Wasn’t the pedaling more the jarring. Must be my old bones even with full suss I’m a wreck. Also can’t find my Garmin 😥

Led Grand Vets for a lap – very unwise. Died 3hrs in, recovered, started to die again then got a stick in my mech at 8hrs while running second and that was that.

Personally I thought the course was a bit too hard for a 12hr.

And the early arrivers test-ride course summary is…?

Very nice course – different enough to be interesting. Seemed a bit more singletrack but also some fire road to dring/gel etc. I left before the rain.

Double post.

I loved the Etape until they changed the seatpost to 31.6mm which doesn’t seem right for a winter/audax type of bike where stiffness is secondary to comfort.

I have an original rim braked Etape, it’s my only road bike – love the geo and planted feeling it gives. I miss the braking performance when I get on it even in the summer. In the winter it’s bad enough I’ve considered a disc fork for it.

Surrey
Yellow early warning of rain
From:
0015 on Sun 30 August
To:
2350 on Sun 30 August
Updated 1 hour ago
Heavy showers and possibly some more prolonged rain is expected to affect southeastern parts of England at times during Sunday. Rain could be heavy, with the risk of some torrential downpours whilst lightning may well be an additional hazard at times.

Very localised impacts from standing water or flooding from fast responding water courses may affect travel and some outdoor events and activities.

Again, Seven and Engima etc are completely different animals. Seven go through a long process to build the right bike for you (don’t think they do anything off the peg) and the quality is supposed to be second to none. They consider weight, power, use etc etc to tune the tubeset etc. Also building mountain bikes is part of their core skillset. I always got the impression that mountain bikes for Enigma were rather an afterthought.

Went round the old course just now. Must have had a monumental amount of rain but still rides well apart from puddles. Could see the new stuff-looked good but precisely because I wasn’t sure of the direction I stayed off.

Agreed – just wanted to get out instead of cooking!

BBC now has Sunday as merely cloudy. No doubt it’ll change a few times between now and then.

Missed the Tunnel Hill Trolls ride of the course tonight. 🙁

I like the term gnarmac ‘cos it’s exactly how I train.

Bridleway from home avoding rat run, Rural B road – Chiltern double track avoiding rat run, rural B road, bored bit of woodland bridleway, battered, rural B road, double track hill KOM attempt (fail), rural B road, bridleway home.

My gnarmac machine is a rigid 29er – it’s not about the bike more about riding where you want.

No.

I’d seriously consider custom steel. Only a pound in it and you have all the options you want.

I’d also give Gary at Curtis a call. My 29er from him was to my and Whyte’s own design so they are flexible.

Early days yet – forecast is changing by the hour for the next 3 days let alone 6 days.

Best to size the bike via the top tube not the seat tube. Thusly the Whyte 29Cs are much larger than their seat tube dimensions suggest. I’m 6′ and ride the Medium with a 90mm stem because I like a looong position. The slacker HA gives confidence inspiring handling and doesn’t give anything up in the turns.

I use 1×10 to race with (30t) and 3×10 to train with. 3×10 helps keep in the correct power zone.

The weight saving of 1×10 doesn’t make much odds, the quietness,reliability and simplicity does when racing. Those 3 things are less important for training when the ability to have the right gear for the right situation is more useful.

I don’t like 2×10 as neither chain ring is right for me.

The weather for the end of the week is changing daily. Was due to be dry from Friday but now Sunday is looking wet 🙁

Time for an airshot inflator and some more Stans I think!

My P45 led to my coach’s P45…….. what I lost in analysis I’ve made up with volume (I think!)

Anyone got a link to making sense of quadrant analysis?

Also on DCRainmaker an interesting look at WKO4. I already don’t understand the majority of charts on Golden Cheetah so won’t be going there myself.

Turner Flux – grease ports for bearing, late one with 44mm HT and can be used with 120mm forks. Fast but such great rear sus.

On a 100mm bike I’d have thought you could manage with Crests without compromising strength for intended use unless you’re jumping or heavy.

Tough and light are DT350 (or Hope), D lights, alloy nipples and Crests. As Merlin and CRC don’t do anything more exotic than DT comps (or Revs which are a bit puny for normal use) you would have to go to JRA or Clee.

Moonglu are very good and do DT350 too.

Hmmm I’m not sure I wanted to read that. I’m over 50 and have ventricular ectopics.

