I was riding over there this morning and it was fairly dry, with the odd damp bit here and there. A Ralph on the front worked fine. I had a Specialized Ground Control on the back which had more than enough grip. It has rained a bit since then, but I would imagine it will have been soaked up by the ground pretty quickly. I wouldn’t go for anything more knobbly than a Rocket Ron, and no need for mud tyres.

I am taking my son for a spin around the course later so will see what the conditions on the actual course are like.

The finish will depend on the course Gorrick set, in the past there has been a chance for a sprint finish.

Not racing myself, but there for the afternoon races and watching he wife race.

I recently invested in a pair of light-bicycle 29er rims, bought direct from light-bicycle. I just fancied something different to the normal Stans offering. They were around 400g per rim so not really light. Before built into a wheel they felt very stiff compared to an equivilant weight aluminium rim. They built up fairly easily into a nice wheel set. So far I have only covered about 400 miles on them, but no concerns on strength to date.

The last I heard (not sure who from) was that the permit scheme was being scrapped when the current annual ones expire next April.

Is the Annual Permit really going up to £40 from this year’s £25? At the moment me and the wife both have a permit. At £80 for 2 permits next year I don’t think we will buy any and will just ride elsewhere.

At least Stickler won’t be quite as busy as it is now…

Pics4all images are here:
http://pics4all.co.uk/p601518258

I was finished 4th in solo and was on a 29er. Last year I was 3rd on two 26er bikes, as one broke half way through.

I thought that was a great event. How lucky were we with the weather? most of the heavy rain on Friday had soaked away by the time the race had started, and even the damp bits dried up as the race went on – well apart from the big pond/lake on the fireroad. Although it was a bit cold, my Garmin recorded the average temperature as 1.1 degrees for the 12 hours. I thought the mist added to the event, it started in the open bits and slowly found it’s way into the woodland.

The atmosphere on the course was really good. I can’t remember a race were fellow racers were so polite, and overtaking/being overtaken was always very easy. I actually started feeling a bit guilty at people stopping to let me past even before I caught them, I am not that quick! I seemed to go through phases of not seeing anyone, and then I would catch a train of riders.

Pleased to knock out 13 laps. 130miles vs 100miles completed last year.

Here are some of mine:

I have switched to the XCracer Alligator ones and have been very pleased with them. Great for the money, and turned up quickly in the post.

Also Southern XC, a bit more spread out than the Gorrick and a bigger variety of venues. Standard is a fair bit quicker too. I haven’t seen any dates yet for next year.

I am also ‘moving up’ to Vets next year. Although I enjoyed racing Sport for this year’s Spring Series so may stick with that.

Install DVD43, that should un encrypt the DVD for you. I use AVPlayerHD on my ipad, I find that works well for wirelessly transferring and playing DVDs on it.

I have been running a 29×2.1 S-Works Ground Control on the rear of my bike for the past few rides. I have covered about 100miles so not a great test so far, but I have been pleased with it. Very easy to inflate, sealed straight away, although did have a couple of tiny pin holes in one of the sidewalls. It has stayed well seated on the rim (Chinese carbon) and no punctures or rips so far. The sidewalls appear to be tougher than the equivalent Schwalbe tubeless ready tyre.

This is my wife’s one with 650b wheels.

My wife has been driving a 53 plate for the past couple of years. For the money they seem pretty decent cars, performance is ok, they do about 50mpg, as mentioned above the suspension is a bit soft. Tax disc is cheap too.

Unfortunately that particular engine does have a weakness in the camshaft and tappets, VW have addressed this and replacement tappets are now harder than the originals and last. The car we bought had had a bodged repair at about 80k, which recently failed again at 100k. I got it properly sorted out, but it wasn’t cheap, and it was only that I know the rest of the car is decent that I didn’t get rid of it. I would be careful buying at 75k if it is on the original tappets and you don’t want a £1k+ bill in the future.

I would recommend the KCNC press fit bottom bracket. My wife has been running one on her Whippet for about a year, paired up with a XT 2×10 crankset. During that time the bike has been pressured washed numerous times, and ridden in all sorts of conditions and it is still going strong. The one before was the cheap one On-One sell and it lasted a few months before failing.

been looking at that XTMEnduro one but the ‘Enduro’ bit is putting me off as I’m a bit of a mincer.

