I am competing in MM for the first time and just wondered what people’s advice for kit is?

I am planning on taking a Giant XTC and also a Trek EX8.
The will be riding in the sports men category with 3 virgin team mates who all have asked me to get some advice for them.

Any helpful suggestions will help us massively. Cheers Dan

ive done it a few times in a team and once solo here is stuff i always take

food
baby wipes
jet wash
haribo
mud tyres
bbq ( for warmth )
spare bike
girlfriend/mum
big tent
bucket
all your shoes/shorts/socks/jerseys/helmets
ski jacket – it gets very cold at night !!

good luck and enjoy it ….. see you there , ill be in a bright green mule bar jersey doing it solo

Every bit of clothing you have, tyres for all occasions oh and my best tip – Wellies!

Cheers Nick, will give you a hand shake if a see ya.

I am sure you will overtake me a few times. I will have a white and blue charity jersey on with a matching action man hanging out of my camel bak.

Brufen for your bad back.
Kamillosan for your sore arse.
Watering can for cleaning your bikes (more directional than a bucket)
Wine gums
Gazebo
Back up light (something cheap that you can stick on your helmet)
Bottled water or water carrier

Loo-roll,sandals for the shower & a torch…..

ill keep my eyes peeled for an action man !!

it can depend totally on the weather but the last two years a wetsuit would be good !!

tinned macaroni cheese

Wellies are the most useful thing and an excellent slipper substitute! If you can fit cleats to them they would be the best thing ever.

Money – the food tent works much better than a BBQ when it is raining and has more variety.

Lots of guy ropes and pegs for your gazibo! I had a brand new gazibo before the last one. I ended up with a number of bent poles and some muddy cloth.

Don’t forget the sleeping bag for when it all gets too much and you need to hide away somewhere warm.

Food that you will want to eat at 4 in the morning when you are tired, covered in mud, are having the “I am never doing this again. This is the least fun I have ever had. What was I thinking?” moment that is inevitable and are due to go out on a lap in half an hour.

Camping chairs are also a must. Being able to have a nice comfy[0] seat and a cuppa is astonishingly restorative of one’s feeling of well being.

And wellies. Definitely wellies.

[0] any seat will be comfy after the first 10 hours.

A cold Dominos pizza then is called for at 4am or the day befores curry. Result. Wellies will be purchased tomorrow. But I am the kind of nutter that goes out riding in the wet and boggy conditions the Gloucestershire hills offer even on Christmas day at 5am so I don’t think the course is going to shock me. It will do for my fairy team mates however.

Does anyone have a short version of the route, i.e hill, flat, wood, decent, hill etc?

Singletrack are doing a Mayhem supplement with the next issue (due out 10th June) so have a read of that, there’ll still be time to get yourself sorted.
It’s always the little things that make life more bearable – baby wipes, toilet roll, latex gloves (for cleaning mud off bike and not getting hands all filthy).
ALL your tools. Spares (rear mech hanger etc). Spare bike if you have one. Assortment of tyres. Warm “hanging around between laps” clothing (it may be midsummer but ski jackets are often a welcome addition when you’re waiting in the pits at 2am). Non-biking headtorch, you’ll need it for finding stuff buried in your tent.

cool, gives me 8 days as we are going down on the 18th

Forgot to mention a deck chair.

Mainly grass and gravel tracks. Some climbing – usually a couple of sustained climbs a lap, but a few more short hauls too.

Everyone’s listed many of the good things. Make sure there’s a fiver in your Camelbak for being able to finish a bonky lap and go direct to the food tent to get some grub.

Eat as much food as you can for the entire weekend. Calories are all good in these situations…
Don’t take any food or clothing, or gear that’ll need thinking about or preparation time.

I put all my socks in one plastic bag, shorts in another, tops in another, and so on – easier when you’re brain’s broken. And a bin bag for all the dirty stuff.

HSS Hire Shops do a decent range of helpful things. MikeD from BM rented a 6ft battery powered striplight that had enough power to light his camp up for two nights, he also rented a gas powered hot water urn. Having constant hot water makes it so much easier for midnight tea/coffee/noodles…

Assuming you’re going to be sleeping, take pillows and duvet from home. You may as well make your two hours as comfy as possible. Take and old towel and bucket for ‘instant shower’ if you’re just freshening up between laps. If you have enough spare shorts, then change them as often as possible.

