@bongo, pretty much looks that way.

Take first goal as an example.
Pundits on TV covered the long throw in detail before the game. Man at the front for flick on, 3 runners coming from edge of box.
You can bet the England management team also covered it in detail – several times.

And what happens in game? Totally untracked runner scores. Basics. Failed. Shit.

Theres probably less than 100 people in the UK with the access to all the raw data, and the knowledge to properly interpret it.

Its overly harsh to brand the 17 million leavers as idiots, when in fact roughly 32 million ill informed voters (me included) all took part in the idiocy.

@Kimbers, lol

@bongo, clearly you haven’t been watching the game if that didn’t make sense to you.

Lol, pretty sure i was flamed a couple of weeks ago for saying pro footballers were **** and cant even do the basics.

Glad to see England’s finest doing their best to prove me right.

The latest six pack has a 15500mah battery, so the piggyback would give you 50% extra. So you’d be good for running its 10hr setting for any UK 24hr except the Strathpuffer. Although clearly you can extend that further by running lower setting on climbs.

Depends how much light you think you need as to whether its needed or not. Six pack is one of the few lights out there that has big enough battery and light output to not need supplementing.

@matt: Everything you said about fife is of course true. Its a fantastic place to ride a bike. However you forgot to mention the perpetual overcast and wind. At the height of summer it feels like a cool spring day.

It kinda depends how well prepared and how well rested you were going into it.
When you do a massive effort like a 24hr event you pretty much instantly give yourself overtraining. How well prepared and rested you were before hand will determine the extent of the problem.
In addition it depends how deep you go during the ride. If you bonk half way in and ride 12hrs in survival mode you are going to seriously screw yourself up.

I’ve gone really deep a few times (1x24hr attempt and 2x week long road tours). It took me about a month to recover properly on each occasion.
Don’t ride unless you are mentally up for it. Don’t do anything other than short easy spins until legs feel fresh again. If you have any food cravings, go ahead and indulge them. If you feel sleepy, take a nap.

Your charge will be a perfect winter bike to be abused by mud/grit/snow etc. Keeps the new bike nice for longer, and prolongs the life of your old riding buddy.

After 2 winters of abuse, it’ll cost more to repair than to replace so it can go in the skip and the cycle starts all over again.

The miles/km conversation works as a rough estimate, but theres too many variables to be accurate.

Better to compare how many hours per week to get a clue about where relative fitness levels will be.

The problem with really tough technical climbs that are seen on some of the WC XC courses is that sometimes you need the power output of a WC level rider to clear them – not something your average joe racing sport in regional races possesses.

Another vote for Gypsy Glen – rode it for the first time last weekend as part of the SMBO event – fantastic.
Only a half day ride, so can get a lap of the GT red in the afternoon too.

Bottle(s) & Cage(s)
Padded shorts
Basic repair kit

They might have the same name on the sidewall, but the new (slicker ones) are actually Speed King II’s

The original ones you have look like a decent bet for your ride.

Yes, looking forward to it.
2nd year for me. 8 laps solo last year, went out a little hard, which basically lead to 5hrs of horrific suffering.

This year will be a pair with the main emphasis on having fun rather than utterly beasting ourselves.

Currently undecided between 29er hardtail or 650b 140mm FS.

The obvious answer is car parks are going to hell because society is going to hell. Lots of rules, but rarely any consequence for breaking them, and for the large portion of the population with no conscience, this means the rule may as well not exist.

We have a different problem round here though. Theres too many disabled and P&C spaces, almost to the point you need to take a bike to tesco to ride from the nearest ‘normal’ space to the door. Wouldnt mind so much, but 90% of the time, 90% of the ‘special’ spaces are empty.

Agree with others, forget the pedals, get a bike fit and a physio appointment.
I’ve had knee trouble twice, once required two weeks worth of daily exercises to strengthen mucsle just above knee, and the other about 10 days worth of stretches for the IT band.

Snowcard should be fine. Here’s there health page:
https://www.snowcard.co.uk/health-statement-1

They probably won’t cover the Crohns since it commonly requires fairly regular consultant visits, and most of the drugs used to treat it require at least monthly blood tests. However given the nature of the condition, its also not likely to land him in hospital at short notice.

No fancy liners for me.
I just use an old king size duvet. Long enough to cover folded rear seats too. Wide enough to fold over the bike to protect it when front wheel, or bike no2 goes on top.

