The other issue I had with a cardboard box was size. The regular big luggage scanner at Malaga wouldn’t take it. So I had to get escorted into the basement to one of the cargo scanners, which was stressfully delaying.

My mate had the same issue at Malaga with a bike box alan clone. I may be wrong, but I don’t think it was an issue the second time we were there (2019-ish).

I went back to Shimano after getting tired of minimal rotor clearance and endless, inconsistent bleeds.

This is pretty much my experience too. Although I had oil dripping from the piston seals when new and had to go straight back to Hope. Once back I never got anywhere near the pad clearance I had with Shimano, so went back to those after a few months.

The hose angle is better on RX4+ – the originals wouldn’t even fit my fork (Mason Definition) due to the angle.

Or the Sudeley climb out of Whinchcombe if you want something further north. You could probably do one of the above too by taking the direct route south

Thank you every one for being so careful and not discarding your rubbish.

+1 on this! For the first half of the 100k route (after the split) all we picked up one bottle and an ass-saver.

@mattsccm – what’s wrong with Cleeve Hill? It’s worth it for the views alones surely? It does seem to be pretty consistently on the route every other year, so it should be pretty easy to avoid.

Bike 24 have some: https://www.bike24.com/p2530144.html (some other sizes available too).

I’m planning something like this in the future.

https://www.fhbrundle.co.uk/groups/UPTO60K__Light_Series_Up_To_60kg seems to have all the bits needed (except hooks) at a reasonable price and they have more heavy duty stuff if needed. Not seen any of it in person though.

One of them has a side-project called Late Night Final, which you may want to check out if you think you’d like something that’s more chilled and electronic.

plan to aim at 4-4.5 hours for the 100k

You know it’s a reliabilty ride, right? Max speed is 23km/h or 4.5 hours for the 100k. Go faster and you’ve failed ;)

I rode the second half yesterday and it’s pretty lumpy, the last climb out of Cleeve will be brutal and lots of opportunity to go the wrong way so take care of the gpx file.

It will be signed by Sunday. The two GPX files I’ve seen differ in the route on Cleeve Common, so it may not be as brutal as you’re expecting.

The usual murkiness and intrigue surrounding the story, why did the testers re-test a supposedly negative sample months later?

Would tgat suggest a tip-off e.g. test it again but look for X this time?

Or is that par for the course as testing methodology develops?

It was re-tested due to a biological passport anomaly. So presumably enough of the substance was taken to have a measureable impact.

I have a Definition but didn’t have this problem.

That’s interesting – which version of the fork is yours? Mine’s the flat mount, thru-axle version. I guess the rotor (Shimano centre lock) and hub (Hope RS4) also matters.

If anyone’s switching to RX4s on the front, bear in mind that the hose connector is angled towards the fork blade. The forks on my bike (Mason Definition) curve inwards above the caliper, which has meant it’s impossible to get the RX4 caliper lined up with with rotor. Probably not a problem on the vast majority of bikes, but hopefully this might save someone some hassle and cash.

I’m told by well informed people that the current iPad Air (4th generation) is very good value compared to the Pro and does work with the pencil. It’s a few hundred pounds cheaper and the differences are smaller screen, touch id rather than face id, and the camera isn’t as good. Maybe the screen size matters for illustration, but it might be worth considering.

https://www.apple.com/uk/ipad/compare/

The links from here and here no longer work, which is sad as it was a work of genius.

And why do they have to try and smash every glass bottle? Whats that all about?

Just guessing, but they’d get more bottles in if they’re smashed up.

I am wrapped into the apple ecosystem, but Ironically I didn’t want the HopePod as it can’t play BBC Radio (unless through a phone, which is no good for a whole family). The only thing that bloody Alexa will do!

The added irony of BBC radio not working in the UK with Apple/Siri is that it works everywhere else in the world (for those who don’t pay for it), but the BBC blocks it in the UK, presumably so they can track us all.

It’s possible there are now similar issues with Alexa, hence the new need for a skill (just a guess though).

Anyone raced at Oldbury Court before? I’m assuming it will be a mud fest!

