I thought the conditions on the ground were not that much worse than the first year

I was lots muddier/grittier this time than in 2009, despite only riding half as far.

Hadn’t a lot of the trails recently been topped off by the FC? I wonder if they’d not had time to bed in, so lots of loose, sandy surfaces to flick up and ruin us?

To all the people going through so many brake pads and wearing them out after 13 miles etc, i have two theorys. Either you’re using cheap seven quid jobbies, or just braking far too much.

I’m not particularly hard on brakes. In fact, before I swapped the pads to new (bedded in) sintered pads before Kielder I reckon the previous ones had been on for 2 or 3 years. And that bike gets ridden in all sorts of weather.

In the 33 miles I rode on saturday, I lost about two thirds of the pad. I don’t think I’d have got to the end on the same set, even though I was braking less and less as the ride went on as I was riding around less people.

I think the conditions were just really agressive on saturday.

To all the people going through so many brake pads and wearing them out after 13 miles etc, i have two theorys. Either you’re using cheap seven quid jobbies, or just braking far too much.

If you had ridden this year you’d seen it was far muddier than the last 2 you have done. It was wet all day and while Kielder Castle had 1cm of rain when I was at Bloody Bush putting banners up it was raining far harder, the hog was sinking into the mud with big fat tyres. It rained pretty much for 24 hours though and had lingering drizzle when it was easing off.

Given Ben said his pads ran out with 40 miles to go I’ll go with it was the conditions.

Special mention to fella called greg who checked i was ok after the off ,ta. Oh,and the lady with the pink brakes
who dragged a few of us up deadwater past the piper.nice one.

That was probably me, I was worried I was holding you all up! It was proper miserable up there!

To all the people going through so many brake pads and wearing them out after 13 miles etc, i have two theorys. Either you’re using cheap seven quid jobbies, or just braking far too much.
I’ve done it the past few years on one set of pads, and a lot of life left in my other components.. apart from the cables maybe.

I have never changed brake pads in a race before, it wasn’t an option not to. The braking wasn’t the problem, you could hear them grinding away when you were just riding along!

I was in the ‘border train’ too. There cant have been many folk with pink brakes and It certainly was trio25 that I was following.

That was the worst part of the lap for me.

all i remember was water, mud and christmas trees for 100 miles. i used xt discs. the front pads have been on for 18 months and were fine at the start. the rear pads were new (shimano again) and properly bedded in. rear pads went after 40miles, down to the metal. braked on the metal for 10miles as knew a replacement set wouldnt last the whole race. when tried to change the pads the piston was stuck and took ages to press back in. heard a lot of people had the same problem. the new rear brake pads lasted until that stop with the choc rice crispy cake. from then on – 30 miles? – braked with metal on metal, then piston on rotor – nice. was still very impressed with the braking power! with about 5 to go had to run the dh – which as someone has already said, looked about the best bit, grr. well done to all who finished and those that tried.

Who were the 2 guys with the Jones (one was the space frame with a fat wheel and the other a steel one)? I have never seen a fat bike before and it looked ace!!

Who were the 2 guys with the Jones

Waves. Mine was the blue steel one. I’d not played with a fat wheel either before a quick roll around on my friend’s new toy. Feels remarkably like riding a bike, would be interesting to try it on something lumpy.

On the brake pad front, the last 2 years I haven’t had to touch my pads. Same bike, same brakes.

This year thanks to little pre-race checking I had a suspect front brake that failed at around 25 miles, and then I went through the backing plate on one set of rear pads, wore out another pair to the metal, and then did about half another set. So I think its safe to say it was harder on brakes this time!

I have to admit I did like both of your bikes. We were hanging around the same area as you at the start, there was 3 of us in black and yellow tops (God this reminds me of the love story that guy started on here ages ago :D).

I check the course markers when we run the kielder marathon series and i wore a pair of pads out on one lap, about 12 miles and thats at my snails pace

Someone else said aztec sintered are the way to go, thats what I used and still have half a pad left on full inspection at each end today.

Back at work today feeling not too bad, not sure I’ll be doing that race in a hurry again though!

Hadn’t a lot of the trails recently been topped off by the FC? I wonder if they’d not had time to bed in, so lots of loose, sandy surfaces to flick up and ruin us?

I think in 2009 we rode the new blue trail for the first time – I remember thinking it should have been allowed to settle first. You’re right though – everyone was much muddier this time. Perhaps it was the combination of a few more hundred riders chewing it all up and the rain making the slop sloppier and so more easily spread around. Also, FWIW, my sintered pads fitted at 50 miles are ok now (35 miles later) whereas the ordinary pads (£15 pair, not desperately cheap ones) were down to the metal.

Hub gears and coaster brakes ftw. Or fixies.

