We had five one solo, three pairs and one quad in. Managed three podium places, though not the team I was in unsurprisingly. Definitely by far and away the most benign weather of all three Puffers I’ve done. I sort of thought that detracted from it a bit in a funny sort of way. Freezing temperatures, howling gales and driving snow are what makes the Puffer special. 🙂

A brilliant weekend though. Superbly organised, an excellent course that stood up very well to the thousands of bikes, friendly and supportive riders and marshals and generally a good laugh.

And finally a massive thank you to Rick and the rest of our support crew who once again put in a mammoth effort to keep us going through the night. The real stars of the show for us.

Innes – Member
“Not forgetting epicyclo on his fat race bike”
Here he is, it isn’t that sharp…

Blurred because of my tremendous speed? 🙂

Mind if I nick this pic for my facebook?

It’s my upper body that’s taken a battering

Yup. My wrist, triceps and back are in knots. I dropped a carton of juice this morning. Picking it up again took several attempts…

That said, I loved the rocks. They kept things interesting, there were multi-line bits, single-line bits and bits you really didn’t want to get wrong! But it did start to hurt (a lot) after 18 hours or so!

I found the fireroad really hard – all I could think about was how long it was. The techy bits kept my mind nicely occupied. I think plenty of Peak District night riding helped too.

very interested in doing this with a friend from work.just wondering what bikes/set-ups people used.

thanks

cocker – Member
…just wondering what bikes/set-ups people used.

I am well qualified to answer this…

Don’t use a singlespeed bike that weighs over 42lbs. 🙂

Having done it on a steel ahrd tail and a 29er FS I can deffo recommend the latter as the best option. Much less beaten up and faster.

As noted above, the winning quad team were all under-16s:
Quad team brief report

cocker – Member

very interested in doing this with a friend from work.just wondering what bikes/set-ups people used.

thanks
I in a previous year used an genesis IOID hardtail with alfine geared very low and a thudbuster sus seat post and mary bars- with a selection of mud, ice and normal tyres. thats to plod around slowly. For me it was all about comfort and efficiency not speed

Epicyclo, help yourself. I was hoping to see you at the Puffer, I was telling others about the bike, it was good to see it, even if it was just as you battered down the hill. I forgot your Forum name, that’s why I just shouted Singletrack at you, I thought you would know what I meant.

mcmoonter,

What’s that set up with gronk and nipper being towed – looks like part of a Bo Yak or copy with modifications – do you know?

I pinged Gronk an email re this. I suspect he’ll be sleeping till Wednesday!

Epicyclo, help yourself. I was hoping to see you at the Puffer, I was telling others about the bike, it was good to see it, even if it was just as you battered down the hill. I forgot your Forum name, that’s why I just shouted Singletrack at you, I thought you would know what I meant.

I did something similar but mentioned my forum name.

Epicyclo – tyres worked well, thanks. Apart from the QR skewer coming loose on the rear (that you saw me wrestling with – having caught it on the “bridge”), the only issue I faced was horrible chain suck – frame is quite scratched. Giving the chain a good dose of Wet lube seemed to cure the problem.

I was surprised by how many people ran without rear mudguards – it’s not like they’re particularly heavy.

cocker – Member
very interested in doing this with a friend from work.just wondering what bikes/set-ups people used.

thanks

We have done it for four year now. On various bikes from hardtails, to 160mm FS. This year I was riding my Ibis Mojo. Was almost perfect for the way i ride everything ride that route too, dropped my forks to 120mm for the whole thing locking them out for the fire road up. Little bro was on a 100mm cube ams FS, step mum on a Canyon Nerve Am and my uncle on an Intense tracer with 36’s up front.
I was running my bike with a 36t ring up front which was fine for everything until my 9.30 in the morning lap when I was absolutely shattered. Glad to have suspension at each end coming down the final hill, with the breaking bumps forming along with the river flowing down the trail.
Another great event though, I say I won’t be doing it next year, it was a killer. Thanks to everyone who helped out.

