turboferret, intersting but I have no facility for nodding the torch, be intersted when you can offer the mid service!

Those tesco torches are but blips of light on the ground compared to a P7…

I have a hope single on the bars and a P7 on my helmet – I don’t even see the Hope light’s beam until I turn the bars and it lights up the dark of to the side where I’m not looking. :roll:

P7 4 batteries + charger = ~£40

Some cracking times guys! I didn’t ride this (planning on the July one) but based on your average speeds it makes my HONC time feel a little pedestrian… :'(

(I’d have done 4 hrs 15 ish but the HONC was mostly roads!) I’ll kid myself it was navigating that slowed me down…

Could be the life line they need if they’re one of the first to adapt – especially as it’s rear end grip they’re lacking…

I believe Mclaren were seen testing a twin deck diffuser but with the holes filled in or something…

I think this was it…

I usually put pedal spanner on, sit on bike and lower weight on to spanner with your foot – usually does the trick…

Much of the Kenda range is ‘designed’ by Tomac.

High rollers are better at most things, thin sidewalls and very sudden loss of grip at the front were issues with blue grooves.

Definitely each to their own – I found a high roller dreadful up front and only trust a Blue Groove as a front tyre when really gunning it.

Bob: Hope it hasn’t put your mrs off!! My wife had a fairly nasty one at Afan (long walk back on busted ankle). We had at least 10 blokes stop to see if we were ok, offering first aid, food etc. One even gave us his map so that we could find a shorter way back on the fireroads. There are plenty of good folk out there, perhaps it is just certain centres as both Afan and Cwmcarn seem to be full of lovely folk…

May I suggest riding behind, it kind of helps the situation if you’re there when it happens… :)

Last few crashes have been down onto my chest/shoulder.

I use a Camelbak Motherlode, slower access but would survive some pretty nasty stacks I reckon…

50 acre was ‘alright’ this morning – bit pasty but also quite dry in places.

Tricky, 100, why?

I went alone and really enjoyed it, just me and my stopwatch!

I didn’t find navigating to be a problem, it was 10km before the pack thinned out, and about 30km before I found my place in the pack and started passing a lot less. Just made a concious effort to keep riders in sight.

I think I ended up using my route card 3 times, and each time I checked my distance, found an instruction that made sense and carried on. I was in touch with a few smaller groups throughout the day who I kept exchanging position with and most had at least one good navigator…

Full susser with disc brakes and tubeless is definitely the way to go, that way you’ll have more excuses when things go wrong.

I think my Float 32s came close to packing up but they’ve been pissing oil out of the seals for a fortnight now :'(

I saw a lot of cross riders changing tubes… :-P

I think something like a HeiHei on small block 8s would be a good ride around there.

My Five with the SB8s was surprisingly pleasant and quick. Most of the cross bikes that went flying by looked to be ridden by people that were much fitter anyway and would have been going past me on an MTB equally as fast. I passed quite a few cross bikes ridden by not so fit looking people so I think rider fitness is still a bigger factor…

Lovely day guys! My first “big one” and very happy with 6 hours seeing as I was just happy to actually get round!

RE: slow people at the start… It’s a difficult one because I started about halfway down the pack and while I’m no xc whippet I had to fight through a lot of people and was probably on the tail of the top third by the 50km/100km split. I could have done with starting much nearer the front but its difficult to tell how far forward you should be – one man’s race pace is another’s pootle. Next time I’d try and start a third of the way back but stood in the car park it’s difficult to tell where that is!

Anyway, it was a gorgeous day with gorgeous friendly people and plenty social all the way round! Nice!

Never buy scales, it only ends in disappointment.

