I have them on a lightweight Scott Scale. 160mm rotors at both ends. Set up properly they are as good as any other brake. However I have found that they need accurate aligning to work well. The Hope video on setting up the Tech X2 brakes mentions about both pads having to touch the rotor at the same time. This seems to be the same with the Race brake, if one pad stops moving first you get a soft lever. A few minutes adjusting the caliper, and they work great. Out of the box I was fairly underwhelmed by them, but once set-up properly they are great.

Most of what I ride is twisty singletrack (Swinley Forest etc) so brakes aren’t that heavily used, although when I have given them a heavier use at places like the Surrey Hills they have been very good. I am 85kg and they stop me ok.

If you are interested I have an unused (still in box) SM-RT75 160mm rotor for sale. It came with a set of XT brakes I recently bought, but I am still using my original rotors.

Drop me an email if you are interested.

I was there yesterday too. It was nice that for once it wasn’t wet or cold (or both!) I thought the route was good and it seemed to make the best of the available byways. Nice to see that the route was slightly changed form last year and I appreciated that we went down Haydown Hill, as last year the route went up that way.

Likewise I was over dressed at the start. Started in long trousers and sleeves. Finished in shorts and t-shirt.

I finished in 2:50 but had stopped for about 30mins of various faffing on the way around. I rode a single speed cross bike, which seemed to suit the course pretty well.

I bought my skinny five year old a Nike compression style base layer from Sports Direct. I am not sure how warm it really keeps him but he seems happy with it.

Or for proper thermals try here:
http://www.littletrekkers.co.uk/shop/index.php/browse/45775be9b945c2bc250ec9a206c958f6

I normally wear size 45 shoes. My two pairs of Shimano shoes are 46.

Best to try them on before you buy.

I sold a pair of wheels to a chap in Portugal via ebay. He paid promptly and paid extra for international delivery. No problems, I wasn’t too worried as his ebay feedback was good – I would be a bit concerned if it was somebody contacting me out of the blue.

I called it a day after 3 laps in the solo. I finished in 2008, but this time I really couldn’t face another 8+ hour of riding around in the filth, plus my brake pads had gone halfway round the 3rd lap and I knew I didn’t have enough spare pads to actually be able to complete the 12 hours, so would have had to quit at some stage during the night anyway. Very glad I was on the SS, I was using Nobby Nic tyres and found them really good in the conditions.

I think the difference in 2008 was the rain started later in the race, plus that year I seem to remember the trails were very dry at the start. This year as soon as the rain started the trails rapidly turned into a bog.

It won’t be that bad will it..

In 2008, when it was a little bit wet (LOL) I managed fine on Crossmarks, admittedly I was soloing so wasn’t hammering it around the course. I can only remember one short section of track where the tyres wouldn’t grip. Actually I did give up trying to ride out of the bomb holes after a while, but I don’t think I was the only one. I normally find something fast rolling works best at Thetford.

For this year my geared bike has Racing Ralphs and the singlespeed has pretty worn out 2.25 Nobby Nics. I don’t think I will bother to fit anything mud specific. If it is wet I am sure I will be ok on the Nics.

The QR skewer keeps it all together, so it should work ok to get you home, but not ideal. In my experience it will creak a bit. Best to change ASAP the axle isn’t too expensive.

davetrave, yes that is the boat. I have been to Cyprus to dive on there twice, I guess I have clocked up 20-30 dives on the one wreck and haven’t seen much of it! – it is a great dive site, one of the best wrecks I have been on. The rumours I heard was that it was the boat owners were keen for the Zen to sink so they could claim on the insurance hence why it took a day or two to sink, giving them time to evacuate all the passengers. I belive the sister ship to the Zenobia is still sailing.

I went to Cyprus a few years ago over New Year, fly over on Boxing Day and stayed for a week or so. We stayed in Larnaca and spent most of the time scuba diving a big wreck there. The diving was great as it was very quiet. However the weather wasn’t that great, not as cold as the UK, but definitely jeans and jumper weather. While we were there we were told it was unseasonably cold.

