Should be interesting this year. Sat down in front of the computer I can see how the mud will be “fun” but at 3am in the morning when your bike wont work and your kit is wet/cold/muddy I can’t see it being great!

If it’s anything like D2D last year then that will be nasty!

well lets face it..its going to be epic isnt it

I cant remember which year it was, but it was the one with the nasty land rover climb that was about 6″ deep in watery mud sludge. The guys at that time doing the free jet wash looked just as knackered as the people doing the race!

My advice.

Ditch FS and go for a bike with the least number of places of mud to cling as possible.

Wax/polish your bike which helps the mud fall off.

Take 3 or 4 towells for the showers, your towell will never dry out.

Let me know where the best place is to get pics of you all falling off 🙂

You know, I don’t remember anything in particular about the last 2 years, which have bee dry. It’s the character building sideways rain from 2008 I remember extremely well… Bring it on!

I remember the dry ones – they were brilliant fun – race a lap then come and chill with your mates for a bit. Much nicer than the admittedly epic but pretty ardous tempestuous ones though the one in 2004(?) was good as it dryed out through the event and was quite fast by the end.

This will be my 9th Mayhem in a row. It’s been bone dry twice (2003 and 2006, I think), almost dry another couple of times, and a mudfest the rest. It’s always been fun, although the last couple of mudfests I think we did just go and sleep for a bit in the early hours of the morning. The unicyclists always do well when it’s like that – easier to carry a unicycle.

Taking into consideration everyone’s comments should I take a steel hardtail with conventional rear triangle or…a Prophet, which I know is over-biked but is single pivot and actually has less places for mud to cling to and accumulate, what do you think?

I’m taking two hardtail 29ers, both Rohloff & egg beaters. I’m taking two spare single speed rear wheels as well. Bring on the mud. 😛
Muddypuddle’s riding in a team of ten, which should give her plenty of free time. So, depending on how bad it is, the plan is to swap bikes every lap and, as a last resort, convert to single speed.

I might call in a sports shop tomorrow and buy some studs for my shoes.

I did it in the dry once loved it then next year did it the rain and vowed never to do it again. Yet here I am again 🙄

Ah yes, the joy of putting on shoes that are full of freezing water at 4 in the morning. Do you think if I took a blow torch and was quite careful with it I could get dry shoes?

Do you think if I took a blow torch and was quite careful with it I could get dry shoes?

try it. remember to take a camera 😉 & let us know on monday.

Only rains when i don’t race it 8)

HERE: Just fitted these tyres, they look absolutely jokes. So out of proportion.

Mayhem_mudifications by ben_oggles, on Flickr

Oggles you need a crudcatcher on there!

you should buy a 29er

looks good to me….. Ditch the water bottle and cage you wont be needing that, its only going to take you 45min to do a lap

I think they should move the MM date away from the Glastonbury weekend….

you should buy a 29er

I think at 6’4″ I should 😉 I’m a poor student for the next couple of months until I start my job. It’s on the wishlist!

any ‘race’ where you can rock a setup like the one above frankly worries me.

Just returned from one of my LBS’s, having just bought the last set of mud tyres.. 😉

The real joy of a wet and muddy Mayhem will be the reaction of the newbies we talked into doing it who think it can’t be that hard.

9miles and then 3 hrs off ?? Easy.

Bring on the banter.

We’ve got a virgin b-team with us 😀

I was winding them up before the weather turned crappy 😈

The real joy of a wet and muddy Mayhem will be the reaction of the newbies we talked into doing it who think it can’t be that hard.

9miles and then 3 hrs off ?? Easy.

Yes, but you’ll have to persuade one of them to go out at 2am when rain, slop and general unpleasantness will be at their peak. So best that you don’t hide the truth from them completely.

I cant remember which year it was, but it was the one with the nasty land rover climb that was about 6″ deep in watery mud sludge. The guys at that time doing the free jet wash looked just as knackered as the people doing the race!

Yeah we did it that year; the best bit was people staring enviously at my SS as their bikes gave up at various points. IIRC it dried out by Sun morning and became a swoopy fest, with the course to yourself as so many people jacked it in the night cause of the conditions.

with the course to yourself as so many people jacked it in the night cause of the conditions

We had an excuse. We had one working bike left between the five of us and that one was owned by a short-arse.

I still feel guilty about not finishing that one though.

the best bit was people staring enviously at my SS as their bikes gave up at various points

Oh I don’t know. I thought the best bit was the people who thought they were being clever bringing their SSs realising that they were either overgeared for the mud or not having enough grip to actually get anywhere and therefore having to push their bikes as I spun past… 😉

2004 wasn’t it?

IIRC it dried out by Sun morning and became a swoopy fest, with the course to yourself as so many people jacked it in the night cause of the conditions.

It’d certainly dried out enough to make doing another lap on CX Pro 1.35″ a touch challenging.

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I cant remember which year it was, but it was the one with the nasty land rover climb that was about 6″ deep in watery mud sludge. The guys at that time doing the free jet wash looked just as knackered as the people doing the race!

That was the last MM I did before migrating to the Bonty 24/12 with it’s all weather course! 😉

One of our guys threw his bike into the undergrowth in frustration, even though he knew it was his last lap before we, ahem, ‘retired’. Not an inexperienced rider either – he ran a warranty dept for a big bike company.

staring enviously at my SS as their bikes gave up at various points

You could have ridden it on a penny farthing and it wouldn’t have made any difference. Crap course, crap weather. Probably the worst of any of the 24hrs I’ve ever done. Can’t believe that they still persist with the same venue, but as has been mentioned above, people still flock to it.

Funny thing was though, the course was pretty poor even in the dry. Just a grassy motorway with some steep climbs.

Yeah we did it that year; the best bit was people staring enviously at my SS as their bikes gave up at various points. IIRC it dried out by Sun morning and became a swoopy fest

Eh? It rained on Friday night and then stayed dry for the rest of the weekend.

2.1 Razrs were perfect day and night (except the sticky woods after the Kenda climb, which were a PITA).

Loving all the righteous smugness – right now a massive mud karma cloud is sat up there with your names on it…

I’m going to get incredibly muddy, break bits of my bikes, and then spend a week cleaning everything when I get home. Regardless of the weather, the sometimes tedious course, the fact that it costs a fortune (breakages, travel, running a tab at the food tent, new kit you always convince yourself you absolutely have to have) as well as the all-pervading mud, I always end up enjoying it.

Bring it on. Whatever ‘it’ is, weatherwise.

Can’t wait myself, first time for me as part of a SS team. Spent today fitting mud tyres, crud guards and other random stuff.