This is something that keep jumping out at me as ‘something you must do’. Each year i think to myself that one-day i’ll have to jump in and do it.

But what would i need realistically. Obviously i’ve got bikes, i could even take multiple bikes if it were easier in case of mechanicals. Lights i could muddle together/hire/buy.

How many ‘people’ as support crew would you really need though ? I’m not sure i could persuade ANYONE … let alone half a dozen.

If you’re riding as say a team of 4, could you self-crew with just the 4 of you ? Do you actually need to sleep ? If yes, can you just jump in the back of the van and get your head down or too cold for that ?
You need a gazebo ? sealed to keep warm ? Heater in there ? Cooking facilities ? Would a BBQ work for the cooking/heating ?

So many questions, but i really don’t know where to begin with it.

Cheers.

Depends how tough you are. One year I was the a woman turned up towing a trailer with camping kit. She had no [pit crew at all and slept the night before in her tent. Soloed the event, rode back to the train afterwards. Now thats nails!

Team of four you don’t really need a crew. but one is very helpful, Couple of folk

solo – realisticly 2 folk in support – you want someone to meet you off every lap with soup etc. Someone to take away the dirty broken bike and hand you a fresh one. someone to clean your bikes

A lot depends on the conditions. I have pit bitched for folk making serious attempts, I rode it the year of deep snow – solo. Its been anything from 10c to -10C deep mud to sheet ice via deep snow.

Weeksy, do a search on here… its a hardy perennial and comes up every year.

Like Tj, I have pit bitched for about 8 years…. Team of 4 is easier. Look on the Puffer website for a typical lap time in a team of four and how many laps they did. That will tell you how many laps and how much down time you will have…

Conditions have been easier in recent years, swapping mud and slop for snow but its still a punishment for kit.

Crew tent or Gazebo and heating seems to be the way to go, it was getting more and more kit intensive each year…

I’ve probably joined in on previous threads in here in honesty…

Epicyclo has it bang on, if your set up is too good, it’s too easy to crawl into a bed in the low hours…

Kit – take every bit of bike and outdoor clothing you own.
Bike – everything that can wear out will wear out – not one for the a shiny new Eagle groupset.
Sleep – no, its a 24hr race – apply rule #5
Crew – Solo(1, ideally 2), Pair(1), Quad(0).

when racing.

I always pack my bed and tent away before the start.

whats harder – stopping to pitch your tent and keep riding – or keep riding.

This relys on having confidence in your ability to keep going.

Ive also done it as a team of 4 while pit bitching for a team of 2. – but it did help we were a team of 4 shop mechanics so we all shared. We mid ranked but the pair won 😀

You may end up camping on uneven ground a fair way from a tap and the toilets.

So a shovel for burying your poo and a mattock for some groundwork are handy.

And a large water container you can fill up on the way at a convenient tap.

Some recipes and shot glasses so you can enjoy the haggis and scotch you purchased on the way.

Helicopter to take you back to your hotel in between laps.

Only enter such things within a day of completing your last 12/24hr race while the memory of the pain is fresh.

Removed myself from the ‘Puffer waiting list 6hrs after TIYS.

I’ve done the ‘Puffer 3 times in a quad and we’ve slowly improved (51st, 36th, 16th). Never really had a proper support team, but have had relatives/friends pop in to say hi and bring soup.

In a team of 4 you don’t really need too much help, we had 2 of us who knew a bit about fixing bikes and there’s enough downtime to make that work. It helps if you’re all similar heights, when your mech hanger snaps at 1am and sends the mech into the spokes it’s easier to just ride someone elses bike than try and fix it.

We’ve always had a tent and tried to get a small amount of sleep in the middle of the night, we split up into 2 pairs around 10pm, so one pair gets 4 hours or so off and then the other pair gets 4 hours off. However I’ve never managed to sleep particularly well, so it’s not needed.

A gazebo’s handy for somewhere to sit in the downtime between laps, sides might be nice if you have them (we never have). We’ve cooked on a camping stove and had a small fire off the ground to keep warm.

We’ve managed 25/26 laps each time, which is pretty much a lap an hour when you take into account the extra hour at the end. This means 1 hour riding and then 3 hours sitting about getting cold.

Doing it in a pair in 2017, so will see how that works out…

Have a go at one of the other 24hr events, either mountain mayhem or pivot 24/12. The weather will be better and you’ll learn a lot about kit and strategy. Then if you enjoy it enter the puffer. The 2 I’ve suggested are in southern England so a lot easier for you to get to as well.

That’s probably a very good point/idea actually.

having done all three .

i disagree whole heartedly with the above.

the puffer course is engaging and interesting and rarely turns into a 10 mile push.

mayhem and 24/12 are fairly benign in comparison.

great atmosphere but the courses just dont hold up to the weather if a dew forms.

Aye, puffer course is pretty good, not a slog.

That maybe true trail rat. I’m just suggesting that if you’ve never done such a race they’d be an easier option to start with especially as Weeksy is based in southern England. I think most riders really like the 24/12 course.

trail_rat – Member
when racing.

I always pack my bed and tent away before the start.

Best idea.

