[Closed] I HONCed today

Wow,
I got in 2.12pm! I knew I was doing 'well' as I was surrounded by 'crossers' and somewhat xc whippet guys in tight team lycra! (I was on a Cotic hemlock btw..)

Well it's a bit repetitive but it was a brilliant day and as ever, the organisation was top class. Despite my soreness today (due largely to baby related total lack of training/riding), I'm glad that I did stick to the 100k route - last year's blip (75k) being the only time that I havent't done the full course.

Riding a cross bike was perfect and to my mind definitely the right bike - fast on the road, fast on the grassy stuff and nothing on the course other than about 1 minute of the final descent (the first bit with the grassy potholes) was remotely beyond its capabilities (sorry, grahamh - I know you were hoping that the cx riders would suffer 🙂 ), though admittedly if you rode a cross bike gripping the bars hard then I imagine that you'd have suffered...

Oh and to hh45, I'd love to know your finish time - it always strikes me that it's the wannabes who have attitude, not the genuinely fast people who are almost always polite and can deal with being held up, accepting that it's part of an event like the HONC where there's a huge mix of abilities. If you don't like it, go and [b]race[/b] the NPS or similar XC events where being a grumpy git will allow you to fit right in...

a big thanks to all those involved in organising a great day in the saddle.

i spotted some people cheating and taking short cuts off road which was not in the spirit of the event and wish i had got there numbers so i could report them to the marshalls.

they must have gained no end of places the cheating scum bags

🙂

From the grins, I assumed they had been taking a cheeky, unofficially sanctioned offroad descent ...

I have no problems with people taking 'short cuts', after all it's a ride, not a race, and they are losing out (some inadvertedly short-cut, of course). I had a quiet giggle though at the finish, when a guy I knew said that he had 'beaten' me by 10 minutes, including a puncture stop, when the only time I actually saw him was as I rode past him panting away on the first climb.
🙄

Great day out - many thansk to all the organisers/stewards/village hall ladies.

Did the 100K - finished - and there were still cars in the car park when I left - so not bad all in!

Donated to the Air Ambulance [url= http://www.countyairambulancetrust.co.uk ][/url] by way of thanks.

Can't say people spread across the roads/tracks bothered me too much, as has been said it's not a race. However it would also be a bit of common courtesy (and safer) if people did stay on the left whenever possible. Although equally I wish some of the people who were a bit overly keen after the start didn't go barging through 10cm gaps forcing people to move to accommodate them :p

You're right and to be fair, most people did keep over when they could but the fact is that even some of the 'slow' people are overtaking other 'even slower' people so you end up with everyone spread across the trails - I didn't see anyone deliberately getting in the way.

Besides, anyone that bothered about getting held up has an easy solution - get to the start line early enough that you're right at the front...

We had no problems with anyone trying to barge past us on the two seater.

I wonder why..... 😉

Riding a cross bike was perfect and to my mind definitely the right bike - fast on the road,

Ohhh I don't know, as much as I'd like a cross bike I think a short travel XC / marathon full suss with pro pedal,lock out and fast tyres is also ideal for that course, my Rush was brilliant although I'd recommend having a bike with both brakes not just the front, ahem..

😐

The two of you on your tandem probably weigh about the same as me...

KingT - suspension is nice to have (said, having riden every other HONC before last year on full susser) but I reckon there's no actual advantage and I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have been able to make it round the course with you lot if I'd been on an mtb. The cross bike is markedly quicker on the road/smooth offroad sections and barely any slower on the more technical offroad stuff since almost none of it is actually very technical. Plus you always get stuck behind slow riders on their full sussers anyway 🙂

Full susser with disc brakes and tubeless is definitely the way to go, that way you'll have more excuses when things go wrong. 😉

I saw a lot of cross riders changing tubes... 😛

I think something like a HeiHei on small block 8s would be a good ride around there.

