You may find 10speed and standard 11-36 sufficient. It’s what I run with a 30T up front and I don’t find it limiting. By the time I’m spinning out it’s generally quicker to freewheel and unless you’re doing SDW etc the 30-36 will get up most things.

The main advantage is an XT 10sp 11-26 is quite a lot lighter than it’s 11speed twin.

My XTR G1 stages lost battery about a month in – large amounts of moisture inside and a broken tab on the door. New door and some intermittant issues I now know were connection related as the battery was OK on reinsertion.

I used to cover mine, tried gaffa tape, electric tape and self amalgamating tape. I think they all made things worse. New door and scrupulous cleanliness of the gasket plus some gasket grease.

Can’t have been that bad – I bought another.

Kryton – please don’t tell me you took your lowered Beemer?

Anyway log the reason you failed to finish and watch out for it in future. Better now than summer.

I’m glad I missed it. Lie in, family brownie points and 2hr 45min tempo road ride with toasty new Castelli bibs

I don’t have one though I really do want one. All I would say is wrong size is wrong size regardless of how wonderful the bike is. It’s for this reason I have a Spearfish and not a Czar. I really want a Czar but the large is too short and the XL is too tall.

Bike prepped, tyres swapped, bottles ready….starting to think things like ‘if I do a hard out lap’and realise I have zero chance of not getting red mist so staying home.

I’m a bit less scientific – 1 bagel for breakfast per 50 early morning TSS points.

I’ve always needed something outside work and family to keep me going – XC training keeps me sane.

Which is more beneficial?

I think that’s the wrong question.

The difference in benefit pales into insignificance compared to accurately assessing the risk from shaded ice and low but bright winter sun.

If I’m going to have a front shifter, cable and mech I’ll darn well have rings that aren’t a compromise which lead me to extremes of the cassette.

A triple is deeply unfashionable but allows the middle ring to be used almost as a 1x for singletrack etcwith the big ring for road/bridleway and the granny for climbing without staying in the 36/34 all the time ie actualy maintaining cadence.

Look fun – suspect I might be trying to do it in a day in the summer.

Considering entering Rd 14 Dalton in the Wessex league as my first ever cross race as it’s near.

Currently race XC. 29er winter trainer set up with rigids, narrowest tyres I have are 2.1 Xkings – ok choice?

Need studs for shoes. Do I remove bottle cage for shouldering and stick bottle in jersey or? Bar ends ok?

Any tips appreciated.

Ummm I beg to differ. You don’t know what was hit and how and you’ll be riding with a previously fractured T12.

Your metal frame with a finite life has been subjected to an impact it was not designed for.

I’d check with your legal representation and possibly speak to someone like Enigma for advice? Also what about the forks?

What is the warranty period on Stages?

Tried to talk to a Merc driver who had passed very close and fast on a country road just before a T junction onto a dual carriageway which he had to stop at.

He was very heated and as a result I didn’t pay attention to my road positioning and nearly got killed on the dual carriageway. To give him his due it was he who shouted at me ‘watch out!’.

I avoid anything other than B road riding like the plague now.

I tell myself that developing the mental toughness and coping mechanisms to sit on the turbo for 2hours is good for racing.

A lot of programmes seem to try to emulate real world riding eg a base session with repeated or occasional bursts to simulate hills etc. In facts it seems to be a major selling point of a lot of online content.

I’m very sceptical of this. There are various aspects of your physiology you’re trying to improve by training. The best training response is going to be the best stress of that system

So personally I think it’s better to do a Z2 session as a stand alone as you want to stimulate fat burning, type 1 muscle fibre growth and lactic acid clearance etc. If you add in Z3 intervals or higher throughout you will get fitter quicker but get less well developed fat burning, type 1 muscle growth and lactic acid clearance (which type 1s are best at). You could end up with a situation where the intervals don’t add up to much but take you away from the pathway you should be targeting.

The 20 minute turbo session that GCN posted recently, when I commit to doing it properly, gives me the wobbly legs, along with making me want to vomit.

What session is this? Thinking of doing some lunchtime training.

I’ve got Stages so xtr m980 cranks is a given really.

Will give tyres a go.