I’ve known about the research but I hope that reasonable rest, rationing my racing and not going OTT is enough to protect me.

I’m selling mine (large size, 2013) in case you’re interested.

Tell me more – colour, 44mm HT etc?

I have a thunder burt that I can sell you for £20 if it’s a 29er you are after

Snakeskin?

It did take a while for stock to appear on the US site but they do ship direct to the UK when it does appear.

If you want to ride then ride, if it makes you nervous and you don’t want to then don’t. Things move on. What was the most important thing to you can become unimportant later to the extent you question the harm you either did or nearly did to yourself.

If you do want to ride again then learn to love climbing. I’d question the long low etc bit – surely the accident will just be faster? Rigid XC for the ups

Anyone want to “do the math” and come up with the current running STW average??

Krytons 0.00157% might be a Mclaren Sworks and Greys 8% might be a Raleigh. To be accurate you’d have to sum the bike values and the salaries and then work out the forum average from that.

end nerdiness

+1. >. 2014 is underrated for its performance and simplicity IMO. Much better than a Sid

Whereas my 2014 100mm CTD has no small bump sensitivity forcing me to run it soft. The middle T setting is no different from the fully open D setting and the trail adjust makes absolutely no diffence whatsoever to anything. It’s either fully open and collapses the moment I get out the saddle or locked without much of a gate to mitigate hits. It is also not tunable – if you’d like another one I’ll sell it to you because I’m about to swap it at huge expense for a SID RCT3.

I ran my SID locked out by mistake for half a lap of Big Dog before I realised – the gate worked well enough to make it rideable on the descents.

I think you’ve got it right. RCT3 SiDs. Stick in middle ‘gate’ position, adjust compression dial and forget. Great performance!

Seeing as I crashed this thread in May (moaning about lack of MTB results) I’ll do so again in the spirit of bragging.

I looked at the amount of time I was ‘in zone’ on my long MTB training rides and moved across to training on the road plus made my intervals longer and added more Z3 rides.

Went to Brighton Big Dog at the end of a training block and with the goal
of getting racing miles in for training, had less fear of blowing up, so managed to avoid first lap bottleneck by trashing self on first lap. Somehow managed the pain, ground laps out for 6hrs at Z4 and came 2nd in Grand Vets 😀 Noticeable how the intervals helped on the hills and the Z3 on the flat. 2 weeks average TSS 900 so rest and taper due.

I’ve no idea who the woman at marshal point 4 was but she just didn’t stop shouting encouragement

And the rest! She was jumping about a foot clear off the ground in her encouragement.

I proposed marriage but sadly on the last lap so didn’t get an answer.

Catastrophicaly tore the ligaments in my left ankle in a climbing fall. Slightly seperated my tibia and fibia. Bruised up to my knee.

ICE etc but it’s also vital you get physio and sports injury input if you are not to have a recurrent issue. I paid for an Osteopath and was climbing within 2 months (from memory) albeit sore.

Not sure about complete immobilisation for that period of time but he’s the expert. Just take care that most NHS care can be along the lines of ‘if you injured it playing sport then don’t do the sport’.

Did a practice lap and nearly got in the car and came home – mojo not there and frankly terrified. Modified goals to taking part, getting some racing miles in and not breaking self.

Started close to the front and buried self to avoid first lap mayhem. As tank emptied mojo increased and just managed to keep going for 9laps ending up utterly empty and amazingly 2nd in grand vets :D. Bath and large whiskey awaits.

Marshalls were incredible.

Note how the yellow lines point directly at that tree!

I have a pair of wheels with Xking front/Raceking rear and a pair with MK front/Xking rear which should cover most options.

If it’s that rooty I’m taking my Spearfish! Added bonus – already has correct tyres fitted!

Which is?

Carbon wheels will be staying at home then….

Does a Chris King fit? Fancy some bling
Yes – you just need to make sure you get the right one https://www.chrisking.com/product/nothreadset-tapered-3444mm/

I haz this new unopened headset available if anyone is interested (black)

Cheers – it’s part of my training week, I’m wrecked and number one priority is racing miles without injury so I suspect it’s a mountain king front and x king rear sort of thing?

Sorry to ask but having never been anywhere near are we talking fast draining stick with rons/ralphs or muddegeddon with something chunkier?