Would love an Open but….. I hate twitchy (it may not be but I don’t want to take the risk) and there’s not much point of going so light on the frame and then putting Conti protections, heavy comfy saddle, heavy bendy seatpost etc.

nor do you pay (at point of delivery) for healthcare

The trouble is you do pay for social care (or get very little) which is the majority of the cost after the acute phase of a spinal injury has passed.

At that point it can come down to balancing discomfort over doing something that’s not right and what could be a lifetime of much greater discomfort and social exclusion (including a much greater burden for family). I hope I never have to make that choice – I’m not going to judge someone who does and takes the legal recourse option.

‘Compact’ rings alarm bells but in the spirit of Xmas it’ll be fun to try a new venue.

ps the spearfish is great – love mine. Only reason I said I’d use my HT again on the Manx 100 is the near 5,000m of climbing.

Did the Manx 100 on a Whyte 29C with bendy carbon post and 2.25s. Found it pretty comfy for 13+hours. If I do it again I’ll probably use the same bike even though I have a Spearfish FS.

For marathon and long distance HT, 29er is a must IMHO – same really in FS I think.

I hope someone at Merlin gets to see this. Amazing endorsement of their customer service. I generally try to buy from them because their service is so good, even if it’s a tiny bit more expensive.

Was it an XT front hub?

FWIW I’ve had stellar service from them.

Consider 1×10 with 30T for racing? Lighter, cheaper and unless monster hills fine for at least 12hrs.

Also on a HT you spend more time out of the saddle/hovering so that (for me at least) you miss quite a few of the hits you’re sitting for on with an FS so it’s not a direct comparison.

Made your choice any easier 😀

Depends how long you’re going to spend on them, what the course is like, how fast you are, what kit you put on it and how old you are.

I found my Whyte 29C a revalation after moving from a 26er HT. With Syntace proflex seatpost, Gobi Kium and 2.25 tyres at 20/26psi I’ve done a 12hr (torq 2014) and some 12hr+ point to points (IOM and SDW) on it in comfort. I didn’t wish for FS until I rode an FS. Last year at Torq and on my 14+hr ridgeway double I used my spearfish and was glad to do so. For 6hr racing etc I’ll continue to use my HT.

FWIW FS is pretty popular with the faster Grand Vet riders. Robert Jackson uses one almost exclusively as he feels the courses are getting more technical and it helps getting the power down.

Remove the weight limit but penalise component failure a la F1 engine rules etc.

Was a TSS of 200 for me if my summer FTP still stands (probably not). Stuck to the plan and did 45mins recovery spin yesterday, felt a bit sore still this morning so elected to rest, did an hours Z2 tonight and back on it early tomorrow to try to catch up up with a couple of people who appear to have moved ahead. Good motivation!

Did a practice lap and was cursing conservative tyre choice – mountain king front seemed well OTT.
Started at the front and as aim was total emptying really went for the sprint – what’s this I’m leading!

Normality shortly resumed. Managed 5 laps and 8th Grand Vets, tyre choice seemed good after a couple of laps as mud and fatigue increased. Probably about the same as last year. Hard to make progress against committed racers – back to the training plan!

The XTR chainset they have are race version with the weird 88mm BCD. Aftermarket rings are available but they’re more expensive and less common.

May have been me ^. I still run it at 110mm and love it. Can’t believe 10mm made any difference but it did.

LOUD

As in forget watching TV

Headphones just about work. That’s with a Ron front and near bald Ralph rear.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/nukeproof-conversion-kit-15mm-to-qr/rp-prod80192

Heavy rain from 6-9 tonight and rain tomorrow from 10-3ish.

I seem to remember it was the slippiest race I’ve ever done year before last.

Does anyone know if you can convert a 350 front hub using 240 innards? I.e. are the bearings the same id and distance apart, so you could turn a 350 from 15mm to qr if you really needed to?

No you can’t but luckily there is no need to.

Nukeproof do a generic 15mm to QR adaptor and I can tell you from my own experience it works on a 15mm DT350 hub – I’ve ridden one for the last 3 months.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/nukeproof-conversion-kit-15mm-to-qr/rp-prod80192

After a few when pacing has been sorted then an 8-10W change seems pretty significant. FWIW I seem to remember that basing FTP on 20m tests alone is one of the FTP sins. No doubt fine for basing TR workouts and measuring change but not really a true measure of FTP. That said there is no way I’m going to do an hour FTP test.

Indeed – I should have put a smiley on the weight sentence, was only joshing.

Still think 2% is a lot. It took 3 months of intervals for me to gain 2% last summer. There was some testing anomaly (first test very good, second rather bad but I doubt it was out by more than 1%.

2% more power is a lot. Has the weight also increased by a similar % ?

FTP is so painful it removes my desire to race for a week or more. We want the result in W/kg!

