There is an article on incontinence in the British Journal of Urology (vol 49, pp 173-176, 1977) written by A. J. Splatt and D. Weedon.

Couple of wraps of foam bar tape can be comfy, something like cinelli cork is fairly firm, specialized a bit softer.

For a decent small 29er, maybe look here:
http://www.bikesoup.com/magazine/review-29-er-xc-mtb-bike-options-geometrically-gifted-shorter-rider/

A word on 29ers for short riders. A friend of mine is 5’1″. She races XC and rode everything (trail centres to Hadleigh Farm A lines) last year on a super-blingy 26″ carbon rocket (19.5 lbs). Now she’s got a Niner and it fits her really well. She’s faster downhills, over rough stuff and loves it on the climbs too, even though it’s 1.5 lbs heavier.

Yup. Not found it to be a problem.

Right mrmo. XC has got a lot more technical over the last few years. It came a quite a shock to do National XC courses after a 10-odd year break. I’ve done no DH tracks but Redruth and Cathkin Braes had features just as tricky as any trail centre XC I’ve ever come across (Ae, all of Brechfa, Cwmcarn Twrch trail, all of the Afan and Coed-y-Brenin). Hadleigh Farm was downright bloody intimidating. Back to the original question, I’m far from the best technical rider but I scrape down most A’s (and the odd ‘B’) with the same saddle height as my road bike.

I’m with ahwiles on this. Can’t believe there’ll be much difference. I found the difference in speed on the road between my road bike (10 kg, 23 mm tyres at 90 psi) and my MTB (11 kg, 2″ knobblies – Specialized Fast Trak at 28 psi)is 3 km/h. That’s over quite a few long, steady, not-too-hilly rides with the same average heartrate. Probably 15 hrs on each bike. This doesn’t account for the automatic ‘new bike’ speed boost though.

I have an Elite Chrono Hydro-Mag. In the 53/12 with maximum resistance, it takes an effort to keep the wheels moving at all. 50 rpm takes somewhere around 350 W. Needless to say, that doesn’t last long.

Specialized. Surprisingly good, actually. Good fit, warm and fleecy but not roasting, don’t slip and have taken a beating – I’ve worn them nearly every day for a couple of months and washed them loads and they’re still good as new.

I agree with the OP too. On bridleways, I thought that cyclists had to give way to walkers and horseriders. That suggests you should be prepared to stop dead, pull over and let them pass. It’s just nice that most walkers step to one side, even though they don’t have to, and horseriders will often move over to let us past if it’s safe. In return, we should pass them at a polite speed, I reckon jogging pace should do it.

not really. mountain biking is an individual sport

Fair point, but only when you’re doing it completely on your own. When you do it with others there are often rules, unwritten or otherwise.

Use the front brake in the straight bits and let it off when you want to turn a bit. Rear brake feathered, then locked when you want to get the back end to turn a bit. Look for grippy bits of trail to turn on and ruts to commit to. Get used to the bike moving under you and trust it. Your bike doesn’t want to crash any more than you do.

You hear so much talk of ‘rules’ about road riding in groups as if rules are automatically a bad thing. You ride in a certain way to be safe and respectful of the rest of the group and you do that in the same way regardless of whether the group has 2 or 200 members. MTBing has rules too – you ride in certain places, you only go one way round a trail centre track – same idea, same reasons, surely?

Bars – any aluminium road bars will be fine. Even the pros tend to steer clear of carbon because you’re so likely to get knocks, large and small, on a CX bike. Pick whatever shape feels comfy for you from the huge number of choices on offer. I like ITM Ergosum – shallow drop so you can get in the drops easily and with a nice smooth bend on the lower section. Tape? I’d say something that washes clean easily! Fizik glossy tape is grippy enough and stayed shiny for the whole season, but you might prefer something with more padding like Cinelli cork or similar.

Hold on a minute. There are two questions here and we’re getting them muddled. On the question of evolution (presumably by mutation and natural selection) versus species existing in a steady state, you can have a meaningful debate, following which the steady-staters will lose out because all the evidence we have supports evolution. The mere existence of fossilised dinosaurs, regardless of their age, does not provide convincing evidence of evolution on its own. After all, our contrary steady-stater could argue that each type of dinosaur was created perfect (but not so perfect that the many species managed to survive until now), millions of years ago and no evolutionary processes were involved. This makes him a different kind of woodentop to the one who denies genetics, carbon dating, geology, physics and all those other pesky details that trouble literal creationists.

I’m with the OP. When I got back into MTBing a few years ago, I went hooning round a local circuit and was frustrated because although I was trying hard, I felt like I was riding badly. I blamed the trail for being too bitty and twisty. (!) That was no fun, so I went with the old, ‘slow is smooth, smooth is fast’ thing and tried to ride it without braking (it’s almost all flat). End result was I went quicker, pedalled less and touched the brakes twice in about 4 km. When I tried to go fast again, I was much smoother and minutes quicker than before, for the same effort.

