Have a shop round and see if you can get Open Pro’s, 32holes on hubs of choice – I imagine you’d find a pair for similar money to Aksiums but they’ll be a lot lighter and probably stronger.

I did it last year and really enjoyed it, will try to do it again this year. You do as many laps as poss within the 4hr limit, all laps have to be completed within the 4hrs, any laps that finish after will not be couynted. As for the course, it’s not very technical, if you’re use to riding at the lookout etc you’ll find it very easy, just starts to get a bit more interesting as your speed goes up. There are a couple of hills and in the 2nd half of the race I found them quite tough. Really good atmosphere, nice and chilled on the course with a wide range of ability – what’s not to like…

Sorry for the slight high jack but if any of you guys would like or know anybody who’d like an entry into the 12hr Male Pairs race please can you drop me a mail at adam(dot)buckland(at)hotmail(dot)co(dot)uk Unfortunately my team mate and I are unable to make it.

Thanks

Adam

Didn’t even work out as well as a wire bead tyre, just sore legs and the realisation that we’re not as quick as we want to be 🙁

Great event though…

Hello,

I was the runner of the stringed instrument playing cyclists pair who tried a different tactic to cover up our fading fitness!! It didn’t work that well; no great result but my team mate did have a slightly easier first lap. I had a read over the info on the website and couldn’t find anything that said you counldn’t so we thought we’d give it a try to make the most of the shakey start procedure!

Didn’t want to offend anyone just an attempt to make the most of what we had!! 😕

There is a new Specialized Concept Store in Newbury, not a million mile away and you’ll get a chance to have a look around their very swanky showroom!!

Hi Colin,

The 1,330g is without skewers or rim strips so add a few g for strips and about 90g for the supplied Soul skewers.

There is a demo pair available for most models including the S2.0, just drop us a mail though the contact page on our website at http://www.asd.uk.com (it is still under construction but the contact page works fine) so we can sort out sending a pair to you.

Googling ‘Soul S2.0’ throws up a couple of our dealers and the road.cc review on the front page.

Look forward to hearing from you

Adam

Have a good look @ Soul’s S2.0. There’s a great review on Road.cc. They’re about 1,330g with std spokes and sealed bearing so nice and reliable with easy maintenance. The RRP is £575.00 but shopping around will help.

Quick disclaimer; yes I do work for Advanced Sports Distribution who are the distributor however all of the above remains true!

CADD 10 everytime – utterly brilliant…

And for what it’s worth I much prefer Ultegra to 105 and once you’ve saved a little look for some new wheels (RS80/Soul S2.0/Ksyrium)

Bump, any ideas…

If you get in touch with racewaredirect.co.uk they may be able to help you out. They do lots of custom bits & pieces and I’m sure have the files for top caps…

Munro, have a look at the Torq 12:12 that is run by Gorrick, I don’t know where you are but it’s in Hampshire, about 20mins East fn Basingstoke. It’s not overly hilly but there’s just enough elevation to make it really good fun. Most of it is great woodland singletrack, usual Gorrick standards…

Alex,

Just wondering what makes you think lengthening your bike will help with lower back sorness towards the end of your ride. I’m cetainly not saying that this isn’t the case but there are a few other things that could cause it. Off the top of my head it my be worth looking at your saddle position/height in relation to the bb but I think the first thing I’d think about would be your core strength, the fact it’s not a problem until the end of your ride suggests that it could be fatigue related…

Just a thought

Oooops, beaten to it.

Same here, further to my post above I’ve ask my LBS to hold my Stumpjumper as he has other customers who would like it. Which LBS has been able to get an XTC demo for you? Did they have a large?

I really like the Specialized 29er tyres. I currently have a ground control on the front and renegard on the back. A word of warning; the S-Work carcass very light but can be a bit prone to side wall damage so it may be worth looking at the cheaper, slightly heavier control version…

I find the Renegade super fast and much grippier than it looks like it should be, when it’s super dry I’d put one on the front too but in the current mixed conditions I find the extra bite of the ground control a bit faster/more stable

Hi,

I found the Whyte great but I’m over 6 foot, it handled really well, didn’t notice the big wheels in the twisties. I couldn’t get the Giant to fit so well but I’ve had this problem before with 26″ Giant HT’s so maybe the proportions that they design their frames around just don’t suit me but I know other riders who like if and say it’s very stiff especially compared to the XTC in Alu which is said to be very comfy. I also tried (and purchased) a Stumpjumper, it fitted me better than either the Giant or Whyte, handled as well as the Whyte and has stiffness to spare. Give them all a try but none of them are overly available so I’d be quick…

It was good enough for John Tomac, someone will prob post a pic in a while.

