I don’t get this thing about riding on footpaths not being against the law. We don’t have a right of way, so surely we’re then trespassing which is wrong?

You lot are making me feel well underbiked on a 100mm hardtail. With luck I’ll get to the top of the hill so far ahead that you won’t see me mincing down!! Ah well, I was never going to be Trail King anyway…

And thanks Mbnut, so considerate!!

Dunno exactly what Matt has in store but… reds at BPW would be black everywhere else… I’ve raced at Margam a fair bit and the tracks there are black in places but if I could ride them back then when I was really crap (and on a rigid xc bike) they’re not going to be too bad… Afan reds are rough in places but never scary… I think the emphasis is going to be on how fast you dare go rather than whether you dare ride it at all.

I kind of assumed it would just be racers there, it will be good to have a mix of everyone, as long as nobody’s pissing on my tent at 3 in the morning singing Wonderwall. Can’t wait for it to start now. Just need my forks back, Loco 😉

forzafkawi

Off road I generally find SS faster than gears because there is none of the delay in deciding which gear you need to be in for a particular terrain. I do tend to get out of the saddle more for the climbs with SS compared to gears though which is part of the appeal of SS for me. It makes me work harder and I ride faster.

Yeah, I know what you mean, I do climb quicker on SS, but if you can summon up the mental strength to stay in the smallest 3 or 4 sprockets then 1x has to be quicker overall I think and almost as reliable

My four-point plan towards SS nirvana:

1. Ride current bike in one gear (nice easy one to start with)
2. Ride current bike in a harder gear (as you get stronger)
3. Set up current bike singlespeed in desired ratio just to make sure
4. Take plunge, buy/build SS-specific bike and grow beard

Optional step 5: Find 1×10 almost as satisfying as SS and much faster

For the record, this is what I made of it all once the dust (cough) had settled…

Link to blog

I rode that drop pictured above even though I can’t ride for toffee! I do have a big willy though…

In response to the OP, yes the descents would all have been rideable in the dry. Only just, in places, but that was the point of the event.

On the day, that one descent was impossible and clearly should have been axed, but otherwise I thought it was a fun (albeit tough) ride.

All good suggestions, but some, like Brechfa, are a long, long way away. I’d agree though that Cwm Rhaeadr is ace and the Tywi track in either direction (preferably both) is just the best fun.

For compact, fun riding nearby, though, with relatively easily navigable routes available online, I’d look at the Elan Valley.

Even better, get a guide to show you round. Always money well spent. Says the guide. Hint.

😉

Stick with it for a bit and it won’t be a problem any more!

“Sports photography is probably the only industry where the customer decides what they want to pay”

Strictly speaking, the customer decides the price in every industry. Supply and demand, innit.

I’m sure photographers don’t make much from events and I don’t think they’re being greedy – but I think some may be a little naive.

The point surely is whether £6 is still a reasonable price for an unprintable low-res run-of-the-mill-at-best shot that’s only going to be used on Facebook for a few days?

Price the not-so-good pics lower and you might sell a whole lot more and get the Facebook crowd on board.

I do a lot of events and there are limits to my vanity, so £6 has to be a pretty good pic.

Why don’t you lot stop being so nasty? I think it is a fair question.

I think we’d all pay £50 for a really top photo of us looking well rad. But what about when we do events regularly and the photos are so-so?

I put a huge amount of time and effort into writing a blog (plug: 29gears.blogspot.co.uk) and it’s always nice to have some photos to accompany the words. I do it for fun, for people’s entertainment, to help promote the events and the sport, and fair play most photographers will give me free low-res photos for it, knowing they get a little extra exposure and that if they do occasionally catch me in just the right light I’ll buy one at the going rate. But some don’t – they still want £30 for a couple of tiny shit photos. Which is their right, but it makes no sense to me. Why aren’t they willing to haggle on the shots that aren’t so great?

Thanks for your help

Sorted! (I think/hope/pray…)

For anyone reading this in the future, I’m not sure what did it. First I tidied up the freehub body where I’d slightly mangled the top of the splines that accept the star ratchet by using an “unofficial tool” to insert the bearings, which meant the ratchets now slide in and out more freely. I also removed a little nick on the extreme edge of the freehub where it meets the hub. Then I drifted out the two outer bearings, removed the axle, put everything back together and – hey presto. So it was either the slight roughness due to my clumsiness, or something not quite pushed into place (maybe the axle itself).

No, I haven’t got the tool for that

I think it’s very individual. I dislocated and fractured mine last month at BPW and was back on the road for the first time yesterday after 24 days’ rest, did 50 miles in North Wales today, hope to start offroad during the week and possibly compete in an XC race next Sunday (which is a bit ambitious admittedly). Seemed to take ages to start getting better, but now it’s on a roll.

Shocked to see so many cheating and taking the main road home. Had a nightmare getting past in the car. Must’ve added a good minute to my journey time. I wouldn’t have minded if you paid any road tax.

You’ve got to split by speed uphill IMHO. That’s what causes the most hanging around. Downhill, people quickly work out a pecking order of who should go first.

Keeping everyone happy on a group ride is always going to be very difficult, and the bigger the group the harder it will be. As someone earlier said, anything over three is too many…

I do feel though that fitter riders could help themselves more – rather than just hang around chatting and getting cold at the top of each hill, we could be practising skills etc.

