As above… I’m not a downhill god by a very, very long stretch, so I’m just aiming to finish in one piece and not get in the way of the fast boys (and girls).

All tips for surviving it very welcome… Yes, I’m borrowing a downhill bike, a full face and a selection of armour and spare tyres. Anything else?

Bacon..Beer..and health insurance.. 😀 and do some hand exercises to help with arm pump…

6hr downhill – going that slow you’re unlikely to get hurt 😉

Yes, I’m borrowing a downhill bike

You’ll probably be as quick and more comfortable on your own bike – unless its some Niche rigid 29er.

Take a snorkel. Heck take one of those rafts featured in the mag and slide down the hill on that.

“unless its some Niche rigid 29er.”

Of course it is! Made by a man in a shed… with drop bars…

OK… Mud tyres… tick! Wellies…

Don’t bother with muds at ft.bill, more harm than good

Hmm, how to put this. I’m basically a knobber, but me and my Hemlock came through it completely unscathed last year. Best event I’ve ever done, can’t wait…

What works:

A bike with a seatpost that goes all the way up will help, you need to climb up to the wallride at the start of the race and the longer it takes, the longer the queue for your first lift. Practice climbing on the big bike if you can! (I’ll sneak some low gears onto mine) I’ve got an extra 450mm seatpost and saddle for the climb, it doesn’t drop as far as I like though so I’ll swap it first time I hit the pits. If you can find the time, find out for yourself how horrible this climb is so you can pace it well.

Kit you know and trust, and lots of it. One pair of gloves I had cut a nice line in each of my palms, turns out being fine for an innerleithen uplift doesn’t mean it’s fine for a day at the fort. I met a chap whose pressure suit had scraped half the skin off his sides, he looked like he’d been grated. Try that fullface beforehand, a bad-fitting fullface can be comfy for 10 minutes then kill you.

Compeed blister plasters– those massive ones for heels? Get some of those, they saved my neck after abovementioned glove malfunction, patched both hands and meant I didn’t even hurt much. Also good for armour rubs etc. They’re padded and they stay where they’re put. Marvellous.

Seems obvious but tough kit on bike, and maybe a wee bit more pressure than you’d use for a dh race. A puncture’ll lose you a lot of time, spares are good but not flatting is better. I don’t usually need dualplies, for this I make an exception just because I’m more likely to get tired and screw up. Spares of everything you might conceivably change, though- I loaned a set of bars to one guy and a brake to another… If you need something, ask around, you can’t get help from outside the pits but you can get help from another rider

Actually on that subject, have a functioning bike! The number of people that turned up and were fixing their bikes in the car park was ridiculous frankly. My lil’ Cotic outlasted a lot of proper dh bikes just from being in good shape.

Some basic first aid kit that you can access quick for running repairs. Deep heat, freeze spray, ibuprofen, micropore etc. indigestion stuff/imodium! Your body may rebel a bit. Quick light food and drink. Stuff you can grab in seconds and eat/use on the uplift ideally. I was powered by rice crispie squares 😉

I didn’t use a camelbak last time, think I will this time though- I lost too much time in the pits. Rest on the gondola.

Hmm hmm hmm. Do you know the course? I benefitted a lot from knowing what my sustainable pace was, I could’ve knocked a minute a lap off my runs but only by increasing strain on rider and bike and maybe chucking it into a tree. The red flag knackered my gameplan slightly and dropped me into the bottom half but I beat an awful lot of people just by outlasting them. No point going fast for 3 hours…

That’s all I can think of for now. It’s just riding a bike right?

Slowish & steady is my plan.
As many spare parts as I can.
1st time this year so I’ll see if that works.

I really mean it about the blister plasters btw. They’re like puncture repairs for flesh.

I am Team Glentress Mincer, will be on a white Last Herb going fairly slowly, say hi 😉

As well as spares for your bike, make sure you’ve got a couple of pairs of gloves, tops and socks, also some kind of waterproof kit. Another top tip, stick some tubeless tyre sealant in your tubes, your position is based on the actual time on the course over the six hours so between the finish and the start you can take your time

Another thing, make sure you walk the track and also check out a few alternative lines, the last thing you want is to pull in front of someone going very quick. If overtaking someone SHOUT rider then they should know your there and overtaking should be safe

Some top tips there, thanks. I’m hoping to get practicing in some of my mutant ninja gear soon…

OK. As for the first climb to the start, I was planning on taking it casual so that I can start at the back and not get in everyone’s way for the first run or so. Am I doing this ‘competitive’ bit wrong then?

No, I don’t know the course at all. My only knowledge comes from seeing it a bit at the top and a bit at the bottom, plus a couple of helmet videos. Can you get some runs in on the day or morning before the event?

Somehow I don’t think you want to be putting in extra runs on the day of the event 😉 Maybe try and get up a couple of days before?

Yes, I saw the flaw in that plan right away 😉

Easy …..hold breath ..close eyes ……push off ……

What’s the worst that could happen eh …!!!

I’ll be up there, on a bright pink 222, riding with a mate who’s on a hardtail (Orange Hitman!!).

And I think Ace is doing it on a rigid too….

have fun everyone……..you lucky sod’s. 😀

We went up the day before last year, and got a couple of gentle runs in with no-one else around, and lots of stopping and checking out the lines. Spent the morning on the Saturday eating, and fettling, then got on with it.

+1 for not needing mud tyres – the route doesn’t go into the woods above the road gap, so the main issue is rocks, and more rocks. The bottom section of woods before the M82 is fine whatever the conditions.

