If everyone rides solo who the ferk are all these big groups of blokes I see every weekend riding round here?

They’re people with friends and a social life. They don’t post on internet forums !

Yep, I’m another one who rides solo 90% of the time, and in very small groups the rest of the time. Carry a phone, space blanket, whistle, tell my wife where I’m going and text her if I change my plans. No of which will help if I bang my head in cold weather, so I make sure I don’t.

Sheffield to Edale via Rivelin valley, Stanage Causeway, Hope and Jaggers Clough. Made use of the following wind and got the train bike.

Stanage Causeway is so much better in the snow than usual !

Has anyone spotted the obvious flaw ?

The best bike is the one considered the most fun, but that seems to be the one which makes the same ride the most challenging. You can also make a ride more challenging by ignoring other innovations, such as suspension, dropper seat posts, disk brakes. Or you can embrace the new technology and seek out more challenging terrain ?

Normally takes me 10 minutes to get home, but tonight it will be at least an hour.

Cos I’m off to have some fun in the woods !

Bought a pair of Endura Thermolites longs (i.e. tights, not bib) and really disappointed with them. The padding seems too far forward – feels like I riding with a cod-piece upfront and no protection for my arse cheeks !

Maybe they are intended for roadies and not MTB

Stunning day in the Peak yesterday – Started in Castleton, Rushup, Royche, Coldwell, Jacobs, Jaggers, Beast, Lockerbroke, Ladybower, Wyming and back to Sheffield. 38 action packed miles in fantastic conditions

2548 miles of MTB rides

probably another 1000 miles of commuting

Completing the Kielder 100 and in under 12 hours – enjoyed it from start to finish (apart from the 3 punctures) but the climb out of Newcastleton was particularly memorable for being so much better than last year.

Other than that it was a great snowy ride above Threshfield in Jan, Wenslydale in June, exploring Grizedale and Walna Scar in July and a night ride around Clumber Park in October that have been the highlights.

Have you tried Chevin Cycles in Otley ?

I’ll be there – and I’m sure you owe me a pint from last time 😀

Definately not worth servicing at that price, but then I’d recommend ditching them ASAP anyway. Wasn’t impressed with with the set that came on my Trek bike, but the final straw was the absolute nightmare I had trying to change pads midway through the Kielder 100.

Been much happier with Avid Elixirs. Well worth getting the bleed kit as it makes it a very easy job to do yourself, and therefore you can also change the pistons quite easily yourself too

Bumping this up and urging any Sheffield MTBers to fill out the consultation form to support the proposal.

Yes theres a lot of stuff there, but have a look at Figure 7 – Potential Additional Access & Recreational Infrastructure. This proposes a number of paths being upgraded to bridleways, which would dramatically improve the options for traffic-free access to the Peak from Sheffield.

OK these tracks aren’t likely to be super challenging, but for those of us you like long rides and to leave the car at home it would be a huge boost.

Anybody else getting an Internal Server Error when trying to pay via PayPal on Cycle Surgery ?

In some sort of fantasy state it would have been great to see Devil’s elbow levelled and maintained but bikes banned from it, and pipers gate augmented with some kickers and tabletops and horses and people banned from it. Then we would all have been happy.

I wouldn’t be – I want variety and Blacka gives you that. Sometimes I feel like riding down Piper House, sometimes Devils Elbow and sometimes Lenny Hill. And I like to be able to ride up them – OK never tried going up Piper House, but most of Devils Elbow is rideable for me when it’s reasonably dry. And there’s a difference between what you want on a summer evening and snowy night-ride

The wet weather this year has clearly been causing problems, particulary with lots of horse riding going on, and Lenny Henry had become very rutted, particularly by the steps. So maybe getting rid of them will help. Yep Piper House has been made easier, but it’s still quite challenging and no doubt will become more so as time passes.

But, as you say, these are multi-use trails, so need to be riden with caution and respect. There may be a walker or a horse just round the corner – or even a biker who’s hit a patch of mud and gone sideways

No, it’s a reference to Mr Wiggins use of (perfectly legal) Jersey based accounting schemes to minimise the tax he’s liable to pay

Except that he withdrew from the scheme pretty quickly, and has not claimed any tax relief

Is the Rumblefish your only bike? I’d hate to put anything XC and mud specific on a bike like that…

Are the other posters even looking at the bike this is for?

