Somewhere around the number that Explosion has – spread across a mix of road, 'cross, hardtails and full sussers :oops:

Yeah I've got / had various RockShox and Magura forks – and not had any detectable play in either make…

Also, when playing with a friend's bike which has Menjas on, nowt in the way of play in those.

Hope that's of use.

Love the Nobby Nics comment – I'd better get out there on mine! :D

Spare mech hanger (I bent mine somehow on day 4).

Sealskinz and boots.

Brake pads.

Ear plugs or better yet an iPod to drown out the bloke snoring like a jackhammer who inevitably ends up in the adjacent tent (truth, never heard anything as bad, got about 2 hrs broken sleep that night – and it wasn't even a rider, it was his very lardy "support" mate). :x

And a full tub of chamois cream. 8O

Will do, GSI-MAN. The one I sent to you and Thurman Merman ended up in his spam box so might be in there?

SC Superlight for keeping fun as simple as it can be with full suss.

And the Salsa Moto Rapido for being a bike that refuses to be just pootled, it can only go fast. Great paint job too ;-)

Hi GSI MAN + Thurman Merman, just dropped you an e-mail so hopefully we can arrange some local (or not so local) pootling sessions :wink:

Looks like the results are up on the Timelaps site already – excellent work by them!

Wookster, TW is great physical prep for the Kielder as you'll get superfit, but mentally and tactically it's a different proposition – on TW you need to keep something in the tank for each following day and the cutoff times are not too meaningful, whereas for Kielder pacing yourself to make the cutoffs and leave nowt in the tank by the end <but not before> is really hard.

Will be trying to ramp up the mileage and durations through to August, with HONC being an early milestone followed by a couple of 12 hour solos (which are probably a good surrogate for the mental stamina needed) and some (80-120 mile) sportives.

Like ace_sparky, aiming to do the 100km to get the miles in for Kielder (unfinished business…). This makes the 5th HONC for me, but first 100km.

Got in at about #214 at about 0930, and then paid for a mate to get in around 14:30 and it was already at about #820!

A fine event as ever from the SPAM people who are, as WCA said, ever so nice – thanks for kicking off my new decade of events!

To the guy from Frome that I was talking to, drop me a line if you want to, to hook up for some rides – I was the one just moved to Zummerzet, near Bruton, still piecing together new loops :-)

Hope everyone has a great 2010.

Off to Afan this arvo for the weekend with some mates :D

Over the last 5 years I've ordered 2 bikes off them and a fair bit of kit, always been very good deals and quick at delivering.

SC Superlight was perfect. Sure, you could go lighter but after such a long time in the saddle comfort becomes a big factor.

Mike, where'd you get the info about stricter enforcement on cutoff times?

Like mick and Big Dave said. mick seems to have my bike! I've run it with the 1.8" Bonty XRs, still lots of clearance, and even 29" Smokes, would you believe!

I swapped to Vs from frogglegs as was getting tired of giving a week's notice to slow down – haven't really noticed any difference in clearance since (but can go faster because I know I can stop in time!).

Think of it as a bike that be anything from a drop bar 29er to a loaded tourer and that covers a lot if fun on one bike. Liked it so much I got the Traveller's Check version to take anywhere, so will be bidding farewell to the frame soon :cry: (sniff)

You go past Loose Bottom when doing the South Downs Way.

Lickfold always makes me snigger.

I had a mate who lived in Shitterton.

We went through the aforementioned Muff en route to diving in Donegal. Well, you have to don't you?

I once saw it described as "XC designed by a downhiller" – which was pretty close to how it feels! Definitely a lot harder / more technical than the GT red and most of the GT black. Fun though!

Lower Loop, Crested Butte, Colorado

Request on its way to you, YGM!

He is great. And incredibly self-effacing, you'd never know he was a wheelbuilding deity!

24-25th July – really looking forward to it!

Decided to do the 12hr for a change and watch everyone else do the hard work for the next 12 :D

Yeah I did TransWales this year as a toe-in-the-water for TransRockies – wanted to see if I could cope with a multi-stage event before potentially blowing (even more) cash on the TR.

As it turned out, I coped, and more than that – it was good fun. It must be said, we were lucky with the weather, it coud've been a different story otherwise.

Things I learned were:
– make sure you're in as good shape as possible, it's much more enjoyable: even a slight injury can make life miserable
– get a massage every day (see above)
– don't skimp on getting your bike in top fettle / take spares (esp. rear mech / hangers)
– learn to love your bike (the one you'll be up close and personal with all week) before the event as well as during it
– eat lots
– drink even more
– be prepared to kill any snorers in the immediate vicinity: it's hard enough coping with the endurance during the day let alone at night
– smile at people, it's fun

I did ask one guy who had done TransRockies who was on this TransWales how they compared and he reckoned TW might be more technical, but less daily distance. On any one day, the distance isn't too bad, it's the accumulation of it, so treat yourself.

Hope that's of some use. Everyone copes differently!

Surly Cross Check?

