I’m planning on getting a hr monitor and thinking about getting a proper training plan sorted too as I want to train this winter properly. Thing I’m not so sure about is given that you seem to pay for a 12-week plan or similar, when the best time to start is. I’m not flush with cash so couldn’t just start paying now and keep getting plans till next Feb/Mar. So is it better getting a plan in September for the base phase or in Jan for the ‘power’ phase?

I’m also not sure if its a bit of a waste of money at my level (shoddy sports cat racer).

I was looking at the Torq programme, seems quite good as they do a six month training plan and a full fitness test. Anyone used them?

Couple of hundred people on most of them

seconded. I use p20 for everything

If you can see your way past the gel pad (I like mine better than foamy stuff), I’ve been very impressed with the MEt Veleno. very comfortable and airy even in this hot and humid weather

I was planning on getting a garmin and HR monitor later this year and think this would be really useful. I have a few segments I use as sprint interval or hill climb training but obviously can only analyse how well I’ve done after the session. having this would make training more useful i reckon

Brown – Member

I started using it last year to see how far I rode in 12 months. Then I’d get annoyed if I forgot to turn it on. Then everything turned into a race and I’d get annoyed if I wasn’t as quick as usual,(which was ridiculous as it wasn’t even remotely accurate anyway) and the first thing I’d do after every ride was check it….. It wasn’t much fun

As a self-confessed wannabee racer, I don’t see what’s not fun about this!!! Although I even stopped to take a photo midway through a segment the other day so i’m not beyond hope.

I tihnk premium is only useful if you use an HRM?

surely the decoupler still allows rear wheel movement in the same way as the BMC, only using the flex in the bow shape of the seatstays and top tube rather than an elastomer, with the elastomer being a re-bound stop? Or am i missing something?

High 5 citrus flavour for me :-)

Up early and an hour of coastal singletrack before work. Was already feeling hot when i got back to the house at 7.30 :-)

beach after work, and a bbq, and beer… so it will start raining about 4 i guess!

I don’t think it’s the worst idea…

Not as good as learning just to ride your bike with the saddle at the correct height though if you don’t want the weight of a dropper.

Surfing gps is full stop the stupidest thing ever. Already seen gps plots from secret spots posted on facebook.

Also if you are surfing properly on a short board the gps won’t be able to accurately measure your speed and distance as you’ll be turning to much.

I can see how it’s good for dinghy sailing, windsurfing etc.

That surfing plot is from Gabriel Medina who won the world championship last year so needless to say your average bloke wouldn’t be catching that many waves etc.

Because Apple aren’t Enduro enough

My current favourite is the wall, I tend to link do the wall followed by penhydd or vice versa, takes about 2hrs to do both
If I’ve got all day i tend to drive to glyncorrwg, do blade or whites, then have a bacon gap in the cafe and then do the wall and penhydd after.

I always warm up a bit first, e.g if doing penhydd or the wall do the first little climb and Jim Crow descent of blue scar and then turn right and zip back down the fire road to the in bye section. Otherwise I find the leg burn sets in too quick.

Personally I think the glyncorrwg climb is better, there is enough to concentrate on technicality wise to forget your climbing. The penhydd main climb is fire road to the top so you end up just spinning up getting bored!

You’ve done well getting 600 miles out of it. My last one lasted a month before the bearings disintegrated :-(

Think I need to get something different too next time

I use high five zeros. I like the berry taste and is masks the taste if my stinking (camelbak) bladder. Prefer to do that and eat gels than have energy and hydration in one

I remember a mate falling out of a tree, and complaining it hurt, his parents told him to toughen up and get over it. It was only after two weeks of his moaning they went to the docs and discovered it was broken!

Clearly I need a reason to visit a bike shop! I’ve got the idea of a cyclocross bike for commuting firmly lodged in my head – need to run out of lube or degreaser ASAP

I bought an fsr in the late nineties and it put me off riding for 15 years! I just love the directness of hard tails.

I think I’d be faster now on a fs as I live in a rocky area and even the fire-roads can be punishing on the ht.

However the key thing that’s keeping me on an ht is the reduced maintenance, I couldn’t afford the time or money to keep a fs running in peak condition

I assumed it was, I didn’t realise it was ranked in order. I hate lots, loathe a fair. But but there are only a few things I really detest!

Hated, I as hoping for detested but I guess I’ll have to try harder next time!

Much prefer them now. I find non bib either slip or if they are tight enough not to slip, ended up digging in.

I got some altura ones which are comfortable

I’ve never done it, and I think it is sold out for this year but the Bontrager 2412 is meant to be amazing if you want an endurance type race and can be done in teams

Seems like xc is more or less irrelevant to the target audience of the mtb media in general, having been regularly reading the mags for the last couple of years it has barely featured, I think two articles in mbuk and minimal xc orientated reviews. Shame really as it’s the most accessible form of racing.

In terms of reportage I do agree that blow by blow accounts are pretty dull, even having been a a given race. It’s pretty difficult to write well about it though. Some of the first person blog articles are atrocious. Lots of pics, a bit on the course and a brief overview of some of the racing would go down well. Even on the bc website the xc series doesn’t get the ‘main’ news slot.

I like some of the interviews and the race bike focus on ukxcnews.com

Yeah I’m not averse to taking tool if it’s close but the particular track is in the middle of nowhere so would require a special mission to get to. I have email the countryside access bit of the council.

