Try an M109 if you can they are great bikes, I’ve been riding one since Jan and find it does a great job at balancing short travel trail bike and XC bike.

If you are interested I am selling the frame and fork from my M109CS, it has a retuned shock and is upgraded with Kashima – I’m only selling it because I’m just not using it :o( If you’re interested or would like more information about them before buying a new one just drop me a line on adam (dot) buckland@hotmail(dot)co.uk

They the Turbo Cotton ones? Quite fancy trying them too.

Yep, with latex tubes and a decent width rim I reckon they were as good as it gets without going for mega bucks tubs!

Never tried the Veloflex’s but after using Challenge Critirium this year I’d be pushed to go back to Corsas. I’ve also tried Specialised Turbo tyres with gumwall and they felt lovely on the short ride I did.

Note, the Corsas and Critierium I use are tubs but with decent latex tubes I find opens are equal

Sorry to add to your pain Mr Scoop but you can use any combination of Sram and Shimano on 11spd, I use grip shift with XTR cassette and mech, there are a number of people on here that use Shimano shifters with Sram rear ends. To help OP, XT cassette will work a treat on your current wheels and save a fortune, the frame thing is baloney.

I use the free app from Road ID. I’ve only been using it for a month or so but it seems great, it is however, like most of these apps reliant on you have a GPS reception.

First tough turbo session done last night in preparation for a bit of winter circuit racing over at Hillingdon, suffice to say I have a far bit of work to do! Thankfully December is still a little way off but I’ve said that before with other events and before I know it I’m on the start line and unfit.

Am I right in thinking you’ve entered the Human Race duathlons, Mud Man, Ice Man etc? If I am based on doing them about 3 years ago the MTB element is super basic, small slopes, fire road and around a tree so just go for fast! The running on the other hand whilst isn’t technical I found it super tough and I’m not too bad a runner, there was a lot of up and down (some steep) and because running down is hard the whole thing felt relentless!

the events are fantastic though, really well organised but with a good grass routes feel! I may come back this year and just do the trail runs.

UST specific tyres instead of Tubeless Ready or ‘standard’ are thinker as the carcass isn’t porous and in my experience they tend to be tougher.

As you’re having problems with cuts you could look for ‘Grid’ (specialized) ‘Protection’ (Conti) type branding, other manufacturers have their own ‘tough’ versions..

Some great successes on this thread, well done all.

Thanks for starting it Kryton

No cross for me this year but that frees up a little time so I can use that to train a bit for a low pressure run at the Hillingdon winter series. I like that the road season doesn’t stop these days – there’s always a circuit race going on!

Hi Yak,

If just updated it, I hoped I’d get there before you. I’ll email you now

Cheers

Adam

There have been a few mentions or kids racing, the current standard is really good but some of the other regions offer go ride coaching from BC for the children while the adults races are on – this maybe helps in a couple of areas as the children will hopefully learn new skills and be occupied while parents ride

What do you think?

Really fair point DanW, I’ve not intended to be anything but positive however your post is exactly what I was trying to ask.

What excites/ motivates/ rewards people attending a certain race or series?

Thanks again for all the feedback.

some really interesting points, re categories, we have some scope for flexibility but are largely guided by BC, would you be happy to share the course and start at the same time (if BC allow) so you had a closer race, albeit with a rider from a different cat?

The marathon event; I was thinking of a marathon round, with a fixed time/distance based on category with it’s own date and venue or would you rather see it on the same date and venue as a ‘normal’ xc round?

Keep it coming…

Blimey, thanks for all the responses, please keep them coming as they’re really appreciated!

I’ve read all replies, will send a couple of emails and will keep a copy of this thread as a reminder of what the riders want.

As soon as I have confirmed dates and venues I’ll let you all know.

And Njee, I remembered how chuffed you were clearing that gap/log thing at Wasing – I thought you were going to climb off there and then just in case something went wrong and ruined your day!

Cheers

Cheers guys.

I think you’re right wwaswas and Yak, it’s great to hear that you and your family are enjoying the racing – it’ll be good see you back for next year!

Keep the thoughts rolling…

I think the M109 fails behind the bb shell are on older bikes, I have a 2015 CS frame and have been keeping a very close eye on it after being aware of the past issues but having spoken to Whyte was apparently some changes made in the BB area for 2015.

