Good article! I also keep to the middle of the road if approaching hazards, roundabouts and crossings etc. Much safer all round I think: pinch point + dullard driver = casualty for cyclist :-(

Ouch, and ouch again. Get well soon!!!!

Lagavulin – lovely drinking whisky . . . . .

My other half sees the bike very differently – she likes nice, flat easy road or trail rides with lots of sunshine and no wind that last up to ten minutes tops and thinks that's a great day out and time for tea and cakes thank you very much. No mud, hills, rain or other nasty stuff for her. Which of course is just weird.

+1 on the above – I've been using it all over winter and it's really good – even on 5 hour+ rides on the MTB and road bike it's been great. Got mine from the xcracer.com website too – free delivery :-)

rootes1 – many thanks for that. Hadn't thought about kiddies bikes though – good point! G

rootes1 – bit of a revelation there! May I ask how you came by that information – am only curious – nothing more!

Mine came from Pat – from provelo.freeserve.co.uk

On cost and cheaper replacement rings I'd go for XT – some really good deals on that too. XTR is super pimpy but chainrings are a stupid price so no go there. SLX is nice though – but FWIW I'd keep to XT.

KMC are great – I run them on both road and MTB bikes – including all through winter so far – and they're excellent. Have used wet lube and squirt wax lube and they perform really well – highly recommended and better than SRAM and Shimano.

bigface – I really like your stlye!!!

Cookeaa – Maybe it's not too bad cookeaa – if you're going for team then there is high demand but fingers crossed for you!

To be fair XTR hubs have had some reliability issues too – I have some wheels built by JRA and they're great, they also advised me to go for the ZTR over the XTR for reliability. price is even better too!

Now that is a downer! Something to look forward to on Tuesday though. Nice early start??? :-)

I prefer to ride a reliable and relatively light bike in that order. For general trail riding I really don't worry too much about weight – for enduro's and 24 hour racing I take as much weight off as possible on the bike and on me. Well, as for me I might give merlot up the night before and that's about it to be honest. I ended up shouldering the bike for over a mile every night lap last year soloing at SITS and can guarantee that weight matters then. Really. The rest is just personal preference.

Just got mine too! Very Excited! Better get training though :-(

Try this link here – the pads are absolutely fine and awfully cheap!

http://www.xcracer.com/jn_shop/viewproduct.php?productid=89

Depends – the trails are closed until May as they get a little precious on muddy rides over the winter. Bedge was fine today though!

Mulletus – just go for it! Your training matters and to be honest the chances are that you're going to suffer during the ride at some point. That's normal though, so enjoy it. Try longer rides at least once a week and establish some milestones like the Gorrick 100 for some quality distance riding then give the bristol bike fest a bash solo http://www.bike-fest.com/bristol/

Longer rides and events like these will give you experience in a more controlled environment and also, crucially, confidence in your ability. Your mental toughness is as important as your fitness, so give that a welcome boost too.

Just make sure that you stay hydrated and eat plenty – without these two things boxed off all the training in the world is useless. I suggest you try this stuff – http://eletewater.co.uk/all-products/elete-bottle-240ml/prod_19.html – it works really well at keeping you hydrated and therefore helping to avoid cramps.

Good luck!

Me too on the delivered but no idea when. Crikey. Tension mounts a little more . . . .

Johnboy373 has asked a reasonable question and has had a couple of fair replies and some heckling, which is fair enough for here I suppose. If any of the hecklers here rode the Kielder 100 did you laugh at, or refuse to take, first aid kits or a space blanket? It's just common sense out in the hills, wilderness or whatever you want to call it. The point is that in the event of an accident in which you're incapacitated, and they do happen – remember you helmet? – you need a bit of backup. That's all.

Outstanding!!!!

If out in the outdoors I carry a mountain first aid kit, space blanket, emergency whistle, more bike tools and spares than normal, a GPS and lights just in case. No penguins in the larder for me though :-)

Thanks Trekster – you're lucky with the design and build front I have to say. Is it Andy Hopkins? I think the Welsh and Scottish FC have made trail design and build there much, much easier in fairness – that makes a huge difference. If anyone is interested, the next trail build day at Bedgebury will be March 13th, starting a 9.45 in the main car park (near Quench cycles). Hope to see you all there.

