For my part I can say that Aussie Grit L is bang on the same size and slim-ish fit as Rapha L, which is what I was expecting.

Looks like my new Aussie Grit PSA thermal gilet will get its maiden voyage on Saturday.

I have ordered the Prendas oversocks as I thought velotoze might get ripped on the treads of my xc shoes. Fingers crossed the postman delivers the goods tomorrow.

Don’t forget your emergency whistle.

I think it was a similarly cold start last year, but warmed up quickly to the mid teens. I suspect it will feel colder for longer this weekend.

My two gilets arrived this morning, one light one warm. Obvs not ridden with them yet but sizing, fit and quality all excellent. Really pleased. Size L, 190cm tall, 88kg.

Stag-dos have to be inclusive. That means lowest common denominator.

People being pushed beyond their limits just breeds bitterness and resentment, as does subsidisation. Whether that be genuinely honest hard-up folk with understandably wounded pride, or whether it be better off generous folk feeling rinsed by classic car collecting freeloaders.

It sounds like this situation is toxic. People will drop out or limit their committment, which pushes prices up for the others, which encourages drop outs, it’s a vicious circle.

I’d be cancelling the house (not in a huffy way), apologise for having overcooked it, and just have a night out in the pub.

Cameraderie, bonhomie and general good spirit by far the most important elements of the occasion to preserve.

It’s early days, but after half a dozen rides the latest Shimano XC7 Wides do the narrow heel, broad forefoot thing better than anything else I’ve had.

I looked for the route on the site yesterday but it doesn’t seem to have been published yet. Therefore only the organisers will currently have any Intel.

I did read an official pronouncement somewhere that the tough rocky climb after feed stop 2 had been removed.

Is this the official Dirty Reiver Thread then?

Very pleased to see the official timing bands are reduced to 9he’s rather than 10, which i take to mean the parcours is 1hr easier this year?

I do like the new Breitling Superocean. A big improvement. Dial is cleaner and less cluttered. Brushed (rather than polished) lugs tones the bling factor right down.

https://www.breitling.com/gb-en/watches/superocean/44/A17367D71B1A1/

2° steeper seat angle on the Bird which i’d prefer, though kinked seat tube might rob it of some of that advantage depending on saddle height.

I think Solaris looks better, though not 100% fond of current batch of colour schemes/logo styles.

In the interim you just say it’s not about the money, I’d rather talk about the role, which I’m mad keen on (whether you are or not). Then at the end you play hardball. They ought to respect you for it if they have any sense of perspective.

I think the textbook answer is that it’s in their interests to establish money early doors so as to filter between numerous candidates, while it’s in your interests to talk about it at the very last stage in the process when ideally you’re the last man standing and they’re dead set on appointing you.

I have an Olympus Road with 23mm Conti tyres which measure up at 28mm due to wide rims. Plenty of room out back. I’ll post a pic later.

Up front I have an Easton carbon fork, so can’t help you there.

One thing to be aware of; Olympus has a 1’1/8″ HT which is maybe easier to get a carbon fork for, rather than 1″ on the Audax? Maybe not now but that’s how it was in the past.

Just to clarify, yes I moved to flat pedals for mtb a few years ago.

However I’ll be doing DR 200km on a drop bar gravel bike so clipless is what I’m looking for.

@shooterman you need to name and shame.

I agree with your approach of “buying the vendor” as much as buying the bike.

My CX is a Santa Cruz and my next MTB will be a Bird for exactly that reason.

Front mechs!

The goal would be getting around Glentress 7 in a pair or trio.  Skill and strength (which they don’t possess at the moment) required for that.

Appreciate that ideally they’d join a club but that’s going to be difficult.

I think that slacker seat angles make climbing more difficult. It’s a great strain on one’s core strength, trying to keep the rear wheel weighted when when you’re as far forward on the saddle.

I was on 40mm Maxxis Ramblers last year. I’d been warned on here that they were fragile, and sure enough the front got slashed just riding along an innocuous fire road. Tyre boot and tube repair thankfully held to the end. Now using the ubiquitous Gravel Kings.

