Those polar numbers seem about right to me.
I also tend to burn roughly 1000 C per hour on my Garmin 800.
Regardless of which device you use all energy burning algorithms are gross estimations anyhow.
In my experience I think they tend to overestimate road riding energy consumption and underestimate mountain bike.
If you want accurate get a power meter.

Whats the weather looking like? Did it last year and loved it. My only advice wold be to have your lower legs covered. The fields of nettles were a surprise for me last year. :-)

Cwm Carn twrch trail has the most techy climb I’ve ever ridden in a trail centre. I’m still trying to clear it dab free despite many attempts but I’m down to about 3 dabs at regular locations.
Its the main reason I continue to ride there.

There is a road not 10 yards from the trail which runs parallel to the summit.

Every time I do the climb I get passed by loads of riders spinning up the road. They’re obviously there just for the descent which I think is OK but certainly not worth the half hour road climb for.
Each to their own we all ride for our own reasons, but surely not enjoying or having the fitness to climb, prevents you from experiencing the amazing big mountain natural epics that Britain offers.
Wouldn’t give that up for anything.

I think its a great ride. There are a few great descents, some cracking climbs and that out there big mountain feel.
I’ve done it a few times and always enjoy it. I always start from Talybont. The White Hart had great grub after the ride.

That rocky bridleway is a bit hit and miss. If its overgrown then avoid it but the last time I went it had been trimmed and it was a corker. Had a brilliant OTB there.

There are many cracking rides in this area. The gap is not my faourite but never disappoints.

My favorite trails are undulating. They make you work the downs for free elevation gain on the ups.
They generate flow, speed and excitement but don’t have the dangers of long high speed techy descents.
I’m too old for that shit now and can’t afford any more injuries.
If I can’t have undulating then I’ll have techy climbs over descents too.

I live in Cardiff and assumed that pic was taken somewhere in North England. Where in Bristol was that pic taken? I’d love to go for a spin there.

Lots of proper injuries listed here for an “extremely safe” sport with a reported injury rate of 1:1000!

Perineal chafer

Such a long time now that Afan has been raped and pillaged by the FC. I’m sick of it. The recent closure of goodwood and dark side makes the place not worth visiting IMO.

She has probably done her AC joint by your description and the fact that the xrays did not show an obvious fracture. You need to see a doctor or go to a fracture clinic.
Don’t mess around.
Its plain sily having nurse practitioners on the front line in emergency departments in cities where doctors are available, but thats another rant.

south west wales has been dry all day

Damn if I knew that I would have driven over for the day! :(

Hasn’t stopped raining all day here in South Wales. The real heavy variety too.
I’m going to ask my employer for a bank holiday in liew of this one being so shit.

Thats what I thought too however recently I entered the HONC and downloaded the gpx track they supplied.

This included the food station and the course page counted down to it.
When navigating a plan I usually go between the map page at close range and the course page.

If you plot a waypoint independent of the track then the device will try to take you by the most direct road route and not necessarily via the chosen cycle path.

The reason I am asking this is that I’m plotting the millenium coast path in Wales which is 70 odd miles long between Port Talbot and Camarthen.

I would like to have the major towns included as waypoints in the track for supply stops etc.

Damn bitch knew it was the wrong thing to do but did it all the same!

My crankbrothers joplin lasted 1 month then popped the seals.
Seems to have outlasted most dropper posts that I’ve heard of.
Great purchase and my riding over that month completely changed! :lol:

My Truvativ GVX bottom bracket has lasted 3 years and probably over 4000 off road km.
I don’t service it either but I do regularly jet wash my bike at service stations.
I’ve thought about replacing it but I doubt I’ll ever get a freak like this one again.

How wet? Fun rideable wet or crap boggy ride and damage the trails wet?

Can somebody confirm that farmers are allowed to use reasonable force to remove a cyclist from a footpath?
I would have thought only a policeman or ranger could do that.

Its not uncommon for farmers in South Wales to decide to change the access laws of paths that cross their land. Homemade signs (usually No Bikes) nailed over official signs are commonly seen in the Beacons.

I’ve had similar incidents to the OP and had extremely aggressive encounters with a couple of farmers.
In all instances I was on a ROW but there was disagreement as to whether it was a footpath or bridlepath. The OS maps would disagree with him.

In all instances I’ve photographed the farmer and told him that he could do nothing but report me to an authority and continued to cross the land.
This is not to be antagonistic but often looking at the maps reveals no reasonable way round the obstruction, so I’m not going to get lost or bonk out in a remote area to appease a farmers own private law.

In short:
Can farmers legally use force to remove you from a ROW even if it is a footpath in Wales?

