I didn’t know that…when eating honeydew melon as a kid, I was always told not to eat too close to the rind as it would give me ‘bad guts’. Must be different for water melons. :-)

Is the backing on the pads bare metal or are they the black painted one’s? If they’re painted, sand it off the back of them.

mafiafish –
I’m sure it’s the same for many places with big MTB scenes making the local routes a high standard.

I live quite close to Keswick in Cumbria. When I was stuck for somewhere to ride or only had a couple of hours spare, the Borrowdale Bash and Whinlatter were my go to routes. I can’t take it easy on either of those routes now as I’m trying to hold on to the positions I’ve got or claw an extra few places up the leaderboards…yes, it’s sad I know. Although it does wonders for your fitness, it’s the same for those you’re trying to beat too!

Like others have said, KOM’s don’t mean a great deal on a lot of segments…I ride with a few folk who can annihilate me, but they haven’t or have only just got GPS’.
Even though I’ve got 79 KOM’s (I had over a 100), half of those were got on foreign trails or places where not many folk ride. I’d only class myself as an average rider too.

iain1775 – Member

Assuming to qualify as a ‘trail centre’ there has to be on site facilities like a shop/cafe then

I wouldn’t have said that a trail centre has to have any facilities except the trails. A few of the Seven Stanes have nothing but a car park and portaloo…I guess many would still say they’re a trail centre though?

Buy this instead. You can buy it on a cd, it’s a bit cheaper and has all the routes on as pdf’s…then you can just print which route you want instead of carrying the book.
Vertebrate Graphics [/url]

Screw on to the frame? Has your frame already got the threaded holes to do so, in it?

Depending on if you’re able to pick the materials up yourself, you could go to your local scrapyard. I was going to suggest old scaffolding bars but it would take more time preparing the joints for welding. They’d probably have plenty of angle iron and box section as well though.

I’ve never tried the black chili version but the normal compound one’s are lethal on wet rock, the way the outside knobblies are zigzagged doesn’t help either…buy some Maxxis instead.

Nevermind the tax…it can be the postage you have to watch out for. The last time I bought a frame from over the pond, the postage was nearly £200. 8O

Look here: Alpkit News link
There are a few prototype bags out there I think but there was a competition where if you sent a template for your frame, you could win a custom bag. This would be presented to you at the Welsh Ride Thing. I don’t know how my folk entered the competition but they will have the templates from those that did.
As already discussed, I think they’re starting out with custom one’s very shortly and maybe we’ll see a few off the shelf models too.

NorthCountryBoy – Looks like you’re all set to go! Roll on some better weather! :-)

Is this your problem? (An old post of mine on MTBR).

You’re not going to be able to get any fitter from now til then. Go for an easy ride the day before if you’ve got time.
Have a good weekend! :-)

jonah tonto – Member

stu, a lot of the dead badgers you see at the side of the road are covered in dog bites
killed by dogs by sickos as some kind of entertainment and then dumped on the road to look like they have been run over.

god help anyone i catch doing that

I’m totally against killing badgers myself, especially when it comes to doing it with dogs. They’re as tough as old boots, thats why folk hunt them. It’s brutal and goes on for ages. I know some folk who used to do it though. Them being the kind of characters they were, they would have stoved your head in if you had tried to stop them/intervene. Sad but true. Most are in jail now for other offences!

The Feed Zone by Bijou Thomas and Dr Allen Lim has some good recipes in. It’s American though, some of the ingredients for a few of the recipes can be hard to find and the measurements are usually stated in ‘cups’…I just bought some big measuring spoons rather than converting anything.

Ignore

Sorry for going off topic again Motorman, it had to be done though! :lol:
Mattsccm back in the day!

The Swede –

druidh – Member

If he’s still seeing the splines, he hasn’t tightened the crank on far enough.

Although I can see your frustration as it should be a simple task. It sounds like something is already knackered to me.
OP – it is a 8mm allen key you’re using, not a 10mm?

If he’s still seeing the splines, he hasn’t tightened the crank on far enough.

Fair point.
OP – Don’t get the hammer out! You’ll knacker the bolt or something else!

What width is the B/B shell on the frame and how many spacers are you using on the B/B (between the cups and the frame)?

Motorman – My bar bag is a Large, Bikepack Double-twist SL. The small bag John is using is the same as mine, a Jannd Frame Pac…only available from the US as far as I know. Look for them on Ebay, the postage is cheaper when bought off there rather than Jannd themselves. Parcelfarce charge an £8 handling fee too!

Sorry for the thread going off track…For most folk, when using a saddle bag, dropping the saddle by a substantial amount is not an option though.

Links to my setup are:

My Bike with Bikepack Bags (Bike and Bivi)
My One Nighters and Gear Shakedown (MTBR – Scroll down for bike setup and kit list)

Rik – Member

Saddlebags are fine absolutely to ride normally in techincal terrain, I can still drop my saddle 5 inches with the Revelate saddlebag so it just hovers over the rear tyre. Also lowers the centre of gravity too.