I have the frame from a CS spec with a custom build and it’s somewhere before 23 and 24lbs including a dropper. It has a bit of XTR, Next cranks and Crossmax SL’s – with a bigger budget you could save a bit more weight, I built it with reliability in mind.

Before I got it I tested an Epic and an Anthem too but went for the Whyte as it was more fun than the Epic, though not as fast and I could get the the size I wanted the Anthem in but on my test loop the Whyte proved a little quicker. The 109 has a bit more of a ‘traily’ feel than the Epic and the frame is a fraction lighter (S-works excluded), the life time support on the bearing is appealing too.

Loved the course, bit of climbing, loads of lively roots and it didn’t cut up :o)

the weather gods really do look after Gorrick, maybe some Karma for hard work they put in!

Bit of a strange day for me, gave me some clarity – whilst I loved riding the trails and could have ridden there for hours on end (oh I did) I didn’t really enjoy the racing, despite getting my best ever result for the event – so more trail riding and less racing for me – I may even knock my cross season on the head, any one fancy a TCX Advance in large!!!

Is anyone doing the Floodlit Series in Swindon – gutted that I can only make a couple of them this year 🙁

I’ve ‘raced’ both and whilst they both fantastic I don’t think I’d use either for training – although I haven’t got any evidence to back this up but they just feel a little too light weight/fragile for the rough and tough off any old surface training (assuming that’s what you mean by training). If you’re fixed on tubs for training some of the lower TPI ones may fair better, Specialized tracer/terra spring to mind – both fully vulcanised, lower TPI and still good treads but not quite to supple.

As for fixing, always Mastik One and Belgian tape (not Tufo etc) here but I’ve not tried or seen any CX reviews for Magic Mastik – it may be great.

It sounds like you’ve not recovered fully from your injury and it could be one of a load of things; effectively shortened left arm, muscle weakness, sub concious protection…

Although the Physio has signed you off, they may have been aiming for what is acceptable to the majority and not aiming for riding a bike in a straight line. I have had similar issues over the past year or 2 (not caused by a shoulder injury) and I’m finally on the route to straightness thanks to a Chiropractor

By the way I’m not a professional so all of this might be utter rubbish and your headset is screwed but I’m speaking from personal experience.

Mr B

Adam, Crux bad for mud or was it the canti’s? Had a fairly long test of one from banjo’s a while back and really liked the way it rode.

The Crux is a great bike, the mud issue for me was caused mostly by the cantis but added to by alloy frames need for the little brace between the chain stays (newer ones may not have it). IMO the handling of the Crux is super passive and as a result great everywhere that stability is required but I find it tough going in tighter areas of the course.

Horses for courses

I’ve found that having one bike is fine on all but the very muddiest of courses but two pairs of wheels is pretty crucial if your trying to race in all weathers.

I’ve raced an alloy crux with cantis which was great for my first year and I still have it as a training bike, I did however finish that first year thinking that I needed to sort something for muddy races – I had a number of occasions where the rear wheel clogged so bad that I could barely turn it. I considered a 2nd bike but didn’t have someone who was prepared to stand around cleaning my bikes so I decided to change to discs (I went with full hydros) and didn’t have a problem all of last season and will be on the same TCX again this year.

If I was starting tomorrow it’d be an alloy TCX with 105 hydros and a couple of pairs of cheapish tub wheels, one with muds and one with inters.

Love this thread each year!

Sounds like Cardiff has a great set up, I wish we could get a decent number of riders each week to do something similar – it’s pretty dull by yourself!

I’ll be doing as many rounds of the Wessex League as possible with the aim being to bother the top 10 more often than the once I achieved last year!!

I’ll also be at a few rounds of the Swindon Floodlit League, unfortunately I can’t make them all this year 😥

It’s just that some of the organisers have decided to give up but others are stepping. The series should run well for 2016. Do you think there is enough course with good parking down your place to run a round again, 2014 was great put a lot of parking issues.

Drop me a line at adam(dot)buckland@hotmail(dot)co(dot)uk if you fancy have a chat about it

Sorry for the hijack – as you were chaps.

‘Last’ as in not continuing next year?

Thankfully no 🙂

I’m doing it in a pair with Morgan Jones. The course is great but very easy to get caught up in the ‘race’ and smash it too early because it fast and fun – it doesn’t slow down even in the wet.

I’ve teamed and paired before, although harder pairs are great fun!

