Everyone’s legs are different but IMHO big hills need chain rings with a bit of leeway for fatigue. 28 on a 29er is 30 on a 26er which is only two less than most middle rings – that’s not big hill gearing for my legs.

With a 36 on the back then if you’re fit 26 is OK if you are a strong climber. If you’re doing 100miles and 5,000m I’d want 24. The 34 that comes with isn’t too bad – a lot race with 1×10 and 32t?

I’d think about protecting it as above with an innertube if used off-road with rocks flying about.

Was thinking this about rocks. Crank arms lead a tough life and seem to get the most and biggest knocks from rocks. A cut down neoprene chainstay protector with a zip tie either side would work well?

I can’t imagine running my bike 1x or 2x. Triple for me. It allows me to ride long road rides, it allows me to climb horrendously steep technical climbs… 40-30-22 is my optimum. To take anything of it would limit my use of the bike I think

+1 (but prefer 42/32/24)

I have to admit to doing hill repeats on a very steep hill in the Chilterns – ostensibly for the training. Strangely I moved to a different place when I just happened to get a KOM on it.

Often enough that I’d rather fit a CK immediately and sell the BB that came with the groupset.

Ha! This is a common mistake. Strava is the cannabis of cycling data, it’s merely an intro to the hard stuff.

It’s not about the bike, ride, leaderboard or any of that yesteryear shit it’s all about the power data – IF, NP, TSS, FTP etc. Get a powermeter, sign up to Training Peaks and start customising your graphs.

Power corrupts…….

I have an Endura Windchill which is soft shell front and warm jersey rear.

It’s a great jacket for really cold, changeable conditions. It needs a base layer to wick sweat away or it feels rather uncomfortable so it really does need to be cold. When I stop the inevitable sweat accumulation starts to chill. It’s very hard wearing and well cut.

Unless it’s really filthy weather I don’t use it ie it’s not the general purpose top you appear to want. I’d quite like to try a Castelli Gabba which is more like what you want but it only comes in yellow (hard to wash) or black (not visible enough)

Could those who didn’t manage an entry do Gee’s 100mile Surrey route instead? Surreypuffer!

At least they’re still continuing with 10speed XTR?

Water bottles allow you to judge how much you’ve drunk and can go in the dishwasher. When I have a sac on my back I spend the last 500ml wondering if it’s the last body temperature mouthful of mould enhanced fluid I’m going to get.

I found one venue last year to be pretty scary. Some fast descents with off camber amongst trees. Slippery enough that you can’t touch the front brake and fast enough that you’ll gain an uncomfortable amount of speed even starting slow leading to 2 wheels drifts at speeed.

Rons were frankly terrifying, Beavers were better and didn’t clog, Bontrager Muds were OK too. (all on 26)

Unless you fancy yourself as a serious contender/bike handler I’d be conservative. I’ve lost count of the number of times people on here talk about draining well, rocket rons etc and I’ve turned up and found a full on mudfest.

29er this year – I’m trying 2.25 beavers all round.

First rides last night and this morning with Stages. Easy to fit, seamless pairing with the Edge 800 just lets hope it’s watertight. Tempted to wind some electrical tape around it but not sure that’s wise?

I doubt Santa Cruz know much about mud. “Dirt” is not mud. Dave Turner was of the opinion that we have the worst riding conditions for bearing life that he knows of.

Bearings are shot on my Turner Flux DW after 2 winters but that is 1,000miles off road some of it real mud and grit fests. I’ve taken care of it and regreased via the Zerks but there’s a lot of play now.

Doesn’t e bay accurately value frames like this?

When I sold a new old stock enigma ti road frame I put it up with starting at 99p and had it sold for 80% of rrp in 3 days.

Seems I eat more….

Pump on frame, expandable small saddle bag with 2x 26″ light tubes, multitool etc plus emergency gel and 4x sachets of torq powder for making up bottles. Gilet strapped to remaining seat post. Phone with a £20 note? 12x energy bars and 12 x gels in jersey plus whatever bannanas I can fit.

Hate camel backs but will have to for my Spearfish unless I can jury rig another cage.

Letting the 29er into the stable is not only immediately more expensive but likely to be even more so in the long run. Looking at a little wheel miles away from you is fine when it’s all you see. Once you start seeing a big wheel closer to you then going back to the little one feels pretty strange.

Front organic – last well even in winter, progressive and powerful
Rear sintered – good enough, wear less rapidly. Keep the less worn one to match with other less worn ones as winter progresses.

Have a trail hound trained to act as wingman – deflect and deal with incoming hostiles 😆

I think the key is to keep riding all year around. The older you get the quicker it is to lose fitness and the longer it takes to get it back.

Agreed on the latter part of this but it depends what events you want to do and when in the season. If I want to peak next August I couldn’t carry on training without a break because I would either become exhausted or not train at the required intensity to improve. So I’ve taken 3 weeks off.

I’ll have lost anaerobic power but that’s not an issue as winter is base phase for me so I’d have lost it anyhow. I’m now climbing up the walls wanting to get out on the bike so am motivated for cold wet and dark training hours.

So my take on it is that you get older you have to get more not less scientific to get gains and minimise the risk of pointless overtraining at the wrong time.

