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Viewing 40 posts - 2,801 through 2,840 (of 3,254 total)
  • Patrol 691 Evo Review | This Indonesian enduro puts the SUPER in Superboost!
  • fifeandy
    Free Member

    Have a look at the Cosine alloy disc wheels at Wiggle for your budget.

    Light and cheap, reviews seem to vary a little but for the cash you get a wide wheel set and about 1650g!

    http://www.wiggle.co.uk/cosine-23mm-alloy-clincher-disc-brake-road-wheelset/

    These are where my money would go.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    You can get some overshoes designed to fit over ‘normal’ footwear. I’ve got some old altura night vision, not sure exactly what is available now.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    If you can do 40km/850m, you can do 50km/1100. Its too late to make any difference via training, so just enjoy riding your bike.

    Day before – plenty of carbs, dont go crazy though.
    Breakfast – anything with some slow burning carbs. If you don’t usually do breakfast may just be better with a breakfast bar in the car.
    On the way around, 500ml/hr fluid and around 300kcal/hr of carbohydrate. Try not to do anything you haven’t first tried on a practice ride.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    No, the light units have never been the dodgy bits of far east lights.
    You are paying the premium for a battery that won’t burn your house down and a UK seller willing to back it all with a warranty.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    @mboy, i’m well aware of the reviews, but don’t feel i’m missing the point at all. If all you consider is the ability downhill, then why not buy a full on enduro bike? You can have a Strive CF 8.0 that’ll come in cheaper(its on sale right now), lighter and more capable.

    The vast majority of the riders climb quite badly enough already without having their suffering enhanced my an unnecessarily heavy bike.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Neither, the alloy versions are a lot of cash for a heavy bike. It’s firmly in the category of bike that has to be pedalled up first, and at >14kg its never going to climb well.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    How long is Glentress from the mast to the bottom of pie?

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    23:00 – 08:00 ideally for ‘quiet time’, although as long as its not a regular habit 00:00 – 07:00 aren’t unreasonable.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Given that you only have 6hrs a week training time, devoting half of them to a Sunday club run doesn’t seem a particularly good use of time. As you mentioned – no-mans land. If you can find a group slow/disciplined enough to make it a purely endurance ride then that’d work – otherwise your just gathering fatigue which will have a negative impact on your other sessions.

    The MTB ride seems a better idea, but again, need to choose terrain/effort wisely.

    Overall, your plan seems like a LOT of intensity. Granted its low volume so you should be able to cope, but think i’d probably be mentally burnt out after that lot.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Depends on the person I guess.
    For me, life without sport would be horrific, so no, doubt i’ll ever stop regardless of what injuries come along.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Have you considered racing Sport rather than Vets? Probably an easier level of competition. Especially with Vets you have to bear in mind that a good proportion of the field probably have years of training 10hrs a week under their belt.

    If you’ve got a coach lined up then plenty to look forward to with training over the winter ready for a flying start next season.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    After about 1500mi, my xkings are showing about 30 spots where sealant has done its job – even 1 thorn still embedded deep in the tyre. So its safe to say i find tubeless very reliable – still carry a tube(x2 on a big day out) and a pump though.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    @james, i’ll save you the effort as i’ve got them both mounted on my spectral. HD comes up just a fraction bigger than the RR.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Ron’s are even more fragile than ralphs.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    @Northwind, yep, clearly a terrible rear tyre that doesn’t work :P

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    If you’ve got the budget for Exposure then go for it, you wont be disappointed. Plenty of other great choices for less cash, but lack of cables and external battery bag is a real plus point.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    @kirky, from what you describe, discs aren’t going to help you. They don’t offer any more power in the dry vs a rim brake. A decent rim brake offers enough power to lock the wheels already. The advantage is in the wet (i really hope you weren’t doing 55mph in the wet 8O )

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Also bear in mind that with larger sidewalls you are going to increase overall diameter of the wheel and be going faster than your speedo is showing

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    The best advice is to stick to the rim brakes, discs are currently not allowed in some major European sportives.

    If you are lacking confidence i’d be looking at what’s wrong with your current brakes, as with the exception of big mountain descending in the wet, modern rim brakes are quite awesome.

    fifeandy
    Free Member
    fifeandy
    Free Member

    oooft I can rest easy compared to that lot !

    In my defence, I don’t have separate MTB jerseys, I wear road jerseys off road as A) I prefer them to flappy pyjamas, and B) rear pockets are awesome.

    But whatever – if you can afford them, and they make you happy, there’s no such thing as too many

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    12 short sleeve
    4 windproof short sleeve
    5 long sleeve
    4 long sleeve softshell

    I’m definitely addicted to softshells – have decided this year that non-windproof tops in Scotland are pointless.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Don’t forget the mystery tyre from the BMC article.

    Looks to me a lot like Conti are about to join in on the B+ game – I would say that is a prototype X-King

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    You can make intervals more interesting and relevant as well – fire road sprints into tech sections as fast as possible, conditions the brain & body a bit into what a race is actually like & trying to ride fast, hard stuff whilst hanging is a great exercise.