Four Puffers here, two top three results.

Kit – everything you have owned. I have done it in fours and twos and would bank on clean, dry clothes every stint. Keeping dry is vital. I borrow shoes from friends. Couple of helmets. More vitally, if you do it in a four you are sat about for a long time. Take down jackets, padded trousers etc.

Sleep – you’ll do this in a four, definitely. If you don’t you’ll lose. A proper bed is fine. In a pair you will still need an hour to pull you through. The year I was at my best we had a caravan and I slept sat upright in there for an hour. Otherwise an hour in a tent or back of a van is fine, but be strict, no more than an hour, and it won’t be very restful.

Support – Two support for a pair, one per rider or 6 hour stretch, whatever suits. For a four one should be sufficient, TJ I think did it for us when we were a four and another but you can all help each other.

Bikes – take two, take spares and take ice tyres. Take brake pads too, though it’s not as pad munching a course as it used to be. I have been through 8 sets once, none last time. Fit mudguards, comfort is vital.

Course – for whatever reason it feels like it is all uphill. It’s an engaging course, short but packed with decent stony trails. Until the end when they usually run you through a mud bath which soaks you and is awful, though I heard they have stopped that.

Lights – I have always done it with one high quality bar light run on low power that’ll do the whole race. Chinese crap won’t cut it here. I combine that with a few helmet lights, charged before and during the race. It’s cold so batteries don’t last, take as many as you can borrow and test run times in your living room first.

Enjoy it, it’s well good. Though I have said never again three times now…

Until the end when they usually run you through a mud bath which soaks you and is awful, though I heard they have stopped that.

I also heard the mud bath was changing via a friend that is a regular at the puffer.

steve at square wheels posted pictures of the new finish already on the puffer facebook saying it will not be the mudbath finish of the last couple years.

fifeandy – Member
‘Until the end when they usually run you through a mud bath which soaks you and is awful, though I heard they have stopped that.’
I also heard the mud bath was changing via a friend that is a regular at the puffer.

I walked the dog along it the other day.

It’s going to be boring – hardened surface with berms, but go slightly offline and you may still be able to have old-fashioned ‘Puffer fun.

It should spare us the ignominy of pushing a bike downhill though. This year was the claggiest mud I’ve seen in the ‘Puffer (not enough sleet).

There’s also a safer exit on to the forestry road, so no worries about doing a header off the edge of the steps into the gully in front of an admiring crowd. 🙂

The track keeps getting faster.

Let’s hope we get some real weather this year. It’s been a bit too tropical the last few races.

Experience of 12/24 in nicer weather…
Solo is just hard work, somebody to be there, motivate you and to feed, cloth, fix and wash stuff (they will get no sleep)
As a team actually having a “manager” helper would have been good. Simple things like keeping track of who is where and what time for transitions, remembering what colour Johnnies jacket was and where the matches are. Telling people to get some sleep and waking them up.
White board and markers inside your shelter was the tip we missed on ours, get the schedule right and meet riders with warm/cold liquids as they finish

Best bike for the Puffer is without doubt a singlespeed. Done 5 of the things. One podium. Goretex shorts to keep backside dry and plastic bags inside socks to keep your feet warm.

Best bike for the puffer is a clean one with new running gear and brake pads. How many of those you will need is another question…

Its a rocky old course, a rigid bike really didn’t suit my old legs and there is a good case for something with some squish at the back, but of course that will lead to more wear and mud issues.

greyspoke – Member
Best bike for the puffer is a clean one with new running gear and brake pads. How many of those you will need is another question…

And the simpler, the better.

The more working parts on your bike at the start of the Puffer, the less at the end. 🙂

Just think of it as setting your bike up for an entire season of cx racing in mud without maintenance or new parts between races to get an idea of what it does to your bike.

Anything you can do to shield your bearings from spray and dirt is worthwhile.

its not that rocky.

when its cold ive been known to ride a fully rigid SS with schwalbe marathon winters on – and come round in a respectable time.

I have only ever done it on geared full sussers. The gears are fine, and useful as theres some fast bits of the course where gears let you crank a good bit of speed out. It’s brakes that have been eaten in the past.

Ah, the memories…

Supported a solo, a pair and 12 others in 3 teams of four in one year. Thats 15 people in total.. very busy!

Two of us on mech duties.
Solo had priority if they came in, then pairs then quads but there were two of us on duty so it worked. Found it better to be busy steadily than not. The course is getting faster, so the long hour gaps are getting cut.

Early years of very bad conditions and the end of lap mud bath, from brake pad wear it was costing £5/ lap, but its not been so bad since.

Our favourite spot was up the forestry road, there was a small stream that kept going despite the freezing weather meaning bikes were washed every lap. Going down the hill to fetch water was a pain so we only needed really clean for drinking.

Kit wise, pallets to stand on out of the swamp ket me happy and a magnet bits saucer was invaluable for small stuff like brake pins, screws, chain quick links. Oh, and a fire pit.. and a dirt worker, generator, tarps, gazebo, the list goes on…

Its a giggle, everyone should give it a punt once at least.