I can tell you that you wouldn’t want to do this Or at least it wouldn’t be sensible to. I have Ryde Trace XC, CX-Ray, Tune Princess, Tune Kong and they are alright when fresh but need constant retensioning and are quite noodly. The rims also came out way overweight and the asymmetrical internal shape means it is very hard to get a tyre bead to sit next to the valve without the tyre blowing off the rim during inflation. Not a great design and putting new tyres on scares the poop out of me! American Classic 101 is a lighter (real world weight) alu rim that has been faultless on my other wheelset

I have the Ryde trace xc in 27.5 and while I can’t vouch for the weight as I got them built up I have found them faultless, still true after 6months of riding over pretty rocky terrain (s.wales natural and trail centres). I’m only 9 stone though. Using the new tubeless easy schwalbe tyres has been a doddle too. I had this convo on another forum though which makes me wonder if I just got lucky?

Pivot les 27.5 frame, marzocchi lcr carbon 320 fork. Mt zoom 5g seat clamp, thompson masterpiece layback seatpost, fizik tundra saddle. Easton flat wide carbon bar, Next sl cranks, xx1 cassette, mech, shifter. Dt swiss 240 hubs (ratchet upgrade) with Ryde trace xc rims using super light spokes of some description. Xtr brakes.

Agreed re. Not Doing the work, not only will you be sinking time and money into something that’s not yours, but if the landlord doesn’t like it or you do something wrong he probably has grounds to get you to pay to change it again. Not saying he would but it’s a bit of a grey area in tenancy I’d have thought.

I like the new penhydd, never rode the old one but I find it nicely xc-ish and good fun on an ht. Particularly like the traverse (think it’s dead sheep gully) when ridden at speed. My fav. Afan trail is the wall though, it’s bedded in an feels quite natural. Quite often ride the wall followed directly by penhydd for a decent length ride. Blade I’m in two minds about, bits are great though. I love the climb out of glyncorrwg, makes a 1/2hr climb go really fast!

We like it. I love the wood floor, cool on the feet but not cold like tiles.

Few photos:

And the kitchen (not quite finished, touching up and tilling etc to go, went to look at tiles this arvo but the ones we liked were £100 per sq. m!!)

Week and a bits holiday started today so done a couple of hours local already :-)

Unlikely to be riding tomorrow but definately back out on Sunday, no idea where yet though! Then a couple of trail centre trips in the week

To be honest 7ish on a weekday seems fine to me, do you do night shifts or something? We normally get up at 6.15 just to get into work for 8.45

Re. The flooring. We got real oak flooring sealed with some kind of resin from floors 2 go. We’ve got it in the hall kitchen and dining room, really links the rooms together. We did the hallway first and so got an offcut and left a bit of water, a wet tea bag, some curry powder and some pesto on it over a weekend, wiped it off with no staining at all.

I’ll post some pics this eve when I get a chance

apparently 33 units of alcohol has pretty much the same effect

When racing in youth and cultivating an interest in underage drinking, one of the better results I had was after an unintentionally heavy night on the beer, got picked up by my dad from a mates house on the way to the race. A potent mix of loads of carbs and still being very slightly pissed so I couldn’t feel the pain :-)

Knock off any snubs, give a light sand to get the plaster film off, mist coat, very light sand, mist again and then paint normally is what I’ve been doing as instructed by a bit of a perfectionist.

I think that dry plaster sucks moisture out of the paint so you need a very wet paint to counteract that for the first couple of coats or the paint dries too quick to bond well.

We’ve had most of our house re plastered over the last 15months so I’m sick to death of doing bloody mist coats!

Edit. I was told if you buy super cheap value emulsion you don’t need to water it down

We have literally just finished changing our kitchen.pretty much spent £15k of the banks money (and it’s not a stupid thing to do, better enjoy it now and adds around £40pm to the mortgage ). I was hoping to get in in nearer 12k but no chance.

No actual structural work but did have to rip off horrible wood panelling and re-plaster everything incl. ceiling, all new electrics (seems Sellotape was a viable wire connector in the past 8O) take up floor and re-level etc. we also re-floored dining room. Fair amount of re-plumbing too.

We went for neff oven, gas hob (I like gas, best for cooking IMO) and also a microwave which is set into wall unit saving worktop space. This is really neat.

Just went for laminate worktop as much easier to maintain than granite/real wood and couldn’t afford coriander.

We’ve got real wood flooring which I think is much nicer looking than tile floor, got the same in dining room. All the flooring cost a grand though.

So scott are selling an (almost) fat bike with a motor – is that not a motocross bike??

Re. the joy of riding, how often do you actually look at what you or other people are riding on the trail?

This probably worng as it is rusty knowledge being dragged out of the dark recesses from some composite swatting i did ages ago to try and get a job (unsuccessfully)… but I think the bar is made from woven sheets of CF held together with some form of resin. I don’t know how many layers would be used, but if you can get you finger nail underneath it suggests that one or more of the layers have separated?

I’d junk it.

Why anyone would want to swim in fresh water is beyond me, a potent mix of algae and disease ridden rats p!ss, yum yum yum!

Definately don’t go to work. I messed up a race i’d been aiming at due to a selfish twit coming into work with a both-ends stomach bug. So stupid.

Only just spotted the wine gums, that was a big mistake, a packet of fruit pastilles and you’ll have been significantly faster! :lol: