Looking forward to this 🙂

Any clues on what the course will be like?

To be fair to Scott it was one of their mechanics who stopped her being handed a wheel. Luckily a very helpful guy racing stopped and gave her a hand getting her tyre sorted out. Funny to watch as half of the Scott team where leaning over the barrier giving advice. Hope he got the promised free t-shirt. Karma restored the balance as one of the Four4th girls punctured on the next lap!

In the video above I think that is fine if that is the riders designated pit and they aren’t getting assistance anywhere else. It would breaking the rules if you where also getting assistance at any other point on the course. If you have friends riding in a team it makes sense to pit with them, rather than on your own.

Unless you really know how many gels and bottles you will use I wouldn’t tape them together. I normally have a selection of bottle with different energy drinks so I can pick the one I am feeling like. Then I have a box of gels that I can grab some out of when I need them. Some laps I probably won’t take a gel, where as on others I might have a few. Try to get a variety of flavour of gels as they can get a bit sickly after a few hours. I like to munch on a Torq bar every so often too.

For the cramps try having a bottle with a Zero tablet in every so often. It makes a change from energy drink too.

If you are only doing 12 hours and you are reasonably fit I wouldn’t bother stopping for anything to eat, try to eat on the go. I have never done a 24 so not sure on that, but if you want to be competitive I doubt stopping is an option!

Planning to enter for the 6hr solo. I haven’t raced for more than 1.5hrs so far this year so that should be interesting.

I have raced it every year so far, and it has always been a great event with a very good course with a few little drops and tricky bits, but nothing too difficult.

You might need the DVD43 plugin mentioned above. I had the same problem until I used that, works fine now.

The frames should be supplied with them, at least they used to be. If you haven’t got them then try On-One, maybe easier than trying to bodge it.

TINAS, my wife is using a pair of Salice glasses, which seem pretty good for photocromatic riding glasses, they go from a light enhancing yellow to a dark brown. I think they were about £80. They were supplied with a set of clear lenses too, as they are a bit yellow for night riding. Tifosi glasses are worth a look at too, seem good quality for the money.

I have a pair of the Oakley black iridium photocromatic lenses and they are very good, clear enough for night riding, and darken pretty well for sunshine, although for a road ride on a sunny day I would probably go for a darker lense.

I have been using a lower spec G-Shock for the past three years. Never take it off and it has had lots of abuse – I managed to crash into a tree with enough force to leave a watch shape bruise on my arm, the G-Shock was fine. It is solar powered and has radio updates. No servicing needed to date, I think that eventually the internal battery can stop holding charge, but would imagine (and hope!) that would be a long time off.

The only fault I have had with it is one of the pins in the metal strap broke a few weeks ago. I managed to get a replacement one fairly easily. Also all the lettering has worn off the bezel, just leaving the recessed letters, if I was really bothered I am sure I could sort that out.

The auto time updating is great, although whenever I go abroad I never have any idea on how to actually change the time on the watch!

They are chunky compared to normal watches, so worth trying on before you buy.

We have been using an Outwell Nevada M with a front extension for weekend trips the past two years. We have found it very good for 2 adults and 2 kids. The front extension is a great addition to the tent. Lots of headroom inside, and the pods can be zipped into one. It is pretty quick to put up, I can put it up fairly easily by myself.

Before this we had a massive 3 x 3bed tent, that must have taken 2 of us over an hour to put up. Eventually we stopped using it as it was too much of a hassle to put up and take down. Sold it and bought the Nevada and have been very pleased.

If you can visit a tent display to have a look at what suits you best.

The 456 would be the best option.

You will be fine on Saturday, but if you are planning on riding there next Sunday the Gorrick Enduro is on so lots of the trails will be taped off. Not a good day for a general ride around Swinley.

Likewise I wore through a set of pads at the enduro 2 years ago, although mine only did two laps. The metal backing pads were pretty much worn through too. In the dry they last forever there, but on a wet ride like that they just disappeared.

Avoiding Swinley this weekend, hopefully it will dry out a bit next week.

My wife has been riding one for the past year or so. Built up with 100mm Fox forks and fairly lightweight components. The bike is slowly getting lighter and lighter, next thing to be changed are the wheels as they let it down a bit at the minute. The frame isn’t as light as some carbon frames, I think her 16″ one weighs 1.3kg including the dropouts, but for the price it is a bargain. Her blog is over on XCracer.com:
http://www.xcracer.com/viewblogpost.php?blog_id=330

It is mainly used it for xc riding/racing around Swinley like trails, but it has had a few fast spins around Welsh trail centres without any problems. So far it has stood up to the use pretty well. The original BB died fairly quickly, but the KCNC one I replaced it with has been much better. Mud clearance is very good.

I would go with a single or double ring up front. While a triple does work, the clearance is very tight. Lou has been much happier with the gears since switching to 2×10.

