I thought the off road was 60 which if it was gravel wouldn’t be out of the question as a double. Now I’ve done the maths and see it’s 75 I understand 🙂

What is the road bit of that like?

Why the tarmac?

However much it takes to pee clear/light yellow.

Limiting fluid intake is a bad idea. Why would you want to?

2 weeks base training featuring 2x zone2 rides, a long ride and a skills ride. Rest week then 3 weeks intensity and volume featuring a 4x10m Z4 with 5m recovery and a 6xZone 5 with 2m recovery together with a Zone 3 ride and a long ride.

The last week of this should be a training camp where you train to total exhaustion then 2 weeks taper to the event.

Most important of all is the training camp 2 weeks before the event.

This based on what I learnt from Torqfitness as there was so much conflicting advice. See you there and don’t beat me!

I actually converse with complete strangers when walking the dogging.

FTFY

Well I bought and built my plastic race 29er. I did build it rather general purpose (as in – shock horror – a triple) learning from the fact that my ‘dedicated race bike’ is a dedicated dust gatherer.

Performance trumps sentiment. I hopped on my new Whyte and did 110miles on the ridgeway and back. Not exactly technical but it was more comfortable and noticeably faster on all descents being more stable allowing rolling where ordinarily I would be braking.

As with you this puts me in a slight quandary as to what to do with my own 26″ ti pride and joy. I suspect it’s going to donote it’s good bits to a Spearfish and become a comfortable mudbike/winter trainer.

So my advice is if you want to go as fast in more comfort then do it and prepare for change.

Hmm spose I have the tools now…..

Well I am not a fan of dt240s. The front has to be oversize to take more than qr. They require tools and these are very expensive.

The shielding was not good for me. 300 racing miles and all 4 bearings shot on the rear. Admit that 2 races were very wet but I am still left with a bill that would buy a new hub.

American Classic for me, lighter, cheaper and no special tools. Pro2 are great if not WW.

I could have been unlucky with my DTs

Alternator drop outs not normal vertical. Yes I know they work most of the time but for someone who is never going to single speed they’re heavy, needlessly complicated and a compromise I’d rather not make.

Well if anyone knows of a steel 29er frame with ordinary bb, vertical dropouts and 2 sets of bottle bosses please let me know! As far as I can tell it doesn’t exist. It did (Niner MCR) but that gained an eccentric bb 😡

Not many skinny tubed throughout, 27.2mm, 2x bottle boss frames out there now. You might regret it later.

I really don’t understand what the problem is – how can you meaningfully upgrade the forks,there are no problems with handbuilt wheels and the rest is non size specific.

By all means get a 27.5/29 but parts isn’t really the justification.

Standing water ffs……isn’t that the hilly end 😡

To try to be optimistic you could have a new chain that is on the tighter end of new tolerance and it might get a bit better as it wears.

I recently had slippage on my campag when I replaced the chain. I rode carefully while I waited for the new cassette and by the time it arrived it was all working perfectly. I could barely get the chain measurer on the new chain.

FWIW I don’t think mileage is an accurate reflection of how hard a chain has had to work – conditions, power, lube and cleaning have a huge impact as well as the quality of the original chain. SRAM might be different and higher quality contril but I have a sneaking suspicion that not all Shimano XTR chains are created equal.

Can you trust yourself to remember not to stand in the 42?

2x tubes
Lever
Multitool with chain splitter
Patches and glue
Powerlink
Zipties
Tyre boot
Latex gloves
£20 note

All in seat pack. Pump under bottle cage. Not far off emergency reading glasses.

Don’t seem to be many AC hubs around – anyone know who’s best to buy from?

Does being an IT manager automaticaly make you middle class or is it only the middle class ones whose cash splashing is worthy of note?

Good luck all!

Ditch the apple and chocolate bar and have another bagel plus have a carbohydrate drink for the ride.

The ruts are everywhere it’s not a track or a bog. Many are covered with grass. At 4hr pace I did a running dimount 2x and properly once. This without doing anything stupid. I don’t trust my ability to pace myself so am being a wuss and bottling out.

I will say it’s the best signed course I have ever seen.

Did the 45miler this am before work. The couese is lovely in places and hideois in others having a lot of hard ruts covered in grass, quite a few stingers and quite a few very boggy bits.

The grass ruts had me off twice at trai ing speed so I’m passing tomorrow and have an entry free id anyone wants it.

it is a cracking ride

Not the best terminology!

