Glad to see they’ve brought it back, I loved riding 24/12 in the past.

It’s a shame that it only attracted small numbers this year, hopefully next year is a bit better. If they release next years dates fairly soon I might be able to get some holidays booked for it and may venture back down there for another crack at the 12h race next year.

I never seem to see much advertised anywhere for races anymore, the old XC Racer website used to be pretty good for news and info on events. It would be nice if Singletrack had a section on the website of the forum with race calendars in for everyone to access.

That’s a very good point but as I said, it’s a wheel builder I’ve never heard of hence asking for something more specific.

Anything more specific than the name of a wheebuilder I’ve never heard of?

I’d start with looking in to the Newcastle Diet.

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9781780724997?gC=5a105e8b&gclid=CjwKCAjwj8eJBhA5EiwAg3z0m6pS7xAhXYfRbu8JtNlUMswIDDCBSGhP-BiKlC4Vwujzoj610W7mwRoC_sAQAvD_BwE

It’s been shown to work well in newly diagnosed and borderline t2 diabetes.

How are people finding their Apple Watches for running?
I’ve just upgraded to a new iPhone and the Apple Watch looks pretty good. I’ve currently got a Fenix 6 so not sure if the Apple Watch would be a big step down?
I’m not running at the level some here are, I do 5k 2-3 times a week and use the Fenix for most of my cycling as well.
Am I better off sticking with what I’ve got?

Old school Californian tyre clearance though

That’s a shame. I’d be looking for something that’ll take 2.4’s so that’ll kind of rule out the Epic.

Currently looking at the Trek Top Fuel as another possible option…

he Epic Evo is also a watcher but I don’t find Specialized bikes to be particularly good value component-wise, similar situation with the Tallboy, so I’d probably go down the frame only option with either of those if possible.

I was thinking exactly the same about the Epic, £4.5k for a bike with SLX groupset seems a bit much! Only problem with frames is they only do an S-Works and that’s £4k.
I’ve got an X01 AXS groupset to go on whatever I buy but whatever I sell the SLX for it won’t recoup much of the initial cost.

The more I’m reading about the Epic Evo, the better it’s sounding. Sounds like a very capable bike.

I looked in to the Flaremax when they released it recently but the weight puts me off a bit.

Even with a fairly lightweight build you’d be looking at 30-31 lbs for the Cotic but something like the Epic Evo would be closer to 25lb. That’s a fair difference to be lugging around on a long day out.

Where I’m riding theres not a huge amount of technical riding but some decent bits of singletrack here and there which makes me think the Cotic could be overkill.
The main issue at the moment seems to be finding stock anywhere!

Cracking ride there by Neff and it looked like Evie Richards really enjoyed herself!
Those Trek Supercalibers look pretty smart, first XC bike I’ve like the look of since my old S-Works Epic a few years back.

The Crockett had sliding dropouts from 2017-2019 (I think!). The current model definitely doesn’t have them.

I enjoy the climbs just as much as the descents.
We’re not exactly blessed with the best trails where I live so if I didn’t enjoy the climbs I’d be screwed!

I’ve rebuilt my drop bar gravel bike with flat bars and had no issues at all. It rides perfectly.
I’m sure some will hate it or point out how you have to change stems and the geometry’s wrong etc but in my experience that’s not the case.

I don’t bother tinkering with things liek suspension, mainly because I’ve not got a clue what I’m doing. I put some air in my forks when I built the bike up at the start of last year and haven’t touched them since! Things like the Shockwiz look like a great idea but even then I’d imagine that I’d find the right pressures etc for the fork and just leave it at that.

The bikes are all running either Di2 or eTap so nothing needs tweaked there either.

If Weeksy or others have the time and inclination to tweak their bike set-up then why the hell not? Everyone’s different, some prefer the climbs to the descents, road to MTB, tweaking/building bikes to riding.
Whatever the case, it’s all dicking about with bikes so it’s all good :-)

@thebunk Thanks for that, I was considering the iPad but it gets a bit pricey once you add the keyboard.
The edustore link looks like a winner, I’ve got an ac.uk email address so the Macbook Air comes up at £830 with a four year warranty rather than £900 with two year warranty at John Lewis!