Massive respect to you Epicyclo, i think i passed you going over the techy rocks at the top. Well done to everyone that took part.

Anyone know when the Adventure Show will be showing the event?

Thanks for the support guys, my first one but I dare say I’ll be back.
Fantastic event and for me it was all about my team and the prep work before it. On the day all I had to do was pedal (or walk some bits in the end) I even had my shoes changed for me while I was force fed some quality home made soup!

I’ll be back and next time Team JMC had better watch out! 😉

Where are all the pics?

Was looking for some muddy shots of the course to show the family.

I didn’t take many pics and the ones I did take weren’t exactly exciting

The last one is in thanks to Kenny Riddle for popping up to check out our bikes and give them a quick service at around the mid-point.

Stuart, at the right of the middle pic, was our secret weapon. On a “borrowed” bike, his first two laps were 39′ and 40′ – fantastic for a guy who isn’t any sort of mountain biker or any sort of bike rider. National junior level badminton player though.

Hi Gronk, well ridden! You were absolutely flying – your fastest lap was nuts. Can’t believe it went down to the last lap!

Tom

aye gronk you did good ! thats a stonking effort – it is amaizing how easy that last lap feels as your running on pure adrenaline by that stage !

“very interested in doing this with a friend from work.just wondering what bikes/set-ups people used.”

18lb carbon singlespeed with 1.8 mud tires – the year it was horrible deep snow and the course had to be dug out ! last year i used the same bike with ice spikes and slammed very hard being overconfident on the spikes felt like i broke my arm – then rode into a tree on a middle of the night lap and bent the steerer on my pace forks on the other bike 🙁 – conclusion i dont really like riding on ice – snow is no bother but ice is a bollocks

Some more photos here http://www.colinhenderson.co.uk/mountain-photos.html

They aren’t mine, but were taken by my pal Colin who’s pretty good with a camera and was photgraphing not only our teams, but various other folk round the course.

Thumbnails of the photos are here http://colinhenderson.photoshelter.com/gallery/Recent-work/G00003OPYfQFCUck

i’ve got a specialised camber comp. at the moment.
would that be suitable?
what adjustments do you think i should make to the bike?

thanks

cocker – Member
very interested in doing this with a friend from work.just wondering what bikes/set-ups people used.
thanks

I was in a pair, had no pit support or space in car for spare bikes so both of us rode singlespeed (32:18) to avoid mechanicals.

Course is really well suited to singlespeeding so not too much of a disadvantage and had no issues with the bikes (apart from a puncture lap one and freehub exploding on my penultimate lap).

Brake pads (sintered Superstar XT) lasted the the entire race too! Would possibly use a suss fork next time as was getting uncomfortable as the course deteriorated and become rougher and now resisting the urge to pop huge blister on my palm.

(Completed 29 laps and finished 4th in pairs)

cocker – Member
i’ve got a specialised camber comp. at the moment.
would that be suitable?
what adjustments do you think i should make to the bike?

Fit front and rear mudguards!

Good result dot. Always like to see the SS riders do well – definitely the setup for this race if you don’t want a mega drivetrain bill afterwards. 🙂

Good that your pads lasted the whole race. I wonder how many other people had that.

My pads were not even half worn after 7 laps in a quad. Least now i have a stockpile of pads to last me through the rest of the year!

Hi epicyclo, I was on the green genesis solo’ing. You did very well to get that beast round the course !

Support from other riders and pit crews was first class. Moon lit course and mainly dry made it very enjoyable and challeging enough to keep you alert. Loved the music at top of the fire road climb. Came 14th after caving in after 4th flat, no pad change and cleaned and re-oiled chain every lap, will be back next year !

Well done everyone.

Doglover – I chatted to you up the long climb and saw you on a couple of other laps. I was on an orange Soul. Nice to meet you.

ah yes remember your soul Brown, good to meet you too.

