Done nothing about it because they are hiding behind “we are using a service provider” for the GDPR Privacy Statement.

Service provider (StreamAMP) will almost certainly be able to enable the “Disallow All” button if asked.

Saw it this morning.

“We value your privacy”

The four or five pages with 50+ checkboxes on them each (look at the size of the scrollbar handle on the second screenshot) suggest otherwise.

There should be a “Disallow All” option here.

“pre-selected companies”

Has anyone at STW has vetted these companies? Seems like they’re just in the pool of trackers they’re signed up to.

> Sounds great Dougal, what shock are you running on yours?

Fox Float DPX2 Performance. Does the job, even has enough adjustability to make it play nice with my light weight.

I have one, had it since early July. Foxy R frame and forks, built with my own choice of kit. Ridden it ~40 hours in the alps, ~30 hours in Scottish steep stuff.

Have a 160mm Bikeyoke Revive seatpost, goes in just fine as long as you remember to aim the cable stop at the correct side of the bike for the cable guides that are on the drive-side of the split seat tube. Size medium frame.

Pinkbike review is pretty spot on. It rewards confident and aggressive riding. Goes round tight corners as well as every other bike I’ve had, but this might depend on what type of rider you are.

fifeandy – Member

They asked for feedback after last season via a rider representative and were given the exact same feedback along with a fair range of suggestions via the Trail Scotland forum. They then chose to ignore all feedback and carry on exactly as before.
Unsurprisingly, participation levels have not increased.

There’s a different committee for 2016, worth raising the same issues again.

Or start your own series. ;)

Sandbaggers – This is what I’ve seen as the no.1 problem for years. I was a very vocal supporter of ditching the Masters category in SXC races, it made the pot-hunters angry, but racing got better and closer in both E/E and Sport as a result.

Series should be more aggressive about kicking people up categories. In Ireland they seem to be good at doing this, with races I’ve attended there having far bigger E/E fields that their populations would have you assume. Even mid series, with some sort of adjusted ranking for points already gained.

Relying on the BC ranking system to do this is short sighted. It took me five years to get from Expert to Elite, with three of those years finishing 6th in the ranking so not getting moved up. I could handily beat most of the guys above me, but geography meant that it was impractical to go point hunting to get the move up. I eventually just phoned someone at BC and made it happen.

Technical courses – Yep, agree. I love a technical course, so much so I’m always the first to throw the toys out the pram if it’s a roadie fest. Can’t go too mad with it though, else you end up with features that the majority can’t ride. Often, technical-when-fast is what you want.

At this point most people could/should be running a dropper post. I have one for next year, more about going faster on the descents, than making anything rideable, but there is a tangible benefit for everyone.

Roadies on plastic bikes – This is a symptom, not a cause IMO. It’s a horribly tough sport to do well at, and most people don’t live near good mountain biking, and are stuck in a weight-is-everying mindset.

I’ve not been on a road bike in over two years, I haven’t shaved my legs in the same time, and I’ve raced an alloy bike for four seasons. Despite this, I’ve got better rather than worse, and enjoyed myself more.

SXC AGM is coming up soon, might be an opportunity for a few on here to put their ideas into action, rather than pointlessly posting them on the internet. Other series are available.

Stage 1 – Tight, twisting, loamy plummet. Almost no pedalling.
Stage 2 – 5+ minute pedally trail centre section. My worst stage by far in terms of results.
Stage 3 – Fast heather, dodgy bridge over fence, more fast heather, heather climb, more fast heather, short forestry road climb, 3+ minutes of descending similar to stage 1. An absolute hoot to race, scary fast up top, with the bottom being a struggle to keep a good position on the bike to go fast.
Stage 4 – Same as S3 last year.
Stage 5 – Same as S4 last year.
Stage 6 – Same as S6 last year.

Marshalls on practice, no riding down walkers paths, 1/3 of the heather bashing stages, trails signed as closed, mint weather. A definite improvement over last year.

I think (not a lawyer), that regardless of the previously mentioned waver signing, that any collision would be treated the same was as it would be anywhere in Scotland. The fact that there is a race on is irrelevant to the access laws.

No trail user can reasonably expect exclusive use of a trail, unless a Section 11 is in force.

Riding round with a mate for a look-see: I don’t see any problem with this.

BoardinBob – Member

Ok, so you don’t expect it. You meet a non-competitor. You collide with and injure them. Whose fault is that? Yours. Regardless of what waiver you have or haven’t signed as part of the event.

Expect it!

