Man and machine in perfect harmony

Well we like to wish it! 
This is my latest trusty steed, built over the period of a year from the frame up. Completely non-standard Santa Cruz Superlight 2012 full suspension frame with Cannondale Lefty Carbon front fork. Shimano XT all round and Avid disk brakes. It only just got me home on its first excursion out here in the Cairngorms and earned itself the nickname “Lucy Lefty”* when a pedal fell off. I had failed to tighten the pedals sufficiently and the movement in the thread had been sufficient to ‘eat’ out the lightweight hollow crank arm before falling out. An expensive mistake as it needed a new crankset to fix.

Anyway, today it performed superbly on the 10km rough trail up to the ruins of Geldie lodge from Inverey (near Braemar) and set us up for the long trek over a couple of very remote Munros - Carn an Fhidleir and An Sgarsoch (960m and 1006m respectively). Weather wasn’t too bad - light winds and a bit of light drizzle, but great views as the clouds stayed high. A long day out for our first day back in the highlands. This shot taken on the misnamed 'white bridge' over the river Dee on the way back.

* Loosie because of the loose pedals and lefty after the Cannondale lefty fork. Also a reference to the rhyme for tightening and untightening a bolt. "Lefty loosie, Righty tightie".