I wore a really slim camelbak to allow me to drink on the way up the gondola, but think next time I’ll just put a stack of small water bottles in my pit area, grab one on the way past, and bin it at the top. That said, being able to carry a spare tube and a pump would be a bonus. IMO riding down the course with a flat is pretty daft as its not a DH race, and walking down would take a long time, so worth thinking about what you’ll do with a flat.

Oh, and check out some of the ways that people were locking out their suspension for the climb. I saw several of the top riders with blocks of wood wedged in there, whilst others used zip-ties. It’d be a non issue on an XC bike, wearing XC kit, but that’d be dull!

Long seatpost, not a dropper.

Blister plasters would have been good – I needed the medics to patch up my hands after about 4 hours, as the skin was rubbed raw between thumb and forefinger. It really, really hurt 😥

that event looks so much fun!

Chipps, well done for having a go, none of the dirt staffers have made it up yet 🙂
A downhill bike is an excellent choice. Get hold of it as soon as you can and practice, get it dialled in, be comfy on it. Some take airsprung enduro bikes most use a DH rig….a handfull of us race hardtails, be carefull of them, lively bunch, Jesse Wigman managed to get 4th overall.
I will be taking a bouncy bike this year and joining Vets myself (must email frazer)
Get there early and you normally get access to the track in the morning, you really want to get up there and have 1 or 2 slow roll downs to look at lines, drop offs etc etc, the big world cup gap jump is not a feature, and the hip jump and Tissot jump can be ridden round.
If possible get up there a day or 2 before. If you have a practice day, take it easy, you may have trouble walking if you over practice. You really don’t want to try and race with out looking at the track.

The start, not so manic, take your pick, try to sprint a DH bike uphill in full armour for a couple of KM with out bonking/puking or just womble up at a nice pace. The uphill start is designed to spread things out, and it will. Orange225 (and many others now)have a habit of turning DH rigs into a hardtail for the sprint (zip ties, wood wedges)last year was way too hot for me and i nearly puked in me helmet on the way up, year before that i zipped past 50 riders on the hardtail on the ride up.

Racing it self varies, the real contenders are knocking out 5+min runs over and over again, the rest of us are trying to survive 6 hours so take it a bit easy, however the faster you go the smoother it is, slower beats you up more.
Expect to be passed maybe a few times a lap, so far rider conduct has been excellent, some sections do not allow overtaking they have to wait, NEVER look back ever you will crash, get over hold your line and shout the overtaker through when safe to do so, large sections of the track have minimal pull over space or run off.

The spares you take in to the technical area are what you have, no nipping back to the van mid race.
Gears are only needed for the sprint start, Orange225 (and many others) ditch rear mechs and chains mid race, shed some weight go faster, save energy by not pedaling.
A spare set of wheels is a must, if you can set up with rotors and cassette and inflated tyres ready to roll for an instant swap, have a pump and tube on you anyway, and master the art of DH bike wheel removal. It may be faster to roll on a flat or try to fix it. I managed to run down from the top in 38mins when the tyre bead let go, this was quicker than trying to get back and take the gondola down and i still bagged the run (crap time but a run)

Riders drop out from run 1, bikes let go, suspension fails, wheels break etc etc etc
I belive the outlaw riders will be on heckle duty again, this can vary from being manhugged by a drunk in a ginger wig, to being flashed by 3 young ladies (can email you a photo of that if needed)

It’s late and i am tired as i have been out having my first ride on susser for many years, pre race getting to know my bike, i have done write up’s for all the previous races, so a quick google search should bring up lots of ramblings and photos (mostly on dirts webber)

Fantatsic event, killer mix of riders and racers and some mental racing.

P.S. what bike you picked ?

Practice not comfort braking/dragging. This IMO is the biggest cause of arm pump annd it’s far too easy to make the mistake of thinking taking it easy early on will help ( it won’t! Taking it easy anywhere between the last boardwalk up top and the wallride means braking far too much)

waves at xiphon 🙂

Rigid raider was allright in the lower woods and motorway, but i don’t think Frazer would let me do it 🙂
It will most likely do GlenCoe again, maybe with disc brakes.

Curious as to what it’s going to be like on a susser after 4 times on hardtail, having a year off, was eyeing something up to race, but a shaky start to the year and i need to take things easy for a bit longer 🙂

I wouldn’t want to wear armour for the climb, the track’s fairly flat/easy from the wallride down so can’t see it being needed. (Is it a requirement?)

Riders choice on armour.
Have they removed all the rocks from the wall ride down ? 🙂

Could leave the armour in the pit area and then lose time riding in to grab it and suit up on the gondola ride.

Armour is strongly reccomended, i don’t bounce very well so suffer from heat retention and pad up, quite a lot prefer the t-shirt/shorts/knee pads/maybe a neck brace. Down to the rider to choose what suits them best.

GW, officially armour is required- competitor’s handbook last year said fullface, hard spine protector, and IIRC knees as well. But not actually enforced at all, and widely ignored as far as I could see. No commissaires.

Leaving armour off for the first leg does mean having to stop and pick it up like Ace mentioned, and assorted fannying around… Depends on where you are in the pack I guess, but there was a rider coming through every 20 seconds or so where I was so if you’ve got a crap pit, you could end up wasting a fair bit of time in the queue. I’ll be bursting myself to get as far forward as poss tbh.

Respect your body!!

If it says stop then take a brake.

*waves back at Ace*

See you on race day!