29lbs is pretty damn good for a long-travel 29er IMO.

Exactly, so why bother downsizing to mid-travel at 28.5lbs was my point.

Look more towards a transition scout, SC 5010 etc

The thing is, most mid travel bikes are still excessively heavy unless you are buying the very top of the range model. They still suffer from rear suspension losses, and of course still suffer the same massive rolling penalty of big grippy enduro tyres.

Also the OP originally said he was looking for something to act as a baby DH bike for alps and uplift days.

Might just be the pictures, but the top tube looks really short. No problem at all when pointed down steep stuff, but will feel a bit odd the rest of the time.

My bike currently has Shimano 105 Compact running gear, 11/32

Your 2nd gear on an 11-32 is probably a 28. go ride up your hardest local hill in 2nd gear and you’ll have your answer.

where as MTBing more or less has always been about the bike.

Someone should tell Nino to stop training – its obviously not needed since its his bike that wins.

Try geograph.org

Nice site, wasn’t aware of that one.
No recent images sadly.

did it last year,was fine, but caution required where the surface has broken up. Sanny was the only one with wider tyres, nothing changes there

Awesome, cheers

It’s a great run from Killin then fly down the Glen from the Lyon Dam.
We used to go that way back to Aberfeldy from Killin weekenders

That was the plan – happy enough if my own plans go a bit wrong, but didn’t want to take a small group there if it really wasn’t suitable.

Fluxient 1xU2 is excellent – highly recommend

Is it for very small aero gains?

At the speeds of the best riders, the aero gains are not so small.

I’ve never done this event, but why is this event notorious for wearing out everything on a bike ? Even when its done as a pair (so only 12 hrs riding on each bike? I don’t understand how just 12-24 hrs use can wear everything out?)

The mud has a special quality which makes it the best grinding paste ever invented.

meh you dont need all the gear.

Partially true, and a bit dependant on the individual.
I really can’t tolerate digging deep in cold conditions – if I didn’t have many changes of clothes and somewhere properly warm it’d be asking to land myself in hospital. Bigger more robust person that doesn’t feel the cold so badly would get away with rather more.

Shouldn’t need to delete the ride either, marking it as private should be sufficient to remove results from leaderboard.

The Pyrenees aren’t really best suited to basing from one location, but if I was going to pick a base i’d choose Bagnères-de-Luchon, there’s 4(and a half) major climbs you can do from there (Portillon, Superbagnères, Port de Balès, Col de Peyresourde -> Peyragudes).
If you desperately want to do the Tourmalet, i’d try to organise a company to do a transfer for you and either transfer to near Pau and ride back over the Col d’Aubisque (stunning!) and Tourmalet to be met again in Campan , OR chain Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet

Didnt follow exaclty that workout, but tried similar a few years back. I found the squatting compromised my riding too much. I’ve seen better results with on the bike big gear work.

Not against trying it again in the future though, particularly if my focus shifts to shorter more explosive events rather than endurance.

Started off awesome with the Ibex this week,but kinda went downhill after that

Given that i weight nothing and decend like a grandma, i’ll take light every time as i have no need for stiff.

lol, got it right 4 times out of 5 myself.
Tend to come out for long, cold decents in the high mountains.
Don’t think i’ve got it wrong the other way yet (should have worn them) yet.

Yes, a stick could easily twist the mech like that. The instant it sticks you’ve still got full power going through the pedals for the split second it takes to figure out something is wrong.

For 12/24hr racing i’d take 2×11 electronic, a little extra range, but more importantly its self trimming so will continue to shift well even 6hrs in when the bike is covered with crud.
Also bear in mind the cost of the Shimano is in the electrics, whereas Eagle has a lot of cost in consumable parts – screw replacing a £250 cassette every year.

As per the other thread, its worth owning waterproof trousers for times where you might get dangerously cold without them, but i’ve only actually felt the need to wear mine about 5 times in 5 years.

DWR treated tights with waterproof shorts is a better option 99% of the time.

Back to bed 🙂

I’d also suggest the MK2 2.2 for soft conditions.

@retro: wash-in for shells, spray on for multi-layered with wicking interior fabric

This is likely your problem.
But given that its new, i’d be sending it back.

That is some good mile munching, nice one – will try to remember to pop back this evening for a kudos for the 7000mi mark.

Your all time biggest climb of 522ft made me giggle though 😆

For twice a week, and with 18mi not being too long, i’d just do it on your 29er tbh. With the exception of the ability to tuck down into a headwind that you get with drop handlebars a 29er isn’t really massively slower.

At a nice steady zone2 pace i’m ~3.5mph slower on my 29er than carbon road bike, and thats probably mostly made up of the rolling difference between x-kings and 23c – the aero benefits of a road bike aren’t really that significant until you either get a headwind, get super fit, or start pushing the pace up.

