Nice one – I thought about going to that race after puncturing out of the Ludgershall race yesterday but felt shite when I woke up so knocked it on the head.

My desire to grab a cat 3 license has been reinvigorated by the Winchester crit too, but I have 9 points to go!

BA were arsey with a friend and I when we travelled together with bikes last year – total for 2 bike bags was less than the 46kg combined allowance but the lovely helpful check in lady had us move things between bags to get them both under 23kg.

I did get the impression she had got out of bed the wrong side though, normally they seem to apply a bit more common sense. The 32kg upper limit is definitely one to stay under though.

Essentially yes. You still have 4 groups of spokes, and the opposing groups on each side still alternate.

When you start inserting the opposing spokes, they will go to different holes if you are lacing 2x, but once the first spoke is in place the rest are equally spaced just as in a 3x wheel.

Its still 4 sets of spokes, just follow the 32 spoke guide. Instead of adding groups of 8 spokes with 3 hole intervals, it will be groups of 7 (28) or 6 (24)

roadbikereview.com also has some epic sized threads on experiences with chinese frames. But VB should give a reasonable feel for good suppliers.

I got a road frame from HongFu but it took an age. DengFu seem to be one of the better options.

Looking at somewhere like velobuild.com and getting a feel for the reputation of various sources is not a bad plan, even if you end up buying via alibaba/aliexpress. But you may also find you can get what you want in the velobuild mall.

Great fun – I can’t believe how well drained the course was after the rain of the last couple of days. could really have managed without a puncture 3 miles from the finish though :( Tired now.

Neil Gaiman’s ‘Sandman’ & ‘American Gods’.

HBO are apparently doing American Gods as a multi season series. Seems fairly definite based on this:
http://hbowatch.com/what-is-american-gods-all-about-anyway/%5B/url%5D

I did 2 weeks in Kathmandu/Pokhara/Mustang valley last Christmas/New Year – great trip and it is an amazing place to visit and ride.

The trip I was on was guided by Tangi and he is definitely a good bet for finding more technical riding if that is what you are after, though he is not guiding full time AFAIK. I contacted him via Pokhara Mountain Bike club but he is based in Kathmandu and works closely with Epic bikes as above.

Pile of my photos here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyhill/collections/72157628783377625/%5B/url%5D

One thing to bear in mind is that many of the companies will be pitching rides at people with all sorts of levels of experience, so make sure you ask plenty of questions to find out what sort of riding is involved, particularly if you want something more technical.

Option 1 for me. But now that you have reminded me I have cake, I quite fancy a slice!

sounds good to me, I have nice new winter boots :)

Looking forward to it – evil cold that hit me last weekend seems to be subsiding nicely. Can’t decide whether to drag out the vintage geared bike or stick with the big wheeled singlespeed beast :)

I’m off to see The Joy Formidable too, really looking forward to it. Slightly miffed still at failing to get any Kraftwerk tickets. And showing my age may go to check out the Jesus jones/PWEI/Wonderstuff triple header in Reading in April.

When I had mine serviced a while back I got the impression that they would always convert older style shocks. I guess the cheaper service is for shocks that have already been converted.

I can’t say I noticed any night and day differences. It probably “pants” a little less without the air element, if you know what I mean. Performance seemed pretty consistent with how it was before, but I am not someone who is constantly fiddling with shock settings.

Reserve list here. Look into my eyes and listen very carefully … “you do not want the places you have been offered”

I use Sidi Dominators for the same reasons – on my 3rd set. The Lorica version has no mesh, and I can use them all year round with winter boots for really cold weather.

They’ve got pricey in the last few years and I’m not looking forward to the current ones wearing out. They last for ages though.

Gary

Here’s my strava dump. Not bad, not great, and mostly commuting. Hoping for 2013 to provide some weather that will make we want to ride offroad more

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A year in bike rides[/url]

ludicrous cross winds and horrendous mud and my average speed was about 5mph with the head/cross winds and stopping to clean the mud off the bike. Hated it.

Ah, sounds like the first time I did it – it was several years before I went back again! Not done it for a few years now, it was always a fun day if it was properly frozen, pretty grim otherwise. Which I guess is why it has slowly gained more road-y sections. I may still be tempted to get the cross bike out if the weather is not too ghastly.

