The two major players in this field are Aperture (might be Mac only) and Lightroom. But they might be overkill for your folks.

Picasa is pretty good and is free.

Here’s a list – http://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-story/412-2-best-free-photo-management-software.html

A couple of strategies:

1. Only buy what you need.
2. Set aside a fixed amount each week/month to cover the cost of something major, like a new bike.

Obviously the more disposable income you have the more you can afford to set aside but £100 a month is less than a cup of coffee and a sandwich per day from a shop. Biking to work saves me £7 per day, that’s £35 per week or £150 a month. Make allowances for holidays, bad weather and illness and I’m looking at around £1500 a year.

To recharge and record at the same time, Garmins require a USB cable with one of the internal wires shorted out. If you use a standard USB cable the units drop in to PC or Charge mode and won’t carry on recording.

The SON Deluxe dynamo hub is a thing of engineering beauty, it’s really quite small and without looking fairly closely at a bike with one fitted you’d be hard pressed to tell it was there. From memory it adds about 300g to the weight of a wheel compared to a typical hub but of course it’s at the centre so not as big a problem as you might think.

Not used one off-road but for commuting they are basically fit and forget (unless someone mistakes the standlight for you leaving your light on and “helpfully” turns it off!). As someone mentions above, the German lights are designed for on-road use, the reflectors give a fairly even spread with more light being cast down the road than in front of your wheel. They have reasonably specific mounting locations, usually on a bracket attached to the fork crown, handlebars are a little too high.

Lots of long rides that aren’t in forests. Some bikepacking. A foreign trip or two.

If I was in the market for a touring bike that would definitely be on the short list. Like Simon I’d prefer STI shifters.

I run the Hope hoops tubeless. No problems other than the occasional user error 🙄 They are about 100g lighter (each) than the Stans EX

Do half an hour every day rather than longer intermittent sessions. You’ll feel like you are going nowhere for a while then you’ll find one attempt in ten feels “different”, keep trying and the technique and success ratio will improve.

A “tool bidon” is a standard water bottle but without the valve in the cap.

Easier just to use an old water bottle though it helps if it has a wide neck – some don’t.

Being organised is a skill itself – you don’t want to be wasting time faffing about trying to find a tool or whatever while your mates are stood there shivering in the wind and rain.

Pack the sack according to need (the layout of the Evoc above looks really good), no point in having first aid kit and emergency blanket at the top of the sack, they are there for emergencies. The order of packing may change slightly according to season and weather – you want the items you are likely to need at the top of the sack so you aren’t pulling other stuff out and potentially losing it.

It’s probably the only decent printed one around at the moment. The Crowood ones are very old nowadays and while the trails haven’t changed that much if at all, bikes have moved on (pictures of rigid MTBs as state of the art!) as have expectations of what a ride should consist of.

A good variety of routes but you might also want to have a look at the PedalNorth site – http://www.pedalnorth.com/content/lake-district-mtb-routes

It’s not just capacity that you need to consider but speed, some cards are faster than others and video is pretty intensive so you are better getting faster cards. Card speed is defined by class numbers, you will want class 4 or 8 if you are shooting in HD, class 2 is good enough for standard definition.

A bit of confusion here as there’s two threads going on within one 🙂 Doesn’t help that you can’t see who’s replying to which post.

From ads678: looking at a route from Wasdale head and back going up to sty head and down to stockley bridge and seathwaite, then on to seatoller and stonethwaite then picking up the cumbria way bridleway towards langdale then cutting off to rosset pike, esk hause and back down to Wasdale head.

That’s completely on bridleways and is what edgehog and I have been talking about.

The descent from beneath Great End via Ruddy Gill and Grains Gill is what Ecky-Thump and wl have been talking about.

The location of the map link was the start of ads678’s route, so follow his description and you’ll see what I mean.

I think that clears things up 😳

Follow it from here – http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=318960&Y=507405&A=Y&Z=120 , long dashed lines all the way so a BW. (Unless you cut behind Rossett Pike to avoid the descent to Langdale – that’s a FP)

People are mentioning Ruddy Gill to Stockley – that’s a cheeky FP but not what was asked about.

is it ‘cheeky’?

Look on a map (streetmap.co.uk if you don’t have paper ones) – it’s all bridleways so legal.

“normal” HR data has probably been collected from patients presenting at doctors’ surgeries and hospital departments. So the sample is skewed towards those who are either ill or nervous.

I worked with someone whose resting HR was around 100! He was an American though 8) and not very fit.

