They represent a great way to get value for money road miles with plenty of other folk over routes you may not have thought about doing – generally on safe roads.

Good to hear, that's exactly why I'm interested in them.

crazy-legs – I am of the opinion that Gary_m is an asshat anyway. I met him once.

We started at the same time in a sportive last year. I boosted it off the start line so that I could get out of the ferocious and chilling wind then slowed down once I was into a more sheltered part of the valley. Gary_m came past and hurled a pile of abuse at me. Nice guy or complete and utter bell end – you make your mind up.

Pure fantasy smee, nice try though. That shows exactly the type of person you are.

Was this supposed to have happened on the radar ride, or was it the caledonian classic – what time did you start? I set off with my mate and we stayed together down the hill and neither of us hurled abuse at anyone other than each other.

And what's this 'slowed down once in the valley' – it was a screaming downhll.

What was I wearing smee when I supposedly hurled abuse at you? And how on earth would you know it was me bearing in mind I had my number on my jersey and a gilet/jacket on top?

So it seems you've got the wrong guy, smee in 'being incorrect' shocker.

op

I asked about fitting and you said

The road bike was originally fitted for me when I bought it 12 years ago,

you will have changed over 12 years. same skeleton obviously, but i'm sure your flexibility will have changed somewhat. more/ less in some places etc. would be worth getting another fitting imo.

Ah jimmyshand is Glupton? Explains a bit.

cheers tt, good idea

fwiw – now that this threads gone totally off course and ive made an enemy

ill be using a slicked up MTB on the snow roads next year – smee knows why. there will be no 15mph ave – more like 15k……

Gary_M – you seem to know an awful lot about the course considering you dont know what event it was. From what I remember it was a black top you had on. Perhaps with leslie bike shop or similar on it. (Apologies to leslie bike shop if it wasnt your shop.)

fwiw – now that this threads gone totally off course and ive made an enemy

Off course but very amusing nonetheless. 🙂

Gary_M – you seem to know an awful lot about the course considering you dont know what event it was. From what I remember it was a black top you had on. Perhaps with leslie bike shop or similar on it. (Apologies to leslie bike shop if it wasnt your shop.)

Well both the caledonia classic and the radar ride started with a long downhill so it was an easy guess. And they were the only two events I did where the weather could be described as 'a ferocious wind'.

As far identification goes you are completely wrong. At the radar ride I wore a light green long sleeve rapha top and a black gilet, at the caledonia classic I wore a grey waterproof at the start as it was pissing down. Neither of which had any bike shop decals on or any large writing on them at all.

To further prove you are talking out your arse please tell me what colour bike I was riding when I allegedly hurled abuse at you.

So it would seem you've been hating the wrong guy all this time. For what it's worth I've never met you, but I still think you're a tosser. Even more so now that you have been proved to be wrong about something.

So you wore a black top then? How does that make me wrong.

In that case you lied about your start time in previous versions of this debate. You must also have lied about your finishing time too.

Really, well I'm presuming you're talking about the radar ride here. From what I remember we started in groups of 20-30, I think I started around 9:15 to 9:30 but can't really remember. And if I remember rightly the groups set off with a couple of minutes between them. Sounds like you started in a group with two people in it – you and the accused.

Could it not be feasible that I ether started in the same group as you but was one of the others in the group or started a couple of minutes after/before you?

I think my time was around 6:12, but I’m sure you know better than me.

So you wore a black top then? How does that make me wrong.

Well again if you mean the radar ride I wore a black gilet, and the only writing on it was 'endura' which I don't think could be mistaken for 'leslie cycles' or whatever.

And whats the tie in with the guy in the leslie cycles top being me anyway?

You clearly are wrong but just will not admit it.

It would seem your angst has been directed at the wrong guy.

Nah – it was definitely you. I know this.

No you don't, you're wrong. All the crap you've spouted on here where no one could prove you were talking shite, this time the facts show you are wrong.

So what colour bike was I riding?

If you want to know more about audaxes then one place to look is my blog

Audaxing Blog – Long distance cycling the easy way

I've only done audaxes on either a geared road bike or a fixie, however, if my roadbike didn't have a triple then I'd have no hesistation in using a MTB for long audaxes here in hilly Devon. I've done lots of long road rides on my MTB and find that when your doing a lot of climbing and descending on narrow twisty lanes then there's not always much difference in the time it'll take to do a particular ride 'cos you climb better on a MTB and you have to brake a lot on the downhills so the advantages of large narrow wheels and aerodynamics are tempered by the terrain.

Anyway, you don't have to confine your audax riding to either a road bike or a MTB, as the following photos (stolen from peoples flickr pages) illustrate……

Drew Buck doing the 2007 1200 KM Paris-Brest-Paris on a 1920's French Hirondelle two-speeder…

The same chap doing the 1999 Paris-Brest-Paris on a 1904 Pedersen…

Israeli Tal Whatsisface doing the 1600km Miglia Italia Audax on a Brompton…..

His report here….

http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=7874.0

Photo of me on a roadbike just to eliminate me from any possible further cases of audax/sportive, mistaken identity, on-line slagging matches……

BTW, welcome back Glupton 🙂

BTW, welcome back Glupton

I think you've missed the boat on that one.

I think you've missed the boat on that one.

Yer waste yer tongue laddie 😉

Wow – Some serious handbags on this thread… 🙄

One of the best thing about STW is that there seems to be a wide variety of biking discussed. However IMHO I think being totally dismissive of riding 200k @ 15mph average comes across as a bit twatish… I appreciate that a lot of 'proper' roadie/club riders might not consider 15mph average over 120+ miles that impressive, however for a lot of people who are just looking at getting in road biking/Audax for fun/fitness then riding 200k would be a serious undertaking and completing it would be something to be proud of…

Back to the OP – personally I'd take the road bike unless you're already reasonably comfortable with the distance – if you do it on a slicked mtb then it'll be harder work (but also more of an achievement). Either way I hope enjoy it.

I'd be interested to hear more about people's experiences of doing Audax (particularly ones in North Yorks) as I'm also planning on doing my first one this year too.

you will have changed over 12 years. same skeleton obviously, but i'm sure your flexibility will have changed somewhat

Personally I still fit just fine on my 13 and 14 year old bikes (the latter a fairly extreme position TT bike, which I have ridden 100 miles on a few times). You don't have to lose flexibility as you get older.