I was in my LBS at the weekend and they were saying that they’ve been told December at the earliest for Shimano and March for SRAM stock. It may have been the other way round but either way it’s not looking good.
They have a couple of Eagle cassettes in stock and I was seriously considering buying one as a spare before they sell out! They mentioned that 12 speed chains are impossible to get hold of currently.

Some interesting comments there guys, thanks.

My current Surface wasn’t far off the price of a MacBook Air when I bought it, from memory it was only about £100 cheaper. By comparison, my other half’s MacBook Air is about eight years old and still works a treat, my Surface at half the age not so much!

Having looked around I can get the 8gb model for under £900 and the cheapest I can find the 16gb is £1200 so I think I’ll keep the £300 difference and go for the lower spec model.

I like that. It’s nice to see someone doing something a bit different. Then again, I ride a gravel bike that’s now got flat bars so what do I know?

I’m sure it cost a packet to build but in fairness, the same goes for a few people here’s bikes at a guess.

Thanks for all the tips.
By chance we popped in to a local shop which had stock of the bike we were looking at. Half an hour later it was bought and should be collected this week!
The bike’s got the Bosch motor and battery and it’s a two year warranty.

The shop seem to be pretty on the ball and know their stuff, glad I found them actually as they seem like a good place and nice and local to boot.

Oh, FFS, my 6 Pro that I paid £479 for arrived from John Lewis an hour ago!

Send it back and order a replacement from Amazon!

Am I right in thinking the ship has sailed on using them as a way of keeping costs down?

I’m pretty sure it has.

I’ve just ordered mine, should be here in a couple of days :-)

Sounds like it’s a worthwhile then!

I’m guessing there isn’t going to be much benefit of the full fat Kickr over the Core? From what I’ve read there’s not much extra to justify the extra £300.

Slight thread hijack here but…

I’ve not used Sufferfest for probably six or seven years now. Has it changed much since then or is it just more of the same workouts?
I find TrainerRoad to be pretty good over winter for improvements but was thinking about giving Sufferfest a go for those days when I can’t get out on the bike during the better weather but could easily fit in an hour on the turbo.

I had my first ride out today in the Rapha kit and my thoughts on it are as follows…

Opening the bags, the kit looks and feels better quality than my current Endura and Morvelo stuff, nice fabric and looks like it’s been put together well to my non-expert eyes. The fit for me was pretty much spot on, the bib shorts were very comfortable off the bike and so were the baggy shorts. The short sleeved top seemed a bit baggy but I think that’s more to do with me being used to more roadie cut kit.
I did a 50 mile ride today in the kit and the best thing I can say about it is that I never noticed it. The bib shorts were comfortable to the point of forgetting that we’d been out for 5 hours or so, the baggies fit well and the cut allowed plenty of movement on the bike without them feeling like MC Hammer’s trousers. same goes for the t-shirt, not too hot, fitted well and was comfortable.

Overall I’m impressed with it. It wasn’t cheap but to be honest it’s not a huge amount more than bibs and baggies from the likes of Morvelo but more comfortable.
I was impressed enough with it that I might go for another set when payday arrives. The other bits like the windproof jacket look pretty good as well. I also quite like the look of the Smith/Rapha helmet they’re doing but I don’t relaly need a new lid as my current Endura one is fine.

I quite like the look of the new MTB stuff. It’s pretty toned down, which I like, unlike loads of MTB kit.
I’ve just ordered some shorts, bibs and a top to see if they’re any good. If it’s as good as Rapha road kit then I’m sure it’ll be worth the slightly higher price.

Thanks for the suggestions all. I’ll take the gravel bike, it covers most bases.

