*walks away from the news post muttering about ‘back in my day’ and ‘what kind of sport is this’…*

It’s finally happened Singletrack has morphed into Top Gear, what next stupidly pointless e-bike challenges in far flung corners of the world :-(

walks away from the news post muttering ‘do I need to find a new online mountain bike magazine?’

Or to use the technical term, righty tighty.

or “lefty loosey”

Are there any instructions for tightening pedals?

I seem to remember that you always turn towards the rear wheel, assuming the bike is standing up the correct way

You might to check some of those deals before you post a link.
The dropper post at Tweeks link goes page not found 404, is actually £710 and they won’t have any for two months
The dropper post at Sigma is the XPLR version which is cheaper than the one you have here anyway
The GX Eagle upgrade on e-bay is from Italy so has import tax implications I think

Probably dropped when Covid hit and not restarted. London to Brighton off road was last Saturday (17th), that may have taken over from doing the SDW?

Charity Bike Rides 2022 – British Heart Foundation (bhf.org.uk)

My wige who never table got into the idea mountain biking did I quite happily pushing and carrying where necessary.

@AMPTHILL – sentence of the week mate, good effort! :-)

This is the Pooley Bridge (Park Foot campsite) to Glenridding lakeside route.

https://explore.osmaps.com/route/13959633/pooley-bridge-to-glenridding?lat=54.577479&lon=-2.917283&zoom=11.8057&overlays=&style=Leisure&type=2d&placesCategory=

Stats say 18km. 90 minutes. 364m of ascent the majority of which is the climb to The Cockpit

You could do the eastern side of Ullswater. From Pooley Bridge go up to The Cockpit, then following the BW to Howtown, Martindale, Sandwick, then near Rooking go over the river to Patterdale and into Glenridding and then catch the ferry back to Pooley Bridge. Obviously check the timetable and that they allow bikes on board. It’s been a quite a few years since I did that ride, but it was a brilliant trail. Your partner could get the ferry from Pooley Bridge to Glenridding and meet you there for lunch etc. The ferry ride was very good as I remember it.

Purbecks yesterday, this on the climb back out of Chapman’s Pool. The other pic is Simon sitting on half a “sea mine”, one of those with spikes on that blow up when a hip hits it, we found it on the beach at Chapman’s Pool.

[/url]

Really disappointing, it was going thru our village in Dorset on Saturday :-(

Very unlikely to do so again in my lifetime. :-(

It would be good if the organisers included this year’s cancelled stages in next year’s route.

Our annual MTB weekend away, now more roadies than MTB’ers :-(  This year it was the New Forest.

Pre ride photo call on Friday afternoon

On the beach at Nash Point (east of Lymington), Isle of Wight in the background

A bit of arty photography in the tunnel under the A31

In 2016 I did a longish trek (18 days) in the Himalaya, Gokyo lakes and Everest base camp, with 3 mates. We all took the Sawyer water straw system which we got from Amazon. It cost £23 at the time and filtered down to 0.1 microns. Just had a look and the current systems are around £40+. It worked really well, we used it every day to prep our water and none of us suffered any stomach issues on the trip. Saved us a fortune in getting boiled water or buying bottled water. It’s said to be good for 1000 gallons.

Wow did someone just poke @Charlie Hobbs with a cattle prod :-)

Beer, coffee and banana’s aside you could put all the others on a list of food you should never eat FULL STOP!
As for fizzy drinks in a bidon, if it doesn’t spray your bike you will catch a face full the first time you try and drink some of it.

I always say at least a “hello” when out on the bike and quite often a bit of banter about the weather or the steep climb I am about to start. Trail meetings tend to be with ….

Dog Walkers – they are usually friendly even if their dogs always aren’t!

Gravel bikers – they usually give a nod

Roadies (during tarmac transitions) – 25% nods, 25% actually say hello and the other 50% won’t open their mouth in case their Strava stats are affected

Ramblers – Usually a hello followed by shouts to the group behind “Watch out, bike coming!”.
Q – why do they always look so bloody miserable?

Mate from Yorkshire who I regularly ride with says hello to all and sundry, apparently it’s the done thing up north, a bit like Crocodile Dundee in New York.