3hr Grand Vets. Will see effect of 3hr max effort on heart arrhythmia #killorcure

It appears I’ve got a bit out of synch in my blocks. This week 5 hours of Z2 (70% FTP) on Monday and Tuesday meant I could barely hold Z2 at the end and needed 2 days off. A further 4hrs Z2 yesterday and today and I could barely do the family walk this afternoon.

Turns out I never really rested last week (440 TSS) so I’ve done 5 weeks at average 475 TSS. I presume that might give me enough accumulated fatigue to really need to rest next week?

Thanks – I appreciate it. Just to check you’re using it on an MTB and aren’t a flyweight midget? 🙂

One on CRC and one elsewhere. Coming from the pain of a slipping clamp (while racing) I’m a bit paranoid about ensuring it’s up to the job.

Harsh doesn’t matter – it’s FS

Seen some bad reviews about the Deda clamping. Agree the Thomson Masterpiece is light and well made but each to his own I hate the dogleg….

ATM the Easton EC90 offset looks high quality but rather expensive for 200g 🙁

Alcohol is good at making the boring acceptable.

Do stuff and you don’t need to drink. The first couple of months are hard but near total abstinence (ie apart from Xmas, birthdays, anniversaries etc) is much easier than moderation from my experience.

If you’re social it’s harder but if it’s good social it doesn’t need booze – you’d be surprised how much fun you’ll have stone cold sober with good mates. If it’s crap social then it’s harder.

I’m 51, 6′ and 11.7 stone. I train a lot now but before I started training hard I lost a stone from not drinking yet eating as much as I wanted. At 36 I was 13.5 stone due to a 4 year pause in exercise (kids). To lose a few pounds while having half a bottle of wine most nights took not eating breakfast, loads of fruit, low fat etc etc.

They’re sending me the old style bayonet fitting for my new District+ rear light FOC. Great service

Traditional advice is cold above the neck train at reduced intensity, below the neck rest.

Viral infections carry an increased risk of cardiomyopathy – life changing. If in doubt rest.

Thanks for posting this. Quite a motivator to train more!

Hope District+ recieved from Merlin but it’s no longer the machined alloy collar and bayonet fitting (as per picture and spec on Merlin) but a quick release with rubber bands and or velcro plus the angle attachment looks flimsy compared to the bayonet.

Back to the drawing board.

Could barely hold z2 for 75minutes this morning. Another hour tonight and 2.5hrs tomorrow. Can the knowledge of how it feels to fail provide enough motivation…. The perils of starting a block too hard.

Entered at 6.15am ?

Brilliant event – 100 fewer riders this year so will fill quick I bet.

Probably the steepest tarmac hill I’ve ridden up!

Doing about 10hrs at the mo cos of the weather but commute will reduce that. Howsyourdad1 – e mail sent

Interested in what the high volume traditional base has as workouts etc. Any way of finding out without buying?

I didn’t go. I remembered how slippy the berm was in the dry and as I needed to be away before it even opened………..

It’s my local XC training place now – 20minutes from work. Looks like I won’t be doing much training over the winter

Money no object – Epic

Niche long distance – carbon Spearfish – sacrifice 0.77lbs on the Yeti for great suspension and specific long distance geo etc.

Trail bike at XC race weight Yeti or slightly heavier Turner Czar both take 120 forks

DanW’s bike is really nice but personally I’d not want quite such a light build for real long distance – the walks get longer. My Spearfish 24.5 is with 2.4 conti protections (1lb difference there I think compared to Ikons?) Gobi Kium and standard maxles and a KCNC post that I’m about to replace with a Thomson masterpiece cos the clamp won’t hold my immense 72kg.

Ridgeway double by [/url], on Flickr

I went through this.

Ideal was an S works Epic, not available frame only, couldn’t spend £7k. Really, really wanted 2x bottle cages but just too much money. It seemed to me the weight on the cheaper models ramped up quickly and they were still pretty dear.

Cannondale Scalpel – don’t want lefty or weird steerer dimensions

Giant – only one heavy model

Trek – now only boost hubs – I have my own wheels already

Turner czar – could live with the one bottle cage for such great rear suspension but too short in reach and ETT for me.

Scott – really interested for racing – all looks good apart from twin loc – I can’t work lockouts etc at max HR.

Yeti ASRC – could have splashed, liked geo, weight, fit etc could even fit a bottle under the downtube BUT a couple of reviews have mentioned pedal bob unless propedal is used which isn’t what I wanted

Merida 96 – looked nice – some mediocre press about suspension dynamics and now withdrawn/delayed.

Salsa Spearfish Split pivot – frame only, DW suspension, long TT, long reach, long distance geo, only one bottle cage but cheap (not so now with carbon frames)

24.5lb with carbon wheels and xtr 1×10, very comfortable, great suspension and about £4k cheaper. I’ve done over 14hrs in the saddle in one hit (Ridgeway Double) and raced it too – great bike. The carbon version will get you to 23.9lb for an extra £1k (and I think it’s carbon only now).

And it will be my first event since my heart arrhythmia issue – not strictly signed off yet 😯