Me and a mate were the only two brits in the 2017 event. We did the hardest Kings category with no lift assistance.
It’s not a Singletrack fest by any means, the descents are mainly on rough often loose fireroad type terrain with switchbacks, alpine double track paths and a very small amount of bike park type singletrack at the end of day 1 and day 2, the descents (with the exception of the small amount of singletrack) are eye wateringly fast however and its that that keeps the adrenaline big time as an off on loose fire road at 60-70 kph would have been interesting !
It is absolutely brutal in terms of climbing figures, and the course profile does not lie. The climbs are up to 16K long and most have a serious average gradient that never lets up. The final day up to the glacier I recorded 3400 M (11,000 ft) ascent in 58 K (36 miles) which included probably 25K of downhill. You mentioned in your post about the high level of tarmac on the route, and you are right, all the first climbs start with an hour or so of tarmac, but in fairness I was glad of that, as it was the least painful way of ticking off the metres.
It is absolutely XC through and through, and at best guess over 90% including us were on light XC hardtails, there was a few short travel XC bikes but I guess those would have been scary light. I have no clue on your riding fitness level but we found the standard very high in the Kings category. We know there is always some World Class marathon racers always there, but it was the strength in depth throughout the front 75% of the field that was eye opening.
The organisation was fantastic, and the facilities and infrastructure belie the relatively low entry cost compared with some other multi day stage races, I can only presume that it is heavily funded and supported by the local tourism authority and sponsors which are prominent everywhere. The whole event is based around a steep sided valley running from Fugen at one end to Mayrhofen at the other. With all start and finish town based on or around the valley road. So logistics are pretty easy, we stayed about half way between Mayrhofen and Zell am Ziller and everything was a short ride by bike with the exception of day one start in Fugen which we used the valley train which you get free access to, so logistically it’s simple.

I think all riding has its place, I’ve done years on the road and all sorts of MTB ing, so we treated it as a massive challenge of climbing, so with our head around that it ticked all the boxes, its a stunning place, and the alpine scenery is just amazing. The last day is among the hardest day I’ve ever had on a bike, and I went to some really dark places in my head in the last 5k, would I do it again ? without putting the training that I did early this year, No..If I was as fit or fitter than this year, absolutely definitely Yes.

Happy to answer anything else you may want to know

I’m also 5’7″ and was considering one, length wise only the medium would do, my stumbling point was a 440mm seat tube and a 150mm dropper. Numbers suggest I wouldn’t get that low enough at full extension, so had to discount it. For a 5’7″ shorty I’ve got reasonably long legs,how did you get on onewheelgood ? Did the 150mm work for you or did you have to get a shorter dropper ?

34/28 was enough last time I did it. The speed on Hardknott was more a factor than the gearing if I remember, keeping the front wheel from wandering, keeping the back wheel from spinng and not getting cut up by somebody weaving was more an issue, than gearing for me. I think going slower with anything lower geared would have been a detriment rather than an advantage to me. But im not a big fella. As mentioned above tactics are king, you are just as likely to affect your success on the day by what ypu do on the flat bits (A66 and the rolling bit along the West coast) than you are on the climbs. I dont have any bad memories of any of the climbs, but some horrible ones of the main road to Keswick and the awful headwind for what seemed an eternity on the rolling terrain toward Sellafield

Doesn’t sound huge overspend. Weve a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 teenagers) and we are about 85 quid a week

Sympathies, its gutting I am sure. Looks like you gave him the best life possible, so you should be proud.

I’m a North Wales local, so hopefully fairly qualified to add my tenpenneths worth.
If you enjoy the Marin and Penmachno and dont find either of them on the edge of your ability then none of the trails at Coed Y Brenin should be too much for you. I think in terms of technicality CYB Tarw Du and Beast are probably one small step up in technicality over the Marin, and only in some places (Cain and Abel perhaps) but if you are riding the likes of Penmachno at speed then its certainly not going to be too much of a step up. Plus its absolutely ace, the facilities the standard of the trails, the routes, the views, it just never disappoints. I just love it there. Llandegla erm, its ok, its very different as already pointed out. I’d say its a step down in technicality over Penmachno. Its just a lot of jumps and berms really. Its nonetheless great fun, but its completely different to the Marin, Penmachno and CYB. We go for a quick blast round occassionally on a summers evening just for a quick fix of mid week silliness and a pint afterwards. When you get your bearings better there is a whole world of brilliant natural trails all around the Marin area and others.
But you really wont be disappointed at CYB.