Covers a lot of the road / off-road bases: takes 1.8" 29er knobblies / hubs can be either 130 or 135mm for a road or off-road set-up. Takes racks and mudguards so great for commuting / touring. Runs geared or singlespeed. Lots of options!

Huge fun to ride, the steel frame may not be the lightest / most technologically up-to-date but it rides really light.

Ta muchly for the update Dobo – great news! From the forecasts it looks like the wind is WNW veering to NW by Sunday so it should be a tailwind going from Winchester to Eastbourne, wahay!

Although I do seem to have a knack for going into headwinds all the round a circular loop, not sure how that happens, so who knows…

Steady on, Stumpy! 8O

Thanks for the advice dobo – I'm interpreting this as I'd need to cut off the long velcro straps and substitute with cable ties? Certainly the straps seem to be the root cause of the rub as they're quite thick, and zip ties would be a lot thinner.

Good timing with this tip as I'm doing the SDW at the weekend and the forecast is a bit wet for Saturday – after being dry for weeks, typical!

There seems to be enough demand for this that it's odd that Magura don't bring back their HS66 drop bar hydraulic rim brake.

My (small) neoguard on my Revs has a habit of rubbing the tyre (a 2.4" Mountain King, more like 2.3" any other make of tyre) when the fork is working on middling or bigger sized bumps, as does the XS size on my Durin Marathon with a 2.25" Nobby Nic.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong, if anything. Anyone else experienced this / any suggestions?

PS I just built up the pink Scandal for my missus and it is soooo gorgeous. She may not get as much usage of it as me! I've had the black one for a while and it's superb, built up as a singlespeed it's lighter than my road bike.

Ah, I'm too slow. And I still can't get damn clicky-linky to work! :roll:

It's on their faq that they're pretty flexible on frame only.

It's usually employers who get antsy about incomplete bikes rather than there being a specific legal angle on this, if they're amenable then on you go. Most companies don't want to own a frame only, as they're the legal owner of it, not you – until you offer them "fair market value" at the end of whatever lease period you agree – it's a hire lease not hire purchase arrangement.

Both my employer and another that a mate works for had no worries with this. Hope you get what you want!

Closer to you than Cheshire, I'm in Somerset (just moved from Wiltshire!) and would also be happy to lend you either a soft bike bag or maybe an Airporter2 (semi-rigid) suitcase (it takes my breakaway Flo hardtail. might be a squeeze for even a fully dismantled bike).

Oops, double entry!

Closer to you than Cheshire, I'm in Somerset (just moved from Wiltshire!) and would also be happy to lend you either a soft bike bag or maybe an Airporter2 (semi-rigid) suitcase (it takes my breakaway Flo hardtail. might be a squeeze for even a fully dismantled bike).

Traveller's Check – strictly speaking this is a double-double but it's a manual swap of speeds

Had a great time despite not finishing for a variety of reasons – mental toughness being the main one! Will definitely be back for it to complete unfinished business ;-) And I won't try a 15 hour trip in a weekend but will make a week of it.

Great humour from all the organisers and marshalls kept a lot of people going. Found the course excellent (as far as the 54 mile cutoff and then the final slice of singletrack, anyway) – can't think of many places that could have help up so well to so many riders after so much recent rain. Great job by the course designers – if there'd been much more singletrack and very very few people would have completed, I reckon.

Well done to those who completed this inaugural event, you've done something to really be proud of.

By the way, I >loved< that big lake after the 49 mile food stop – bit like the Ridgeway!

The Castell de Castells route is a bit inland from Denia and pretty good, suggest a full suss is a good move – did it on a hardtail and left a big chunk of shin on one of the many rocks….

Lots of old Moorish mule trails which are excellent if you like rocky switchbacks with the odd drop thrown in. Mountain Holidays do guided stuff around ther, don't know if they do single days.

#1 daughter has an old model Anthem in XS (c. 14.5") and she's just hit 5'2" but had it from 5'.

Spesh also do small women's frames, their hardtails start at 13" so I imagine they'll do suss in similarly small modes.

Ta muchly catnash. "controlled drift" usually becomes uncontrolled given my lack of skillz :oops: but the Fat Alberts do look pretty stable given their girth. Guess I'm just a big fan of Schwalbe tyres in general.

Will have a shufty at the Eskar.

The summer issue of the "Health and Fitness for cyclists" mag reckons a taper week would look like:
Monday rest / Tuesday 1hr, split easy/race/brisk / Wednesday rest / Thursday 1hr, inc 10x1min very hard intervals + 2 min easy recoveries / Friday rest / Saturday 1hr in 3x1min hard and 3x30sec very hard / Sunday event

That's against its recommmendations for a "normal" training week of about 13 hours (2 rest days Mon+Fri), sounds like your regime is spot on. Right now I'm doing nowhere near that for TransWales :oops: and tapering is nearly here… Finishing will be good!

Have a great time out there, let us all know how it goes.

If you get a >small< hole in lycra my wife recommends a bit of nail varnish, stops it fraying further :idea: – seems to have worked so far!