TJ the rest of the squad need to man up and get on singlespeeds 🙂
The guys did well. Even the failed free hub didn't stop em. Ran round 3 laps because he wasn't even close to fitting on any of the availible bikes bar mine.....and he wasn't going ss haha
Saw your injury on FB. That is harsh. Always the way when your on form 🙁
That's nails trsilrat.
Well 13 laps which was my target before the event as that's what I'd managed in a pair with @munrobiker.
This time was a different kettle of fish however, absolutely brutal mud, sloppy mud, sticky mud, slippery mud, grinding mud. I've never seen so many snapped chains and borked rear mechs.
Singlespeed was bloody tough and I'm not sure fully rigid was the best idea either, my arms are well tenderised 🤣
Still pretty bloody pleased with 3rd singlespeed. Great to see everyone and there was some top banter. Well done all 👏
In the few laps I did I stopped counting after seeing ten borked derailleurs.
The course was basically grinding paste.
Well done swavis. 🙂
That was quite hard work! We got 21 laps all in. Ashamed to say I was very happy to realise I’d be looking to start my next lap at 10:30. Time to put the bike down and grab a bacon butty.
Well done all of you, sounds like a proper slog. Commiserations to Epicyclo but at least you have something to console yourself with!
After 4 laps on the hardtail, I realized it felt rather odd as one of the seals in the forks has blown so it's running on the bottom out bumpers. Did the 4th lap with them pulled up and locked out.
Then swapped onto the bouncy bike and within a couple of laps knackered the compression damping so they were only running the top 5mm extremely slowly and craply.
Ouch... My arms hurt! If I'd meant to ride rigid I'd use a big tyre, flexy forks and squidgy BMX grips...
Little Ms t-r made Gary Williamson faces cover shot.
She was loving her high chair out the front of the van banging her rattle on the Tray and squeeling everytime a bike went past.
We were doing not too badly until:
a)literally my entire GX drivetrain crapped it
b)I got back and got our pit bike
c)I then crashed said pit bike up on the now-icy rock slabs bit of the long rock garden 🙁
It was just a gash and some bruising but held us up. Hey ho. There's always next year.
Tell you what though, that was totally awesome 🙂 -5 and a starfield clearer than anything I've seen in years. Loved every sec of it and will be back.
(Daughters club, Clydesdale Colts, did very well. I indirectly apologise for the appalling music at what became known as Colts Corner)
OK, so this all just sounds pants.
I was Puffer-curious, but now with warmer, wetter winters it seems that future events are more likely to be grinding paste than snowy and cold.
I shall have to look further north for a snowy cold race then.
I thought the saxophone at Colts corner on lap 1 was great! Trumpet at the first corner of the climb less so. Bike survived, I survived, 21 laps in a quad, muddy but not actually raining...happy days!
OK, so this all just sounds pants.
I was Puffer-curious, but now with warmer, wetter winters it seems that future events are more likely to be grinding paste than snowy and cold.
Based on what you saw on a sample size of how many years ?
This year's puffer was actually closer to the original 1st edition than any other puffer I remember.
And yes we have been down to -18 (2018 to name 1 )frozen solid and fast as hell and we had been horrid wet rain for 24 hours - 2013 / 2014 iirc
It's just unpredictable and that has always been the puffers nature. Fwiw It also got really cold through the night and the course got slick and solid for a bit.
Based on me being a **** ?
Future puffers will have all sorts of weather. Sun, Snow, Ice, Mud. It will not change
I've ridden ( not raced 🙂 ) one and pit bitched a few. Seen all sorts of conditions going back 15 years or so.
Baz gixxer from mnpr unsupported solo 66th in Male cat.
Fair play mate 69 miles 10k ft of climbing proper great effort
Well done folks.
Now little Ms rat likes bike racing, will you be trying Kirri 10 this year? Be nice to do a rerun of no. 1 where we first met you 🙂
This year’s puffer was actually closer to the original 1st edition than any other puffer I remember.
There was less mud this time😀
I thought it was a good one.
In terms of the race, it didn't go quite how I'd hoped - started out well with a 43 minute lap and my laps were consistently 10 minutes quicker than the last time I did it, so my training is working. The team I was on was half made up of normal riders so we ended up 8th - excellent but a top 5 is always nice! We weren't really taking it very seriously though.