AFAIK, the only Scottish enduro race to ever get a Section 11 was Vallelujah 2016, where the area of Caidmuir used for the race was inaccessible to the public.

Every other race it is reasonable to expect other trails users.

I do agree that with some planning this can be minimized. I had no issues at Glenlivet, regarding other trail users or missing tape. Remembering which way to go is part of the game too IMO.

That I should expect to meet walkers and recreational riders on a stage

This.

Northwind – Member 
Not going this year.

^ Found the mincer.

Judging from the secret unreleased map I got a swatch of, they have quite a bit of new stuff. Seems like less of the open hill bashing than last year, and a better loop.

GavinB – Member
meeting groups of walkers (legitimately) on the Speyside Way (Stage 3, I think), then dad having a (legitimate) ride on the red route with his son and daughter which was used for 4 and 5

You realise on the practice days this is to be expected? Unless the organiser gets Section 11, the Land Reform legislation still applies, even on race day.

Body wear on Candy pedals is the main issue for me recently. They last about a year before the body is so worn my shoes wobble about on them, defeating the point of having the bigger body.

qwerty –
Special spring tools needed.

You got sold a lie there.

Springs on CB pedals are only under compression when you’re clipping in, or try to unclip.

Assemble the spring and wings, place in body, slide the central shaft section in.

No tools required.

It’s not a case of not-sending someone, it’s a case of not having any places to send someone to fill.

Here is the list of countries with qualified places:

http://mtbcrosscountry.com/olympic-games-qualification-points.html

On race day a previously muddy hole right off the start line of stage 2 had got a lot deeper, with a kerb sized and shaped rock at it’s exit. 50/50 for puncturing on this for the four guys starting in front of me. Then about 30s-1min in there was a long fast section across moorland with rocks embedded in it. There were groups of riders here during my race run fixing punctures.

Sometimes no amount of sidewall and tubeless will allow you to get away with a proper rear end slam.

Given the weather forecast and the specific risk due to speed/obstacles for each trail, I provide the following rating for the trails:

Ugh, forum doesn’t support Emoji, so there goes my Ambulance Emoji chart. Let’s just say there are lots of ambulances parked at the bottom of Walk or Burn and Pro “Spacer”.

Hope you’ve all got mud tyres for Day 2. ;)

Mavic produce a lookey-likey rear wheel built with the front rim and 24 spokes for their pros, so it looks like they’re on standard enduros for the promo shots but they’re effectively on SXs… Make of that what you will! Hands up everyone who thinks rear wheels should be weaker than fronts…

The 2015 wheels are the same width rims front and rear, no custom builds.

Northwind Sounds like a good base to improve on for year 2?

This. Heard some stuff, it could be very awesome.

SES 2015 dates should be announced over the Inners weekend or shortly after.

jambalaya – Member
Cash. Can see their point given the fees charged by credit/debit card companies

No, it seems like you missed the point entirely.

All-On-Black – Member
I raced the 5th round of the British xc nationals 2 years ago and it was tough! It was exactly the same as the Olympics then so can’t comment on the changes but the Olympic course over 3 laps saw me do 16 miles and over 3,500ft of climbing.. So it’s not flat and even the climbs had rock gardens in!

Did you get lost? The lap course is only 4.5km long and ~120m of climbing.

I imagine the granny green one was put in for the lads and lasses that are quick on the pedals. The rest was fairly dh orientated.

Put in because otherwise the event would be a ride-up DH race, not an enduro. If it’s any consolation, the folks smoking the DH stages are also the folks smoking this stage. Fitness is of benefit in every stage.

Shimano XT 11-speed 11-40 or 11-42. £74.99 retail.

Fire in the hole!

Waiting for the SRAM fanboys to bring up weight, range, etc.

http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/shimano-2016-11-speed-xt/%5B/url%5D

Had a ride there this morning, followed the course for a lap. Most of the time is actually hard to see there has been a race on. In lots of places the trails have even been cleaned of debris by the volume of riders.

Loam lover is hardly the Passchendaele described by B.S. above. The climb is in the great nick it was before. The descent just has a more obvious line in it now, with a little bit of a channel on the flatter bit. The roots exposed at the top of the first steep(ish) section are the same roots that were on the surface before. This is exactly how I would expect an un-dug trail to evolve during a race.

Well done to Aaron and co on the armouring work that went in on various bits, they chose where to put effort in carefully, and it has worked well.

This has been going on at the singletrack down to Balerno for years, all the way back to the nail incidents in 2006-2007 (hence some people calling it The Nail Trail). Same person(s)?