Good luck Assassin and to HighG5, just do it.

No racing for me this week, damn work getting in the way! I’ll be at Big Dog this weekend to make up for it though!!

It sounds daft but I don’t think i could psychologically replace a top end carbon frame (albeit an old one) with a mid range alu one from the same brand. The ALR is a chunk heavier than my Madone too.

It’s funny you say this as it’s exactly what I’ve done this year. TCR Advance then a few years without a road bike and now I’m racing on an alloy TCR – your point about weight is right, it’s a chunk heavier but god the drive is good!

Go for it, assuming accreditation at your track follows a similar format as at Newport speed has very little to do with it. It’s all about safety and race awareness, it really helps with what to do in training and racing scenarios.

Once you’ve done accreditation you can usual just pop along to drop in sessions and usually you are free to do your own thing but be aware of others doing their thing

Track training is great fun and you can progress to track league if you like.

Just go and get stuck, depending on your fitness/endurance enter the fun or open categories and see how you go. Make sure you give yourself time to pre ride the course so that your comfortable with it and then crack on. The speed of some of the fast riders will blow you away but don’t be put off by them, it’s just something to aim at.

Depending which direction you want to travel in I guess either the Southern XC series to you East or I think there is still a South Western Series the other way, their course have a great reputation.

Njee20, I’m surprised you’re not waiting for a new Madone!

If you decide to go for Deda and fancy the 35’s I can only suggest going to for carbon ones as the Alu ones felt too stiff to me, I had tingly hands after less than an hour. However, the carbon ones are stiffer than I need and really comfy.

I’ve not tried the 29er version but the old 26 were very good. For 29 I can highly recommend Spesh Torm Control – good value too

I have one of these shocks on my M109 and when it first arrived the CDT switch did nothing but I had super plush travel but with next to no platform and it doesn’t have a trail adjust which I think is the black switch referred to above. I took it back to the dealer and after much squishing and pedalling up and down the road the decided to send it back to Mojo under warranty as there is a dodgy batch of these shocks where the CTD didn’t work and it’s not the first time they’d seen it. The next day I received a call from the shop saying that Mojo had called to say that they had the shock in the dyno and it’s working as designed but they offered for me to call the guy at Mojo to discuss the options. After chatting with the seemingly very knowledgeable man at Mojo for about half an hour it turned out that they get a lot of shocks back like this that ‘don’t work’ and it’s because the frame manufacturers are specing the shocks with very light tune, in my case it was light in compression and return (I forget what the actual term was he used) and ‘only’ 200psi in the boost chamber (again, can’t remember exact term), after a discussion about my riding I now have a shock with medium tune in both directions, Kashima upgrade and 300psi of boost. The CTD switch works a treat giving ever increasing platform from D through to C. I only went for Kashima because apparently it can help with small bump sensitivity when the tune has been increased, kind of makes sense.

The reason the guy from Mojo gave for frame manufacturers making this decision regarding light tune is so that the bikes feel super plush on carpark tests, cheeky monkeys!

My shock now works great and the service from Mojo was fantastic.

240 every time.

I have 510 but given that I don’t use a lot of the functions on it and having tried the 810 which has better mapping but for me nothing else I’ll go for a Touring Plus next time, good mapping and altimeter

That’s it and if you head up the road a bit, away from the M3 there is a small car park off of a round about and you can explore from there. As above just be considerate to those that you share it with.

I have that chainset and use a raceface N/W with an Ultegra mech, the chain retention is good – I’ve dropped it once, in a very sticky muddy race. The only negative is that you have mount the ring on the outside so the chain line isn’t great at the larger end of the cassette

Our team kit came from Endura and I have their ‘packable’ which seems to tick all you boxes but I don;t know what they call the retail version (ours are printed) of it or how much it is.

I’ve never raced a Tameside so can’t comment but I have raced a few times at Preston which may not be too far from you and the week night handicap is fast and furious but a good standard of riding.

HighG5, I don’t know you region at all but some of our local circuits allow ladies to start with 4ths or 3/4 and if there’s enough of you (10 or more) they tend to start a separate race for you. It might be worth enquiring at York, I can’t believe they don’t offer anything at all for ladies.

I really like the Tifose (spelling) stuff, they seem to fit well and the optic quality is pretty good, not Oakley standard but more than good enough and less than half the price.