Charlie is no doubt a great shop but price isn’t his USP. A pre split pivot spearfish frame is £300 more than Triton are doing a split pivot for.

Are there any European distributors?

Don’t forget to check how they work with shades/glasses.

I pick my custom Curtis 29er up next week. 2 sets bottle bosses, BSA BB, long TT, short ST (low TT for lever clearance plus more seat post for comfort)1″ HT, 27.2mm seat post, standard dropouts and 69.5 head angle all in 853/columbus. ie you get to choose exactly what you want.

50 here, started racing 18months ago so no previous to benchmark against.

I found myself struggling to really improve so paid for some coaching input and now try for quality over quantity and to pay attention to phases of training, tapering and rest.

I’m wrecked at certain times but get the max benefit from it.

There’s an outfit in Poland/Germany on e bay that does DT350 hubs,DT comp and DT enduro rims for £160 posted. They appear genuine DT hubs and spokes and are true. Weigh in at 2kg which isn’t light but they should be strong. Very hard to beat for value in the new stakes.

I’d steer well clear of the soft ones which suffer terribly from static and false readings. Both the Garmin and Polar ones have been gash for me.

The good old basic Garmin strap which is half rubber is faultless in comparison

Lightweight, UK and cheap are not happy bedfellows.

Easiest and cheapest are Hoops

Next easiest and cheapest is Hoops made to order from eg Moonglu with alloy nipples.

Then you can go to specifying dpokes at which point they’re no longer Hoops and you have to go to JRA or Clee etc and they cost more though you can use your own used hubs with JRA.

Those wagon wheels look small? If it’s too late to stop the purchase you can always return it 😀

Ah, the running against traffic one. A pet hate of mine.

There is a reason pedestrians are advised to walk against traffic…

So they can see the traffic AND TAKE STEPS TO GET OUT OF THE WAY IF THEY CAN!

There’s no other reason for being able to see the traffic. If you are not expecting to deal with oncoming traffic, you may as well walk/run with the traffic as it’s no different to you.

Walkers usually do this, step to the side, onto a verge or pavement if there is one, or tuck in as much as they can, walk in single file when they see oncoming traffic. Runners frequently however do not in my experience. They continue to run towards the approaching car and make the driver stop or swerve. If the driver stops, the runner keeps approaching and gives them a dirty look or knocks the wing mirror as they squeeze past. A walker at least will wait if the driver has had to stop to allow for oncoming traffic.

Plus to a driver it’s harder to judge stopping distance between two objects moving towards each other rather than one moving towards a fixed object or one moving ahead but slower than them.

Quite – how dare they think they have a right to use our roads on an equal basis to cars. Whilst we’re on that how dare car drivers get there puny shitboxes in the way of my lorry. All those single occupant leisure journies get in the way of my vital goods that benefit the economy plus they use the inner lane on motorways when they could be using the 3rd lane.

FFS sake they run the opposite way to jump for their lives in the event of a **** in a car failing to see them in time not to make life faintly more convenient for someone who can slow by applying 5kg of pressure with their big toe and get going again by applying slightly less to the pedal on the right of the one they just used.

How many pounds lighter would a 26er need to be to offset the increased “rollability” of the same frame with 29″ wheels?

Obviously more than anyone (including world champions factory teams) is willing to spend to achieve.

End of.

I have a flux and am replacing it with a Spearfish for the same use. 2014 frames are £1,000 at Triton. Not riddden it yet but people seem to like them and it’s a DW design.

Good question. Minimising weight on back is best and all 3 jersey pockets filled to bursting with food, gilet and phone. I use saddle pack for tubes and tools. The seatpost bottle on the photo could be carried lower to allow for that.

On the new ones it’s the other way round – tension = unlocked 🙁

You can try but they are crap. Mine is now totaly broken, I’ve jury rigged the cable to provide tension all the time so my forks are permanently locked open ie bouncy.

The old ones were better but still pretty unreliable in mud.

You’re managing 2.5x4x2x270W and 2.5x4x1x290W which is 30 mins at an average of 276W.

Make them blocks of 3 and you’ll probably finish but I have no clue if that’s better than fewer blocks of 4.

This all has me worried that I am not training hard enough. In fact I’m ordered not to train at all in October because of the intensity to come. #worried

Pain and cooling.

HR is elevated for a given power output merely to cool which reduces blood flow to muscles

Pain is much greater as there is nothing else to concentrate on and you know how many more reps of this agony are to come.

It’s better to adjust your session so you have a chance of completing.

I struggle to complete 6x5mins Z5 intervals enough that I now do them as hill repeats instead – yours sounds a different level of pain.

Reconsiders purchase of power meter….

You’ve got to row about something. Get rid of the bikes and it’ll be something else.

.

This Soul love in isn’t helping me with my decision to sell mine….

Greyhound half an hour before last light – I’d be rather suspicious of poaching. If not hope the thing was on a lead as there is no way you can stop one from chasing deer which is much more serious than cycling.

Except he doesn’t work for them anymore.

http://www.nervebikes.com/about/

Interesting brand name You’ve got a nerve!

Is Enigma a bit of a spent force, don’t seem to hear about them so much nowadays, maybe it’s just I don’t do road anymore?