New Years Eve was a bit strange, it seemed typical in Larnaca that everyone spent the evening with there family’s (most bars and restaurants shut early) and then came out after midnight. If you are staying in a hotel it wouldn’t be a problem, but we were in rented accommodation. Luckily we were pointed in the direction of an ex-pat bar and had a good night.

You don’t need loads of light output at Dusk 2 Dawn. After the first few laps it get fairly quiet out on course, and there are very few technical sections. By dipping to low beam for the fireroad sections you can get loads of burntime out of your lights.

Having said that last year I used a Hope Vision 4 with 3 separate batteries for the bars, and either a Joystick Maxx or L&M Hid on my helmet. This year I have Four4th lights on bars and lid, with a couple of spare batteries, if I stuck to mainly low I think one battery would last the race.

I had one from new on a 51 plate. I did about 120k miles in it over four years. A very good car, I couldn’t really fault it. While I had it I think all it needed was a new water pump, plus it had the coil packs changed as part of a re-call. The only negatives I found was that the front spoiler is very low and would catch on steep driveways, and the silver centres to the seat got dirty very quickly.

Is it a 73mm shell? if so you will need a 118mm axle whatever frame it is. I haven't checked Middleburn's website for a while, but last time I did the info on there was wrong.

One of these would work:
http://www.loct.co.uk/

Much better than a rear mounted seat.

I wouldn't want to clamp a normal child seat on a carbon frame.

As it is a Mavic wheel, have you fitted the spacer behind the cassette?

Here is mine:

That is a large, I am 6 foot and I think the saddle is now fractionally lower than in that picture.

I only use mine for a bit of variety from the mud and the occasional sportive ride. I have found it great.

You can't go wrong with Islabikes. At 5 my son is on his 2nd one, a Benin 20. He still has his original Cnoc 14, although that is used as his 'commuting' bike for going to and from school – his sister is looking forward to inheriting that one in a year or twos time.

I have found the sizing table on the Islabike page pretty accurate. My son is fairly small for a five year old and is fine on the Benin 20. The 20" wheels make it a lot easier for him to ride over roots and stuff.

If your tent is big enough then Nomad Travel Cots are very good, although not sure where you would be able to get one by tomorrow. We have used ours loads over the past few years.

We got broken into two months ago. 1am on a Friday morning our front door was prised open, keys stolen to both cars, then front door shut again. They got away with my BMW, I heard my wife's Subaru being started so (stupidly) charged downstairs to try to stop them getting away, but luckily by then the car was off the drive and was disappearing down the road. Police called straight away but neither car found that night, the Subaru turned up a few weeks ago, after being being involved in a robbery, my BMW has never been found. Since then the house is now like Fort Knox, new alarm system and upgraded locks on all doors.

In answer to your question we were told to use washing up liquid to get rid of the fingerprint powder, but I had some uPVC cleaning solvent that worked really well.

Spinervals are good, and very much like a spinning class. I think I have five discs and have used them a fair bit over the past few years. If you look on the Spinerval website you can view a demo of the footage. I have tended to go with the more aerobic base building discs. I kept an eye on ebay and managed to pick up a couple of discs at a bargain price.

I do prefer the Sufferfest videos, the music and footage is very good, but it normally is at 100% effort and leaves me in pieces at the end. My current favourite session is Fight Club followed by Revolver.

To get the most out of Spinervals or Sufferfest you will need a cadence sensor and a HRM.

I am 90kg and managed to snap the front triangle on mine. TO be fair to Yeti they sorted it out very quickly.

Good luck with it C_G.

Great pictures of the Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire countryside :wink:

You can desticker the alloy Exotic forks, they are just stickers stuck onto the fork.

Solo for me. A bit of pressure this time as my wife is also racing solo…

Shortcut, I will be amazed if you don't beat the troll soloists!