It’s been pretty muddy in places in the past and no doubt it will be this year, but it’s never been unrideably muddy. It’s mostly open, draggy (nothing steep) parkland, with a couple of stream crossings.

Personally I’d be happy to see the cash prizes go

Agreed. Total waste of money (not that I’ve ever won money in a cX race). But its BC specified amounts. When there was a novice race in our league even the novices got cash prizes.

BC doesn’t specify any amounts (or event that the prizes must be cash) and as of this season there’s not even a recommended number of prizes (it used to be 1 prize per 5 riders). The exception to this is youth races, where you must pay out 75% of the entry fees as prizes. [Source: page 187 of BC handbook]

For our club events this year we’re doing minimal cash prizes for the top 3 in each category and giving any cash left over to charity (air ambulance).

I did the 2nd round of the Western CX league last weekend – bloody hell they’re a fast crowd, by the 4 corner it was me and a couple of others trailing behind and by the end of the first 1/2 lap I was on my own for the whole race! I think I came 22/25 so not last which made my day, but still not great!

I’m guessing I was one of the riders with you for the first half lap as I finished a couple of places ahead. There tends to be a bit more depth to the field in Western League in the races in and around Bristol.

I’m toying with the idea of trying a few West Midlands events as they look to have bigger fields. Anyone know if the course limits are often reached and non-league riders turned away?

Is this what you’re after? https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gear-spares/shimano-deore-lx-slm570-inner-hole-cap-6cd-3300/?geoc=US

more of a power course than technical? I looked on strava and the summer cx lap doesnt look to have many corners?

I would say it’s more of a power course. There’s a short bit of single track/woods, a very rutted/rooty climb that I don’t think I’ve seen anyone ride and a ditch, but the rest is slow turns around trees.

I haven’t ridden it in the summer, but I think they have used a different course some of the time. The last couple of winter rounds have been something along the lines of https://www.strava.com/segments/13600733

Anyone raced the superlockleaze event of the western league? Whats the course like? Will it be a crazy mud fest or could I be lazy and just bring one bike?

Lockleaze is mostly open, grassly parkland. It’s not flat, but there’s nothing particularly steep. There’s usually one rutted, rooty section that will be a run-up. It can be very muddy there and there was some mud at Purdown (just over the hedge from Lockleaze) a couple of weeks ago, but I’m guessing it’ll be a bit muddy rather than a full on mud fest.

I’ve ridden it a fair few times as I work in Bishops Cleeve. Last time I went up it someone else walked the steepest bit at the same speed I was riding!

I tend to use Gambles Lane or Stockwell Lane, which are parallel Bushcombe and not quite as steep (still probably > 25%), but less narrow.

Well done @richardk and @matt lewis – your results are far more impressive than mine.

I was bizzarely (as someone who’s always not quite last) gridded on the front row due to the very small senior field and not many league regulars. I then managed to make it all the way to last senior within a lap or so! I then had a fairly long battle over not-last place, which I eventually came out on top of as the other guy took a tumble somewhere. This was lucky as it came around the same time I was starting to cramp when going over the boards as always happens to me at Pittville. Pleased with only being lapped once, but I can’t have been far off being caught for the second time.

Is it much shorter than last year? Great course. I like Pitville park. see you there.

We’re not using the railway path (the straight that’s furthest from the road, separated from the rest of the course by a hedge) this year. There will be a few more short loops on the rest of the course  – so it’ll be shorter in distance, but hopefully the lap time won’t be much shorter.

@richardk – be ambitous! My only being lapped once is based on pretty much always being lapped twice in Western league. It is a pretty short course (and a little shorter than past years if you’ve ridden if before) and there will be at least one set of barriers, which will be just before a steep bank, so there’ll be no bunny hopping them either.

I’ll be in Cheltenham kit on a white Trek Crockett.

I’ll be at Pittville. My ambition is only to be lapped once and not to get cramp as I always to at Pittville. The possible addition of second set of boards/jumps/hurdles will almost certainly mean the second one isn’t going to happen…

For me Bedoin was nicer for both the climb and descent. This might be due to doing the climb first thing and the descent fairly late (when it was nice and warm).