Am going for Giant XTC carbon hardtail and kona hei hei for my poor back & bottom when it all gets too much! Suggest full sus will make the event more fun for you but there is a lot of climbing – usually over 1,000 ft a lap so keep that in mind!

psychle – in terms of training now which I think you're getting at here – a broad spectrum of training will help. From intervals on the turbo at home (I love http://www.thesufferfest.com Fight Club or Descending Spiral – awesome workouts for £6 each and they ROCK); long road rides for 3 – 6 hours, long MTB rides for 4 – 7 hours + and lots of hill work when tired for fun. Do some short XC races for the hell of it – these things when combined with plenty of rest will build endurance, strength and power. I also build up with events like the HONC, Gorrick 100, Bristol Bike Fest 12 hour etc.

Fair point all and thanks for those. The trails were always a compromise that wasn't ideal from inception due to budgets, time constraints, politics and so on – most riders agree with you all. The club have made the best out of the trails from a rather constrained deal (am being polite here!) and a lot is being done behind the scenes to get permission from the Forestry Commission to change the trail layout and enhance the riding. Check out http://www.boarsonbikes.co.uk/ for trail building updates and also for committee meetings – you can then find out first hand what happens and why! The offers of help will be welcomed I'm sure. Personally I think the trails are okay – nothing like Afan Argoed or Glentress but much closer to Tunbridge Wells for me :-). I really appreciate the efforts of the club trail pixies – remember that this work was all voluntary and without the budgets available to other trail centres.

Being in Langton Green you're close enough to come help on trail building days and sort the drainage out?

tension is clearly mounting . . . . ;-)

Suggest to be safe you don't ride the bike and get it to the LBS sharpish! I had a similar crack on my blur on the bottom bracket and the weld was failing. Good luck with it!

+1 to all of the above. My will to train is much greater than my ability to recover from training. Which sucks. Lots.

All I've done to get round it is ride every other day, take two days off if I get tired and crucially think of my rest day as training – active recovery is a good mindset to get into, as is training hard and resting harder. I use my resting heart rate as a good indicator of being tired too, along with disturbed sleeping patterns. If I get run down or fatigued I know that as I get a slightly sore throat – time to ease down for me then.

Vitamins and supplements help – Cherry Active helps loads for recovery as will protein shakes. I hate to say it but cutting down on the merlot helps lots too. That's the hardest bit for me :-)

Brain +1!!

If you're doing the road version just chuck on some cheap slicks – Specialized are easy to fit and for £10 – £15 each not much cost. For the off road version it isn't technical so semi slicks are fine – just imagine a loooooong canal path with two hills and 2 km of trail and you'll be there!

For a great value GPS look at the Memory Map Adventurer 2800 – only £200 from http://www.tredz.co.uk (£50 cheaper than anywhere else) and it comes with all of the national parks on 1:50,000, 10,000 sq.km of free mapping and the PC based memory map software for planning routes etc. which is excellent. For that money it's a killer deal – maps, software etc. on an edge 605 was over £400 last time I looked. Software has a couple of glitches on tranferring tracks and maps which make it a bit of a faff but simple when used to it. Run time is over 7 hours so far and screen scrolling is great. You can download GPX routes for it and I bought it primarily to follow sportive routes and ride the South Downs Way without much hassle and loads of maps plus hill walking so it's a good all rounder. Battery chargers are also available soon to double run time and the bike mount is £20.

After a long bike ride I have a shower to get clean then have a nice long soak in the bath. Lovely.

I drive a 2002 1.8vvti 'bucket of sh*t' Avensis Estate and it's the most un-inspiring car in the world to drive. It is reliable though, fits loads of gear in the back and was quite cheap to buy and inexpensive to run. It's not as good as Mondeo, A4 or Passat estates and is not sexy at all but it does the job nicely.

Always a tough one! I do the intervals on downward spiral as hard as I can and the HRM will follow the curve up, although the fight club is just AWESOME and I enjoy that and the music a lot more. 95% of max heart rate for those intervals is hard to do – I tend to get up to 90% of max tops, which is my case us 185bpm. Then again, if you feel up to it, there's always the sufferfest double ;-)

Sent my solo entry in by guaranteed delivery 9am tomorrow – cripes! I promised myself I wouldn't do it again after last year but you know how it is :-)

Ti29er – awesome picture!!

Defo +1 on the CO2 cartridges – a nightmare without them and lots of fairy liquid! I also used electrical tape plus the rim strip too. I'd bought a compressor which was useless and the CO2 saved loads of time and swearing. Good luck!

Amazing colour – nice!!!! :-)