OS: Windows 7 x64 bit, OSX 10.8
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4GB
Graphics: 1GB dedicated GPU, or embedded Intel HD 4000/AMD R5
Hard Drive: 4GB of free space

A modern integrated gfx will do the job according to Zwift’s website

Sorry to say that in August, I’d generally avoid Cairngorms / Aviemore as the place will be minging with midgies. Lovely place to visit when the midgies aren’t there – say late September

Yes and no.
I was there in August this year and had a mixed midge experience.
Parked opposite Rothiemurchus visitor centre, did some hill repeats on Cairngorm, and then a ride down to Kingussie in the afternoon.

The first ride was frankly disgusting, any hint of a tailwind on the climb and it was riding through a cloud of midges.
The second ride, and around the visitor centre both at lunch and getting changed after were largely midge free.
I guess overall though, i’d agree that its a nicer place to visit before or after midge season.

surely a base layer isn’t a base layer and isn’t doing its job if its not tight fitting?

Northwind – Member

ghostlymachine – Member
These all sound like mud tyres rather than winter tyres…

Really? Most aren’t.[/quote]

Kinda depends where and what you ride doesn’t it.
If you are used to riding fairly hardpack trails end hence choose tyres with smaller closer spaced knobs then a Shorty does indeed seem like a mud tyre.
If on the other hand you are used to riding steep loose natural trails then a Shorty seems like a winter tyre (or even a 4 seasons tyre in sunny Scotland 😆 )

May I suggest you read a little bit beyond the simple forecast if you want to understand how weather forecasts get made and why they are inaccurate at times. This is a good place to start.

Or you could just piss and moan about it – cos that’s so much fun and make you feel superior to all these so-called experts, doesn’t it?

Easy tiger, getting a bit carried away there.
No one is claiming to be superior to any experts, and no-one is claiming its necessarily easy.

However having on numerous occasions looked on various weather sites and found they are telling me its going to be sunny/light cloud for the majority of the day, and opening the curtains tells me its heavy cloud and showery – well somethings f’d up there isn’t it.
Sure long term forecasts are hard, but 3hr forecasts of if its going to be clear skies or heavy overcast shouldn’t be that hard – especially with £97mil worth of super computer grinding away on it.

No, still met office according to the small print on the bottom of the main weather page

Edit: Google says meteogroup to take over in 2017

@FuzzyWuzzy: I see it the other way. Zwift might be entertaining enough to encourage people who wouldnt normally turbo to do so. People that already have turbo motivation likely don’t need any additional motivation to push themselves.

Same as hora, have found BBC utterly useless this year. They can’t even forecast 3-4hrs in advance let alone 1-5days.

And the sad part of all that is the BBC get their data from the met office who have a shiney new supercomputer thats supposed to be giving much more accurate forecasts.

All the fronts are within the realms of agressive XC, although the Nic is more of a trail tyre.

The race king and ralph are definitely not agressive, but mostly you want fast rolling on the rear – they are popular choices for XC and Endurance racers doing events on similar courses to what you describe.

@sadexpunk, great, if looking at trail centre reds then agressive end of XC tyre range will be just great.

Yes, wider and more knobby on the front for more cush and grip.

And yes, tyres are getting crazy expensive, can usually get down to £30-35 though by shopping around and waiting for discounts

Can you elaborate how light you mean by light? Seems to mean considerably different things to different folks on here.
Light HT’s also tend to be racey HT’s, so might be tricky to get one without the other.

Doesn’t look like you’ve got loads of room in the back. Can probably manage some more in the front though.

How much grip do you actually need? Are you riding a lot of tech or muddy natural stuff?
A few pretty obvious combos for keeping light and fast:
Race king 2.2/Xking 2.4
Ralph 2.25/Nic 2.35
Ardent Race 2.2/Forekaster 2.35

P.S. when tubeless and off road low pressure is actually faster then high pressure.

As others have said – good carbon CX bike should fulfil duties of both a part time road racer and big rubber cake run machine. Probably ~1kg heavier than an equivalent road bike, so not too much of a weight penalty.
May well do the same when i decide to replace my road bike.

Until the end when they usually run you through a mud bath which soaks you and is awful, though I heard they have stopped that.

I also heard the mud bath was changing via a friend that is a regular at the puffer.

I too was unaware of this until earlier this year – partly I guess due to my meagre power output. Changed chain, but needed bike to go into shop for a few other bits doing. Mechanic rather ‘larger’ than me took it out for a quick test spin and within a couple of hard pedal strokes chain slipped and deposited him balls first on the top tube 😆

These look good for the money

Cosines look excellent for the money – i’m considering a set myself, but whist there are reports of people doing it, they don’t meet the OP’s requirement for tubeless ready.