My Five with the SB8s was surprisingly pleasant and quick. Most of the cross bikes that went flying by looked to be ridden by people that were much fitter anyway and would have been going past me on an MTB equally as fast. I passed quite a few cross bikes ridden by not so fit looking people so I think rider fitness is still a bigger factor...

Full susser with disc brakes and tubeless is definitely the way to go, that way you'll have more excuses when things go wrong.

I think my Float 32s came close to packing up but they've been pissing oil out of the seals for a fortnight now :'(

@ mr agreeable are you targeting MikeT with those comments!!

@ mr agreeable are you targeting MikeT with those comments!!

Yes he is, he's a big cyber bully that Mr_A.

😉

I knew it. Where is MikeT to defend himself. Has he bled his rear brake and replaced that pad yet I wonder.

I knew it. Where is MikeT to defend himself. Has he bled his rear brake and replaced that pad yet I wonder.

I might leave it, 'single brake MTB riding' a new niche.

HA HA!!! He didn't look like he was enjoying the last 2 descents with only a front brake. I blame it on being a 'dale.

Hopster, you seen Hwe recently? 😉

My take on the "ideal HONC bike" is that there isn't one. A flat barred MTB with fat tyres isn't going to be as fast on the road, which what most of the route is. A CX bike is sketchy and fragile on the lumpy stuff. Those drop bar Singular things look like they could be really good, but then they go and muck them up by forgetting to fit gears. 😉

I know blokes who have done really fast times on everything from 6" travel "all mountain" bikes to road bikes. For most people it's just a fun sociable day out with hundreds of other cyclists.

Hopster, you seen Hwe recently? [:wink:]

My take on the "ideal HONC bike" is that there isn't one. A flat barred MTB with fat tyres isn't going to be as fast on the road, which what most of the route is. A CX bike is sketchy and fragile on the lumpy stuff. Those drop bar Singular things look like they could be really good, but then they go and muck them up by forgetting to fit gears. [:wink:]

I know blokes who have done really fast times on everything from 6" travel "all mountain" bikes to road bikes. For most people it's just a fun sociable day out with hundreds of other cyclists.

Yep just a great reason to get out riding and have a social. Do you want me to drop the trailer round tonight?

Hwe, you da man! I've emailed you my address.

Cool I'll see you later.

A flat barred MTB with fat tyres isn't going to be as fast on the road, which what most of the route is.

Actually Mr A, you will find that for the last 2 years the on road/off road content has been 50/50. Its only because I revamped a old route that this year was biased towards the road content.

Watch out next year, I'm planning on upping the off road content a bit more 😀

Bring it on! 😆

grahamh - Member

A flat barred MTB with fat tyres isn't going to be as fast on the road, which what most of the route is.

Actually Mr A, you will find that for the last 2 years the on road/off road content has been 50/50. Its only because I revamped a old route that this year was biased towards the road content.

Watch out next year, I'm planning on upping the off road content a bit more

---------------------------------------------------------------

Which prob means it will pee it down eh Gra!

Thank you for an awesome day out in the sun.

Bu66er
Come to fettle the bike after yesterday and got a flippin puncture. Thought I'd got away with it

I saw a lot of cross riders changing tubes...

PMSL @ Sofaking 😉

What was your number Sofaking?

118 118, got your number 😉

PMSL!!!

Actually we were sooo Niche we had imaginary numbers 🙂

A flat barred MTB with fat tyres isn't going to be as fast on the road, which what most of the route

Try 490g tyres with 90g tubes and a 1600g wheel set, I wheeled and climbed past many a CX bike rider and as I recall I wasn't struggling to keep up with you and the rest of LVIS peeps on CX bikes, I'm not willy waving but I think your statement is flawed.