I don’t ride there often these days, but if I ride in succession over a few days I observe sticks I move being back the next day. I wonder if a trail camera setup on a tree at a point where lots of sticks are put down would catch the perp.

The Loam Lover section dug by Phil

The definition of “dug” must have changed since I last looked at a dictionary. Loam lover was about the most natural trail going, zero digging or bench cutting.

@bigjim – This is the toughest one of the year. No other SES round has the same steepness or change in elevation of this round. The other rounds will be more mellow. Keep at it!

Next SL with 32T ring is 439g.

There are lighter options, but I wouldn’t trust the THM or the Lightning not to break as eating implements, never mind on my trail or XC bike.

also some orrible Pentlands rides to try it out for that

Overbiked much?

Keen to try some, will wait till I’m through the current stock of Mary and Vigilante first.

much better on really low grip stuff

Where, Andrew? I imagine I ride most of the same stuff as you, not found any fault in the Mary, apart from it, like almost every tyre, being a bit skittery when braking on slabbed rock at high speed.

Forgot about the M950/M952 distinction. For some reason I always think the first Olympic XC was on 9 speed.

I don’t consider the 10s groupsets to be the same MY, they were available exactly a year apart. Like I said, same this time.

njee20 – Member
All bets are off really, as with 9 speed in 1999 and 10 speed in 2011 they did XTR/XT/(S)LX at the same time, so you could instantly mix and match.

9 speed XTR M950 was available in 1996. 9 speed XT didn’t appear till M750 in 1999.

10 speed XTR was available in late 2010. 10 speed XT and SLX was shown off in April 2011 (Sea Otter), and not available till late 2011.

I imagine they will do the same this time around.

After-market is a tiny part of Shimano’s business. And for all you fretting about them not keeping up with OEM stuff, just look at all the bikes this year that come with Shimano brakes where they had SRAM last year.

60kg rider. A week in, I have the following:

60psi ~20% sag with riding gear on.
10/20 clicks on rebound.
7/13 clicks on low speed compression.
Tyres are 20psi front, 23psi rear.

I plan to test lower fork pressure this week, see how it goes, but things are handling very well so far.

What JCL says above is entirely true. As a light rider you will notice small changes in setup, so get used to writing the settings down, checking them, and noting how different settings feel. Same for tyres and tyre pressures.

chip – Member
No cover plate to cap the display

10s XT shifters don’t come with the cover plate. 9s did. Discovered this a few weeks back.

Another vote for American Classic here. I have two sets, one of which is now 7 years old, and has been through a whole host of axle conversions as things have moved on.

Great hubs, easy to work on (unlike DT Swiss they don’t require a special tool to service the freehub), reliable, and very fast due to the clever freehub mechanism.

The man said experts, not guessers.

M981 – Shadow, non-clutch mech. A standard mech.
M985 – Shadow+, clutch mech. The one most people probably want.
M986 – Shadow+, clutch mech, direct mount. Same as M985, but with no B-link, designed to go on a bike with a direct-mount dropout. You’d know if you needed this.

wysiwyg – Have 176? Love the tubeless fail pic, hope the rider was OK.

Rocket is being modest, I only saw him crash once. ;)

Oli – Had the wrong time yesterday, you bet me by less than the time I lost on the last stage. Next year! :)

Nobeerinthefridge – Member

And saying there is no ‘traverse’ makes you sound quite ersit.

It makes me sound what? No need to make this thread personal.

As with Northwind, I’d argue that none of that counts as traverse. Semantics.

Scotroutes – Ah, I see now. Missed the bit where they poked at the map.

scotroutes – Member

Getting lost in the Torridon traverse – how? Unless it’s changed a lot since I was last there you have to specifically make the wrong turn rather than just carry on up the glen and it’s immediately obvious as the terrain is just too steep to be the north-bound trail.

Traverse? There’s no traverse. Hannah went North from Coulags, and took the right instead of the left at the junction (OS NG 937 508) above the loch. That section of trail is a 2ft or so deep trench, easy to miss the junction if you’re carrying a bike with your head down, as it’s on an already tight bend in the main trail.

From where they ended up, I reckoned there was no “off piste” required. Just carry on until the paths meet up again.

They appear to off-piste around the south side of Meall Dearg, following the contour lines to save dropping back. If you carry on the paths never meet, and you end up 6km East of Torridon village on the road. Plus the descent is rubbish* that way.

Agree on your other points though, Kenny.

* For some value of rubbish in Torridon.