    Whilst i think that’s great advice, it may be something to do in the late build or peak stages of training to make it more race specific, however from a physical perspective it can lower the quality of the interval session, so i’d stick to road/turbo/fire road to start with.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    They’ve been a little tardy despatching things a couple of times for me, but generally has been fine. Wouldnt hesitate to use again.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Worst summer ever!
    May was dry but not overly warm, trails were dusty, and signs were good. And then June-August came with 10 straight weeks of overcast, drizzly, cold misery.
    Finally had my first 2 days of summer last week.
    Nights are drawing in, lights will be needed soon and really doesn’t feel like i’ve defrosted from last winter yet :(

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Any old cheap/worn tyre you have lying around. I’ve used part worn krylion carbons and rubinos with no problem at all. Don’t see the sense in spending money on a special tyre when there’s enough oem/worn/cut tyres in the garage to do 10,000 turbo miles

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    we still only seemed to average about 5-6 km/h.

    Did you mean mph instead of kph?
    Otherwise what you have there is more group walk than group ride

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    When would you ever need 30 x 55? Are you trying to ride up walls?

    Pretty much, yes!
    https://www.strava.com/segments/1469757
    https://www.strava.com/segments/11208569

    Obviously you can power your way up them in a bigger gear a few times, but doing that as a 24hr soloist is a recipie for disaster.

    Did it last year on 22×36 which would be equivalent to 30×50, but would rather have a lower gear still so i can climb steep at a more moderate effort level

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Just what speed are you doing? 30/11 on a 29er @107rpm is 25mph (drops to 100rpm for a 32T). If I’m doing that sort of speed then I might as well be freewheeling

    Depends on the bike and what its used for.
    If i’m out training linking up offroad section with tarmac its not uncommon to really need 36/11 (30+mph), however I don’t know any intervals that involve freewheeling, so better keep pedalling.
    Likewise at the other end of the spectrum, climbing steep stuff at 10 under/Relentless 22/36 is used regularly, and i’d happily take 22/40.
    So ideally, to go 1x i’d like a cassette even bigger than the new eagle – 55/10 15 speed with a 30t chainring would do nicely.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Rubber ones

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Well, a bit of googling with cough up some companies that are willing to give you a coach, 1to1 consult, training plan, or some combination of the above.
    But it sounds to me like from your starting point like you can probably make some significant gains with some self coaching.

    As always, i’d recommend getting a copy of Friel’s training bible, it will teach you the basics of building a training plan etc

    As for what to do, you need to break the discipline down into its constituent parts:
    A) Enough basic endurance to get round both practice and race day and not be dead on the bike by the last stage.
    B) Short intense efforts ranging from 5s to 5mins
    C) Technical skills

    So then onto how to achieve those things:
    A) Enduros don’t typically require too much endurance, as the number of kilometers covered don’t tend to be too long, and theres plenty of time to rest and ride slowly during transitions. A 3-4hr easy paced ride most weekends should have you covered in this regard.
    B) You don’t need to make prolonged hard efforts like in Road/TT/XC. Your longest efforts are likely to be a couple of mins up a fire road linking singletrack sections. Short hard intervals a couple of times a week, probably better done on the road.
    C) Keep 1 session a week for technical riding, sessioning things you find tricky etc.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Consumer driven – consumers want a single ring setup, but they don’t have the legs of an XC pro = need huge cassettes.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    How do you guys carry your batteries on your bikes?

    My Chinese Cree lights came with a bag with a velcro strap but it slides down the top tube during the ride which means the cables can sometimes get in the way.

    Any obvious tips i’m missing?

    Find a different spot for it OR
    Additional velcro strap around it OR
    Large zip tie fitted tight behind it.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    £2800 on a Scott Addict, £2000 on a BMC Teamelite, several other cheaper buys. One paid cash, one on 0‰ finance. Expect both to be with me around 5yrs before being relegated to winter duties.

    In theory i’ve got the disposable income to fund something more exotic as i’ve no kids to spend it for me, but would be excessive with a mortgage still to pay off.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Slight difference in temperature range, long windproof sleeves are warmer than arm warmers.
    I went with short sleeves combined with nanoflex arm warmers as they are the most flexible option.

    I run pretty cool and find it good for around 10-18 degrees when riding easy, few degrees less when pushing on.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    Have done most of the SMBO events this year, but have the roadie hat on at the moment so will be missing this and the next one.

    Would very much recommend anyone that hasnt tried MBO before to give it a go.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    No thanks. The geax/vitoria goma’s were without doubt the least grippy tyres I have ever owned. Borderline dangerous on the front.
    Would not buy the brand again no matter how cheap they are.

    I suspect you’ll find any new tyre developed since vittoria acquired geax uses significantly better casing and rubber compounds.

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    I cant find any info on this, or anywhere selling Vittoria (according to their website) near me.

    This.
    Got a garage full of old tyres that never quite got thrown out that would just love to be traded into new ones

    fifeandy
    Free Member

    I’m quite looking forward to doing an FTP test

    Clear indicator of psychological problems.

Viewing 40 posts - 2,801 through 2,840 (of 3,254 total)