Two thirds into my 3rd lap my shifter packed in so I had to fix that, then on the last lap my mech caught a rock passing someone on a slab and snapped off so I had to singlespeed it. I don't envy anyone singlespeeding and trying to get a good result - the magic gear I had was the gear I'd have chosen naturally for a lot of the uphills but it was useless on the fireroads and any descents. I also went through a lot of sets of brake pads - it was a muddy one!
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49413397293_efa543ecb2_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49413397293_efa543ecb2_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2ihuztK ]82802470_466858443980776_4170792197970460672_n[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/183377889@N06/ ]Luke Bradley[/url], on Flickr
On the other hand, I had a bloody good time shooting the breeze with the other riders around the campfire and at the pub. We all had a great laugh, and the course was riding well - bit of mud, then a lovely frost. It was one of my favourite years. I'd say this suggests we had a nice time:
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49413435253_c0ef6a289b_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49413435253_c0ef6a289b_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2ihuLLe ]82413855_10156744226272337_7708214463677071360_n[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/183377889@N06/ ]Luke Bradley[/url], on Flickr
OK, so this all just sounds pants.
I was Puffer-curious, but now with warmer, wetter winters it seems that future events are more likely to be grinding paste than snowy and cold.I shall have to look further north for a snowy cold race then.
that's a bit daft. Like saying you'll never go on holiday to Spain cos your mate said he went there and it rained.
Last year was -15 how cold do you want it?
The magic of the puffer is the unexpected, no one has a bloody clue what the weather will be like, even with Bryans annual report a day or so before! The constant is that whatever the weather, it's bloody brutal, and it will eat parts of your bike.
People should try it before they try and pass comment.
i remember 2016 was it - it was the absolute SOMME - but not cold.
I had the pleasure of spannering for a soloist on a singlespeed and still having to clean his bike every lap just to keep the wheels turning in the frame.
then in 2018 it was colder than a witches tit and the campervan pipe work froze where it passed under the outside of the van to cross sides.
I also remember one year building up to max beans before hitting a section of trail that was foot deep sludge and about 50ft wide as folk tried to ride round the sludge ( on a bit of the course thats no longer used) that stopped the bike. i cant remember what year that was.
then there was 2008 where the course was rock solid ice for the whole course - when we started round at the other side of the hill - when the marquee blew away and we all had to be towed into the field (despite the hard frozen course)
There's also all the special moments. Walking off into the woods for a wee and looking up into a silent frost covered forest with all the stars glimmering above you. Pedalling through dawn with a frozen lake next to you, lit by a bright red sky. The camaraderie of riders who fall and smash their way through the night, picking each other up and laughing with each other.
One of my team mates talks about riding the Puffer waiting for your "moment of beauty"- at some point you will see something that takes your breath away. Mine was following a slower rider and getting a stunning view of a loch off in the distance set by hills. His was the dawn lap with the sun rising, turning the sky mad colours while he looked at a snow-capped Ben Wyvis. Even if you're taking it very seriously you'll have a moment that makes you think "wow".
Unless the weather's proper shit, but that's not happened to me yet in the 6 times I've Puffed.
There’s also all the special moments
Absolutely, I recall going out on a lap about 10pm, team marquee had 2 big infra red heaters burning off the genny, lights, tomd's dad buzzing about helping everyone, an absolute hive of activity...
Came back in from my lap, tent in darkness, silence, and bodies in every available space, trying to sleep! bastards! 🙂
trail_rat
...then there was 2008 where the course was rock solid ice for the whole course – when we started round at the other side of the hill – when the marquee blew away and we all had to be towed into the field (despite the hard frozen course)
That was one of my favourites. Really slidy. Virtually no one with studded tyres. "No market for them in the UK" I was told by the Schwalbe rep.
The pools of frozen pink blood in strange places (We slow people notice that sort of thing 🙂 ).
I'm sitting here reading this thread, and chuckling away. Its great to see all your recollections on it, particularly of earlier Puffers.