Have a look at these guys :
http://www.artofmetal.co.uk/home.php?cat=265

They do a range of metal wall art. I bought a mirror from them earlier this year, really good quality and looks like it should cost more than it did.

Should have said that I have never camped there, but live a mile away and it always looks ok when I have cycled past, it backs onto some woodland with some reasonable riding in it too.

No camping.

Off the top of my head the nearest campsite I can think of is the at the Basingstoke Canal Centre http://www3.hants.gov.uk/basingstoke-canal/campsite.htm About a 15-20min drive to the venue.

Definitely a top swing. A conventional wouldn’t fit on my Altitude 20 frame.

The locks on the carriers really are rubbish. Even being careful not to damage anything they can be forced open in seconds. As the video above shows if you don’t care about the car or bike you can get the bike off even quicker! When I have bikes on the car I always carry a long cable lock with me so that I can lock them if I stop anywhere, it is really not worth the risk. I often use an audible cable alarm as well. Even when locked up I try to keep the bikes in sight.

A friend had a bike stolen off a rear mounted carrier, he reversed right back to a wall so the bike couldn’t be lifted off the carriers prongs. Unfortunately some one just destroyed the carrier to take the bike off 🙁

I drove to the south of France last summer with 3 bikes on the roof, and a slim roof box. Overall I think mpg was down by about 10, that is on a diesel Passat estate. The car was well loaded too, with 2 adults, 2 kids and stuff jammed in everywhere.

With bikes on the roof you can’t use the auto toll road payment thing (sorry I have forgotten what they are called!) If you are planning to travel during French holidays it can save time queueing at the toll booths. We did most of our traveling overnight so wasn’t really a problem.

It would be good to know what the story is.

The army didn’t seem to have a problem with me riding on MOD land today.

They seem pretty tough. I bought a 2nd hand one for fixing a tag-a-long bike trailer onto my bike, and no problems with it, and it gets alot of load put through it.

I did have another one where one of the bolts snapped while riding, which was a bit inconvenient! However probably my fault as with this style of clamping if the bolts are slightly loose they can fail. I managed to buy a replacement bolt from a local bolt shop as On-One weren’t interested in sending me a replacement bolt.

Overall for the money I don’t think you can go wrong.

I use one on my CX bike. It has survived many off road trails without problems.

No issue with bar rotating, I probably fitted with a torque wrench, but can’t remember!

There was a tandem at 24:12 last year. In the solo category.

I prefer racing in Masters than Open. Unless you get a good start in Open I always found the first lap a procession. With the Masters I tend to spend the first lap just hanging on! This year I have been racing the Gorricks in Sport, partly because the late start time has suited family stuff better (wife races Expert at the same time), but I also ‘enjoy’ the extra lap.

The pace at the front of Open and Masters tends to be similar, but Open does have a much bigger spread of riders. I would imagine the early start time of Masters, and that maybe only 30% of the Open field are the right age is probably why more don’t enter Masters.

I have the older cream coloured version of that mug. For best results it does need to be pre warmed, if I can be bothered I fill it with boiling water and let it stand for a minute or so before pouring out the water and making a drink.

Although it is a handy mug if you want to drink a hot drink quickly.

I enjoyed it. I managed 14th in Open, which considering how I felt at the start I was pleased with, slightly dosed up on Sudafed with seemed to help keep me breathing for the 3 laps. Sorry to the guy that I ended up in a sprint finish with, I had ridden fairly smoothly for the most of the race, but the red mist came down a bit in the last mile or so.

I actually enjoyed the course, most of the venues Gorrick use are right on my doorstep, so it is nice to go somewhere else and ride a course with some different challenges – in this instance slippy mud and short steep slippy climbs. Looking forward to Pippingford now.

I thought she did well. Having watched the show earlier, she came across as being very positive through out the whole challenge. And she put in some long tough days. Although she seemed to make it hard for herself by ditching the kites (and trying to ride the bikes!) when the kites would have got them there sooner.

Until they showed the 4×4 i didn’t realise they were being shadowed by it, but I don’t think Helen and the guy used it, as they put a tent up for the doctor to check her when that could have been done in the back of the wagon.

Sort of looking forward to it. Racing in Open, wearing a black and red Four4th Lights top. Funnily enough I have raced Sport in the last two Gorricks, but the 11am Open start time fits in better with my plans this weekend. Not sure how I will do as I have been off the bike for the past few days with some sort of bug, hopefully I will feel slightly better by Sunday – if not it will be an slow easy 3 lap ride. I will be the one coughing at the back!

Rocket Rons what ever the weather. The way I feel at the moment tyres will be the least of my problems.

Njee, I am starting to think that you deliberately sent your forks off to miss this race 😉

gaberin, I have never raced there before, but it will be a 4-5 mile lap. Goring train station is about 5miles away.