If you measure your HR each morning then you get an idea of what is “normal” for you. Any sudden and/or significant rises usually indicate one of two things: the onset of illness or overtraining. Some rugby teams use HRMs when training and can spot oncoming illness even before the player knows about it.

Late fifties and a RHR of 48 or slightly less.

On a 29er, 30T at the front and 11-40 at the back is fine for me for most things in the Lakes, Dales and Peak. By the time I come to a halt when in the 40T, it’s probably easier to get off and walk anyway 😳 When my legs get strong I might go to a 32T on the front but it might be a while.

Well VED is going to be a very small percentage of your running costs so it’s not something I’d hold against a car. YMMV of course.

Do you have to do part-ex?

I’d have thought any of the small people-carrier type models would do: Skoda Roomster; Berlingo.

A few sources:

[list]
[*]Check the various web cams.[/*]
[*]There are various threads on sites like UKC where they get very excited about a few snow flakes on the tops so there might be a conditions report as well. [/*]
[*]The mountain weather line has daily reports from Helvellyn summit.[/*]
[*]The Lake District Ski Club has a tow on Raise – if there’s a lot of snow that will be running. Check their website.[/*]
[/list]

There was quite a bit on the tops on Saturday but there was a significant thaw on Sunday so some will have gone. I’ve seen pictures of Bowfell on both days and there was about a 50% loss in cover. Further east, i.e. Helvellyn should have more cover.

Climbers will be more concerned about snow/ice on the steeper faces rather than on the ridge, look for reports for Brown Cove, Red Tarn, Nethermost Cove and Dollywaggon as these are the main climbing areas in that area. Strong winds will strip the snow on the tops but a thaw and subsequent freeze will create icy conditions. If you see reports of people ski-touring (very rare) then there’s a lot of snow!

In addition to the above.

Start slower than you think, your first aim is to finish and it’s not a sprint. You need to be able to maintain a pace but it does depend on what the course is like.

You need a food strategy but at the very least:

[list]
[*]Eat before you think you need to[/*]
[*]Eat a little and often[/*]
[*]As time progresses in the race your taste buds will change.[/*]
[*]Avoid drier foods later on, they become hard to get down[/*]
[/list]

Get everything, bike, clothing, food, etc. sorted well before the race the you know what works for *you*. If energy drinks/bars are provided then try them out yourself as not everyone gets along with every make.

+1 to what vincienup says. A 29er hardtail with high volume, low pressure tyres just eats up the miles on XC type riding, the tyres provide some cushioning without the penalty of a full rear suspension.

One option that I don’t think has been mentioned yet is to buy the parts and build it up under the supervision of your friendly LBS or technical guy (for a fee of course). The advantages are that you get the bike you want and the knowledge of how to put a bike together. You might need some guidance as to what components go with what but that’s all part of the fun!

Not knowing who Mick the pause is, I Googled it – the first link is this thread! Anyone care to enlighten me?

And just how much does a seat at a Premier League match cost?

I had a FS seventeen years ago and they weren’t that rare then.

I’m not sure whether to view this as expensive or OK as I don’t really have a frame of reference re. MTB events but I’d say it’s about in the middle compared to other sports.

A typical fell race entry fee will be anywhere from free to £20 but most are in the £5 range. A road race can be anything from £10 upwards – the Great North Run costs £50 for example. Road sportives are typically in the £20 – £30 range.

Then you have the organisational setup: is it someone just doing a low key event as in most fell races, something like the Three Peaks is an exception and is the £20 example above; or is it a professional organisation: Pennine Events and Evans Cycles are behind many road sportives for example. I don’t know if Evans run their events as a promotional tool for their stores or it’s a separate financial operation that has to pay its way.

There’s quite a lot of work that goes in to organising something like this (actually a lot of work) along with hiring of all the kit like the timing chips, insurance. Each will take a nibble out of the entry fee. By the time the costs are removed and you work out the remainder any profit will probably work out at less than the minimum wage if looked at on an hourly basis.

One think I’d like to see (and this applies to all the above type of events) is a profit and loss sheet publicly available. This would let everyone decide if they are being ripped off.

I’m sticking with conglomerate though – to form or gather into a mass or whole.

Conglomerate always reminds me of the rock type which is basically a mess of unrelated components stuck together. Mind you have you seen this … 8)

Deluded member

I think the word you were looking for was “accumulated” 🙂

I agree, they are perhaps a bit more obvious than Dave Brailsford’s “marginal gains” but they all add up. Some things like tapered steerers are hard to quantify but others, like wide bars are less so.