I’ve got the (very similar) Hi-Fi Pro and it’s a great XC/all round bike. And one of the first things I did when I got it (Dec 2008) was ditch the Californian summer tyres, chuck on some Mud Xs and go off and play in the snow !

Admittedly I’m now running the slightly more all-year round Bonty XR4 on the rear of it, whilst the mud X is on the back of my hardtail

Count: 106 Activities
Distance: 2,204.35 mi
Time: 247:41:31 h:m:s
Elevation Gain: 74,536 m
Avg Speed: 8.9 mph
Calories: 156,861 C
Max Speed: 162.2 mph
Max Distance: 100.38 mi

I hope the Elevation is more accurate than the Max Speed !!!

There are two philosophies

There is a third – use 3 chains and swap then round every 200 miles or so. That way the chains should wear at approximately the same rate and so will still work with a worn cassette.

I’ve been doing this for the last couple of years and it seems to be going OK. The one thing I have had to change is the granny ring, but they are only the same price as a chain.

I was also getting a bit of a problem with chain suck just after I’d changed. Realised this was due to me giving the chain a spray of light grease before putting it away (to stop it rusting) and not cleaning it off again.

If you’re limited for time then the NF trail isn’t a bad choice, but if you get hold of one of the maps from the vistor centre that show the “trad” BWs you can devise a pretty good ride.

For example do the first couple of sections of NF, then go south to Parkamoor and do the brilliant descent to Low Nibthwaite. Bit of a slog to get back, but you can then do the descent at Bresty Haw.

Much depends on where you are staying though – lots of good stuff all over the place, but you lose a lot of time driving

The north face trail is good fun, but I did it with a friend for the first one in 30mins including her having a puncture, so it’s not exactly a half day ride

You did a 10 mile off-road circuit in 30mins despite having a puncture – what drugs are you taking ? 🙂

My wife needed a lift to the station, so I didn’t have to make a choice

I did ride around in the Sheffield floods a few years back – brilliant fun !

A few weeks back I was overtaken by about 50 motor bikes as they rode up to Stanage Pole from Redmires to protest about the proposals.

Talk about “How to make friends and influence people” – well, they were certainly doing the latter

Who’s actually ever used a tube?

Me, but only twice, both times this year in the Lakes
First time was the B’way below Whinlatter, ripped the tyre on a drainage ditch. Second was coming down Walna Scar, damaged both sidewalls when I took another drainage ditch too fast.

I don’t like drainage ditchs in the lakes…

Carry both sticky worms and this kit[/url]

Sticky worms do for small holes, the other for larger ones, but both seem to fall into the “get you home” category.

Had a puncture after 38 miles at Kielder – the sticky worm only lasted just 55 miles before it popped out. The panaracer fix is a bit more fiddly but lasted longer, right up to 95 miles and midge hell !

Anyone know where you can get the refill kits for the sticky worms – I don’t need any more needles !

Chris were you one the Tail end Charlies? If so thanks very much for taking the tape off the trees it made tidying up the next day much easier.

No, I was joking. See my earlier post about having a panic that I might have gone wrong at 98 miles and be heading back across the border !!!

I hope all of you that saw them, picked them up? Probably not I’ll wager

Nope, my pockets were full of the white marker tape that had been carelessly tied around some many of trees…. 😉

Yep, heavy rain does seem to cause it to undercalculate altitude

I was suprised at how little it recorded during my attempt at Kielder last year – just 1,422m for 83 miles. This year (no rain) it was 3752m for 100 miles. The last section had a few killer hills, but not that much

Setting the Elevation correction on Garmin connect does seem to do the trick – 100 mile drops to 3431m, 83 is almost doubled to 2697m.

…and I thought this thread was going to be about the marshall who was saying it was 4 miles to the 50 mile feed stop when it was just around the corner!

She didn’t fool me !

Just want to say a big thank you to all the mashalls yesterday – all really supportive.