You can tell I’ve too much time on my hands when I’ve just looked through lots of pics of bikepacking setups and found that out of all of them, only one or two would be able to drop their saddles by more than a couple of inches…either the bag would catch the tyre or the bags attachment to the post would bottom out. Don’t believe the hype folks!
The only thing I can think is that Rik must have loads of seatpost showing and/or using a Pika bag rather than the bigger Viscacha?

Try not to compare everybody to your own ability and limits. I certainly know where mine are.

Oh, and if you want to be a Rik about things…I’ve just stalked you on Strava, how many pages of KOM’s have you got? Come back with statements like that when you have some speed about you. :roll:

Rik – Try not to compare everybody to your own ability and limits. I certainly know where mine are.

Whatever!

If your carrying the right kit a loaded bike is still not heavy.

I know it isn’t, I never said it was. Although it can be awkward carrying with bags attached.

Rik – I still ride fast and do all the jumps and drops i would normally do in the Peak/Lakes trails if i’m staying out for the night

I should have stated I wasn’t really talking about jumps and drops, more steep, technical descents. I live in the Lakes and have rode nearly everywhere, legal or not when not bikepacking. I wouldn’t fancy trying a lot of it while doing it though. If you can ride your loaded bike down a lot of the off-road passes round here I’d be very surprised! I don’t think a lot of folk would be up for the hike-a-bike to get up to them with a loaded bike either…but that’s another matter.

Motorman – Have you see this post: bike-options-for-bikepacking (on STW)?
I posted some links near the bottom of the post…There’s a lot of info on the Bikepack.eu bags on Bike and Bivi.
Have you looked at the Fatbike forum on MTBR too?

I’ve a Bikepack saddle bag and bar bag. I’m very pleased with them but I’m thinking of ditching the saddle bag for some rides, as I can’t ride technical descents with it being in the way! A problem with all saddlebags though…If I didn’t live near a load of mountains it wouldn’t be a problem.

Urban Hunter[/url] have a good range. Some aren’t cheap though.

Instant hit – drop me an email (in profile).

Dave Nice is currently doing the TDR on a SS.

Edit – He’s riding it fixed too!

Flanagaj – If you haven’t seen the film ‘Ride the Divide’, drop me an email.

The Southern Yeti – Member

Not wanting to pee on your chips ol’ lad but you only rode your first 100 at the weekend.

You’ll not do it.

He might have a point…just realised it was you asking about not sleeping after a 6.5hr ride.
Can you imagine yourself riding all day, everyday for more than three weeks? If so, do the training and go for it. If not then don’t waste your time. Do you realise how many top level cyclists want to or have tried to but can’t because their bodies won’t let them?

Ask the same question on Bear Bones Bikepacking!
I think there could be quite a bit of info on MTBR as well.

kudos100 – Member

For technical/wrenching advice it is one of the better sites.

Some of the product recommendations are total nonsense. Quite a few people have no idea what they are talking about, but still offer advice.

Also advice about riding technique is often laughable. Either that or ‘go and see jedi, he walks on water’ as if it is not possible to improve your riding without seeing a coach.

There is a lot of pap, but sift through the crap and there is some useful stuff here.

Someone who speaks sense.

unklehomered – Member

Is alright, I sometimes poke the internet with a stick when I’m bored at work too…

:lol:

DezB – Member

No examples then.
Pointless.

DesB, If I wanted to argue with folk over their recommendations, I would have done it in the original posts. I’m not going to start naming people or pointing to what they’ve said…I should have commented at the time.

scuzz – My bugbear is people on any forum replying with ‘this has already been discussed’ or ‘use the search function’. But nothing is worse than people who criticise other posters’ replies without adding content of their own

I was making making a statement, I couldn’t care less if it’s been discussed before. I wasn’t really looking for any information as whatever anyone says here doesn’t change anything that’s been said in other threads.
Most new posts I make are on different forums that have the information/specific topics organised better than STW. (MTBR, BearBones Bikepacking, Bike and Bivi et al…).

nealglover – Member

Some of the recommendations on here are for poor or inferior products though, things i personally dont like it makes me wonder why some people offer their advice when they obviously have no clue their opinion is different to mine

That sounds more like what you seem to mean ?

Not at all, I’m open to peoples suggestions. I just don’t like it when someone says something is good when it really is not. Bike tyres for example, but that is opening up another can of worms. There are certain products I’ve tried and wouldn’t have given them away to my worst enemy…then I see people recommending the same item on here!

Blue is the Sky

The black dot near the middle is a damn pidgeon!

jambalaya – Member

We are fat because we as a nation are eating pre-prepared food laden with calories and sugar, ditto fizzy drinks. Add in desk based jobs and little or no exersize.

Wrong – The reason why people are fat is because they eat too much. You can eat what you want, if you don’t eat too much of it you won’t get fat.

Leaving Early

(Towards Black Sail Pass)

OP – What style of bike are you riding? I use them on my hardtail, as gingerss says, they’re a good all-rounder. (UST Version has the best puncture resistance I’ve come across in a 2.1 tyre too).
I wouldn’t use them on my trail full-sus though, that’s where I’d be fitting something a little wider and with more bite for the corners.