Have free Morvelo cap that I try to use under road helmet for sun glare avoidance but it’s either too low or helmet rides to high on head.

It helps me feel superior/look like a **** – I suspect the latter.

You have the cream of 105mm bikes (clue as to what I have :D) which won’t get made again and is worth peanuts. Keep it in addition to what you might get.

^ this.

I was keen for a Sola SLX but in the end couldn’t face that much cash for something I couldn’t see in the flesh. I don’t think Seven do themselves favours with their archive photos of skinny 26ers with long head tubes etc. I suspect I might well be tempted by the steel Sola in the not too distant future…..

Overtime

It’s all very well on paper having the same range on a double but if you’re forever at the bottom of the cassette on the small ring and the top of it on the big ring it’s not very helpful.

I think the way to consider a triple is as a 1x with a granny for really steep hills and a big ring for tarmac/fire road descents. This is why I’ve just put a triple on my plastic 29er race bike as I can do XC on the 32 and long distance stuff moving around on the chainset. It’s not a huge weight penalty esp if you use a smaller cassette. Yes it rattles but I’ll take that over walking thanks.

My sub 360g UD matte 29 xc hookless are in customs, credit card hub beating to follow….

Freeminers to a complete novice is so innapropriate as to make me question the relationship you have with your work colleagues. Go for it and take some GoPro footage of the accidents and their reaction to you.

Proper fat burning rides require extensive colonic irrigation beforehand.

Every suspension servicing company will tell you they hate remotes and I am now of the same opinion.

The cable operated ones need a new cable inner every time you unclamp/reclamp it on the fork top. The button gets crap in it and sticks, after a few cleanings it breaks. The new Sid cable button broke on me after 300racing miles. Add in that you’re probably too tired to use the thing and if you do you end up heading down a descent with the thing on locked out plus it’s only really of use on long climbs and it becomes less desirable. Good perhaps for long distance riding but not racing.

I’ve finally gone RCT3. Will attempt to dial out low speed bob and have a forget about it fork. Even if it doesn’t work I find (not running single speed) that I am out of the saddle a lot less when racing.

Ordered Saturday early afternoon, order arrived today by 10am…. did pay the extra £1.99 but even so that’s pretty impressive!

I think scales are the main culprit. +/- 2% on a 24lb bike would mean a difference of nigh on a whole pound between an optimistic set and a pessimistic set. I’ve calibrated digital scales that have proven to be much worse.

Great event awful weather. I brought wrong bike (bad workman blames tools) and gave up after 2.5 laps as I couldn’t even push (not enough mud clearance). I’d have been happy to continue bar that. If I’ve got a slight winge it’s that it was clearly a course for full muds and that could have been made a bit clearer? Had thought to bring spare bike but didn’t fancy leaving FS on bike carrier for 11hrs.

My merida 96 is 9.85 with xtr 1×10 with 40t, hope race brakes, stans podiums, ordinary sids, kcnc post and stem, mt zoom flat bars and rons 2.25 front 2.1 rear. Nothing particularly WW (Gobi saddle, xtr pedals, not very light tyres, no weird cables etc). Light = good for climbing but can be nervous elsewhere though that might be more to do with geo.

Gee tends to be an optimist on tires and conditions in my experience so as it’s my first 12hr race with much tiredness and likely to be about managing attrition not speed = playing safer and Nobby Nics for me.

I’ve never remained any drier by sheltering under a tree!

Isn’t Labyrinth the most 26″ FS suited section of the whole of Swinley?

If you could get close to 29er performance from upgrading high quality 26er HT frames why aren’t the unsponsored but quick XC riders snapping up the bargain 26er stuff and using it?

FWIW I was in the same situation with a 22lb Ti 26er best bike. I need to find 10% off my lap times to get where I want to be in the Gorricks etc plus I want more comfort/speed for long distance events (Manx 100etc). Most of that is likely to come from skill and fitness but if I can get 3% from a carbon 29er then I’ve decided that’s worth it for me.

I’ve bought a Whyte 29c frame and will build up with the bits I want (LB wheels etc)for the same money as a 29c team. The ti bike becomes my winter trainer having donated the XTR etc.

Keeping equipment for sentiment is fine providing it doesn’t frustrate performance.

I have Rons on but am taking a NN for front and am starting to make excuses for myself to change to 6hrs…..