Is it Enduro as in ‘Endurance’ or ‘lots of gap jumps and twiddly bits’?

Enduro as in Endurance, I doubt there will be anything too technical there.

I just bought a Rocky Mountain Vertex 970 from Evans, which was reduced as it is a 2012 model, they are also doing 12months interest free on sale bikes. I am very pleased with it, although I have only ridden it four times so far (one of those was 115miles in a 12hr solo race) For the last couple of years I have been riding a 26er Scale and I would say the Vertex is a nicer bike to ride, very stiff rear end when pedalling, but flexes over bumps when you are sat down. I am 6 foot and the large is a good fit for me, but they also have the XL reduced. The other carbon 29ers I tested where Cube, Giant and Cannondale. I personally preferred the Cannondale or Rocky Mountain.

I have done this every year, and I thought this was the best course yet. Excellent to do a long race in dry conditions for once, we were very lucky with the weather as Saturday and Monday were both wet.

I was solo, and raced on a new bike I bought on Wednesday, and only rode for the first time on Thursday, so wasn’t really sure how the race was going to unfold. In the end very pleased to clock up 15 laps and finish 4th in Solo Male. Nice to occasionally bump into the endurance legend offthebrakes. Only mechanical issue was a bottle cage working loose after 7 laps or so. One minor crash when I clipped a tree in Banksey, but apart from that the race was fairly uneventful. I had a quick chat with belt drive Graham on one of the climbs. I think Gee passed me twice.

I thought Quavers were good, for outside caterers they provide decent fast food without much waiting. The two egg and bacon rolls I had this morning were great.

Commentary was much appreciated, nice to hear where you are in the race as you finish a lap.

Excellent effort by the three girls cheering people on in Olympic Ridge, they were there for 14 of my 15 laps.

I have always used this guy:

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/THE-TIME-MAN

I have had several done by him, and have recommended him to quite a few friends. Very quick service and decent quality. I guess the frame aren’t as good as if you spend lots of money, but I have had a A1 size canvas on the wall for about 4 years and it still looks good.

THATS MY BOY !

He did great 😀
I have two more photos of him in the air before hitting the water, let me know if you want the hi-res images. My 7 year old almost plucked up the courage to give it ago, I think next year he will be up for it.

Well done everyone behind the Big Bike Bash, that was an excellent weekend. It has really grown into an impressive and unique event. I can’t think of any other event in the UK that encourages so many kids to get on their bikes, you put British Cycling to shame.

My only compliant was that it was all over far too soon. The kids want to go back next weekend.

When do the tickets go on sale for BBB 2013?

A few pictures of the lake jump:

Just to confirm the other comments that it does hold up to the weather really well. I have raced it solo a few times now and even in years when it has rained it has stayed rideable. A few cut up muddy bits do appear, but no sticky mud. Some sections of trail have now been armoured slightly too. Also it is no where near as sandy as Swinley, I have found that brake pads hold up pretty well even in the wet, I have never had to change them – although I did have to switch bikes mid-race last year due to my drive chain self destructing!

The course is 100 times better than Mayhem/SITS. Plenty of fun singletrack to keep you entertained.

Hardtail. A few roots here and there, but nothing that needs a full sus.

Not great pictures as I had my daughter on my shoulders for most of the race, and the only lens I had with me self destructed halfway through the race…

The front of the race at Deans Drop

Liam in the traffic on the 1st lap

Liam on Snake Hill

Three man breakaway on the 2nd lap

Not surprising there where a few pinch punctures

Small rocky up hill towards the end of the lap

Fontana shows it is harder to ride than it looks

Thanks WCA, we are all arriving seperately on the Friday but probably within a few hours of each other. The last couple of years we have all camped together so have been able to put the kids to bed and then sit up and have a few beers in the evening. Which has been great . If we are spread out we can’t really leave the tent once the kids are in bed so changes the event a bit for us.

Is the camping flexible at all? As a group we have five families going and appear to have camping spread out all over the site.

