To completely turn this on it’s head which is the toughest fitness wise? 😀

double post

Ritchey SPDs are lighter than XTR and a bit cheaper (I think).

I’d be pissed too. Currently living in fear of illness stopping my winter base phase – there’s a lot of illness around.

Dare I say that you should adapt to survive. If fitness training and motor improvement are off the cards I’d suggest shifting your aims to XC and taking advantage of time not spent doing intervals to improve your skillz etc off road. Book a skillz course to cheer yourself up etc.

It’s easy to forget that as we sit atop the nipple of niche on the breast of sub group on the body of a minority sport.

by a pie Lord giving it some

Brilliant!

FWIW I destroyed a set of rear DT240S bearings in approx. 4 (very) wet 4hr races. Everyone says this is an anomaly but if so it was an expensive one.

My (wheelbuilders) experience of the ERD is it’s best to measure in a number of places and work out what spoke length is based on that. True ERD on my second set varies by about 1mm across the wheel.

I found trying to get an XC style 51mm offset fork an absolute nightmare. Very few advertised and most weird eg QR axle etc. Ended up buying fox in the US and paying the import duty.

Adsh you can ride in the peaks early morning and see one other person all the ride. So those 2-3mins?

That’s my point – a tracker is not going to help in that sort of situation. This issue applies to any solo ride in remoter areas not just nights.

I came within a mm of a big crash at a night event last year when I took a different line to everyone else (but still on the course) and realised as I passed him that the cameraman was using that piece of track so whatever you use make sure it’s not on what a rider could consider to be the course!

A tracker would be a help if you were injured and unable to seek help.

It will not help if you knock yourself out and end up in a position where you cannot maintain your airway for more than 2-3 minutes!

What are they like in the woods – my Edge loses satellites sometimes in thick woods.

Only turn it on when you’re outside and don’t start moving until it’s found them.

Mine went through a stage of doing this and that was what appeared to be the problem

Thanks – Durano Plus 28s it is.

Maybe I’ll take my XC 29er……..not much difference in weight and I do a lot of road miles on it.

Brave man ! Take plenty of tubes

Why? Thought they were viewed as pretty good? Granted not the heaviest construction but I though grip would be better than Durano Plus etc

Entered ourselves, booked the bus to the start and our own accommodation.

Will try some more miles on the Gobi and play with adjustments. I run quite an aggressive XC position on the MTB and it was comfortable for 13hrs on the XC bike.

Cheers – Continental Gp4000ii in 28c for me (can’t fit any bigger)and gel under bar tape.

900 for the Spearfish is very appealing

Not when you paid £1450. However these are the last of the ally frame onlys so don’t dally too long. The Carbon is about £2,400 and weighs 0.5lb less.

Worth it just for the translation!

Can’t see how to register?

The quality of finish on the split pivot Spearfish frame is really good.

Don’t forget however to factor in the hassle of sourcing 51mm offset forks though you can run them with standard.

I bought a Whyte 29C as frame only. It has PF30 but you can use the SRAM adaptors to fit a threaded BB (as I did).

Why not stick with 2 x 10 ?
Lighter , less confusing if you are doing 24hr solos or night laps, less gear overlaps,

Actually that isn’t true. The beauty of a triple is that you can race in the 32 all day just using the granny for killer climbs as your legs get weaker. Has worked well for me for XC,3hr 6hr and 12hrs plus long distance events such as Manx 100.

Most doubles will be too high in 38 and too low in 26 constantly leaving me in no mans land either high up the cassette or low down. An XTR 3×10 is almost negligbly heavier than a 2×10 and allows you to run a 34 rear cassette which recoups the difference.

We’re probably compete against each other.

I hauled my 25lb steel 29er round the Brass Monkeys and at the end of the series I could possibly just have picked up one place (5th to 4th in grand vets on my carbon race bike but would never have been in any danger of hitting the podium).

So marginal losses (weight, suspension damper performance, wheel stiffness, multiple gear changes, tyre performance)

If it’s going to be £ parity with $ price then it’s not quite low enough to overcome the negatives for me.