I have to say that I loved every minute of it, even the bike-knackering mechanicals, lack of sleep and icy slab crashes. Even the fire road climb (almost)
I love the fire road climb, the chances of me or my bike coming to grief are at their lowest point of the whole lap 🤣
The year I rode it 2010 I think was deep snow. Much of it had been shoveled away but only one shovel wide so no one could overtake on those bits without your co operation and then sheet ice on one section and an a big slushy muddy descent. I remember running out of energy around midnight and lying on my back in a snowdrift stuffing jelly babies in my gob. So many folk asked if I was OK it was really nice - no one rode past without asking. A fast guy also stopped on the icy section when I fell and picked me up ( I was doing the sheep on the back flounder still clipped in)
I also remember pit bitching in 2008. I had a huge camper that was to be HQ for loads of folk. I got it onto site and parked it in the bit that I later found out was supposed to be reserved for special folk - but with vehicles getting stuck everywhere I got to leave it there ( I did offer to try to move it)
Welcome to the Puffer, never, ever intended doing the race, don't like the cold which is strange given I grew up in Upper Deeside in Scotland.
Got roped into a quad this year, the other 3 team members are mostly hill runners, as am I but have moved into MTB recently.
The race was mad, great fun, lots of amazing basecamps, cider fuelled spectators on the hill tops helping to fix broken bikes, awesome starry skies, sneaky& slidy terrain and a really cool bunch of people taking part in the race, marshaling and helping.
We had a good race, achieved our aim of 20 laps, which for a team with an average age of 53 we thought was pushing it a little.
Will come back again, probably better prepared logistically, was dame cold overnight and hopefully with a working set of lights!
Well done to all, both competing and assisting, what the sport is all about.
This year I found the key to the fireroad climb - be really pretty fit. I remember struggling after it turns right then left before the last line of campervans but this year I was able to get up it without suffering.
The two sharp rises before the bridge of thighs, though, were bloody horrible.
cider fuelled spectators
that's probably Rob & Hils 🙂
ive never found the fire road to be particularly troubling. its the perfect grade for 32:18 - i can even sit most of the way.
the key to this is to not be parked at the bottom and to do your hand over on the hill so your partner has the ability to warm up before the rest of the climb.
ITs horrible leaving the marque straight into that climb.
agree the two rises before bridge of thighs were horrid. they were not 32:18 compatible. they were ok on 32:22 last year though 😀
that’s probably Rob & Hils 🙂
Yep, well they were there and I didn't see any others with cider in the middle of the night 😀
@munrobiker I think those bastard climbs were called Twin Peaks maybe? They were an absolute swine on the singlespeed and admit to walking the first of them on my last 4 laps.
edit- On 30:21 and 29+ tyres
@trail_rat & @swavis I'm glad to hear you say that.
I was beginning to think I was getting too old for SS. 32/22, 5" tyres.
My mate found this today - the rivers of mud around 7 minutes in are familiar.
Anyone got a gpx of that Grundig course?
That Grundig course was pretty grim. I certainly remember ending up putting my foot in knee deep at one point. Fortunately there were river crossings to wash it off.
I can’t image anyone has a gpx of it given it was the era of wires to connect the bike computer to the magnet sensor 🙂
mr_stru
I can’t image anyone has a gpx of it given it was the era of wires to connect the bike computer to the magnet sensor
Obviously 🙂
I was hoping someone had done it since though. I can recognise a lot of the spots and was wondering how they were strung together.
It sounds bloody awful - my teammate's husband did it and apparently Thomas Frischknecht stopped at the finish line and carried his bike away in protest at how much walking there was on the course (around 50%).
munrobiker
It sounds bloody awful
Aye, but it's also a ride in the Scottish mountains, and this is mountainbiking, ain't it? 🙂
Not that I'd have fancied riding that, but having competition courses like that might mean our bikes evolve into being better all terrain bikes.
Did the Puffer for the first time this year, as a very mixed a ability quad and we all loved it. Great atmosphere and event and thought the course was great. I even loved the fire road climb. We only did 16 laps. I took the wrong bike - rigid Singular Swift, not realising that it was pretty rocky in places. We started with 'well we've got to go and do it once' and are now already planning for next year!
Third 'Puffer for me this year having done the 2018 and 2019 editions.
Absolutely loved it this year as it was the race debut for my Orbea Oiz. I wish I'd had that bike at the 2018 and 2019 editions.
Rode in a quad and we completed 23 (very nearly 24) laps.
We'll be back again next year for sure as all of our team members (4 Battered Gooch Suppers) are Inverness based.
First 'Puffer this year for me and the rest of the quad. It was an emotional rollercoaster from start to finish not helped by the fact that I was on a rigid SS running 32:18. But I was happy not to get off and push once and managed all my laps in under an hour which I didn't expect. The team managed 24 laps which we were over the moon about. We're already preparing for next year!