Njee – ??? I’m asking because Veloviewer doesn’t do this any more…

Jambalaya – Thanks for that, only 1:50,000 mapping and a lot slower but it does work, that’s a big help

That would be nice 🙂
It was jolly handy and something I’d happily pay to use.

Rode it yesterday. Not a new trail, just a short linking section with a few berms and jumps. Like Hippity Hop crossed with the Minotaur at Coed y Brenin. My son will love it.

I know it will mature somewhat with time but it did feel a bit weird having something so nu-skool leading into the original Mark of Zorro which is so much tighter and more old-skool, though maybe that started out smooth too once upon a time.

But all new tracks are good news!

Just tried it… and it worked!

Thank you!!!!!

Yeah, I thought about the Peak District but I just haven’t got time.

I need somewhere I can’t get too lost so I can get back in time to spend all afternoon shivering on a wet and windswept riverbank awaiting my daughter’s two minutes of glory. Sometimes I wish I was a soccer mom 🙂

Thanks guys, looks like I’ll just go and get lost then!

Don’t do Blue twice, it’s not the funnest of trails.
Blade is a very tough 20k.
White’s is a BIG climb if you’re not too fit, plus you need to allow extra 1/2 hour driving to Glyncorrwg and back.
Wal doesn’t feel overly climby to me but hard for me to judge these days.
So safest to start with Penhydd in the circumstances. It won’t take 3 hours though, even with a looooong picnic.

I took someone’s wing mirror off 20-odd years ago after he cut me up two days running and had the audacity to respond to my verbal abuse in kind.

The following day he lay in wait for a word. I decided best not to stop so he tried to grab me off my bike, causing me to fall off. After seeing the cuts and grazes on my face (no helmets back then) he drove off and I never saw him again, I think he must have changed his route to work.

Both of us were in the wrong, of course, and I suspect that this behaviour was out of character in both cases, but when you’re young, in the heat of the moment, things can easily escalate out of control.

I still get very sweary when people nearly kill me but I no longer retaliate.

Just thought I’d share.

I emailed dyfievents@gmail.com and they sorted it out straight away

Thanks, you’re a star. It’s all very obvious now even to a clutz like me. I shall be having words…

Cassette and chain are about to be replaced, which is why they haven’t been lubed. LBS set it up as last-minute emergency for race on Sunday, they had to set it up so I couldn’t use the biggest sprocket, and it was ghost-shifting like crazy in the middle cogs until finally the chain snapped.

There’s also some issue with the screws apparently.

It’s a Cube Elite XC bike, 2013 model with 2014 replacement frame.

Does this look wrong?

Thanks for showing an interest!

Thanks. Based on that (assuming it’s the equivalent difference for the Elite HPC XC bike), I’ve definitely got the right one for my XTR mech, so perhaps it’s something else. Maybe it’s second opinion time.

Thanks!

There are different types for Sram & Shimano (where you remove the B link) so make sure the right one has been fitted.

That could be it. I think they had to screw one of the screws in way further than normal or put a longer one in or something like that. Thing is, I’m a long long way from a Cube dealer. How do I know which hanger I have got?

I did the 105-mile Trans Cambrian Way last year on my On One rigid 26″ singlespeed and I was perfectly comfortable throughout.

But then (a) I was going for the record, (b) it’s my usual bike and (c) I’m well ‘ard I am.

Me too. Still a long time to wait though!
I just hope the weather rewards my decision to camp 🙂

Interesting – really useful feedback there, thanks.

Thing is, I ride even my geared bike like a singlespeed (stand to climb, high gear, low cadence). Even on the road I prefer a fairly low cadence. I certainly couldn’t imagine going 25mph at 32/11!!

Looks like 34T would be a good start. According to my sums, I then lose the 3 lowest and 1.5 highest gears relative to my 44/32/24 triple.

But yes 11-speed would be best except for the cost…

Thanks for that. This bike will be used mainly for endurance events, so my thinking is that I’d rather walk the odd climb than run out of gears on the flat.

But I’ll definitely have to get the calculator out and work out how it all compares to my current setups (triple and singlespeed).

Seems reasonable to me. A lot of work must go into preparing the trails.

It’s not just a case of bung up a few arrows and laugh your way to the bank…

Sounds like a teacher with a sense of humour

I think you’re going to have to ride up the White’s climb one more time to take in both the Skyline and Blade descents for your record to count 😉

It’s a great idea, though, right up my street, I will have to have a crack at it on the singlespeed some time. But what happens when they build another trail and reopen the rest of Skyline?!

Good luck, and don’t forget spare brake pads.

I found it even more confusing on the ground the other week

It seemed like there were different final descents too???

Less than two hours on full power

Last night I used mnine with one of those red owly Cree double handlebar lights off Ebay and the helmet light wasn’t nearly as bright

OK for normal riding but not for hurtling down descents

I did Blade and Skyline last week, and I got a bit confused by the map and signs which initially suggested that Skyline is now a loop off Blade, but towards the end they seemed to head in different directions with different descents…

Anyway, it came to about 35km and 1000m of climbing and took 2.5 hours at a steady pace. There was a lot of flat stuff at the top so a good one for tired legs I would say. Very wet and very exposed and very gritty – go prepared!