I did have a moment of panic around that point 2nd time around, I.e about 98 miles. The sudden paranoid realisation that you’d done this section before – had you taken a wrong turn ? Were you heading back over the border ? Would trio25 overtake you yet again ? But then another smiling mashall appears and points you in the right direction with the promise that it was downhill to the finish

Odd, but I thought the message had got through cos I only saw 5 or 6.

Ok that’s 5 or 6 too many, but with so many riders some will get dropped by accident.

This is the only event I’ve ever entered but think the organisers have done a great job to instil a sense of responsibility and goodwill – everyone who passed me fixing a puncture at 95 miles asked if I needed a tube.

Mind you, I could have done with some midge repellant at that point !!!

No suggestions, but this is the reason why I commute in Sheffield on an old MTB with slicks 🙂

IIRC it was only light showers and drizzle last year, it just never stopped, my memory could be failing me though – or the horror of it has wiped it completely in an attempt to stop the recurring nightmares.

It certainly was persistent, ranging from drizzle to driving rain.

The odd thing was that apparently it was quite local. A mate abandoned on the start line – realised he had an insurmountable pedal problem – and drove home. Said it was dry once he’d gone 10 miles and assumed it was the same for us.

So although the forecast is saying dry all day, I believe it when I see it.

In a word – Paranoid

Got eliminated after 78 miles last year, mainly due to mechanical incompetence. This year I’m convinced I’m fitter, but more aware of what could go wrong with the bike. So I’m panicking about every little squeak or potential problem with the bike and having to make some last minute changes – e.g. gear cables tonight.

Plus I’ve got a saddle sore from lots of riding last week

On the positive side I’m almost up to 2000 miles of mountain biking this year

Well worth buying the bleed kit – makes it a doddle

I’ve been very impressed with Elixirs – but less so with the more expensive Codes. As for Juicys – dreadful, such a pain to change pads

I’ve been very impressed with this:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/genuine-innovations/mountain-pipe-inflator-and-pump-ec023040

Well worth watching the instruction video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOETf1vJLYQ

You won’t learn anything, but it’s still well worth watching…..

Still shows as disabled when I view it.

Yep, that might be just a website function, rather than any setting on the device. (Like many features on the device I don’t really get it!!)

I’ve just changed it (to enabled) and it’s now showing 2697m – which actually seems more realistic

There seems to some difference in the climbing. On the garmin site you can get logs with 1200m to 3800m.
But, checking the graphs, you can see the ones with the low climbing are showing a very flat profile, probably due to water blocking the altimeter: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/111720740

Here is one with a high elevation and a nice bumpy graph:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/113085589

Actually another possibility is that it is all down to whether you have Elevation Corrections enabled or disabled

The two you linked to have it disabled, I have it enabled

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/112358401

There seems to some difference in the climbing. On the garmin site you can get logs with 1200m to 3800m.

Thanks for depressing the hell out of me !!

Did a big training ride in the peak on Saturday – 72 miles, 2200m.
Thought to myself “well at least I won’t have to do as much climbing at Kielder.”

Thing is I don’t remember there being that much climbing – a few climbs early on (with the double frustration of chainsuck and having to queue), and then the mile of mud after Newcastleton. Other than that it was mostly undulating – or am I blotting things out ?

Anyone know the stats on total ascent over the 100 route?

I think it somewhere between 3500-4000 metres.

Thinks it’s about half that.

I got eliminated after 78 miles last year, and my GPS clocked up 1422m by that stage

The best advice is to try and demo a few and see which you prefer

For me, the first time I rode a 29er FS was a real wow moment for me, the two 26 FS that I rode that day just didn’t compare.

That was 4 years ago and the sesult is that I’ve probably ridden more miles since then than in my previous 20 years of MTBing

Certainly can handle just about everything I want to ride up or down

The one downside is that shops in the UK still only seem to have a limited stock of parts – you might want to check out the attitude of your LBS.

Been very impressed with my Giro Athlon – so comfortable that I forget I’m wearing it

But, after 18 months the retension system has broken. Replacement only costs £10, but no one in the UK seems to have stock and I’ve been told it will be Decemeber before the importers can get any more. Utterly ridicolous for a simple bit of plastic that is on a number of their helmets. Tried to email Madison but not got a reply.

So I’m debating whether to simply buy a new one, £70 from CRC, or boycott the company for their terrible after sales service.