Three of us walked the course on Saturday afternoon taking photos.Some stills here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/74034041@N06/sets/72157628810568047/
I’ll try to get more from the other “photographers” and post them here later.

A couple of pics of me that my pal just put on facebook. 14 laps with no pad change. I’ll take that!

Nice jersey devs. I can’t quite make out the wording though….

what sort of training/preperation do people do for this event?

thanks

Howsabout this one druidh??? Great jacket that, I’ll get another one if I can convince enough club members to buy something. An Endura something or other isn’t it?

cocker, I ramped up from 15-20kms 6 times a week to 35-45kms 3 times a week with some 60kms rides at the weekends before the event. Plus lots of beer. I only had 5 cans and a glass of port before the race on Friday night this year. I’m a little ashamed of my lack of dedication to the cause.

I believe all had a good time this year.Was my time this year to in a pit crew. Would have liked to have seen more of the race this year. But 13+ bikes to fix was at some times hard work. Next year the old man will be back racing (well crawling round)

Some cracking pics there Shiekinvac 😀 I’m the rider with the pained expression and squareweheels top! (twice )

What a cracking race. Local lad with loads of support all round the course. Had it not been for some serious stomach cramps a top ten solo place was beckoning: 15 laps in 18hrs. But had to bail………seek.

C’est la vie. Till next year.

Hope to see you all there, at the ‘best race of the year’

My third time at the Puffer. First two times I came away saying “Never again”, but went back anyway. This time I came away saying “Yes, I’ll be back next year”. Assuming our fab pit crew are up for it again.

Amazing race, and not just the riding. I enjoyed taking a stroll along part of the course on Saturday night just soaking up the atmosphere of all the vans and tents parked along the way, fires blazing, bikes up on workstands being frantically fixed, people cheering on every rider regardless of what team they were in, riders slumped asleep in chairs, all sorts of stuff.

Two things I particularly enjoyed were the van with the music blaring at the very top of the fire road climb (who were dishing out Hobnobs) and the team about half way up the initial climb with a whiteboard outside their van with a message that seemed to change hourly. Stuff like “Not long to go now. Plenty of time to rest when you’re dead”. Whoever you are you cheered me up every lap.

kennyp – Member

We had five one solo, three pairs and one quad in.
And finally a massive thank you to Rick and the rest of our support crew who once again put in a mammoth effort to keep us going through the night. The real stars of the show for us.

+1 to our support crew, one and all, as one of those pairs being looked after extremely well.
Actually the only pair that didn’t podium, but delighted as Puffer pair virgins with 6th overall and 26 laps.
Like a few others, didn’t wear out a set of pads – I’ll still be using the same Sintered Superstar pads for ages, despite 14 laps of that.

Next year Kenny …. we’ll see 🙂

sheikinvac – Member

Three of us walked the course on Saturday afternoon taking photos.Some stills here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/74034041@N06/sets/72157628810568047/
I’ll try to get more from the other “photographers” and post them here later.

Thanks for posting these .. evidence in there that I was there – ta 🙂

Alek – Member
Some cracking pics there Shiekinvac I’m the rider with the pained expression and squareweheels top!

“I’m the rider with the pained expression and squareweheels top that celebrated the 10 lap point by dancing to the live music as xyz filmed me!”

Its in the camera. Not sure what to do with it! I await yer permission. 😆

Martin……..what happens in the marquee stays in the marquee 😉

Here are some more pictures: Flickr

Couple of pics of me Innes. Good man. (I’m in the Squarewheels top) 😀

Nice pics Innes. I thought the Haribo Hill bridge would probably be a good place to get action shots of fallers but never saw any. I cleaned it and the hill 10 times but then started walking it after a very close wobble because I was too tired. The muddy descent just before the 2nd marshall station is where I saw most crashes! I was guilty of the occasional dab there myself.