I've entered into two of these this year, but i'll be doing them SS so my gear choice is obviously pretty important. First of all a question to you all, do you get the oppurtunity to ride/walk the course before the race (so I have an idea of the course and what sort of gear I should need)? And to the SS folks, what ratio would you recommend in your experience? I'm running 47GI at the minute and it seems pretty useable for long rides.

All help appreciated, thanks guys.

Doesn't help in that you haven't said which races you're doing, but yes you can ride the course before hand. I'm aiming at Mayhem & Sleepless again this year, both of which you can ride friday afternoon onwards.

do you get the oppurtunity to ride/walk the course before the race

Again, without you saying which one I can't be 100% certain but every 24hr race I've done has allowed the course to be ridden the day before/morning before.

what ratio would you recommend in your experience?

Depends. If you're fit and riding in a team then probably just your normal gear. If not, then probably a bit easier than usual – just to avoid doing your knees in as I did on a 12hr solo pushing a gear (while seated) that was just a bit too hard for the speed I was doing.

Whichever 24s you are doing there is a very strong possibility you'll be able to ride the course in advance. Bear in mind that generally the courses are not technical but do have some climbing in them.

Yeah it was a bit silly not including the races that i'm doing. I'm doing the 24/12 at Plymouth in July and the No Fuss Relentless 24 at Fort William in October.

Thanks for the responses guys.

alright , i have done a few 24s now geared and non geared

i did puffer 24 this year in solo , started on 32:18 on 26 inch wheels and moved onto 32:21 after 3 laps. This allowed me to plod on and ride everything on the course. One of the other chaps i was racing stayed on 32:18 and got away but then his back gave out at about 4/5am and i over took again for 4th over all

I did mayhem 2 years ago solo on gears and found it alot tougher than the puffer but i think that was the pace being alot higher

Word of warning , i find relentless to be one of the toughest 24 hour courses ive ridden and infact out of 5 attempts ive never finished it – 2 solos(jacked at 16 and 20hrs both times just blew up) and 2 teams of 2. I would not like to try it SS as the climbing is steep in it – although ive done 10 under the ben on a similar course no bother and finished quite high up.

like above if in team use normal gear , in a 4 man team of ss chaps 2 years ago we finished 4th in the puffer with something like the 6th fastest lap(infact ive just noticed a pattern in my puffer racin)

if you have any other questions drop me an email – email in profile

Team or solo?
The only one I did 32×18 was Eastnor, though I would have done that 32×16 if I'd been in a team.
All the others I ran 32×16 didn't singlespeed the puffer

I have come to the conclusion that it's better to be slightly overgeared than undergeared so long as you don't mind hopping off the bike on steep stuff. Walking speed is often as fast as grinding along speed and gives you a rest.

I'd be more inclined to base my gearing on how dry it is rather than how steep. For example I do the 'Puffer Lite with 32:18 on my 29er, but for current conditions I'd use 32:21. The hills haven't got any steeper 🙂

I'd defer to trail_rat though, he actually wins things 🙂

I don't understand someone riding a singlespeed and then worrying about gears. That's the whole point. Just run what you normally do and say "F*** it." 😀

i've run the same 2:1 gearing on my SS in all the 24hrs i've raced both as a team and pairs, wherever the race may be, and i've never recced the course beforehand as there's plenty of time to get to know it over the whole day 🙂

I have come to the conclusion that it's better to be slightly overgeared than undergeared so long as you don't mind hopping off the bike on steep stuff

aye brian id rather be the opposite , nothing more moral sapping than walking the course – i can just spin my legs faster if im undergeared on the flats

I don't understand someone riding a singlespeed and then worrying about gears. That's the whole point. Just run what you normally do and say "F*** it."

That's definitely my approach normally, but when you're racing for 24 hours you can't throw caution to the wind as easily :p

Team or solo?

Solo.

Thanks for the info trail_rat, i'll definitely get in touch if I need any more help.

All your responses are greatly appreciated, thanks guys!

trail_rat – Member
…id rather be the opposite

I did say slightly 🙂