No trackside camping isn’t too much of a problem for team riders, there has never been that much trackside camping anyway, and what was there was all fenced off by Thursday morning. I can see it being an issue for solo riders, if I was unsupported I am not sure I would want to leave a spare bike, lights etc unmanned in the solo tent.

get the fire brigade to do the bike wash

Yup not feeling the love for this 🙁 methinks the “race” is off for me and it will just be ride and chip off to my tent for bits. I don’t fancy leaving my lights, spares, gels etc loitering for anyone to help themselves to. I’m sure I remember talking to some poor sod that had some of his bits nicked from the solo tent last year. Sounds small, but if you’re hungry and tired it ain’t fun.

I,ve yet to find anyone doing the event!

Really Rich……. .

Get rid of the bike wash – Whats is the point? your bike will be filthy by the time you get back to your tent. I cant think of any more depressing way to spend my chilling time between laps than standing in that queue.

I have this awful feeling from watching that video that the new location is just as likely to turn into a mud bath of epic proportions. I really, really hope I’m wrong. The lie last year about them having tried to weather proof it was ridiculous. I expect they were trying to boost morale as the grim expectation of what was likely to ensue was dawning on the gathered participants.

They should get one of those Russian rain-dispersing machines for the weekend.

Shame if they split the camping from the course/arena with a busy(ish) road.

There is no trackside camping, but its not the otherside of a busy road. There is a ROW issue that prevents the course going through the campsite.

Get rid of the bike wash – Whats is the point?

not a question of it getting a dirty bike clean, more to do with getting it rideable again

I’m hoping all the big girls blouses stay at home & stop moaning about everything………………If it rains, it’s gonna be wet & very muddy,get over it……..

+1
I had a whale of a time in the filth last year 😀

How much space do you get in the solo tent – are small tables for food and spare bikes allowed in there? If not then that’s an improvement I’d like to see!

Ban people who pretend to enjoy riding through a swamp.
Its not big, its not clever and it winds me up
Ride it yes…. but grudgingly please.

It won’t be a mud bath like last year, sorry! 😉

Course preview report:
http://www.acyclingteam.co.uk/mountain-mayhem-course-preview/

Sounds good!

The more i read these posts the more beer i think i`ll be drinking instead of riding and pushing !
+1

there’s only one way to approach it imho

@ rocketdog …. Love the back …. very well said 🙂

Definitely need a cover over the changeover area. How far away is the camping from the course? It really helps riding through the campsite in the early hours and getting cheered on by people that have had too much to drink etc. 24hr disco in the woods would be good like a few years ago at Eastnor, especially if by a little tricky feature that meant a cheer from the disco crew if you cleared it, possibly a jump of doom there.

More showers would be good. The showers nearest to us were out of order for a long time, and after muddy wet ridjng I really struggled to get warm despite getting into my sleeping bag with a duvet on top! A hot shower would have been good.

A few sections were freshly cut, 2 in particular I was informed would be worked on heavily with hardcore added before the event.

– taken from mtbmatts link

This smacks of a mayhem blatant lie – the likely scenario is the organisers will pray for sun because there is zero cost attached to that. With the obvious cost-cutting/profit-increasing attitude of last years mayhem I struggle to believe they’ll be outlaying some cost that is potentially not required if the weather is good a week before the event.

Separate (and still available for free pikey family holidays I assume?) campsite to the arena is a thieves dream. Good thinking during the venue selection process!

A good addition would be prizes for the top 3 people riding dinglespeed 69ers!

How is it going to work for solos with no trackside camping and no solo camping?

I would think the top solists have a pit crew, spare bike/s, big selection of food, cooker for a hot meal etc. Do those have to live back at the campsite or do they all cram into a solos marquee?

For the soloist without a pit crew it sounds like they either risk leaving all their stuff unattended or face a trip back to the camping field any time they want anything…

I did Mayhem for the first time in 2011 and to be honest Myself and the “team” took it and ourselves way to seriously for amateur 24hr racers. We performed entirely as anticipated. Appallingly.
Should I do it again, I shall adopt RD’S tee shirt back motto to the nth degree.

This smacks of a mayhem blatant lie – the likely scenario is the organisers will pray for sun because there is zero cost attached to that. With the obvious cost-cutting/profit-increasing attitude of last years mayhem I struggle to believe they’ll be outlaying some cost that is potentially not required if the weather is good a week before the event.

I dunno if you’ve done any other outdoors event recently but this totally is nt the case. The cost for MM is very reasonable, so many Triathlons/Tuff Guys type things now adays and the costs are astronomical.

I would have been keen to pay more for MM in the past if I new the course was going to be improved though.

A covered transition would be nice.
Trade stands with components for sale would be nice too (although I won’t expect that so I’ll bring spares).

This smacks of a mayhem blatant lie – the likely scenario is the organisers will pray for sun because there is zero cost attached to that. With the obvious cost-cutting/profit-increasing attitude of last years mayhem I struggle to believe they’ll be outlaying some cost that is potentially not required if the weather is good a week before the event.

I dunno if you’ve done any other outdoors event recently but this totally is nt the case. The cost for MM is very reasonable, so many Triathlons/Tuff Guys type things now adays and the costs are astronomical.

I would have been keen to pay more for MM in the past if I new the course was going to be improved though.

You’re missing the point. I’m not disputing the entry price. However, it does creep up every year and the quality of event is decreasing.

We’ll have to see if the organisers do weatherproof the mentioned sections in mtbmatts review link – but if you attended last years mayhem – they actually announced over the tannoy in the arena that they’d weatherproofed the course (and maybe on the website?). In reality it was the identical course to 2011 and resulted in a clay-mud-fest. Even the RAF team were running some of the course with their bikes on their shoulders

Poor tyre choice. I managed to ride the lot. 😀 It would have been faster to run around with a pair of handlebars though.

Velodromes are weather proof. It would be a bit dull though.

Seeing as I’m next door and have some free time and no racing/pit duties, I’m going to be helping get the course ready.

Well from Matt’s report i’m looking forward to it 😀

I agree the course was ridiculous last year. I luckily had brought some MudX 1.8 and managed to ride alot of it but it was nt fun.

I agree they never should of suggested they’d attempted to weather proof the course, as short of building a trail centre they would never had done it.

But I also think its unfair to suggest that the event organisers have a “profit-increasing attitude”. In comparison to many events there are reasonable.

so, now the date has passed – do we think the organisers weatherproofed the muddy bits of the course that required it as they said they would???

I think it was ok, mtbers who moan about mud being on an off road course seems wrong, if you want to race without a chance of mud you are doing the wrong sport

I was riding 2.4s and they only clogged once on one lap and were cleared in 30 seconds. I didn’t fit my skinny mud tyres.

So… as a wet weather track it was very ridable (assuming you could cope with how steep the hills were).

I think a lot of the issues raised were dealt with well eg more showers, more loos etc.

The course will hopefully develop over the years.

GB

I didn’t see anywhere on the course that was ‘unrideable’ due to mud. I pushed up all the slippery hills because they were a combination of too steep and/or too slippy (incl. rocks and roots) for me and I was actually faster walking anyway. Everywhere else that was muddy (up, flat or down) I rode as fast as I could. I did 6 laps, ranging from 46mins to 51mins and didn’t think that ‘mud’ was an issue at all.