Definitely sounds like gabba weather, you’ll probably end up wet but it’ll keep you warm until it dries up, and its breathable enough to avoid boil in the bag later in the day.

As above, your cardio system is much stronger than your running muscles, need to start small and work up to it.

The only way a dropper would save as much as a minute would be if it gave the confidence to ride A lines where you’d be taking B lines otherwise. Even then a minute sounds somewhat far fetched.

I dont ride that aggressively, pacestar on the front paired with rock razor on the back suiting me well.

Wouldn’t use the performance compound.

Is it even possible to eat at 7 if training/racing in the evening?

Easy to say that breakfast should be the biggest meal of the day, but not easy to find time to make/consume 700+kcal before heading off to work. Especially not with a good balance of carbs/protein.

On a road bike, assuming terrain wasn’t too extreme, probably 2-3 days. With a few months specific training maybe a week – hard to predict how you respond to a few nights with low sleep until you’ve done it.

Kinda depends how heavy you are on a flat course.
A heavy guy of average fitness should probably be looking around the 1:05 mark, for a flyweight your 1:13 is not too bad.

Kinda depends what you class as endurance riding.
What seems adequate for Mountain Mayhem is going to run out of juice half way through Relentless and hardly even scratch the surface for the Strathpuffer.

These will fill you up

I’m in kinda the same boat, and they are the only thing so far that can keep me off the buscuits

@MSP, if you check out the recent factory tour video, theres not a whole lot of handmade in the handmade part.

I rather think that its acutally us riders that are inconsistent.

Personally, i think Conti err towards the side of making tyres for winning races on, whereas other brands maybe lean towards a tyre average Joe can enjoy even when battering the most clumsy line possible through a rock garden after a heavy winter training regime of beer and curry. Just a feeling i get from the way products are marketed etc.

Nothing wrong with either approach, and i think the truth is that if you buy a top of the range version, its pretty hard to buy a bad tyre from any of the major manufacturers. Just some will suit some riders more than others.

Ride down a steep slope and grab a fist full of front brake, it’ll help you get started and you wont have head-ground contact(not immediately at least).

There was T-shirt available to buy last year, but dont think it was event specific. Free high5 drinks bottle last year.

Rather disagree with those saying the lap is short, i was lapping around top 1/3rd of the solo field with an average lap time around 80mins. No feed station required, but definitely going to need a bottle.

Get a midget net if you are planning to stay and watch the presentations. Bring warm clothing, it might be the end of June, but no guarantee of double digit temperature.

Had a few from both sides here – none of them have been worth the paper they are printed on.

Construction of RaceSport, Protection and Apex casing

@DiskJockey, theres a significant number of people that don’t think the protection casing isn’t up to the job. I’ve never had a problem with them, but then i don’t ride aggressively on rocky trails. Logically, its to be expected that they arent really that tough, since all conti do is add an additional layer of their normal casing material (4 layers instead of 3).

You are however correct that its at a bit of a tangent to discussing BC compound.

@Woodentop, i needed similar pressure(tubed) to get them to grip on hard surfaces, but at that pressure they are horribly slow. Conti’s own application chart suggests they are more of a soft/loose condition tyre.

Might give them a go tubeless on a very wide rim which should square up the profile a bit.

Well after i was quite smug about the weather last week in the procore thread, i’ve come to the conclusion that Schwalbe have some very powerful friends – its been dark and rainy every day since.

Yeah, i heard from the folks in biketreks that conti’s dont fare well on the rocky trails there. Still expensive, but most other brands are catching them up on price now.

BC is awesome, cant say i felt the same about 2.4 MK2 though.

@nobeer, whats not to like? Crazy fast rolling, grippy and reasonably long lasting on the XC range.

Urgh, that would be hard to bear. Make it 2700 miles to the end only to discover you were following wrong gpx

Obvious question, but is it actually a Snakeskin version? If its a liteskin, or a cheaper performance line one Schwalbe dont guarantee they will hold air for any length of time.

Hang on a minute, who said anything about race pace All I need to do i average about 11-12 kph. Its more of a ride at a pace where i can hold a conversation with similar nutters and get to my target of 20 laps. Anything after that is a bonus.

That sounds highly civilised. My only 24 solo attempt was at Relentless last year, and the entire course was either steep climbs or descending – conversational pace was non-existent for mere mortals.