Id be intrigued at your findings as your original post is actually my dilemma too. Really want a Spectral but at 5’7″ I think im between small and medium

Maxx-D on the bars, Diablo on the helmet for me too, brilliant, the lack of external battery / wires is an absolute winner all day long for me. Most light failures whether Chinese or premium branded ones have been at connectors / wires being over pulled etc etc. My only minor criticism is I have never really got the TAP function to work well enough on the Diablo (even on the least sensitive settings it can change mid trail if the terrain is rough) Eitherway, I have absolutely no issue with pressing the button to change modes, so its not a deal breaker. Awesome kit

Thanks

This is actually a tweet from the mighty Jens Voigt who spotted this cycle lane, that just happens to one of my local lanes on the coast road between Colwyn Bay and Rhos on Sea :)

command post here, works a treat.

Love it :) Cheered up my otherwise rubbish day. Thanks

I gave up with the TAP function on my new Diablo, tried the least sensitive setting and still it changed modes on its own mid rough section. Brilliant light though, just resigned to using old school style with the button to switch modes

Standard Northwave celsius for me. With a pair of merino socks I can’t ever remember my feet being in the slightest bit cold, even down to 0 deg. I sized normally and size is spot on.

Great setup, but I think I am finally giving up on the TAP function on the Diablo. Was giving it one last try on yesterdays night ride, even on least sensitive it switches mode on its own on the rough stuff.

Yep, Had a few exposure lights over the years, and only ever had one minor technical issue, that was sorted in a ridiculously double quick time and at little or no cost. Kudos to them

As an aside, in my early experience its worth following the instructions literally and using the lanyard to thread through the helmet vents as a back up. The helmet mount is ace and its easy to think, wow thats so secure I’ll never need to worry about it falling out and getting lost. But on my second ride with it I clipped a low branch with it and the lanyard saved me from hunting around in the grass for it, Ok I will have probably found it based on the amount of light it would have been pumping out but you never know if it embedded in mud etc, it may have been an expensive mistake.

I have had a Maxx-D for a couple of winters and its ace, doubled up with a single cheapo cree on the helmet. Recently the Chinese light failed and I dug deep and bought a Diablo to replace to replace it, so know I am Max-D on the bars Diablo on the helmet. I love the no wires thing and with everything on full whack its a heck of a lot of light. As I say the best thing is the wireless. The only minor downsides are the short runtime on full with the Diablo, which you can’t really complain about as its a moon on a stick type of request. Getting a tiny lamp that pumps out massive light but no external battery is always a trade off. I am as of yet though not 100% convinced of the TAP functionality. I haven’t found a sweetspot yet where it doesn’t switch modes itself when helmet mounted and going over the rough stuff. Saying that its not a big deal and I may if I dont have any joy, just switch off the function and rely on old school pressing of the mode buttons. Its not a deal breaker by any means, the positives outweigh the negs by miles.

I recently bought a cheap LG soundbar (with built in sub). I dont watch loads of action movies, dont have a suitable size room for separates. So for no other reason than to improve the sound quality over the standard rubbish round the back flat screen tinny TV speakers. I watched John Wick last night and the difference with a £120 soundbar over the standard was night and day. I shudder to think how much better a top end one with seperate sub would be ! But for £120 I am very happy

Endorphins innit :)

Turtle Wax car shampoo, sponge, soft brush and hose.

Thanks Dibbs that saved me typing that out, exactly the same for me. Apart from every third or so ride I will do the drive train with some Muc-off (not sprayed all over the place, but sprayed into the bristles of a 3″ brush and brushed into the transmission parts, keeps it from going to places I don’t really want)
A clean bike is a happy bike :)

I had a rubbish experience with BT over a braodband order that they completely messed up. I felt I was being fobbed off etc for weeks, right up until I tagged @BTcare in a twitter rant, using words like “utter incompetence” etc etc. They obviously have a social media team constantly monitoring the twitter feed. I guess they don’t like that sort of bad feedback being seen by probably hundreds of thousands of followers instantly. Needless to say I was contacted very quickly and passed onto someone who sorted the issue within an acceptable time frame. It took a few tweets of a “robust” nature to keep them interested, but I felt it was the only way I was going to get any form of response from them. I cant say or not whether I was just lucky but it worked for me very effectively in a way that hours wasted on the phone certainly hadn’t. Twitter is very effective complaint method, in my experience they really tend not to ignore or fob off complaints via twitter, it simply reaches too many people too quickly for them to ignore it…As the famous Carry on film quote goes “They dont like it up em”

May try one ride with it on low sensitivity, and see just exactly how hard I have to hit myself on the head to make it switch. Failing that I’ll revert to old school and switch it by the button. Its a great light I am super impressed in many ways (hate cables) and doubled up with my Maxx-D on the bars is all the light I could conceivably wish for, but the short burn time on full brightness necessitate a lot of switching. Right now, its ok to use the switch as I am only in summer weight gloves, but come the colder weather it may be like trying to wind a watch in boxing gloves :)

Sorry bit predictable from me but
The Soprano’s
Breaking Bad
and I am now on S3 of Walking Dead

Loved all those.
Mad Men..hmm not so much

Yep all great advice and as mentioned by uponthedowns dont forget the heat you are likely to encounter on the Alpe. I think one of our group saw 42 degrees !
Some people manage short sharp UK style climbs and some Alpine types. I did the Fred Whitton earlier this year, and mentally prepared myself for it to be as tough as the Marmotte (in a different sort of way) as this is what I had read. Personally for me it was not even close to Marmotte suffering. I remember thinking after finishing the Fred that I’d ride three Fred’s for every Marmotte ! Others may feel totally different.