My Sealskin lookalikes from Lidl’s are still going strong after 4+ years and cost less than £10 as I remember, unfortunately never seen them in there again. I do wear them under GoreTex boots most of the time though. Which reminds me I must re-proof my boots, had the first proper rainfall in Dorset last night since I can’t remember when!

A few years ago we did the SDW over two hot blue sky days. First day I didn’t drink enough, but still ran out of fluid, and suffered with pretty bad cramp on the last 10 miles of the 50 we did. Day 2 I filled my 750ml bottle and 2l camelback at every tap we came to, even if it was just a small top up, and constantly drank. Result no cramps at all, lesson learned.

We out yesterday morning in searing heat, 30 off road miles, and I got thru 750ml bottle, two 750ml bottles of Lucozade Sport as well as a pint of water and 3 cups of tea at the obligatory cake stop. Still peeing something resembling Tizer afterwards!

Thought that Craghoppers cagoul was a Berghaus jacket until I had a look at the logo pic.

His first MTB ride and you are taking him to the Quantocks! Nothing remotely flat’ish there, its all up hill or down hill, he will either luv it or hate it and never ride again. A typical ride we do there takes in Smith’s Combe, Hodders Combe & Lady’s Edge, Weacombe and a trip down to the Blue Ball Inn for a cider or two is only about 20 miles but will involve over 3000ft of climbing. Which is probably why we see so many e-bikes there now. You need to do some careful route planing.

I tried to find somewhere to hire bikes in the area last year and had no success, even in Taunton.

Hope that this week’s competition is better organised that last Friday’s Leszyne one!!
A crap formatted e-mail only arrived in my inbox at 8am Sunday (UK time), being out all day yesterday I read it this morning and eventually, after having to Google the answer, because it wasn’t in the article (!), I entered the competition. An hour later I log and find that the draw has already been done and the winner notified! By the way the competition for the Lezyne stuff is still open on Mailchimp so other unsuspecting STW members can enter something that is already finished.
1/10 for effort, could do a lot better. :-(

Had to google the answer, as it’s not on this page!
The e-mail arrived with some bloody weird formatting, pictures huge, text super small and Benji’s opening text so wide that I had to scroll across the page to read a line!
I thought you were the techy guy?
Come back soon Hannah ………………..

South Dorset Ridgeway and Bonjour Cafe (Poundbury) for coffee and chocolate brownie

Just for a change …. how many batteries!!!!!
So before you go out on your new toy you have to ensure all the batteries are charged or “usable” and I assume carry spares (AAA, CR2032, etc), what a faff. I recently started a thread in the forum, “Are MTB’S getting too complicated”, this is exactly the type of bike I was alluding to.
Then there’s the price, I know it’s “top of the range”, but any manufacturers bike with a £10k+ price tag is a rich man/woman’s toy.

This article is worth a read, the chap from Stan’s says that co2 may affect their sealant.
I use Stans Race (which I have found to be very good) and co2 when out on the trail (track pump or blaster when at  home) as it’s usually when its raining, windy, your mates are standing around getting cold and wondering when will you get that xxxx’ing tyre sorted so we can get going again! :-)

Tubeless Tire Sealant Tech, Part 1 – How Often Should It Be Checked & Replaced? – Bikerumor

Pog and Vingegaard handshake, sporting (in every sense) moment of 2022 so far?

Wonderful to watch.

@Beer247 I don’t know enough about Brexit and Irish border controls, but can’t you get a train to Belfast, buy the bike you want and ride it back across the border? Ok it’s technically (and probably legally :-) ) smuggling, but haven’t the Irish been doing that since the border was drawn on a map.

ah “battery anxiety” a real, but very 1st World problem :-)

Just read the “other stuff” list again and noticed the dropper post on it! Everything else you can pick up very cheaply in the centre aisles at Aldi or Lidl. But a dropper post is expensive and although I have never messed with mine (had no reason to) I imagine that they are a bugger to install and that’s if your bike is already compatible. Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t buy a bike now without one, but as an immediate upgrade for a newbie, probably not.