Take a typical (probably no such thing but I hope you know what I mean) bike from ten years ago and compare it to the equivalent today and you’ll really see the difference. But apply each change one at a time, like those word games where you have to change one word to another a letter at a time, and you wouldn’t really notice a huge difference in each stage.

You can divide the changes that have taken place in to hard and soft.

Hard changes affect the frame basically: Wheel size; tapered steerers; geometry; Bottom Bracket design. You can’t apply them to existing frames – you have to get a new one.

Soft changes are add-ons: short stems; wide bars; riser bars; tubeless; 1x drivetrains. You can swap these around on an existing frame.

I’ve 30T on the front and 11-40 (Hope extender) at the back on a 29er. I struggled a bit at first but I’ve built up more strength and probably could now use a 32T at the front. There’d be one or two hills that I’d struggle on but it might be something for me to consider.

Divide the number of teeth on the chainring by the number of teeth on whichever sprocket you want to know the ratio for.

I.e. 30T on front and 40T on rear = 30/40 = 0.75

There’s a calculator on Sheldon Brown’s website that will do a whole drivetrain at once, just select the appropriate chainrings and model of cassette.

Pearl Izumi were pretty good on Sunday – went through several fords/streams and whilst the thick mud was washed off I stayed almost dry underneath. Don’t know/can’t remember which model.

Could you please amend the thread title – “My bike is a Halfords bike, will I die?” 😆

Woot! I’m in! Can’t be as bad as the BB200 can it?

How bad do you want to make it? 😆

Other than one or two short sections of pushing it’s pretty well all ridable, well when you aren’t knackered from 200Km of trails that is. Heading up the Coal Road from Garsdale Head station might be tough with 170Km in your legs 😳

Alternatively you could sign up for this https://www.bhf.org.uk/get-involved/events/bike-rides/south-downs-way-off-road-bike-ride “One of the toughest off-road rides in the UK, …”

+1 to what zeroc cool says but make sure you use test weights around the range that your bike weighs or better still use a range of known test weights.

Well I’m 179cm and 83Kg, no idea what my FTP score is but I’m in the top ten of quite a few Strava segments both on and off-road so either everyone else doing those segments is cr** or I’m reasonably fit. One general rule from road cycling is take your height in inches and that should be your weight in kilogrammes but that’s for elite athletes and you could probably add 10% for most.

By far the most effective training for time constrained people are intervals but you need to really work at them.

I don’t get why the manufacturers of these shoes can’t use a waterproof membrane on some of their offerings.

Two reasons:

1. A waterproof membrane keeps water out but it also keeps water in, one reason why fell runners don’t use waterproof shoes, you need to let any water that comes in via the big hole for your leg get out.

2. Grit and stones – along with water you are going to get these which will soon punch a hole in the membrane rendering it useless so you might as well have bought a cheaper shoe without the marketing hype of “waterproof”.

Your standard shoe but in a bigger size so that you can fit something like a SealSkinz sock in it without constricting your feet. The grip for hike-a-bike sections is a different problem.

Eating’s the thing – you need to eat regularly even if you don’t think you need anything. The problem then is that you can only take on so many calories per hour and you’ll be using more than that so you are always in deficit. For most people this isn’t actually a problem over short (less than a few days) periods as we have (ahem) reserves built in but your body does need to be accustomed to using those reserves.

There’s also the fact that your body needs to divert some of its resources to digesting the food and not everyone’s body does that effectively, again you need to become accustomed to it.

How far do folk reckon they’d get in the first day, realistically?

Well from 8am you’ve roughly 14hrs of usable light at that time of year – possibly more if it’s a fine day with no clouds. Let’s allow two hours for stops so that’s 12hrs. I can average 15kph over that sort of terrain including opening gates etc., so that’s roughly 180Km or just over 110 miles in old money.

Unless you are very fit and know how to look after yourself for long distances and times in the saddle then you are going to slow down significantly in the latter stages. Also you need to be able to keep your concentration going for that period of time, you’ll find yourself making mistakes on ground that normally you’d cruise over.

It does between Stirling and Perth

That’s always struck me as being a dangerous section especially the bit just north of Dunblane: lots of farm traffic mixed in with speeding (I mean much faster not over the limit) vehicles.

A search for “portable bike washer” gives a few hits – the Dirt Worker carries enough water to get most of the muck off two bikes.