Not tried creating segments myself but rather than doing a whole ride and creating a segment from a part of it perhaps try going to your start point and starting the timer then stopping it at your preferred end point. Sure your time wont be great for that run but it might make the start and end points more accurate.

Advantages of wearing a helmet!

I agree with comments above that stats are probably skewed by the definition of mountain biking.
People who hybrids on flat graded tracks and country roads will lower the figures.
I think the figures for technical singletrack riding would be way higher than 1:1000

Choppers and ambulances are regularly seen at South Wales trail centres on weekends.
I recall a weekend last year at Cwm Carn where the chopper frequency was so high it could have been considered part of the shuttle service!
Shuttle to top of DH track -> bomb down -> shuttle to Newport hospital.

@ Rob Hilton’s pic: looks like another lecture on trail passing etiquette taking place!

8O
Shit man those are some nasty injuries. Good luck.
Must have had quite a significant blow to the head to have that period of amnesia.
Lucky nothing serious there.

By the figures presented above the injury rate seems to be between 1.2 – 1.5 per 1000 exposures.
If you ride twice per week that’s 1 injury per 10 years of riding!
This seems extraordinarily low to me. Every one of my good friends has had at least 1 significant injury and I would hazzard a guess that almost every stw poster has too.

Not sure what they mean by 1000 biker exposures.
I suspect this is bike hours so 1 rider for 1000 hours, 2 for 500 and so on.
Looking at my Endomondo history I do about 250 hours per year so this means I will have a significant injury every 4 years.
I doing alot worse than this with 3 moderate injuries all requiring surgery in 4 years. :(

Well done TJ. I wouldn’t have done it myself cause I have a heights thing too.
With such unusually sunny weather in Scotland why weren’t you out in some spectacular mountain location instead of your shitty roof!

I recently went from 100 sten and 680 bars to 70 stem and 745 bars.
I really liked the change and am now considering going to 60 or 50 stem

I’d go shorter than 70 if your coming from 90.
Maybe try a cheaper stem before forking out on a thomson cause you may wanna experiment a little.

TJ: I hate heights. Nearly shit myself.

TJ: A very experienced climber controlling the situation

Aussies see NZ in a similar way to how the Brits view the Alps – the ultimate mtb destination.
The kiwi’s have realised how important adventure/extreme sports are to their tourism market and alot of development has taken place.
They have also adjusted the legislation to reduce concerns over public liability in such areas
If you get caught mountain biking in Australian national parks you risk getting your bike confiscated.
Trails illegally built in Aus national parks are blocked with obstacles by the rangers due to public liability concerns.
For this reason nobody posts or talks openly about the majority of trails in forums as the rangers screen such sites too.
So do the motorcross riders who will very quickly ride and destroy mtb trails when they learn of them as they have even less access to land.
The crazy green movement is way too strong in Aus unfortunately as well.

Lord Hereford’s Knob, Wales.

Ive been riding 29ers for 3 years and I never felt once that the bike stopped me or in any way held me back from riding anything.
I have however felt on many occasions that it made some sitiations easier.

just WHERE is that black mountains photo taken?

Here!

Llangorse Loop

Its probably my favourite Black Mountains route and I ride loads round there.

Better you didn’t use your helmet or you might have felt so safe that you wouldn’t have bothered with the rope.

What tyres for that little trail in th garden below?

Black Mountains, Wales

its sounds like a soundtrack from an old 70’s porn flick.

My group have headed out anyway. Good luck to them. They all ride regularly during the week so I really can’t understand why you would go out in such conditions today.
I’m heading out to get a massive breakfast roll from the nearest van.
I’m thinking 1/2 pound beef, 2 eggs, bacon, cheese, mushrooms and onions with a gentle lather of mustard and tomato sauce.

Just finished texting the lads pulling out of our planned ride today.
I ride for fun and it does not look like fun out there!

If the weather wasn’t going to be so shite I could take you on a natural epic in the beacons. So many brilliant rides to choose from.
I hate being remote in such conditions though.
The wall is a great ride as it the twrch at cwm carn.
Both cope very well with the weather cause its Wales after all!
Cwm carn has a very techy difficult climb while whites is a long boring forest road climb.
Personally I think their probably equal in terms of fun factor.

Goodwood is fast flowy techy and has the boarded sections which are heaps of fun.
Its my favourite section in the whole forest.
Gives you a reason to come back.
Whatcha doing tomorrow?
Weather looks like it will be properly shite!

Wind was insane today. A chopper was landing as I arrived – ominous!
A guy not 2 metres in front of me did the most spectacular OTB on the whites final descent. Was fine fortunately.
The goodwood diversion is pissing me off as it the bog they make you walk through before darkside.
Surprisingly quiet for a weekend.