Most importantly though – make sure that your team mates all have the same race goal in common. If it’s just to finish, then there shouldn’t be any arguments over someone riding slowly. If you’re all out to win, then you can shout. If not, then just enjoy it and remember that at 5am, nothing’s funny any more. You’ll get through it.

A useful motto when packing is to “Hope for the best but prepare for the worst”!

one other thing i normally have is a dry set of clothes and a red bull in a bag away from other kit .. its so nice to change into fresh clean and dry clothes for the journey home

You need to get yourself a whacking great big van full of spares for 10 team bikes and 2 full time helpers to clean bikes for 24hrs straight. Then you need 4 EZ-ups, chairs, tables, gas stoves, 3 Dirtworkers, enough food for a small country, lighting, DVD player, stereo, generator to power it all… (Ducks)

And a girlfriend to massage/make food as required 🙂

GB

As Chipps says, last year’s course was two large climbs and descents at the beginning of the lap, then smaller stuff later on. I think it was around 385m of climbing per 8.5 mile lap in 2008 🙂

I can’t see any course details for 2009 yet but they should be out soon….

I’d have a fresh pair of bib shorts and socks for each lap without fail. Spare shoes if you have them can be useful. I wouldn’t wear baggies if you paid me once I’m wet (and you will be)- lycra only all the way.

I agree with the food at 4am thing, choose something you know you enjoy.

the most important thing to take is your sense of humour. You’ll really need it at 3am when you’re doing yet another muddy lap.

3 virgin team mates

I’d book them in to the local massage parlour 😉

All the stuff above is about right. The biggest thing I would say is do whatever you need to do to get a big gazebo/marquee to stay under between laps if it’s p!ssing down. We have two big 3mx6m marquees which we use and mean that we’re always ok when it’s raining (or very sunny!). Seeing other teams huddling inside their 2 man tents for all the between lap time looks like about the most miserable experience ever…

Our marquees cost about £100 each on ebay – not a lot to spend between 4 people.

I found it easier to pack sets of kit into separate bags. then instead of fishing around in multiple bags for socks / shirt / shorts… – just grab a bag and it will have everything you need in it.

Discipline is good. make sure that you change into warm clothes as soon as you get back. Probably your next riding kit, then a tracksuit sort of arrangment and then ski-jacket or similar over the top. Changing first into clothes and then back into riding gear eats into time off for resting / eating / washing bikes.

Choose trousers that will go on and off over your shoes. nothing worse than hopping on one foot trying to get trousers on and falling over in the mud with all your dry kit on* (see footnote)

Get an old warm jacket (road menders one would be ideal!) for changeovers. You can wear it in the pits, hand it to your teammate as he comes off the lap so he can put it on, and keep recycling it. You don’t want to hand him your best down jacket at 2am wondering if the next thing he’s going to do is swap it for a cup of coffee and all the flapjack he can carry.

Laugh – a lot. It’s great fun even when it seems like it isn’t. And as a team you’ll do what – 5-6 hours each? I’ve been on rides that last longer than that in one go (really must learn to read a map properly)

* I hate people that say ‘there’s nothing worse than…<insert mildly unpleasant thing>’. There’s tonnes worse than falling over in some mud. Cancer. SIDS. The holocaust. And *THAT* shower incident 8-(

Has anyone used Bontrager Jones XR tyres, I have them on my Trek and they are rubbish in the wet. Will I be better off getting some 2.1 Nevegals?

If it’s like the last couple of years you’d be best off with some 1.8 Bonty Mud X/Trailrakers or something of that genre.

cheers

It just so happens that I have both of those tyres in the garage.

Trailracker is a 1.9 and Mud X is a 2.0

I assume the Mud X is best suited on the rear looking at the tread pattern?

Skim read nicks 1st post and though it said ‘spare girlfriend’ 🙂

Basically take everything you have. Also take a set of nice 1.5 mud tyres (that’s what i’m doing this year.. bloody 2.25 nobby nics were sh*te in the serious mud)