My wife has a 10spd XTR Shadow+ rear mech on hers and it setup and works fine.

Pants is right, a pair is the hardest category. I would go for one lap on one lap off, that way the laps stay fast, although not much recovery time!

Have food ready to eat when you finish a lap together with some warm clothes. On a lap I would just take a small bottle of water, you can do your eating and drinking between laps. Try to eat as soon as you finish a lap, that way you have chance to digest it before the next lap. Take a tube, pump, multitool and power link on laps.

Spare bikes are a good plan, I needed mine last year when my main bike failed.

Take lots of clothes, nice to put on dry stuff after you finish a lap.

Other than that just enjoy, it is an excellent event. And hope that the other half of your pair doesn’t drop out on the morning of the race and you have to race solo – happened to me at the first Torq 12:12!

Hopefully this sunshine over the past few days will have helped the situation a bit 🙂

Even if it is wet some metal trackways would be a massive help in getting cars on and off the campsite, some of this at Mayhem would have been a great help. I noticed the organisers at Bontrager 24:12 had this ready but it wasn’t needed due to a bit of sunshine on the Sunday.

Not sure I will be totally happy if the car isn’t next to the tent. Over night the bikes are normally locked up in the car, not sure I want to leave a spare bike locked to nothing in the tent while on a night lap, and not sure if my bike would be insured in the tent without me there?

Yes lots of camping, and plenty of it is trackside if you are solo.

Course has dried out very quickly and is now turning into dust

I don’t think it that surprising. Go to pretty much any gym and you will see guys pumped up on various drugs to get bigger muscles, the effects are fairly obvious in that case. I don’t think it is a big leap to imagine that some amateur cyclists could see drugs as an easy way of getting faster, personally I would rather spend the money on my bike.

TINAS, I read the same article, it was an interesting read. From what I remember he found EPO gave you the legs to ride a fast 100miles day after day.

I would say it is a bit easier than the Gorrick100 course. There is nothing like Swinley’s Wall. I can only remember one nasty climb, a very short steep section at the end of a section of single track. Gorrick have last years course map on their website, that should give you an idea of the sort of hills. I was riding over there last night and it has dried up very well, it is actually dusty in places!

Looked forward to watching it, but very quickly disappointed. I didn’t think it was a great advert for cycling. It was never going to please every keen cyclist, but should have at least attempted to inspire new cyclists to get on their bikes.

The chat section in the cafe was terrible with the background noise. Some info on Graham Obree and Gary Fisher would have been good, I can’t imagine many non-cyclists know who they are and what they have achieved. I thought Mansall was a valid guest – not a famous cyclist, but a sort of celebrity with a keen interest in the sport. Maybe they will have Alan Sugar on there next week?

Overall it seemed a bit short, with all the features lacking much depth.

I was very glad I had a 28t inner ring. That was getting a lot of use towards the end of the race – I don’t think I have ever used it that much before!

Well I suppose there were lots of short climbs, but I didn’t really think of them as hills. The fence line was fairly hard going, I resigned myself to push up the first climb on that section every lap, the second one wasn’t too bad.

If you have a look on Strava you will be able to find a plot of the course.

Concrete hill is near the watertower at the SE corner of Porridge Pot. Not the most fun hill to go up and no reason to ride down it either.

Only two proper climbs on the course. One went up ‘Watership Down’ and brings you out near the sports ground, the other was shortly after this and was a long fire road drag ‘Heckler’s Hill’ up to where Gorrick normally have the race start. Several other shorter climbs too.

I have had the same issue on several Crossmark tyres while running Stan’s fluid. I looked into it at the time and it seemed to be a common problem , from what I remember Maxxis don’t recommend using sealant! I emailed Maxxis about it but never had a reply. I use a different brand of tyres now and have never had the problem again.

Going to the men’s mtb with wife and kids. We have the £45 tickets, and the kids are paying their age. Hopefully the weather picks up by then!

Also going to the first session at the velodrome.

Are you still planning to race the 12 hr solo? Or was that just drunken bravado!

Reminds me I need to get my entry in.

Excellent. I will leave the mud tyres at home (for the 1st time his summer!)