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P8181807_1[/url] by Gary Hill[/url], on Flickr

Long weekend in Bettmeralp, which was every bit as good as the article in the current issue of the mag suggests. The best trail we rode was actually a couple of valleys over from the glacier, but I was too busy grinning like a loon and skimming rocks and roots to stop for a photo!

If you paid for a bike fit then fleecing you for a set of special insoles would have been a dawdle. Did they sell you a Powerband too?

Yes, crazy to think I might pay someone to offer the benefit of their study and experience, and to be able to ride more efficiently and comfortably as a result. Madness I tell you.

D’oh, missed the edit window. That’s SuperFeet, not SportFeet.

The way the LBS put it when I had a bike fit, was that (with notable exceptions) most cycling shoes have pretty ropey insoles so quickly show up any foot instability.

Similar hear, decent insoles from SportFeet sorted it out – just off the shelf ones rather than custom.

You’ll probably hate it – was it you on the SS rigid Swift?

No, though its blue and 29er so its often mistaken for a swift. The very swift (ahem) singular was on the way to 2nd place I think. Mine was the one rocking silly Jones bars.

Doubt gears would be much faster, but my knee and achilles might be less sore than they were on this morning’s commute!

As above – great day out. Very glad to escape before the rain hit. Great course though pretty relentless. Leading pack in the 2h race came past at a very scary pace – chapeau for keeping that up for 2 hours.

Was pleased to finish 11th in 4h vets, but rather gutted to find out 10th was only 15s ahead – should have been a little keener to overtake on the last lap!

Feeling it now though, must sort out some gears and suspension before january.

Still trying on and off here without much joy :(

OK for a 29er SS?

Hope so, as I won’t get a chance to sort out an alternative!

Congrats, still remember exact moment I got enough points for my 1st Dan in Judo. Still doing it but lack of time means stranded on 2nd Dan.

That sounds familiar!

Sounds like a multi lap XC style enduro race rather than gravity enduro from the web site though, given it calls it a 4hr enduro …

[Cue wailing about name confusion :)]

I went to James at Rock’n’Road. No fancy digital tracking but they do have a fully adjustable rig. No massive changes to position but enough to sort out some specific issues, and a good discussion about the biomechanics of pedalling which was really helpful.

Getting a Retul fit is intriguing though …

Someone I know has created Leave Wizard which sounds like what you are looking for. I have no direct experience of it but I would trust the guys behind it to develop software for me!

http://www.leavewizard.com/%5B/url%5D

Tempting … but spoiled for choice too with all the other events popping up.

The Mtn Hardwear Epic gloves that BWD mentioned above are half price on Sport Pursuit today if anyone fancies a punt.

Cheeky referrer link : http://www.sportpursuit.com/join/gary_hill_11525

Evans aren’t going with them again next year, and something happened with them and Silverfish last year… that leaves no UK distributor…

Bugger. Was very tempted by next year’s carbon ones. Wonder if the Evans 2012 prices will get gouged even lower if they are dropping them …

It puts the spotlight on Yates. It is implausible that he rode during this period in teams that were systematically doping and yet never doped and never saw anyone else dope

Its not just about USPS/Discovery when it comes to Yates

http://www.dopeology.org/incidents/Yates,-S-adverse-analytical-finding/%5B/url%5D

Ah we’ll – will call Calshot in the morning, so hopefully get more sense.

Calshot has much the same setup, 3 step process before you are accredited for the training sessions. They may be less booked up but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was much the same

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/calshot/track-cycling.htm

If you want to throw proper money at one, you could always try and track down one of these:

http://road.cc/content/news/16204-just-trek-district-carbon

When I got (a very uncomfortable) one from being knocked off on the road, after getting escalated from walk in centre -> A&E doctor -> consultant the conclusion was that they _could_ drain it but unless it was infected they’d rather not as it would risk infection and better to let the body sort it out.

You can buy the remote kit to add to a lever version so I imagine they are exactly the same. It just changes the way the post is released.

I have seen a Bengal before with a dark nose cool cat.

To be fair, he is “presumed bengal” based on characteristics and comments from people who know the breed as he came from the Blue Cross without much information. He is very cool though.

Mine would love to be a streetwise hunter but shows little aptitude, so I just get a very vocal greeting when I get home after scheduled feeding time!

He climbs and jumps to a scary degree though (must be down to about 6 lives)

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climb[/url]

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Jump[/url]

And if there are no trees to hand …

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helping with the decorating 1[/url]