I find the turbo gets me pretty wobbly more easily than a training ride but only a race will get me to the unable to stand still for lactic acid pain yet unable to stand because legs don’t work level of tiredness.

You started a new job or is married life catching up?

^spot the maths error

The 0.95 is a killer, being a % and taking away proportionately more as your output increases or not.

73kg and 334W = 3.58W/kg. To get to 5W/kg I need to get to 370W gross and drop to 70kg – ain’t gonna happen! 4.8, better bike handling and racecraft will have to do.

Are people remembering the x0.95 for 20minute tests? It makes 5w/kg pretty hard.

As an old git I prefer a longer test – can manage 3w/kg over 15hrs.

Sobering stuff

Just built my bike bunker in new house. Breeze block, window smaller than a person and barred, high security steel door and weld mesh under roof plus alarm.

Makes me think I’m under protected

^ comfort over WW, comfortable position, good nutrition practiced on long rides, bottles over camelback, conservative gearing, practice at rationing your effort, flexible clothing to cover a wide range of weather,knowledge of your mental weaknesses and how you can overcome them.

All of the above require long rides to perfect.

As for training – as much Z2 zone 2 as you can manage plus a weekly Z3 session building from an hour to 2 hours

Above works for me. Getting excited at the thought of rides to come.

Bucks Off Road Sportive is excellent. I’ve done it 5 times.

It really needs a GPS. The map quality isn’t quite so good now (they no longer issue OS maps) and the signs can be hard to spot when you’re tired plus they sometimes get moved.

Alas it’s ‘only’ 125k this year

Only kidding, I thought about it for a nano second before I realised I’d need to do a few months of club riding etc and even then I like my limbs in one piece.

Local to me so I’m giving it a go. Don’t do club rides, haven’t ridden in a bunch and no race sense but I’ve good power and pointy elbows. CAAD10 and a Belkin top.

Depends on your shoulder? Would have thought that unless you have made a serious effort on rehab to address the underlying problem that you might have some issues with that.

Shit – I regularly train on that hill! Hard to believe a driver could screw it up – good lines of sight, not very busy etc. I suppose it does face south east so would get low winter sun?

Get well soon.

One of the best bits on the Etape is the planted feeling you get from the slacker geo that forgives lack of attention as you get tired.

I slightly lost my desire for updating when they gained a 31.6mm seatpost asa result of rationalising to the same seat post across the whole range.

Except if you want to avoid traffic you’ll be on B roads with terrible surfaces, gravel and potholes. My Etape struggles whereas my rigid 29er excels.

The biggest issue with Enigma is the excrutiating (ha) naming. Why call an Audax bike the Etape?

^ Shades of ‘it’s only a flesh wound’ understatement and astonishing stiff upper lip.

With an attitude like that you will be back fast.

^ A lot of sense.

I did it in 2014. I set off in the warm sun but had heeded the advice and had a gilet and arm warmers. Half way round the heavens opened and it got cold.

It’s a tough course – not WW territory IMHO. At times the climbing is mental. I had a triple and 11-36 and was glad of it. Next time I’ll use an auxiliary battery for my Garmin.

In 2014 a number of very fast people converted to the 100k – don’t start fast – you’re probably aiming for about 13hrs for the 100miler?

It is VERY rocky. At one point you’ll descend through a track consisting of boulders the size of TVs.

It’s also great fun with a tremendous atmosphere!

Enjoyed it last time but felt it was too far for too short an event this year.

Well for me thats great as I may be back riding by then.

Newbie dumb question – why the mech carnage with CX and mud? Thinking of doing a first CX event later this month on my XC bike and wondering if I ought to take a single speed instead?

^ trouble with that is there are sections that never get used again and revert back to nature.

You could do it but the first few goes will be a piecing together event.

I’ve always wanted to but never spared the time. I end up doing laps of the last course. Not so satisfying but better for improving on specific sections.

I’m out – tendonitis 😥

^ Understand what leads to failure and adapt. Overcoming a desire to give up is good racing psychology. It’s quite akin to starting out too fast?

I have a Joystick (old) and a new Diablo. The Diablo is better off road but I find the additional weight quite uncormfortable. The Joystick I barely notice.

493hrs
249 activities
5,728km (lot of turbo)
68,900m

Currently slightly injured so won’t reach 500hrs