There’s Gorge De La Nesque route at https://ridewithgps.com/routes/25099557 – don’t follow it too literally as the routing websites seem to autoroute on walking/MTB trails in preference to the road (just don’t go down the side of the gorge and you’ll be fine!)

The Luberon national park to the south also has some nice rding https://ridewithgps.com/routes/23519264

Some of the group I was with also hired from Albion Cycles and they seemed happy. The bikes were Giant Contends (?) with 105, compact chainset, 11-32 cassette.

I think you need the right bolt length for your frame. The one that comes with the caliper is probably the longest one Shimano do, which is almost certainly not the right length for most frames.

Page 43 of http://si.shimano.com/pdfs/dm/DM-BR0008-08-ENG.pdf  tells you how to work it out based on the thickness of your frame’s mount.

SJS have the bolts on their website, but they rarely seem to be in stock. I took a hacksaw to the overly long one I had as a temporary way of getting the bike rideable (without the safety pin).

The gridding for Western League has been a bit inconsistent over the years. There have certainly been occasions where the likes of Liam Kileen and Simon Richardson have been gridded despite not being league registered. They were at least consistently not gridding non-league riders at lovecrossed today (so Simon Richardson started at the back). I think I’ve not been gridded when I ought to have been (I turn up enough to have more league points that riders who are much better than me), presumably as the commisaires know I’m rubbish at starts and always end up at the back anyway.

I’m not sure Tang and race organisers in general really have the power to do anything about this (other than not make it a league round). Perhaps complaining to BC to get consistent/sane gridding for all leagues would be a better bet.

Anyway thank you to Tang, Qwerty and anyone else involved for putting on a good event, which was easily the most enjoyable race of the year for me.

By being in credit you are giving them a free loan and its costing you money. always be behind in your payments – then you get a free loan from them

This isn’t necessarily true. Ovo are paying me 4% interest on my balance, which I think is better than the vast majority of savings accounts.

Western league folk – what’s the odda’s chapel venue like? Quite fancy a nye race!

Strava segment for the course that’s been used in the past is https://www.strava.com/segments/13875081. From memory the lap was as follows:
– Longish climb to start the lap. It was hard in the summer race there and I’m told it was unrideable for the last winter race.
– Round the edge of a field
– Mostly single track descent through woods.
– Rest of the lap is flatish field edge and farm tracks.

I’ve only ridden it in the summer, so I’m not sure what to expect mudwise.

Read/heard nothing about change in head angle. That coming from Mason themselves?

Sorry, I must have mis-remembered the faster handling as being down to the head angle rather than the shorter rear.

What have they changed for the mk2?

Thru-axles front and rear, flat-mount brakes, slightly steeper/racier head angle.

You can get rigid forks with 15mm thru axles: http://www.carboncycles.cc/?s=0&c=103&p=1786&tb=001

No idea if they’re any good though.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/20172018-cx-racing-thread

I’ve been pondering this too. Pinnacle Ramin from Evans looks great value to me.

This year’s Trek Crockett has a single-speed-friendly frame. There’s no single-speed build available and you might struggle to build something yourself for less than £1000.

The use of the word “hack” for tips & tricks rather than inappropriate use of computers for personal gain or disruption makes my teeth itch.

Me too.

Unless of course they involve hacking something into useless pieces, then throwing them away and buying something to do the job properly.

It’s arguably the use of “hacker” to mean computer crimimal that’s wrong: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/it-security/hacker-vs-cracker/%5B/url%5D

I think it depends on the caliper rather than the levers.

For post-mount calipers you need something like https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/shimano-disc-brake-pads-ice-tec-j02a-resin-437813/wg_id-12408 . I think any Shimano “J” pad will do. I think these are branded as MTB pads rather than road.

For flat-mount I think you need something like https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/shimano-disc-brake-pads-ice-tec-l02a-resin-541316/wg_id-12408 . I think any Shimano “L” pads will do, but I don’t have these and thus may be wrong.

Hayles Fruit Farm[/url] would be another option for a proper site – it’s closer than the Haw Bridge Inn (I think the HONC route has virtually gone through there before).

There are lay-bys on the main road between Cheltenham and Winchcombe that you could use if that’s what you want (you may have to share with a lorry driver or two).