Why does your mate insist you need full sus? Is he fed up waiting for you at the bottom of every descent? Does he want to go exploring super-technical trails? I’m sure that for a given type of bike, adding rear suspension makes it more comfortable, maybe a bit more capable, perhaps even faster, but surely it only becomes necessary when performance is absolutely paramount? I dunno. I’ve never properly ridden a full bouncer.
For information, I’ve only got one MTB, a 29er, a hardtail Stumpjumper Comp carbon with 80 mm travel forks. It does me for trail centre stuff: that’s everything at Afan, Brechfa, FoD and Hopton XC trails and CwmCarn, but I had to go steady on the DH track I tried. It’s done Brecon, The Peak District and XC races, including Wheal Maid Quarry and Hadleigh Farm.

Bubba Ho-Tep.

1993 Pinarello Treviso, recently resprayed. The photo was taken at the top of the Col de la Croix de Fer this Summer. God does it shift down hills! 🙂

Oh, can’t we all just get along?
If I’ve got this right, in a car, if you want to pull out and overtake, you do the whole ‘mirror signal manoeuvre’ thing. Ideally, you don’t oblige the faster guy coming up behind you to slow down, you indicate your intention and if absolutely necessary, they slow down to let you out but that’s their choice. They might flash you to let you know. You check this, then move. Same with the bike. I find that a good look over my shoulder, not just a quick glance, is enough to let the observant driver know you’ve seen them and you’re about to do something. Nine times out of ten, I don’t even feel the need to indicate to move out. I’ve negotiated for the space, check I’ve been given it, make my manoeuvre and acknowledge the fact with a wave or whatever. I didn’t notice the guy in the video do much in the way of observation behind him, just sayin’.

aracer, nice try at a ‘reductio ad absurdam’ move on nealglover but I suspect there’s a significant difference between the two cases. Taking a wide position in a narrow road to prevent dodgy overtaking stunts is a safety issue. You do that to protect yourself. Pulling out to overtake a slower rider is a convenience issue. There is no danger in waiting behind the dawdler.
Having said that, it’s not certain that there was a fault in the rider’s overtaking move in the video. At least he looked behind before moving out of his lane, but it was a bit last minute and he may have already committed himself to the overtake anyway. He could probably have done better.

Gunz said » I’ve never seen the attraction of having to learn a whole load of ‘rules’ just so I can cycle in a massive group, it just seems to spoil the essential freedom that cycling’s all about.

And he’s not the only one. This might be a bit controversial and I’m not sure how much I agree with it, but we’re prepared to learn a whole lot of rules to drive cars and whatnot on the roads, why not bikes? Anyway, how many of these oppressive ‘rules’ are for the benefit of the rest of the group (and I’m sure none of use would say it was a bad idea to look out for each other and not cause crashes) and how many are for the benefit of other road users? Is it even possible to make such a distinction?

Pitt Rivers museum. Like a mini British Museum.

Err, JoeG, you might want to check that your LBS guy really is all that excellent. Standard derailleur housing has wires running along it in a very gentle spiral. Excellent for resisting compression without changing length (so good for precise rear gears, and probably feels ok initially in your brakes) but not designed to resist really heavy loads. The only thing restraining the wires from buckling outwards under compression is the plastic outer of the housing. If that lets go, your outer will split and you’ll have no braking whatsoever. Either your LBS man has used something funky, like the Yokozuna cables, or he’s possibly an eejit and you want to get some brake cable outers on sharpish.

See Sheldon on cables (http://sheldonbrown.com/cables.html)

cp, thanks. I like it too. Well, them actually.
It’s a 42 ring and the cassette varies according to the race. 12-25 if it’s flat, 11 or 12-28 if there’s a hill or two. I haven’t managed to find a ‘proper’ chain device – combination of a braze on mech support and a funny-shaped seat tube – but the fixed front mech has worked perfectly so far, 12 races and no problems.

One of the identical twins:

+1 to all the commenters, but I have to confess I had a similar problem on a Zipp 303 when a spoke pinged and the nipple disappeared into the rim. Solution? Carefully peel back 10 to 15 cm of tub, shake out old nipple, replace spoke, reglue, making sure that glue covered every bit of the peeled back area, wait 24 hrs, race. If the thing was glued on properly in the first place, there will be good contact between the rim and tub basetape with no un-glued areas. All you need to do is keep everything clean and make the existing glue tacky again by putting a fresh layer on the rim.
Probably.

First Wessex League ‘cross race this season. The photographer has done a good job of making me look fast.