You can get them from xcracer.com’s shop

Cycling Weekly are currently doing a review of £850.00 to £1,200.00 carbon clinchers that I think is going to be published by the end of March and I think a few good value surprises are going to come from it so it might be worth a wait…

This is an interesting one and I think you suggested the problem already, horses for courses!! Within a group I doubt you are not going to be getting the full benifit of aero. If Circuit races are you’re thing I would go for stiff over aero unless you are super strong and go for solo wins?

Also noting that I seem to remember reading some where that these aero road bikes function very weel are very high speeds (pro speeds) but below these speeds the advantage is questionable because even when a manufacturer pushes the UCI regs the aero gaining techniques are restricted when compared to true wind cheating TT/Tri bikes…

For that money, I’d also consider a nice stainless frame, have a look at the Milani Acciao Puro, amazing bike, so nice to ride and they are a fantastic company. I seem to remember that there are few dealers in Oz so I certainly recommend you have a look…

It’s a shame you can’t find a bit more budget as Soul’s S2.0 is incredible value. 1,330 grams and they have been reviewed really well by road.cc. The warranty is second to none, even includes consumable for the first year. But they have an RRP of £575.00…

http://road.cc/content/review/48341-soul-s20-wheelset

**before anybody does too much searching yes I do work for the distributor 😉

I haven’t used them for years now and the only experience I have is of 4 sided beaters and thought they were great, I think I only changed them because I was building a new bike and went back to Shimano. To go off on a bit of a tangent; I now use Frogs and have for some time (thought I’d try them after falling for Zero’s on the road) and I think they are fantastic, if a little maintenance hungry; they don’t clog with mud, are easily adjustable and are great to get in and out of – what more could you want??

Hi Craig,

I’m looking for a low cost solution myself although my problems aren’t exactly the same as yours.

This has been recommended to me
http://www.clearbooks.co.uk/pricing/

It’s seems to do what I need but I’m not sure about your exact requirments

Thanks

Adam

Thanks for the pointer, I’ll drop Jedi a line.

@Xiphon I guess I’m going to have to travel as I live in West Berks and I assume that most of these guys are in more geographically challeging areas??

Strangely this is where the skill compensation/laziness of FS affects me, when I’m on my hardtail I stand 99% of the time but on my FS it far less, matbe half the time!! This is strictly XC mind, none of that crazy stuff that requires proper skillz…

Recently I’ve been nticing a lot more threads etc about improving skills and it’s got me thinking about my own bad habits so I reckon it’s about time I booked myself on a refresher day, can anyone recommend one that’s aimed at XC??

Please excuse the shameless plug as I work for the distributor for Soul Wheels but please have a look at the road.cc review of their S2.0 clincher wheelset. 1,330g with standard j bend spokes.

Link to the review: http://road.cc/content/review/48341-soul-s20-wheelset

If you’d like more info about product or where to buy please drop me an email to the addrss in my profile.

Cheers

Adam

All great advise. If you can’t afford coaching the best thing you do is find somewhere locally that isn’t too technical but pushes you to be smooth and start to look for faster lines.

Also have a look at you bike setup, are you getting the most out of any suspension you have, would you gain from running tubeless if you don’t already (you will, as long as it set up well).

I’m guessing that if you ride the monkeys you live around in the south, the area around where the monkeys are run is fantastic training ground – minley use to be a favourite of mine, just the right level of tech.

As already suggested sounds like the disc option is aimed at new CX regs.

I think drawing tubes for production tubing is vastly cheaper, especially in high volume. This article is about bone tissue engineering but is worth a read as I believe the same tech is used in F1, aerospace etc

http://www.mendeley.com/research/rapid-prototyping-porous-titanium-alloy-scaffolds-produced-by-selective-laser-melting-for-bone-tissue-engineering/

I don’t think creating a sufficient structure is a problem, it would be cost.

The RP is rapid prototype, it a method that builds a structure from powdered material (think toner in a printer), this can allow for much more ‘creative’ structures that aren’t possible when working back from a solid lump of material. As I say I’m no expert so it’d be interesting to hear an engineers view??

How about using TI tubes that are build using an RP type process with an internal structure? I’m certainly no expert but have seen some drawings of cranks build in such a way and according to the numbers thay are lighter and stiffer than alu.

Hi,

A lot of tube manufacturers make a tube with an 80mm valve (spesh/conti), you could give these a try (in my experience these seem the way to go but you just need to remember put them in your saddle bag!!). There seem to be two typres of valve extenders; one is a metal tube that you screw on the existing valve stem (open the valve first), when I have used these they have been supplied with a tiny rubber O ring that you use as a sea,l the other type are the ones that you need removable valve cores for and some manufacturers supply these with O rings and some don’t, the ones ‘with’ seem more reliable…