Yeah, they are expensive for what they are, but i needed one in a hurry as after topping fluid up in my tyres a week before Relentless last year i couldnt get them to reseat. Airshot popped them right back on first time. Seems to be a well built bit of kit, so should pay me back in hours of saved frustration in the long run.

I imagine a fat bike was actually really good down walkers path, probably gobbled up all the little roots and kept momentum going really well.

So glad the weather treated us nicely, that course would be utter carnage in the wet.

Suspect moving anything from the shoulders down is going to be beyond my abilities tomorrow.

Had a 56 plate Civic 2.2tdi and an 09 plate leon FR 170 so i can do a pretty good comparison.

As you know, the Leon is amazing to drive, so much fun and grip that just keeps on going.

The Civic was not really in the same league, but it was still a nice drive. Strong point was the engine, only 140bhp, still had a good kick to it when the turbo kicked in. Round the corners, grip and feedback to driver both good – it was still a car you could have fun with. Economy was fairly good too. Inside, the interior is a little nicer than the leon, overall better materials and dash layout. Very flexible load carrying space.

On the not so good side, ride is a little harsh, and can get unsettled when hitting stuff like manhole covers when cornering. The nice interior is a little fragile and gets marked and scuffed easily. 2.2 was heavy (along with my right foot), so chewed through front tyres at an alarming rate. 2.2tdi also had/has a known issue with clutch wearing out around 25k miles, and as its a dual mass flywheel job its a very expensive repair if it goes – not sure if this applies to the baby diesel engine. Last thing is that mine had the turning circle of a double decker bus – not sure if that is a feature of the car of the sport pack with larger alloys etc.

If i were you i’d do some digging into the clutch thing, but other than that i thought it was a great car and i’d have another.

X-King, XR2, Rocket Ron, Ardent Race.
But, they also regularly take place on soft moorland, so if its been wet, if you’ve got access to a proper mud tyre then take it with you.

A) Lose weight (assumption here, but it applies to most people)
B) Get a lower gear so you can continue to spin comfortably
C) Find a suitably long 10+ min climb and do big gear/low cadence repeats on it.

@tyres – if the course is the same as last year.

If its dry, semi-slick front and rear is viable, although if your a terrible descender like me something like an xking will give a bit more confidence. Really is no need for anything more aggressive.
If its wet, probably still a semi slick in the rear, but more of an intermediate up front.

The course is predominantly hardpack, there are very few sections loose or soft enough for an aggressive knobby tyre to bite into.

The difficulty of the main decent largely comes from it being narrow, bumpy and littered with small roots.

Oct-Dec = Base
Dec-Mar = Build
Mar-May = Speciality XCO or XCM plan / B races
May-July= Maintain / B races
July-Aug- Maintain/rest/ A race (Bonty 24/12)

That’s a whole chunk of maintenance work.
Fully 25% of the year devoted to treading water waiting for your A race to come around.
Ample time there to build towards a peak for a specific XCO event late May, then take a week or 2 chilling out before rebuilding targeting 24/12.

Overall though from what you’ve said, you seem to me to be on the right track – just keep on working away, re-evaluating once a month or so and the progress will come.

If arm warmers ARE just for road then I wish someone had told me before I embarrassed myself by wearing them for an XC ride last night.

Kryton – thanks so much for the response – hope it helped you to get that stuff out and written down. I’m very much the same – self coaching, and highly critical of myself – researching/educating myself as much as possible. I actually think this is a good trait if not taken to extremes.

Ultimately, I think mrblobby is on the right track – consistency and volume. To see the results improve significantly you are going to need to bump that W/Kg up – this will give you the sustained speed you are missing.

ac282 has a VERY good point – the only session you should be doing the day after the race is maybe 1hr zone1 recovery – especially if racing mid week – races are HARD, and doing 2 per week will provide all the intensity you need on a total volume of 6hrs.

My advice for the 2nd half of the season would be to sit down and plan to peak/focus on results at a couple of races on courses that you know suit you. Set some realistic goals, and commit to them by writing them down somewhere.
For example Race X, August, Top 33% of field result.

Late for some folk isn’t late for others.
Personally I always try to ensure washing machine etc always finish before 11pm 95% of the time, and never after midnight.

If its just a 1 off, then personally I don’t find 11:20pm that big a deal – if it was every day, then i’d go have a polite word.

My recent results and lack of discipline…

I think I’m just born with “weak cyclist” genes…

At the risk of derailing the thread a bit….
You seem a bit down on yourself.
A good coach will be a much better investment than a new bike.
However a bit of time/effort/learning with google and you can teach yourself a lot.
I’m kinda new to STW, so don’t know much about you yet.
How old are you?
How long have you been riding?
How long have you been racing? And what category?
How long have you been following structured training?
Are you following a periodised plan? And if so, what are your target ‘A’ races? And what results were you targeting at those races? And for the season as a whole?

Clearly from what you’ve said you aren’t happy with the way the season has started.
What have you learned from the races so far? Are you lacking stamina? Power? Descending skills? Did the courses suit your strengths?
Likewise what have you learned from your training so far? Each training block has a purpose – did you feel like each block had the desired/expected effect, if not why not.

Coaching (whether yourself, or others) is a constant game of applying training, measuring the outcome, and re-evaluating.
You are now a couple of months into the season, so not only do you have feedback from training, but you also have race performances to evaluate.

There’s still a whole lot of season left to go. If you are truly not happy, re-evaluate and do what you can to finish the rest of the year stronger.

You are correct, last year you could go to 7.5hrs if you made the cut off.
Praying for dry weather – walkers path could be ‘interesting’ if wet.

You have decided you are an XC racer – why the low budget? Have a decent FS and HT for your chosen discipline.

There’s an old saying – “don’t race what you cant afford to replace”.

Unless racing for the podium in elite/expert, anything <11kg will do the job fine riders engine, skills and rolling resistance are massively more important than a slightly heavier bike. If I recall correctly, some coach did some testing with a rider with a power meter, and 1kg = ~1min on a climb of alp d’huez.

Edit: For a £1500 budget i’d choose the Grand Canyon.

I’m in solo.
Did 7 laps in a bit under 7hrs last year (didnt have time to get an 8th before 7.5hr cutoff though) and went so deep I was glad I had a helper to drive me home.

No helper this year, so currently undecided between taking hardtail and riding hard, or taking full sus and riding a more relaxed and enjoyable 5-6 laps.

Course isn’t hugely technical in dry conditions (will be far more difficult if its wet), but is rooty and rough in places – took quite a beating on hardtail last year to the extent that it wasn’t particularly fun descending by lap 4.