Thanks of the free code 🙂

I have been using Strava for a few months, and do like it. There seem to be more local users so the Segments are getting more competitive, I keep having to search out more distant ones to get some KOMs.

I’m liking Strava, just checking out the premium features and analysing my crowthorne race and have a sufferfest score of 116 and points in the red of 116 its fairly interesting comparing to the previous round where my stats are very different. look forward to comparing a few other races.

I managed a sufferfest score of 152 at Crowthorne, in comparison at the Swinley race it was just over 100 – although I wasn’t trying to hard at that one. I am not sure how useful the figure is, but it does make comparison interesting

My wife has uses 140 rear and 160 front rotors, currently with XTR race brakes, but previously Avid and Hope ones. She is pretty quick, but also light weight and has had no problems with that setup. Were we live is fairly flat, but the brakes have been fine at occasional away days at Afan etc. She bought a bike a couple of years ago with the 140mm rear rotor and has never felt the need to change it, although the bike and brakes have changed in the time! It doesn’t actually save that much weight.

Cheaper than Chain Reaction here:
http://www.cyclesportsuk.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=9606&cPath=318 with 10% of that price this weekend. Although not as cheap as Rose.

The course is very dry. I did a couple of laps of it earlier and think there was one puddle and that was on a fireroad, so easy to avoid. So brake wear won’t be an issue. As above I am sure Mike at 1st Gear will sort you out.

I find an old bit of chain wrapped around the cassette works as well as a 2nd chain whip. Just stand on the end of the chain and push the chain whip the other way, not much force is needed.

When you refit the freehub, make sure the big seal is seated properly in the hub shell. There is a special tool for it, but it normally pushes in fine.

Pat does give out trophies at Mayhem. Not that I have ever won one, but the wife has earned a few.

We normally view a 24hr race as a camping weekend for the family, with a race attached, in that respect the value is ok. In comparison a normal Sunday xc race is generally around £20, so £56 for a weekend with camping etc seems reasonable.

I used two transformers on mine, but I only had two seperate sections, so wasn’t much of an extra cost. I don’t see why you couldn’t extend the gap between LED sections with wire, that is what I did on the 90 degree corner I had to get around. Where you cut the strips it has a + and – to wire to.

Send it back to Wiggle. They are very good with returns, and normally refund the return postage without being asked.

I normally use them once or twice a week. No special maintenance required. I have never touched the front bearings in nearly three years. The rear bearings are easy to change, I have found the bearings they are supplied with are very durable, so they have only needed changing a couple of times in that time.

If you have the newer style rearhub you will find the freehub mechanism stays clean. I tend to check mine every few months.

Yes very thin, sorry I can’t remember the colour. When I fitted the 10spd cassette I had lost the one I had originally so cut another one out of a thin bit of plastic (I think it was an old race number plate).

A metal spacer like the one that is needed on Mavic hubs would be too big.

As you know I have been using the CB wheels for a couple of years, I have got through a few cassettes in that time and have never had one not fit. I have used Shimano 9spd and 10spd and SRAM 9spd, but not a SRAM 10spd. When I got the wheels they were supplied with a very thin plastic spacer (maybe 1mm) to fit behind a 9spd XT Shimano cassette to stop it touching the hub flange. The SRAM PG990 cassette I used didn’t need the thin spacer as the cassette has a different design. I have now switched to a 10spd setup with a Shimano 10spd XT cassette and have used a spacer, although it looked like it might have been ok without – the cassette didn’t touch the hub, but it looked close.

I have found 2Pure very good with their support, if you are concerned get in touch with them and I am sure they will help you out.

I used to use Anquet with a Garmin 305 and never had the problem you show with the spikes.

Like you I found it very slow to run. I used to use an older version which was ok, but I updated it at some stage and after that it was just tedious to use. Admittedly mine was an older spec pc, but even so it was much slower than any comparable mapping software.

I have been using them for just over two years. So far I have been very pleased with them. The wheels have stayed very true, tyres have fitted and inflated easily. Thanks to the guys at 2pure I now have the newer style rear hub and the sealing is much better than in the previous version. To give you an idea last October I did 5 laps on them in the wet at Dusk til Dawn, I then switched to a bike with a Hope Pro2 SS rear hub and did another 5 laps. When I stripped both bikes down after the race the CB rear freehub was very clean inside, unlike the Pro2 which was full of water. Admittedly Pro2 hubs aren’t known for great sealing but I would say the new CB ones are much better. Only downside is the new freehub seems slightly quieter than the old one. Bearings are easy to change too.

Spares don’t seem to much of a problem, I needed a new valve last week and 2pure where very quick at sending out a replacement. In comparision I have found Mavic very slow for getting replacements for factory wheels.

I would say slightly expensive at full price, but at some of the reduced prices I have seen they are good value.