Also while the bike maybe capable of doing Helvellyn I very much doubt a newbie’s legs would be. Perhaps a few months (at least) riding local low level trails might by an idea before tackling a big ride out in the lakes at which point adding maps, Garmin device, first aid kit, etc to your other stuff kit list might be an idea.

I read about the Knog Scout earlier in the week, seems like a good device, but from what I have read it only works with a bloody Apple bloody I-Phone! Or am I missing something.

This is the hike-a-bike from Hayeswater up The Knot to High Street if you are coming from the Hartsop end of the trail. This pic was taken about half way up and the white blob at the end of Hayeswater is a Transit Van. We started and finished in Pooley Bridge, went out following trails alongside Ullswater to Hartsop before climbing up to High Street for the return ride.

How do you change gear when that flimsy looking power cable to the mech gets ripped off of your bike? Every MTB rider knows that rear mech is probably the most vulnerable part of your bike why put a power cable in such an exposed position and right next to moving pivot points on the suspension?

No riding for me this weekend! :-(

Pub prices for a small can of beer! Really!
I really don’t buy into this “…. made by vegan virgins on the summer solstice with added secret ingredients from a thousand year old hidden forest and using witchcraft ….” just so you can charge ridiculous prices for a small can of beer.
The craft beer industry now comes with added bullsh*t and a very strong whiff of Jilly Goolden & Oz Clarke.

@tall_martin I went one better, bought the shirt late last year, wrapped it up and my wife gave it to me as a “surprise” Christmas present! I find the best Christmas presents are the ones I purchase for the family to give to me, never disappointed or have to ask for the receipt so that I can change it.

Wife off to visit family and left at 5am yesterday to miss the traffic, so I thought why not and went out on the bike. Roads clear, no dog walkers on the local trails and great views in the early morning sunshine.  Stopped at Coffee #1 in Dorchester for breakfast, they open at 7am!

Good video and very helpful in understanding the various power/watts/torque/etc gobbledygook. It’s probably in the handbook somewhere if you buy an e-bike, but maybe some info on the motor power, how it uses the battery’s reservoir of power and recommended cadence would be useful on the sales blurb.

The 90 pedal revolutions per minute cadence that Mark mentions would not suit my style of MTB’ing. I like to push higher gears at slow rev’s and definitely do not feel comfortable “spinning” the pedals, probably due to the muscle make up in my legs, “fast twitch” vs “slow twitch”.

Would luv to see a follow up to this with a bit more maths (sorry @stwhannah) with some real world examples of e-bikes.

@chestercopperpot That must be a whole weight of chips plus salt, vinegar & mayo, off of your shoulder.

Hope you feel better now :-)

Like the recess to go over the visor and keep the hood in place, clever idea.
However in 2020 I bought an Altura Cyclone Night Vision jacket for £50 (RRP £100) in a CRC sale and it’s spec is far better than the Rockrider jacket (e.g. waterproof to 15000mm) and it could be a while before I need a replacement.
Still on sale at Cyclestore for £65 or the women’s version at CRC is £40-45, a bargain!

Used Stans Race for the last two years and it’s been very good, previously used the Standard version. All punctures sealed and stayed sealed, did have two splits about a 1cm long which it didn’t seal, but I patched the inside of the tyre and it’s been ok since then.

Once left Stans Standard for 9 months without checking and it was fine and still plenty of fluid in the tyre.

For info I normally ride a couple of times a week, average ride 20-25 miles, mostly off road. The main puncture reason around my local trails is Blackthorn.

Bought Tago Mago when still at school in the early 70’s, vinyl of course, and still got it in my collection. Great album, an acquired taste maybe, but well worth a listen.

Just seen the prices of the original album cover version on e-bay!

Looks like an £50 helmet with a £180 rear light. If I have read this correctly no MIPS? No visor. The tech is great, but to be honest I prefer the £8 (at Halfords) re-chargable rear light that I have clipped to the rear of my (less than £80 in a sale) Bell 4Forty helmet, with MIPS and a great movable visor. It will last a 5-6 hours on blink mode and I just re-charge it every other ride. On an MTB rider I wonder how long the recharging tech on this helmet will last after a few minor crashes?