Mach to nanty is a good day out with nice views. Can use the train to get back to mach if you cycle to Aberystwyth after nanty (10 miles on the road, half of it downhill, the rest flat)

Any reason you’re getting an Alpine and not a Five? You won’t notice the 10mm much I don’t think, but if it’s 32mm stanchions you’re putting on, it’ll kind of be robbing the Alpine of its balls so to speak…

Athlon was a direct replacement for the E2, visor comes off and it looks acceptable on the road bike if that’s why you’re worried ;)

oldagedpredator: start is fine, the slab is fine, but shortly after the slab it’s totally logged until the first cut back towards the end.

It’s largely riding ok but it’s a bit messy in places.

Nice to see those moaning about effects and photoshopping not actually contributing anything to the thread… :roll:

To be fair, the experts tend to run a mile from these sorts of threads. Nothing in it for them and a normally only a whole world of pain awaits in trying to help.

Foxyrider descending a very ‘logged’ Climachx

I always though it was Fox with the ridiculously short service intervals?

No, RS have always been the same AFAIK…

That’s the trickiest bit I reckon! I don’t wholly agree that you can roll through it, you have to get the pedal stroke right. There’s nothing else which catches me out regularly on the climb.

Stay high and to the right and ride straight. I’m not saying it’s easy but it’s gone from being nearly impossible to merely a bit tricky IMO.

That’s well lush!

I think it’s only slightly easier now than it was a couple of years back

They cut a big chunk out the big stump down by the river. The run up is still a bit tricky but if you’re still riding when you reach the stump you can just roll through now. They also removed a stump right near the top just before the fireroad to the very top, which always seemed to be a bit of a pig.

I’ve set myself a personal goal of getting enough strength and technique back to clean the Cwmcarn climb.

I hate to disappoint you but it’s not as hard as it used to be :(

The climb isn’t crazy technical but as far as trail centre climbs go it’s one of the more technical. I’d say slighty harder both on fitness and ability than Whites Level’s climb.

Forget the off road climb just go up the road

Really? Cwmcarn stands apart from a lot of trail centres for not having endless fireroad climbs for a change…

Hans Dampfs don;t sound so promising now.

The GE series was won on Hans Dampfs… yes probably the rider not the tyre etc but if they can’t be terrible!

They have Schwalbe’s snake skin and they are far from paper thin feeling. The top guys doing the UK gravity enduro that have been running them have said they’re looking pretty cut up (but crucially still alive) after a whole season so I’d say for mortals, they’re tough enough I reckon…

Chain slap on swingarm seems to be bigger issue of noise I think. Five without clutch mech, noisy. Gyro with clutch mech, much quieter. Noticed this when I forgot to put the clutch on…

Obviously that doesn’t affect chain deviced bikes…

143664m or 471339ft that’s living in the Lakes for you.

Yeah but surely you’ve pushed most of that right :wink: :P

That’s what I was thinking as well. A lot of effort by some people.

To be fair, for the first half of the year I was riding on average 4 times a week and from the spring onwards 5-6 times a week (I have a commute where I can take in trails). So aside from a few big training rides, some endurance solos (12hr type things)/cx sportive/marathons, oh and the WC2C, none of my individual rides are overtly massive.

American Classic All Mountains?

Otherwise some combination of Hope hubs and Stans Rims :)

Just shy of 190,000 ft, mostly on the MTBs too.

Well I’ve got 158k in Strava and I’ve logged almost every ride I’ve done except the Wales Coast to Coast which adds over 35k…

Edit: 59,000m

Neil mate, back away from the crazy talk!

What you need is a good offroad, end-2-end ride. I don’t know, like the Wales Coast to Coast?

I rode for a team last year and got a lot of stuff (not just clothes) at ‘cost’ price. A little eye-opener for me at the margins on these things! No doubt those in the industry won’t be surprised but it shocked me.

Yawn, that margin has to cover rent, staffing costs, and everything else involved in running a business. Nothing is ever RRP online anyway and you do realise that just about every high street retailer is on its knees and actually needs to sell it at RRP just to a) survive and b) have enough money to actually buy some stock the following season.

The markup on cycle kit is no different to just about any other consumer good. 2x markup in retail is pretty much standard.

if I could keep up with you, I’d offer to ride with you as some sort of deterrent.

It’s if they catch me at the end of laying down a bitching Strava segment that worries me</tongue-in-cheek>

Not really sure what else you can do? I don’t expect forming a big lynch mob and tackling every group of people you find in LW that don’t look like cyclists is going to help… :|

wordnumb: as in in waiting hidden in side roads and making a grab for you as ride past.

Started happening a couple of Mondays on the trot right outside where I lived. Used to be a group ride I went on, same time every monday, they were there 3 Mondays on the trot before I started driving up. Call me paranoid but I felt a bit targeted in that instance.

I had a large group by the picnic benches in LW shout “ere mate”. Obviously I put the hammer down and promptly buggered off to ashton court after that :(

Riden through a few “traps” and managed to only just get away with my bike. I love Bristol but it’s getting beyond a joke now :(

Custom, hand-built frame if you’re any kind of mate :wink:

It might well be psychological but I feel a bit energy sapped on 170s.

Probably bugger all difference on a power metre of course!