It’s racing. Using ‘tactics’ is part and parcel, but if you’re excessively negative, you’re just masking your own lack of ability. If you’re in a race, you can pick lines around corners which might not be the fastest, but you’ll make it impossible for others to pass. Similarly, if someone picks a ‘racing line’ round a corner, you might squeeze through on the inside and get in front cleanly, even though you hold them up because their line choice was faster overall. You might also end up cornering side-by-side, leaning on each other. That’s fun 😀
What’s not done is to swerve across the track on straight bits to block someone who’s trying to overtake by simply riding faster that you. Speed up, yes, but switch people? Not nice. Likewise, repeatedly ‘stalling’ at the top of a bank? You might get a reputation. Or a smashed rear mech.

I followed the link, I’m sorry. I then compounded my sin by clicking on another story, entitled
“Another cycling fatality in London as a cyclist is crushed in a (sic) horrorifc (sic) accident”.
Of 16 comments below the line, only one appeared to have been posted by a real human being. It expressed sorrow, offered sympathy and gently chastised the other commenters. All the others seemed to enjoy the fact of this old man’s death. There were anecdotes of cyclist misbehaviour, of arrogance, of “holier-than-thou green own-the-road attitudes”: all manner of variations on the theme of “he deserved it”.
I was quite cheery today, up until that point. Now I’m quite dismayed by the sheer self-serving insensitivity of some people.

I’ve been using a pair of 2″ Beavers. Very good. Hook up well even in clay-ey muck and aren’t too slow-rolling either. The sidewalls on the lightweight version are a bit thin so probably not so good for training and general larking about.

I know it’s only a Specialized but with some lighter wheels replacing the stock ones, it doesn’t half shift.

Lots of good tips here.
Smoothness and weight distribution are important. Really weight the inside handlebar and outside foot – that’s what ‘the tripod’ forces you to do.
So is line choice. If the inside line is the popular line, it can get chewed up so you might be faster going around the outside where there’s grip, even if it’s further.
Finally, just be aware that there’s a big difference in grip between allrounders like XGs or Grifos and full mud tyres like a Rhino or Limus. Add to that supple carcasses and lower pressures; that’s what all the fuss with tubs is about.

I vote for Epping Forest. This was taken Christmas 2012:

dobo, you could just pop down and watch for a bit? It can be entertaining, instructive and maybe a little awe-inspiring to see the top racers in action.

Good question. I’ve tried umpteen sorts of cantis and honestly, they really aren’t much of a muchness at all. I’ve just upgraded some Crux Elite brakes for a friend as she hated the rubbish ones it came with. I fitted some Froggleg-style brakes, TRP Eurox, and they were a great improvement; good for CX racing but still not particularly strong and need a bit of fiddling to get them to work the way you want. More power comes from things like Avid Shorty 4 or 6, (cheap but also quite fiddly to set up) and Avid Shorty Ultimate (good but very expensive), Shimano ones are good. I’ve just started using CX-70s and I like them. They have as much stopping power as dual-pivot road calipers and were particularly easy to set up. If you want even more power, go to mini-Vs or TRP CX9.0. These are powerful but have less mud clearance than cantis, there’s very little pad travel so they don’t cope well with wobbly wheels or swapping between wheels with different rim widths and they need adjustment as the pads wear.

dobo, Basingstoke is largely but not totally flat. There are also some woods, a BMX track and some tricky off-camber bits in a addition to the fields.

Unless it’s a UCI race (i.e., Nat Champs or National Trophy, you can ride anything. No restrictions about fixed (although the timing of mounting and dismounting would be, let’s say, tricky) and bar ends must be securely plugged.

4 inch nail through the sidewall, 4 hours into the Erlestoke 6hr enduro. Couldn’t leave the nail in and the hole was too big for sealant to fix it. To add insult to injury, I pinched the bloody tube trying to wrestle it in while everything was covered in a mixture of Stan’s and squirty foam sealant.

Over lubrication is the single biggest cause of bearing failure!

Really?? Not overloading, misalignment, contamination, loss of lubricant, corrosion, overheating or fatigue?
So grease (thin, smeary, lubricating stuff that it is) can stop shiny steel things from rotating, yet I can scoop it out of the pot with my finger?
Are you absolutely sure?
Put in too much grease and surely the worst thing that happens is it gets squeezed out, leaving mucky smears everywhere. But I’m open to being corrected…

For utter filth, there doesn’t seem to be much between FMB supermuds (V. nice but flippin expensive at £80!) Dugast Rhinos (yes, you need to seal them, big deal, but they do grip well and if you look after them, the tread gets pretty worn before the carcass rots. You can pick them up for less than £60 now.) and Challenge Limus (same price, maybe a bit less flexible but not much in it.) Last weekend, the front-runners at Abergavenny were on a mixture of these. Needless to say, the good riders also have the skill to handle them at speed with silly pressures.