The Six Pack? The 3200 lumen portable off road sun? Sounds ideal for the road

I meant the new MaxxD with intelligent gubbins

There’s roads and there’s roads.

My commute is 80% on singletrack lanes. Gravel, potholes, large stretches of almost unmade surface etc. It’s bad enough I use my 29er. I see about 10cars.

I use a MaxxD on the 3,6 and 12 setting plus a joystick on flash on my helmet. The light is angled reasonably low and I put it on the 12 for oncoming cars which almost always pull over to let me past.

I am doing this at Z2 and for 16 miles. 60miles and Z4 I can understand the need for something pretty special. FWIW the MaxxD is great so the next one up is probably what you want.

I find my XTR m985 race pedals get play after about 18months of off road use.

Are the XTs immune from this?

We went out for the 80km as late as poss at 8.45. Still icy with one awful stretch in a dip that had caught out a rider who was waiting for an ambulance. Apart from that a great ride.

I have 3 pairs of M980s

They wear fast. All mine have bearing wear. I’m planning on returning them towards the end of the 3years in the hope of M9000XTR replacements

2x sets of bottle bosses will help take weight off your back.

Did SDW (half and back) and Ridgeway to Avebury and back (twice)plus the Manx 100miler on a Whyte 29C with bendy Syntace post (excellent) and found it excellent and mostly comfortable. The Manx 100 was 13.5hours in the saddle over very rough ground in places – I wasn’t begging for a FS at 12hrs

If I had to have one bike for the rest of my life it would be my 29c. I’ve done 13hr rides on it in comfort,it’s fast and very confident.

For me the difficult area is not the obviously icy as hell morning but the borderline one where it’s 4c at home but might be freezing in a couple of hollows on my minor road commute. I err on the side of caution and explain to my wife why I’m going to be in the shed for 2 hours that evening

Well I stretched my self imposed condition limits this morning. 3c and dry roads seemed OK.
2hrs later came upon a 20m stretch of sheet ice run off from a water main leak.
Garmin maintains I went from 32mph to 0.
On the plus side was I didn’t see it (dark) so was relaxed when I fell and the sheet extended long enough that my road rash was surprisingly minimal. Bike did two 360s.
A lucky escape – sort of

Or the new Ritchey P29 with tapered HT and conventional vertical dropouts?

This might be a bit po faced but I think a lot of people get stuck on fitness hours and miss out on thinking stuff through. If you just try and get fitter and do the same thing race after race then you’re missing a trick.

This is what helped me improve past people from last year

Analyse your performance on race day and address the weaknesses which are likely to be much more than pure fitness.

Did you time your training so that you are in the best state of preparedness
Have you trained on the course/area before – I’ve met a couple of the competition at Tunnel Hill now I’ve started training there!
Did you do a practice lap the day before
Did you make sure you had eaten correctly the night before/the morning of
Did you get a good place at the start
Did you bury yourself for the out lap (it’s quite rare to make many places after)
Do you catch people on fireroads – no – get fitter
Do you catch people on single track – no – more skillz training (big one this I think)
Do you get a mental low and fade – be aware and do some work on it
Do you dawdle behind back markers – passing assertively ain’t rude – Gee’s loud but polite.
Keep on after someone you are racing even if they pass you fast – you never know how much they have in the tank and you might be able to use some –
Racecraft – don’t be afraid to bury yourself on a fireroad sprint to get past and see if you can make it stick in the singletrack etc
How much do you have in the tank when you finished?
After look at your laps and analyse where you eased off or could have made places.

I’m certainly fitter than last year but that’s only part of it.

Want the Donna jersey from Biciclista – stunning but for women only 🙁

Very fresh white bread spread liberally with butter thats only just soft enough to spread with care.

Or cheap sliced white bread and old fashioned marge.

Depends how much you value instant wet weather braking.

Cheers – now the wait for the series.

I found it very hard today – a week in bed and bronchitis but wanted to try and hold my position in the series.

I did something similar witj a stick in the wheel durong the first ride of my Curtis.

Consensus from tje frame builder was leave it and ride. M8ne wasn’t quite as bad. I put a sticker over it and have got used to it now.

Ask the builder.