Well I HONC'd but i had a bit of a mare of a day. Started the night before, trying to sort my tyres out. Managed to prise my front tubeless nobby nic from the rimstrip after 20 minutes or so (had it on the bike for a year) and p*ssing about trying to inflate a racing ralph at midnight..Gave up and put a chunder 1.90 on the front. Left the rear as it is as i've been tubeless/puncture free for well over a year (you can see where i'm going with this)

Decided to do the 100k as it was more of a challenge. The only downside is that i was on my own. Got about 10 miles in and felt the back end all over the place. Stopped and realised i had about 10psi in the rear. Pumped it up and then another few miles it was down again. Got to the top of the climb before the 50/100 split off point and found a hole in the side that wouldn't seal (****) Decided to patch the tyre from the outside as i wasn't going to try prising off the damn tyre for 20 minutes. got down the road and followed everyone else to realise the 100k route was left at the road (doh!)

After the food stop it all went to pot. Started following a group (but also looking at the map) then realised I'd been down the same road that morning (****!) Proceeded to tell this old boy on a cross with gps but he just carried on (along with 4 others) Luckily met up with some ppl from west drayton mtb club and we rode together.

Cut a long story short.. we got lost quite a few times. The back marker marshall caught up with us which totally demoralizing and even he ended up taking us the wrong way (and he was with a guy with gps!)

All in all it took us a marathon 8 hours. What was gutting is i still had loads left in the tank at the end. I took it easy as i'd only ever done 54k before.

I really didn't think how much emphasis was on navigation. Not doing the HONC before I honestly thought a lot of it would be marked (i realise now that's not the point)

If i did it again, i'd do it in a team. It's not much fun on your own 🙁

thanks to Emma, Arman and Rach from west drayton mtb club for the support

Kingtut, is that an XTR c0ckring? 😉

If i did it again, i'd do it in a team. It's not much fun on your own

I disagree, I did it on my tod and had a great time. None of that waiting around for anyone. You can go at your own speed as well. The only downside was with navigation where I also felt that the sign posting could be better.

I think maybe a Garmin for next year may be a plan.

Err, what sign posting!!
That's what the course description and map are for..

I went alone and really enjoyed it, just me and my stopwatch!

I didn't find navigating to be a problem, it was 10km before the pack thinned out, and about 30km before I found my place in the pack and started passing a lot less. Just made a concious effort to keep riders in sight.

I think I ended up using my route card 3 times, and each time I checked my distance, found an instruction that made sense and carried on. I was in touch with a few smaller groups throughout the day who I kept exchanging position with and most had at least one good navigator...

GaryLuke> were you on the 50 or 100k?

Kingtut, is that an XTR c0ckring? [:wink:]

Of course, a carbon and Ti mix.

KINGTUT - Member

Try 490g tyres with 90g tubes and a 1600g wheel set, I wheeled and climbed past many a CX bike rider and as I recall I wasn't struggling to keep up with you and the rest of LVIS peeps on CX bikes, I'm not willy waving but I think your statement is flawed.

Done all that. Your pace is mainly down to your fitness of course but as I stated having got all the options (ie cross bike, light full susser, hardtail) available to me, I'm still convinced that a cross bike is fastest/easiest. For me, the cross bike meant that doing the 100k was doable without being a miserable experience for my woeful level of fitness - I reckon it may well have been a real stretch on an mtb and as such potentially a lot less enjoyable...

Still, you'd probably enjoy it more if you were more miserable 😉

And LOL @ the signpost comment - TBH, I was suprised at how many there actually were this year - previous ones I've done had almost none (if any) and that's the way it's always been and is meant to be...

TD,
"If I did it again, i'd do it in a team. It's not much fun on your own "

Nah! The first time I did HONC it was with a friend and I ended up having to wait for her so many times that it wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been! 😕

I'm quite happy to go round on my own! I've found that you useually end up talking to plenty of people and (although that might be because you don't get many women on their own doing this sort of thing).

I think you just have to learn to socialise more!! 🙂

Consider also, Kingtut, that you're not comparing like for like here. I was doing it on a low-end alu 'crosser with a cheap 'n' nasty factory wheelset (Which I paid £75 for IIRC). If you can build up a faster full susser for £500, let me know. 😉

Still laughing @ trickydisco getting lost 10 miles from where he grew up! Gps so last year, knowledge is power.