2008 and 2009 for me. Its a great event, made a proper hash of it in 2008 (rode a 53/39, late entry meant I started in the last wave of riders and destroyed myself trying to catch all my club mates up on Glandon and Telegraphe who went off early. I finally blew up on the Alpe big time and grovelled) was much more realistic of my ability and respectful of the course and modified my tactics in 2009 and had a great day on the bike, loved it.
Was thinking about doing it in 2016 but the plan just didn’t come together. I have no idea of your ability so my tips may not be relevant to you, but if I looked back at my rides at the riding ability at the time, these are the three things I would have wanted to know :)

1. Don’t underestimate the Telegraphe, just because its a Cat 1 and not HC. I found the constant nature of the gradient with no respite really tough.
2. Don’t go too quick on the flat transitions. (Chainganging on the run toward the telegraphe on the main roads was a massive mistake for me)
3. Try and ride ADH once before the day, It really does get easier after the first 4 bends but early on when you are exhausted (if like me) it can blow your mind “this is too steep”, “I cant do this for an hour” etc etc. If you get to ride it before the big day, you know whats coming.

Have a great ride, its the best thing I ever did on my bike. :)

My Fox Enduro ones fit under 3/4 ers, not the most protective of pads though, but they do what I need.

All good thanks, dont think I can use two codes at once though. Ill certainly try though

Great thanks. I have a £200 purchase to make. They are also running a redemption code for a 20 quid gift voucher.

Maybe mine was a Friday aternooner then, I can run my fingers down the sides of the bottom half of the downtube and theres all sorts of lumps and bumps adn inconsistencies ! the bike to the naked eye looks fine and clearly structurally sound as I have been riding it hard for all this time, so I am not complaining that its faulty nor would it justify a return to Specialized dealer, as the bike does what it is intended to do and rides well. Just saying it’s far from perfection of manufacturing. Its not an S-works model, but it doesn’t have ally inserts in any key places as I can see. BB shell is carbon as are headset seats etc. Frame bearings do have ally liners though. Its just an opinion, maybe I got the best of Canyon, and the worst of Specialized, who knows. I just know the difference in manufacturing quality between the two bikes that I own, and its chalk and cheese.

As a rough guide I am 5’7″ and the medium is about right for me with an 80mm stem on with a 595mm ETT (IIRC)

so good to get that opinion from somebody with one, cheers.

Yep thats my frame, Frame weight of about a kg stiff as you like, rides great and finish is spot on. You can just tell, when you buy build a bike from a frame, what are the tolerances like on push fit parts ? how clean and solid do any bosses / component mountings / cable guides and threads in bosses look ? Is there any machining marks any where ? has everything been apparently been thought through in terms of future maintenance and repair ? any inconsistencies in frame finish / lacquer coating ? Are all threaded bits, clean and the threads perfect ? Are any bits that are already fitted torqued correctly ? The answer to all of these was that both Canyons were 100%. I cant exactly say that about the Specialized !! Press Fits components that just drop in and have to be glued. Laughable bolt torques, the list goes on.

I run a carbon stumpy FSR 29er as my trail bike and a Canyon 29er hardtail as my xc bike. Originally I had the top end Ally Canyon frame (9.9 SLX or whatever) which had some good kit on it, Fox Terralogic, full XO etc etc. And having owned a lot of bikes Road and MTB, I have to say the frame was as well engineered / finished and material quality of any bike I owned. Really impressed and it rode great. On this basis when I got the opportunity to sell the frame and upgrade to the Carbon Grand Canyon frame and swap all the bits, I jumped at the chance. And yes I am equally impressed with every aspect of the manufacturing and ride of this frame too.
In my opinion its a no brainer. I personally think that you should be thinking the opposite, I can only compare between the two Carbon MTB’s I have right now, but in future I would always make the presumption that a Canyon would seem to be a proper bit of kit manufactured with precision and care and justifying an investment running into the thousands, and in contrast for right or for wrong after my experience, I will always assume that a Specialized bike despite the beautiful marketing campaigns is basically a chuck it in a mould with a “it’ll probably do, thats near enough – get it shipped” sort of attitude.