(I will never do the puffer, it looks awful but) I loaned my ice tyres out in a cold year and the comment was that you didn’t need ice spikes, you could easily get round the lap without- but with spikes you could use the ice as a fast, smooth road whereas with normal tyres you were left in the mud and soft stuff and everything was much harder. Seemed sensible- point was, don’t think so much about what you need, because there’s stuff that’s great but not essential.

i can think of 3 puffers from the 6 ive done where the first 2 laps and the night laps having at least 1 ice spike on meant you stayed upright.

– i remember the year they ran it from the field – a Everyone did the lemans – got to their bike and promptly fell over. I remember getting onto the fire road and hot tailing it onto alex glasgows wheel as he found some grip it seemed (and neither of us were running spikes) we were riding up the ditch.

Last year 100% not needed , a bike wash was the essential last year. MY mates SS even wore out its new drive train and brake pads (as soloist) so i ended up doing a full drive train rebuild at mid night in the dark while he ate.

I think I should have been clearer there about whether or not “get around the lap” meant doing it entirely upright and on the bike 😆

A wee point about sleeping – it depends on how “racy” you are. My solo bimble around the lap I came in from at 1am I had crashed 4 times from fatigue – one of them a heavy crash ( this was the year of the deep snow) Going out again at that point would have gone from silly to really stupid / A&E time. Having a camper van to sleep for a few hours meant I could get up around 5 and do a couple more laps. without it I would have packed up there and then as while I don’t mind pushing myself I do object to putting myself in hospital

IMO solo is the way to go tho – no teammates to let down / get cross with etc. You can pace yourself. 4s is for softies – you will only ride for 6 hours or so. Pairs is worst of both worlds.

also with solos unless you are podium chasing forget the running start – just walk it so that the bottlenecks have gone before you get to them. start off slow and get slower was my mantra. Can you tell I am no racer? to me it was a personal challenge. 26th out of 42 solos (iirc) was not what I was aiming at but was not too bad a result

I( took two bikes – one with ice spikes, alfine geared right down and the other a lighter more conventional bike. the first was the bike I rode all the laps on

Pitbitching is actually quite fun – I have done it a few times.

I fell asleep on my bike that year and woke up sliding backwards down the ice just before the climb up to the top marshal point

In deep snow ice spikes are useless … i ran 1.8 muds pumped up hard that year on 32:22 with front suspension.

Id say there is just as much chance of deep snow as there is the sun splitting the sky for 2 days at this event NOTHING is a given.

I think I changed my tyres from the spikes after a couple of laps ( well someone else did it for me Big Al or hairyscary – can’t remember which)

This months MBR shows you how to make some disc brake covers that they claim keep the mud off the pads and prolong their life. Look like they might be worth a go for the puffer 😀

I’m doing it this year for the first time in a team of 4. The way I see it, my main concern is keeping myself warm and dry (especially during down time). We have 4 bikes between us so if anything catastrophic happens then we can share.

Not quite figured out a strategy for sleeping etc but that will come. We will have a van between us but not sure how much sleep you would get with 3 people in it at a time.

My attitude may change after the event but I am not about to spend hundreds of pounds on kit for a 1-off event.

My attitude may change after the event but I am not about to spend hundreds of pounds on kit for a 1-off event.

That’s mainly why i started the thread, the replies have helped and hindered my thoughts equally.

It’s already expensive to enter, along with then needing a van/fuel to get to Scotland and back. But to then have to spend say £500 on heating/tenting/kit/gear, would be insane for me.

meh you dont need all the gear.

as a uni mtb squad comprising mostly of downhill racers We rocked up with 1 argos 2 man tent , a 1980s polo breadvan, 4 half working bikes – reduced to us all sharing one bike by the end – which was a kona STAB with a 44tooth outer ring and enough lights for about 4 hours pisspoor lighting (and one of those was a set of cateye stadiums that caught fire and were thrown under the car in panic right next to the leaky fuel tank) we were using petzl tikkas for the majority of the fireroads …..We were using the old plastic bags between socks and shoes and trudging through the hub deep mud.

we still finished mid pack back in 2006.

The gear doesnt make you faster it just makes life easier and more comfortable stopping you getting out on the bike for the next lap.

If i had one piece of advice – and it applys to any 24 , bar a working bike the next best bit of kit you could take is a hire van – of any size – just to keep the mud out your car. You wont give a shit when its cold and wet trust me. We did hire a camper one year – i wont do that again , its a stress keeping everyone from mutilating it in mud.

My attitude may change after the event but I am not about to spend hundreds of pounds on kit for a 1-off event.

Cost me hundreds in wear and tear one year. It’s a dear do even though the entry fee is cheap.

The gear doesnt make you faster it just makes life easier and more comfortable stopping you getting out on the bike for the next lap.

I’m a middle aged southern gent in IT…..

Comfort is good 🙂

I don’t mind pushing myself cycling, but i’m not living like a Glastonbury slob for a few days…

thats why SS and the puffer works so well.

It cost me 2 sets of brake pads and a pair of brand new endura stealth lite bib longs i wore the arse out of. The prize money didnt even cover the cost of them – lucky endura were understanding and swapped me out a new set 😀