You’re supposed to do 2 Covid tests before you visit any of the islands

Thanks for pointing that out, we weren’t aware of that!

8mm torx bolt.

Are you saying the extraction bolt was a torn head? I’ve had loads of SRAM cranks on various bikes and they’ve always been hex head bolts.

Whichever it is, have you tried hammering a larger torx or hex socket into the butchered one and see if it’ll bite when you try to loosen it?

Rider and kit is probably 95kg or just under.
I think it’s the light carcass tyre so that could be something to do with it was well.

Pressure wise I’m finding 22psi squirms then once km at 25psi it seems to lose grip.
Obviously I tried running between these pressures but it doesn’t seem to make any difference!

Most of what you’ve wrote there could describe the club I used to ride with.

Pretty much everything is based around what the club chairman wants to do and trips are planned around where he wants to go. Rcaing and training is all arranged around his experience of racing “back in the day”

Accounts are at best some random figures scribbled on a piece of paper with no explanation or input from members as to what the clubs money is spent on. Any suggestion that something is amiss is met with out and out hostility.

Needless to say that club has lost many members the past couple of years as you’d expect.

I gave up with them, life is too short to be spent riding with people like that.

From reading your posts here DrP I have to say that it sounds like you’re describing my marriage in many respects but without the kids or the winning bike races.

We went through similar problems for a couple if years or so and tried anything I could to sort them out but to no avail. I pretty much stopped racing the bike, would only ride on weekdays when I was off work (shift worker) so we could have weekends together, tried getting her more involved with my hobbies or trying to help her find some if her own but nothing helped. We tried counselling but in all honesty it was a waste of time.

The toughest decision I ever had to make was the choice between me spending even more time and effort trying to fix things or walking away. I realised that walking away was the best option so that the problems didn’t end up ruining my life as well as hers.

The funny thing was that we never actually argued as such, we’d have some disagreements now and again but never anything major.

I hope you manage to get things sorted out DrP as it’s a horrible situation to be in.

http://www.cannondale-parts.de/Mudguard-for-Lefty-standard

I think SKS do a lefty adapter for their mtb mudguards if you can find it

Thanks for that, they’re very tempting at the price they are!

Just noticed that there’s some places with the 105 model with the proper Lefty on it rather than the rigid fork.
For £1300 it’s a bit over my budget but I reckon it could make a pretty sweet commuter.
I’m guessing that there’s no way of fitting any front mudguards on the Slate apart from a Crud Catcher type thing on the down tube is there?

Just been looking in to it and it turns out that our wonderful cycle to work scheme can’t be used at Evans!
That Akrose was looking pretty good as well.

chain dropping was never an issue with 2x & 3x MTB systems was it pre clutch?

That’s a good point, I’m thinking about 1x systems like I’m currently running :lol:

Thanks for that aP.
Have you had any issues at all with the Etap? Is it easy enough to set up?

It’s interesting to hear about the type of riding you’re doing as it’s quite similar to the stuff I’ve been doing.

Out of interest for those with a Kickr, do you run it so it’s controlled during sessions by a power meter or do you just let the Kickr do it’s own thing?
My turbo bike has a power meter fitted but if I’m as well off letting the Kickr do it’s own thing then I’ll stick the power meter onto the road bike instead.

I decided to bite the bullet and went for the Kickr.
Picked it up earlier and had a quick go on it this afternoon. Just did a gentle Trainer Road session on it and all I can say is that it felt slightly odd having the resistance adjust itself to the correct target wattage.

It’ll be interesting to see how it gets on with some different interval sessions.

I did look into the Tacx but I’ve been put off somewhat by the reports of poor reliability.

Been doing a bit of looking about for a BMX but there doesn’t seem to be much coming up second hand that’s anywhere close to me.

I was reading something on Mpora about the best BMX for <£350 and the United KL40 seemed to be fairly well rated.
Are they any good?
They seem to be available for a decent price for the 2015 model and possibly even on my cycle to work scheme :D