2x butty, 2x coffee, 1x cake used to be about £8 in the Glentress Hub. Now at the Peel it’s £17!

👎 for the fake/homage rolexes.

Infinitely more respect for an honest Seiko 007 if that’s the desired look.

Fire up the Quattro…

Sorry when I said hand vice I meant G-clamp. 🤡

I bought a g-clamp for this specific job!

A hand vice for a couple of £ from B&Q?

Yes, namesake in Canada.  I feel I’ve been on a life journey with him.  I’ve had e-mails about dental appointments and overdue library books, but also his wedding, then his child’s christening and now he coaches his child’s school football. Heartwarming stuff.

Charging for click and collect is insane! What if you go into store and they say “we’ve not got that, but we can get it in”, do they add £5 then?

There’s a LBS in Edinburgh which won’t order anything in (e.g a pair of shoes they stock but in a different size) unless you commit to buying them first!  I get that they want to deter showrooming, but they have eradicated the advantage of bricks and mortar.

Out of interest, how much post do you consider ‘a lot’? On my dropper equipped Soul I’ve got 260mm from clamp to rails and it doesn’t feel wobbly…

I have 26cm from clamp to rails on my 21″ ST bikes and agree it’s rock solid.

However on the 19″ ST I was up at 31cm, which with a 27.2mm seat post was very boingy, even moreso on a setback post.

Maybe the typically increased post diameter and the internal structure of modern droppers solve this problem?

https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/factory-outlet/category.html#category=road-bikes&id=26411

£1,439, 8.9kgs. That’s pretty respectable I’d have thought?

To OP:

I’d frame your question as: is a MTB faster than a gravel bike on a flat-out up and down Maidens from Glencourse Rez?

The answer for me as a similarly crap bike handler is that a gravel bike is miles faster.

Even if you frame the question as: which is more fun? The descent on a MTB is obviously faster but not much of a challenge.

I’d suggest you need a much more technical parcours before a MTB is justified.

As far as Maidens is concerned, maybe try to loosen up and get relaxed with the bike skittering about under you?

I have had 40mm maxxis ramblers and also 40mm panaracer gravel kings in my Stigmata. Stan’s Grail rims so the tyres fill out. No issues aside from when properly clogged with thick mud on one occasion, I lost some paint in the inner CSs.

I don’t agree that it’s a very specialist CX bike (Im not a CXer). It has two pairs bottle cage mounts, it has a slackish HA, and a roady amount of BB drop. With slick tyres it’s even a great road bike for long days.

I can recommend.

The advantage of steel is that it can be repaired.

Bob Jackson replaced the dented top tube of my lugged road bike. Good as new.

Remove the brace, but put an old brake-booster onto to the v-brake posts. Does the same thing structurally but with way more clearance.

I am not a welder.

I thought spoon was referring to the former home secretary Amber Fudd.

when i was a teenager i wore speedos below swimming shorts to try and hide my pleasure at seeing all those lovely ladies !

So frenchies wear underpants on the beach to suppress their permanent arousal. If thats not pervy I dont know what is.  Whatever happened to sang froid?

@cchris2lou;

Can you explain the french custom for underpants under board shorts for beach swimming?

On the beach the frenchies wear underpants under their shorts. You see the branded elasticated waist peeping over the waist of their shorts.

WTF is that about?

The discs on my winter road bike used to get so contaminated with road grime, and I rarely if ever would put enough heat into them to burn them clean. The result was that they screeched like a banshee.

Went back to rim brakes and a quiet peaceful ride.

I have almost always been struck by “hot foot” about 80 miles into a 100 mile road ride, but it goes away quickly when the shoes come off.  Running and mtb never brought it on.<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>T</span>

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>That is until the dirty reiver this year, where I got it about 65m.in and still had 65m to go. Right foot has been troublesome ever since. I think it’s nerve damage. Ironically cycling is mostly ok but running is really bad for it.</span>

Front. Not necessarily <span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>because it’s tubeless, but because I always put the freshest tyre on the front for reasons described above.</span>