Wow, seriously had no trouble passing at all.

Personally I find calling it on approach (as in a bike length away, not when you’re already all over their wheel) with a lot of courtesy (“rider coming through when it’s ok for you” rather than just “rider!”) seemed to get me through almost instantly, with plenty of willingness and appreciation from the rider in front. Always make a big deal of saying thanks properly too — perhaps it’s the fact that I’ve done my time as a soloist but I think if your passing etiquette is pristine both in the actual approach and the going around, you shouldn’t have problems.

That said, we were a mixed team of four with the fastest girl on the course riding for us. She had one run in where it seemed as if the guy had a real issue with being caught by female rider and made it quite clear he wasn’t going to let her through. Bit sad really.

We were disappointed by the amount of people who didn’t stop/take the hand up – they can’t all have been race leaders…

In my my defence, we weren’t totally out of the race for 1st place when I turned the Cider down!

Argh, I’m slower than Peaty at XC as well as DH now… :lol:

I managed a 29:58, not quite!

Nice shots!

Anyone else? Saw plenty of photographers up there!

Great event once again. Surprisingly muddy for Ashton Court but not many courses in the UK would have been anywhere near as fun, fast and rideable as that with the weather we had before hand!

Finally got a podium in the mixed team of four at my home event which was nice! Need to check the laps as we were running Torq close and ended up a lap down so not sure what happened there…

Most typecast actor of all time?

Managed to pick up a 2nd hand Rothan (the first brakeless ones) for £40, very tidy and we’ll see how he gets on without the brake.

He’s been on a Toddlebike up until now (from 12 months old), which while only £20, and to be fair he’s adored it too, has been a bit crap. By the time he properly ‘got it’ he’d effectively outgrown it. The promo stuff shows a lot of much bigger children riding them but the seat isn’t much lower than the lowest on the Rothan and the plastic wheels are a battle to move over rougher tarmac.

Still, let’s see how he gets on with the Rothan before I get too critical!

Pick up the sustrans route on the southern exit of Trawsfynydd and you can ride into Coed-y-Brenin offroad picking up “The Beginning of the End” descent. The views on the old romain road are spectacular. Follow Dave Buchanan’s WC2C route basically…

Are team racers hammering the course as fast as they would on a one/two lap after work ride

The top 3rd probably are.

If I’m slow then do I get elbowed off into the bushes?

Probably not, it does happen still but Bristol’s gotten much cleaner in terms of people knowing it’s a sningletrack heavy course and traffic is something that affects everyone, so deal with it. Most will call which side and usually in a reasonably appropriate place. It also settles after about 4 laps. Oktoberfest has far fewer riders on course compared to BikeFest which helps.

Do I do the same to people slower than me?

Act as you wish to be treated ta :)

What happens at the start?

Le Mans style start, run like a bastard, expect a bottle neck if you’re slow…

Edukate me!

You’re welcome, see you there!

Depends how our race is going on the beer front I guess :D

Good effort, I heard it was hard work!

And I know that area well now, looks like you did some of the WC2C route judging by the pics!

Hello boss! How’d you get on in Coed-y-brenin?

If you’re team, I’d say Soul I reckon!

I’m fighting the lurgy right now, I’m actually in a pretty decent team so going to be proper annoyed if I get sick!

Hello! I found some friends this time! Sorry to say I won’t be soloing this time… Cyclist No.1 and Velocite bikes have teamed up for a mixed team of four in the 8 hour.

Course is looking alright, with it mostly dry Friday and throughout the race according to the forecast, it should be running quite nicely most of the way round.

The Bad
The campsite will be a little bit of a slog, the birdleway at the bottom is a bit ‘icky’ but it’s solid rock underneath so it won’t turn into a bog fest and runs quite quickly, so it’s just splashy. Otherwise you’ve just got the bottom of the Barn Wood climb (pic below) and the short field section before the climb back up to the arena that are a bit mucky. Otherwise it’s all well drained stoney singletrack or solid fireroad.

As always, don’t bring mud tyres, you don’t need them. It’s fast rolling and singletrack traffic will negate any benefit from running big, tacky trail tyres too. Just bring something made of rubber, whatever you’ve got fitted will do.

The Good
Rode up there tonight, it’s mostly fine and even if it rains on the day, it’ll be fine. Best all weather course in the country! The stoney singletrack can be a bit slick to the uninitiated, so take your first lap steady if it is wet. But otherwise, my bike was just a bit splashed with spray and remarkably clean considering it was pissing down tonight while I was up there.

If it is wet, this will claim some victims. It’s not hard but under racing conditions, someone will bin it hard down here. I think one guy managed it quite badly in the dry this summer so you’ve been warned! Running wide offline in the mud isn’t easier and more likely to cause crashes, so tackle the rocks head on!

This was about 5:45pm, if we have a grim day it really could be a case of lights on for the last lap!

There’s lots of this. Bit greasy when wet but fast and reasonably clean. It’s gentle on brake pads too it would seem.

This is probably the worst bit of the course right now. Looks worse than it is, the ground is again very stoney underneath so once you reach the bend up the hill in my shot, it’s cobbly stone rather than mud.

Should be good, fingers crossed for the weather!

Iconic isn’t the same as good infamous of course

FIFY