Tapering for weekend after next – normal 5x15m Z4 down to 2x20m Z4. Fresh legs midweek feels as if I’m cheating.

Given the ban on fancy dress etc they probably want to stop it becoming some sort of roadie Mountain Mayhem.

Also lighter once the pedal inserts have delaminated and fallen out.

I’ve got a weakness for steel XC hardtails. I should probably sell everything and race an Sworks Epic but I get more fun out of weight weenieing my Niner MCR and it’s a lot cheaper.

So what’s the secret to managing repeated long days on a rigid front? Upright position and loop style bars etc?

Does anyone use front suspension? I’ve got an arthritic wrist and rigid’s not really possible.

I’ve recently gone to QR on my training bike as I had a hub and a fork.

I’d second Simon’s post – the biggest difference I notice is how much more careful you have to be to get the qr and wheel secure. The tabs do a good job of holding the wheel in (you have to undo the QR a lot to get the wheel out) but the unless it’s done up very tight you get movement.

Nice apologetic tone in that letter not!

The best form I ever had in a race came off the back of a 2 week taper.

Conversely the best result I had last season was as the last ride in a 2 week 1,800TSS training camp. I came away thinking I’d tapered too much in the season….

FWIW the quality of your intervals will be better if you are rested so I’d not move them forward to Tuesday – plus my experience of intervals too close to race recovery is injury.

According to Training Peaks you will see a drop in fitness but then TP makes no distinction between quality and gash sessions. I’m less fit according to TP yet am putting out more Watts because the fewer sessions are higher quality.

If you can subdivide into A and B events you could sacrifice some freshness and train a bit harder before the B events. If not then if it were me I’d consider more Zone 2 ie extend the light Tuesday ride, make your hard ride on thursday a bit longer and lighten the Saturday ride.

Also just because you are racing and training less doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a ‘rest’ week after 3 weeks on?

Stages vs Powertap differences

Lactate threshold – 55W or 32%

FTP – 38W or 13%

Both are significant enough to render any comparison to Friel’s table utterly useless. I suspect it’d down to left leg dominance which is interesting as 2 years ago the musculature of my right leg was visibly more than my left. 2 years of riding to power numbers has (I surmise) trained my left leg to overtake my right – it looks the same now.

Stages is still right for me – I no longer care about comparisons (they don’t win anything) and it is excellent for training and pacing and carries no weight penalty. I have one on my riding bike which can swap between triple, 1x and single speed with ease and one on my turbo.

One of the things that put me off an Sworks Epic was some concern over failures – appreciate the above is cheap but personally I’d want a warranty which was valid (and reading the small print anyone building up a frame who is not Specialized voids the warranty….)

Quick question – how much pain are people putting themselves through on their sessions?

I have a weekly (non TR) 5x 15minutes Z4. As my time has become limited I’ve really tried to make it high quality and am grinding out 4x 15minutes at 93% FTP and a fifth at 88% (completely empty). It’s painful enough that I can’t even do the 2-5minutes Z2 inbetween intervals. It’s hell and I dread it.

not really what you’re asking for, but I have a Powertap GS built into a Pacenti SL23 rim if that’s of interest

Also interested – email in profile

Kryton -good choice – it’s only money!

So I need to decide to accept slightly less performance this year on the cheaper tyre or just pay £30 for Wiggle to deliver a new Evo TLE

You have to ask!?

Tyres are consumables – you’ve consumed yours as in it’s no longer fit for the purpose of being the fastest/best choice available. Why on earth spend on light bits, train like hell etc only to choose second best tyres?

That’s a very good price but I bet it’s nearly identical frame weight and my experience of cable operated lockouts in mud has been a nightmare. At least you can poke mud out of a swing arm with a stick.

120mm 27.5 sounds slower regardless of suspension performance.

FWIW I don’t think you’ll get much gain until you go top end 29er eg SWorks Epic etc

Kryton – what heart arrhythmia have you got?

Minley?

So Racing Ralphs or Thunderburts, 100mm travel, very steep rock steps about 3m high onto soft slippery landing into a slightly off camber tight corner bounded by metal railings while breathing out your arse and among others alongside, breathing down your neck, overtaking etc etc.

Yeah easy

Are they responding to all your various classfied ads? If so it must be a spambot.

Don’t think Ti frames suffer on the ‘bay. Sold my unused with no warranty Enigma frame for about 10% less than new and my A la carte Ti made £450 a year ago which was over 50%. Probably depends on make – doubt a Burls/Litespeed would do as well.

My Swrve size the same as my Endura singletracks but neither are as comfortable as plain lycra which I have to wear underneath anyway.

Nice alert on the disc Etape. Might help Kryton et al trying to decide about summer and rat bike or nice winter bike. I’d consider one myself but I use mine rarely enough I can’t justify/be arsed.

There aren’t any

Wiggle, favoured customer at LBS or pay for a Torq training day and get them at trade.

JRA and Moonglu for me. My LBS for my LB build

JRA are great for high end component wheels eg DT240s etc

PLAN!

Decide on plan B, train, get experience so that when your circumstances change you can actualy make the switch.

Long outside ride on Saturday insufficiently fuelled as I woke early and didn’t want to wake anyone. 3 bannanas is not sufficient for a 5hr training ride when you’d normally have a large bowl of porridge and 2 bagels beforehand plus 6 or 7 gels on the ride. Spectacular bonk which made me feel shit the rest of the day.

If you truly want the power and don’t care about weight then it’s got to be a Hope District. Astonishing!

Oh well. I should say this is really for bridleway XC ie straight line comfort. It’s playing about really which I don’t mind doing with a £50 tyre but I do mind relacing wheels etc.

Got off my ass and a Panaracer Bfat Nimble 3″ 29plus is on it’s way to me. Comes up more like 2.8″ it seems which is probably just as well as I’m putting it on a Crest 😕

Not a help budget wise but I took my Whyte 29C to Gary at Curtis Bikes and got him to copy it’s geo (long TT, short ST, 69.5HA etc). Worked out very well indeed.

I guess you don’t have a practice pharmacy…….

double post

Just occasionally STW is really, really good. I hadn’t realised how short the Highball was.

The Superfly does look very good – only thing and it’s minor is what BB? PF30?

Braided also acts like a saw wherever it comes into contact with frame, forks, etc

^ I considered but some US forum complaints about the dropouts in real life use? Have you got one?

Santa Cruz Highball?

Very annoying.

I spec b appears to mean something other than ‘specification’.

It’s not much work and you do get full functionality. If I was cynical I’d say Shimano were trying to limit the fitment of different manafacturers brakes.

If it’s new Ispec b on shimano 11sp then you will need to get the file out on your matchmaker clamps.

My race brake matchmaker had to be machined/filed when Imoved from Ispec b 10speed to ispec b 11speed.

Meant to say they do deform like f#”k. Just had 3 replaced under warranty. Run at low tubeless they will deform if you give them a large sideways load eg slide out, hit a dip hard and not square on etc