Orange Five Pro was quoted as 28lbs in MBR – just weighed mine at 29.75!! Ok, that 28lb is probably sans pedals, I’ve got the bash, my Kendas are a fair bit heavier than the Mountain Kings it comes with (extra weight is worth the performance increase IMO) and I’ve got some heavy Conti 2.1 – 2.5 tubes which I really don’t need adding too much weight. The Holzfeller stem and bar probably isn’t doing it any favours either. Then of course the review bike was sporting the performance pack (Thomson bits and Fizik Gobi). :roll:

My Genesis iO is quoted as 24lb – it’s 25lb.

I thought my Cervelo would be about 18-19lb but is a more portly 20lb!!

The only honest one was my Wife’s Myka FSR, a claimed 29lb and weighed 29lb…

Normally quoted without pedals which on average adds nearly a pound!

Rover 200/400 and Honda Concerto but even then the body work was fairly different.

Bike theft probably hasn’t risen because the crooks are probably at capacity and probably can’t physically steal any more bikes each night! :evil:

Yeah, Hwe will sleep ride with anyone these days… :-P

That said, there’s been quite a bit of mingling of clubs lately – the cheesy riders and the bristol mountain bike club went trail building together! It’s all getting a bit warm and fuzzy – like it! :D

As others have said, extend. Just start doing your 2.5 miles each way and once it becomes routine it’s very easy to just bolt the miles on.

Mine’s 5 miles each way but I’ll bolt on an extra 20 miles (if road bike) or 10 miles (if MTB) a few times a week. That’ll make a difference…

Yeah most of these don’t count – in the OP the Mazda 121 was literally a Fiesta with Mazda badges on it…

Ford Fiesta

Mazda 121

:roll:

Shame, I felt the race was quite exciting for a change!

I roll in km anyway :)

Righty-ho – feel better about navigating now.

Now to fashion a map holder :)

*registers interest*

Do we get given actual map printouts on the day or do we need to bring our own to compliment that delightful PDF of instructions…

Doesn’t look very compatible with my ‘FREERIDE TO THE MAXXX’ Holzfeller stem :roll:

I figure the risk of following someone and getting lost is worthwhile – I know I’m guaranteed to get lost so I might as chance picking someone who looks fairly knowledgeable and them not actually getting me lost! :D

LVIS are going to be well represented then – how many you got going? The Cheesy’s are taking about 11 I think – shame we don’t have kit yet… (my fault)

I will stop digressing after this… very nice shoe – only worn mine twice but no breaking in required (did 50km in them on first ride) and they seem to have struck the perfect balance between ‘trainer’ comfort and just about raceable stiff.

So, the HONC, man, I was a bit worried about being fit for the 100km, now I’m just worried about the navigation – for those that know me I’m no carrier pigeon (my best was getting us lost in the Quantocks due to some dodgy map I found on the internet and a broken compass!)

Looks like bronze shoes are in this year…. I like to describe mine as gold though!

Is it these ones?

Prestige was built to be light hence the springyness… most steel bikes will be stiffer I reckon… It’s no hooligan…

I’ll be riding my Gold Orange Five, running 2.1 High Rollers or Small Block 8s depending on the weather. I’ll be in my Fat Cyclist Jersey (WIN Susan!) as I still haven’t sorted the Cheesy Riders ones yet.

In fact I’ll probably be dressed exactly as below only with my pimpy new bronze-coloured SPD shoes courtesy of Mrs Lake for my recent birthday!

WMB reviewed it last month – it wasn’t the usual shining star it has been in recent years – I’m sure it’s still the excellent bike it always has been…

Silly question but is the dust cap on?

I left mine off during one lap of the Bristol bike fest and it went flat in half a lap – pumped it up again, put the dust cap on and it’s not leaked any air in 9 months…

Hmmm, if this weather holds I’ll be on Small block 8s!

deadhero – yeah I meant Antony, was using his initials lol.

Right, I’m going with Orange 5 and 2.1 High Rollers (I had this dumb idea of SSing it at one point :roll: ) – if it’s Muddy as sin, at least they’ll stay clear and I only have to worry about keeping it upright. I’m assuming the amount of road and fireroad will make ‘rakers useless anyway even if it is muddy.