I had some of the bargain pads from XC racer on, they have felt fine for all rides before Kielder,and they were well bedded in, but in that fine sand dust they seemed to glaze over. I had to change from my usual 1 finger braking to a full hand on the lever and pulling hard. It was like using wood for pads!
Pulling the brakes apart today, this appears to be the case, half the pads still left even though I had the impression of no brakes.
Next year I might carry some abrasive paper with me. Lucky to get away with the two big crashes Though, so perhaps not a good idea.

FWIW my rear v-brake pad is worn down to almost nohting, the front is about 3/4 gone. Both were nearly new at the start, but did last the race (although they made a lot of rubbing noise through the muddy bits and didn’t work effectively anywhere). Rims seem OK. My arms still hurt, not used to braking so hard for so long!

Anyone elses eyeballs feel as though they’ve been grit-blasted? mine are still bloodshot and hurt everytime i blink.

That was my first experience of Kielder on my Orange 5 , which worked really well despite all the sand rammed into every orifice ,mine as well as the bikes, causing chain suck and the brakes were virtually useless at times and down to the metal after 30 miles. I swapped pads for another set, which lasted until checkpoint 2 where after a very close “big off” due to having one eye shut cos of the grit in it, I called it a day…the singletrack sections and the one down to the finish were fun tho’… Enjoyed the Black-sheep beer in the pub too!

Anyone elses eyeballs feel as though they’ve been grit-blasted?

Yup ,but feel a lot better today.

Amazing how fine that dust was,it really did get everywhere.

Who were the 2 guys with the Jones (one was the space frame with a fat wheel and the other a steel one)? I have never seen a fat bike before and it looked ace!!

The fat one is mine, but think that the choice of a big front wheel might have been a mistake on the day. Only the 3rd ride on it so I wanted to have a play. Does indeed ride very much like a bike, bit draggier on the ups, but rock solid stable on the downs and flat.

There was one other spaceframe out there which I rode with on the first fireroad, non-fat fork.

Some of my thoughts on the day as part of the Killer Kielder write up:

http://www.killerkielder.co.uk

wenanwhere – Member
Some of my thoughts on the day as part of the Killer Kielder write up:

http://www.killerkielder.co.uk

Absolutely fantastic effort. I was chatting with you on the start line (I’m just to the right of you in the pic) and thought you were nuts!

😀 Amazing……

I luckily missed the Newcastleton cut off by seconds. The conditions were not the best. Thanks for helping with brake pads! It took nearly a grand total of 1 hour to fit them. How can they sell something that doesn’t fit?? Anyway after that I got to the 50 miles check point with a bit of pace (Thinking to my self that I was not expecting to be riding through up rocky streams, I was expecting fire roads, the Kielder trails and a few fire breaks.) Anyway got to the piper and I thought I had missed the cut off but was told the cut-off for Newcastleton was 3pm, plenty of time then. Got to the fire road, one mile of bliss then someone shot me. Well there was a huge bang and my tyre was gone. A massive 4 inch rip in it (Thin walled Small block 8 tyre were not appropriate for the course) and I biked the last 7/8 miles with no tyre. Got to Newcastleton and was extremely tired but got a new tyre and then some lube and missed the cut off by seconds. Ah the relief, hot soup, fantastic rice crispy cake and a tent then a lift back to Kielder in the forestry mini bus.

Hats off to those that finished. Bet they don’t have 900 entries next year! There were some good bits of trail but I can’t remember much enjoyment only pain and cold. Oh yes nearly forgot that my chain broke as well but that was my fault.

mrlugz,good to speak to you how did you get on? Spoke to loads of people and really helped give me a boost to get through

13h 25m. 175th..

Going for sub 12 next year.

Good stuff a friend of mine must have been just around you at the end on a gary fisher 29er

Wow! Some achievement – well done! 😀

After washing my bike, I discovered that 3 out of 4 chainring bolts were incredibly loose. I think missing the cut off might have been a blessing in disguise as they’d probably not have made the border crossing and that’d be a long walk with a folded chainring.

Bit of a long shot but … I left a heart rate monitor strap in the shower at the Kielder campsite on Saturday (shower nearest the door in the ladies block).

The campsite hadn’t had it handed in on Sunday, I don’t suppose anyone on here managed to scoop it up with their gear?

Its a Garmin strap but you could barely see the N on the front before the race, there’s a good chance that didn’t survive. No doubt it wiill say Garmin on the back somewhere.

Just to add to the lost and found 🙂

Endura Stingray glasses with orange lens – somewhere between 23 and 50 miles

I lost the will to live somewhere before 51 miles if anyone found it 😆

Bet they don’t have 900 entries next year

I bet they do, the harder it is the more of a rep it gets and people will want to enter to see if they can conquer it.

I’ll be back in year 4 after pulling out at 65 miles in year 1 😀

haven’t had an MTB for a year now, but going to build up a cheap 2nd hand 29er single speed for it.

More lost and found – I lost my old Casio watch, on an Animal velcro strap, somewhere after halfway round. Not worth a penny but I’ve had it years, would like to see it again – will have to look out for it next year.

This made me laugh a lot, a lot of will’s were lost and found again that day!