I totally agree that they do have the equipment and skill to machine stuff right, I think what the OP is getting at its that at some point despite it being perhaps 1 in 100 that it shouldnt leave the factory, somebody must pop the bearings in and didnt spot or didnt care that one side was oversized. Its still probably a 4k bicycle so rubbish Qc shouldnt be acceptable

Anyone have a Giant contact switch that developed a lot of play ? Mine has and I dont know if that side of things is serviceable ? Otherwise in terms of its reliable up and downyness its been 100% but has developed huge rotational play.
If its not servicable I need to replace it, but dont know whether to go for another Giant one (as I said the actual dropping, raising and importantly staying raised side of things is perfect) and I just got unlucky with getting a lot of play develop, or whether they are just rubbish and I should be looking elsewhere

Dog knocked my new Xperia Z2 out of my hand and smashed the glass. I had no insurance but got it done by these chaps
[/url] Its a company called MBlue
Now I did have to wait a bit longer than the 24 hour turn around they stated, and it was probably a bit more expensive than the average. However all I can say is that having the phone back, the repair is about as perfect as I could have hoped for. Like a new phone. I was gutted when it happened as it was just at the start of a contract and brand new phone. I was all “oh it wont be the same after a repair”, “what happens if the screen isnt as responsive” blah blah. But having had it back it never crossed my mind since that it wasnt still a brand new phone.

7 episodes in on Season 1, quite enjoying it, particularly when Connie Britton (Vivien) is on screen.

Funnily enough, I just read that column and logged into STW forum because I wanted to express how much I liked reading that. It came as no surprise that someone had already praised the piece. A really well written, heartwarming piece of from the heart writing, pays a lovely tribute to a friend. Thanks for sharing

Spaniels are ace, my cocker is a 18 months old now and still nuts (in a good way).
Most advice can come from personal experience of the challenges and traits our own particular dogs posed to us. Our experience was that spaniels/all dogs can be possessive with their food and toys and that can become a problem , especially with kids around. Our cocker is super greedy and food driven and he showed signs of food possession early on, despite being otherwise a super friendly dog.
We are eventually winning/won that battle but it took time.
If your Spaniel has this tendency then we found it important to ensure that he knew that he wasn’t the boss of his food. Its natural for them as it’d be the same in the dog pack environment, where boss dog (in this case you and your family) control what the others dogs get to eat.
The biggest changes we made were at feed times, by not giving him his entire meal in one go, but splitting it up into smaller portions and giving them one after another when he had finished what he was eating and sat back from his bowl, he soon learned that “we” controlled the food, and that having a human around whilst he is eating is a good thing not a threat. No.1 mistake for us early on in our inexperience was to take his food away as a punishment when he was showing signs of being narky when we were there, he got worse for a while as I believe he learned that his fears of losing his food were justified. Feed time seemed to be a massive part of learning his place (you dont want a Spaniel or any other dog who believes he is higher up the pecking order than he is). So for us it was the easiest way to reinforce the heirachy. All family members unless very young were advised to feed him this way, so he doesn’t just associate you and you only as pack leader who controls the food, then you may get status battles with children etc. Not good.
Also not allowing him on our sofa helped him learn his place.
It all sounds harsh and controlling/suppressing the puppies confidence, but any expert we spoke to reinforced the message, “A dog that knows his place in the pack is usually a happy content dog who feels relaxed, safe and protected, A dog who doesn’t know his place and has confused status in the pack is often an unhappy dog who doesn’t know who or what he should be threatened by, so is often less confident happy and relaxed.

Your dog will likely be entirely different and hopefully have all his own challenges that I can’t advise on because I have no experience of :)
My dog house trained with no mistakes within days, and doesnt run away like Spaniels are known to do, so horses for courses

Good luck, Spaniels are ace – Slow and consistent learning worked best for us.

I have a carbon stumpy 29er which had the 32mm Evolution series fork in 130mm. Mine had the rubbish damper cart which failed almost immediately, had it replaced with the newer cartridge. It basically works ok, at the end of the day as mentioned above, its two tubes designed to go up and down, the basics are the same in most air forks air in one side to act as a spring, oil pushing through holes in the other side designed to slow it down, its simple stuff. They hold air ok, so its sprung as good as any other air fork. Yes I think the damping side of things ain’t that great, trail setting should be perfect for a lot of riding, but just feels wooden and nasty, Climb/lockout is inconsistent, sometimes it locks out at the top of the stroke perfectly sometimes 10mm into the travel. Its not a deal breaker but its just feels a bit budget to be honest. I think the stiffness factor is to do with the 32mm stanchions and obviously gets worse the longer travel you go, but thats not the issue with EVO series over factory, that just the dynamics of 32mm longer travel. I have a set of factory 32mm terralogics in 100mm on my hardtail and they are brill.