my leg meaning I had to lie on the ground for several minutes.
Despite my crash on the monday, I had no demons on the thursday, and even cleaned the ’shore at Glentress with the saddle still up my backside. Was a great day out (25C, small breeze), and despite the odd tan lines from wearing a tubey-grip on my wrist, it was great pre 10 Under The Ben experience. Bring it on!
The gallery for this trip will return once I sort out a new gallery for it.
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NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha Intel Build
After about 20 hours of compilation, my Mac Intel build of the NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 3 source code is ready to go. I’m not really sure if I can distribute this build, as I think it may infringe on NeoOffice’s trademarks. If you want a copy, I ‘may’ be able to give you a copy if you ask nicely in the comments.
It certainly is faster than the PPC build running in Rosetta, and is faster than PPC Microsoft Office as well. Now is the time to encourage people to use NeoOffice over MS Office, while MS Office is behind with their Intel transition.
If you want to try building this yourself, you’ll need the XCode packages, which are downloadable from Apples developer site. You’ll need to register, but it’s free. I then followed the build instructions available on the NeoOffice site. It took about 20 hours to compile all the packages on my Macbook 2.0Ghz 512MB, but it will be faster if you have more RAM.
If you need to be on the cutting edge, and use Java 5 instead of Java 1.4, then follow the instructions documenting the required changes on the Apple Developer mailing lists.
You can get an Intel binary directly from NeoOffice, but only by paying into their early access program. Think of this as a donation. If you build your own copy, that probably means you use this software, so consider making a donation. If anyone knows about whether or not I can distribute this software, then please get back to me in the comments.
Note: When you build this on an Intel machine you get an Intel binary, when you build it on a PPC machine you get a PPC Binary. As far as I know there is no way to make a Universal Binary outside of XCode, or by using Intel’s own compilers.
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Frequent Update
How’s this for frequent updating? I’ve not updated my blog in a while, mostly due to doing other things. I’ve got a good few things to tell you about in the next few posts.
First up will probably the nearly-a-hospital-trip crash I had last week, and then the epic Tweed Valley ride I had only a few days later. I’ve got some nice pictures from both.
Currently I’m building an OS X Intel version of NeoOffice, which will be ready in a few hours. I’ve release it if it works, so other people can sample the goodness.
Did he say Intel? Yes I did, I got myself a nice shiny new Apple Macbook 2.0Ghz! I got a white one, as paying almost £90 for black seemed really silly.
More later.
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Trapped by Tide
Only my wee sister, Kirsty, could create this much hilarity…
In her own words…
“Me ‘n’ some guys from work decided to go deep water soloing (climbing then jumping into the water when you’re done) but the sea was too choppy so we went to a calmer part of the beach and crawled through caves and stuff. then we jumped off a small cliff and got thrashed by the water, it was AWESOME”
“But someone must have seen us at the other side of the cave thing and throught we were trapped by the tide, so they called the lifeguard, 2 teams of cliff search and rescue were sent out to get us, and RNLI boat and a lifegaurd truck, and the press!”
“We’re actually in the paper! lol”
What the press said…
“Coastguard rescuers were called out yesterday after a group of children became trapped by the tide at cliffs south of Aberdeen. The alarm was raised just after 5.20pm and two coastguard auxiliary teams and the RNLI lifeboat were scrambled but the children were able to get themselves to safety prior to their arrival. A coastguard spokesman said the children were given a talk on sea safety before being sent home.”
The really funny bit: Kirsty was the youngest there, she’s 19! The were back on the shore by the time the RNLI etc appeared, having not been in trouble in the first place. Apparently the press turned up after they had left.
Read the Press and Journal story, great reportage!
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SXC Round 2 - Fort William
Round 2 of the Scottish Cross Country series was held on the World Cup course, Witches Trail, near Fort William. For a change the weather decided to be nice, and there was only a slight breeze to chill spectators.
Again I was racing Expert/Elite, but was unsure as to my form after a huge ride on wednesday, and racing at Ingliston Crit 2 on the Thursday. The race got off the the usual fast start, with the Pedal Power boys taking on the Rockhard boys in some sort of 3 man team event at the front. The pack split up on the later part of the climb, with Euan Cartlidge (Rockhard MBC) closely followed by eventual winner James Fraser-Moodie (Pedal Power RT). Euan finished in second, with Ruskin Burnett-Godfree in third place.
My race was pretty steady, with a few changes of places as to be expected. I finished in 4th, not feeling all that bad considering the week’s exertions. The course totally rocked, with the steep climb playing to my strengths well. The long flat section towards the end was where I was getting passed, but I was making the places back up on the climbs.
Full results can be seen on the SXC website, along with photographs.
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For Sale: Giant XTC. XT/LX/Marzocchi
This well looked after Giant XTC belongs to my mate Vo. He’s looking to sell it so he can buy a new road bike. The XTC was built up in January, and has only been used on about 10 runs round the Pentlands in the recent dry weather.
Giant XTC 17” 2005 team frame with Marzocchi MX Comp 80mm suspension fork.
Fork 2004 model, new seals fitted when oil changed about 2 months ago. Typical Marzocchi durablility, these forks are still ‘bedding in’ so no bushing wobble.
- 2006 Shimano XT v brakes
- 2006 LX rear mech (rapid rise)
- Deore LX front mech
- XT bottom bracket square taper (UN72)
- Race face prodigy cranks, (bit of paint wear but in perfect condition)
- XTR rear hub / XM 317 rim (rim new, just built)
- STX front hub / 221 rim
- Shimano XT cassette (new)
- PC69 chain
- Sram 9.0 composite brake levers
- Easton EA30 bars/stem
- Truvativ single clamp post
- WTB saddle Speed V
All cables are less than 2 months old, same with chain. Michelin comp rear tyre. Conti vertical 1.9 front tyre/ comes with SPD pedals. Need to make some money so before the bike goes on eBay though id post it here. Don’t know the weight, know the frame is about 1050 grams and it builds up pretty light. Im 5’ 10” and have the saddle just under the max mark for full leg extension. Nice and quick with a good low front end.
£350.00 ONOBike is in Edinburgh area, viewings available. Will post nationally for £20.
Email him at steve_gray5@yahoo.com if you have any more questions or are interested in buying this.Bike No Longer For Sale