Oh and well done Juan on completing the night race on a girl's bike :wink:

Well done Nick and everyone else involved in putting on the event. It was good to see that you had taken the comments from last year on-board, and it really added to the event (if only other event organisers listened to feedback about their events…)

We had a great time, I think my daughter was one of the few not to go away with a prize, although she is only 21 months old and did manage to eat her weight in free Eat Natural bars over the weekend so she wasn't too unhappy :D

Most of the people in my group who are buying lights at the moment are going for lights from Four4th http://www.four4th.co.uk/ Partly because the lights are made locally, but also because the quality is excellent.

Try The Phirm in Hook. A decent bunch of guys, mainly ex VW mechanics. They recently did some work on my wife's mk4 Golf and I was very pleased with the standard and quality of service.

http://www.thephirm.co.uk/

I have been using a pair of the Shimano M161 since the spring. I really like them, I have always used Sidi before but couldn't justify the cost/lifespan of a new pair of Sidis, so thought I would try Shimano instead. The shoe are very comfy, and have stood up to lots of use very well over the last few months. I haven't got them really muddy yet (use my old shoes when it is wet!) but I would imagine they will clean up ok as the white bits are all vinyl. Only downside is they are fairly heavy

Peter, if you need a big sledge hammer, give me a shout. I have one sat in the shed doing nothing at the minute.

I did it solo in 08 on a singlespeed. It wasn't too bad really, the course is relatively flat. Most of the climbs are fireroads, with singletrack descents (apart from the final descent) so you rarely spin out.

Last year I raced as a pair and went with gears. This year I am back to soloing and will probably go with gears, just for a bit of a change from 08 – although that may change.

I am fairly sure that Steve Webb won the solo cat last year on a singlespeed.

We are turning up Friday lunchtime, and I think there will be a steady trickle of Tunnel Hill Trolls arriving until the evening. I don't think any of us will be taking it too seriously, well apart from the beer drinking…

I had one really stuck once, it was one a wheel I hadn't used for a few years and it really really wouldn't budge. With careful use of a rotating cutting disc on a dremmel I managed to remove the lockring without damaging the freehub. I cut through it as far as I dared and then it was fairly easy to bend/snap the lockring inwards. It was a cheap Shimano hub so I wasn't too bothered about damaging it, but it survived intact.

Julianwilson, Mrs JasonR will be riding her single speed. She rode the course last year on a single speed, it is all fairly flat so single speed friendly. I think she will be bringing a geared bike too, but that will just be for child carrying duties.

Nick, Does it matter what time we arrive on Friday? I can't remember if I have seen anything saying what time we are allowed to camp from.

I have a Thule Pacific 500, which will fit on the roof bars with two bike alongside. It fitted ok on the bars on my BMW 1 series which were fairly narrow at 1m

I tend to do a big chunk of that route fairly regularly.

For me I normally leave Swinley and head towards the big mast, pop out on Maultway North, and then cross over the roundabout to Maultway and then DERA test track to (or road if I am feeling bored) Red Road. And then it is just a case of Porridge Pot and Tunnel Hill and home for me.

To extend it to Aldershot, nip across Ash Ranges and pick up the canal at Ash Vale, follow that back to Aldershot.

I tried and failed to get a EX1 rack to fit onto my wife's 16" sliding dropout Inbred, what ever I did the rack would push on the caliper. Not sure how the geometry of the 456 compares? In the end we bought a different (cheap) bike to fit the child seat onto.

I am slightly biased but I thought it was a great event. We finished 2nd in the 6hrs Mixed pairs race, after a very close fought competition from the start. I don't think 1st to 4th was ever separated by more than 10 mins. The last lap was pretty tough and cramp was starting to set in big style, very pleased to get around in 42 mins for that one.

Taff, it was Peterpoddy of this forum taking pics. The flyer just said to email him on poddypix@gmail.com with your race number.

I bought a '09 Scale 35 at the end of last. I bought the bike to strip down and rebuild with lighter components. Taking it to bits you realise what a strange mix of components the bike is, for example the rear wheel weighed as much as the frame. Beside the weight issue, the bike rides very well, it seems fast up hill and seems to have a bit of give on the way down, so isn't too jarring.

As Rexated says the brake levers can clash with the top tube, I have fitted some Richey low riser bars that solve the problem.

Only unusual things about the frame are that the seatpost is an unusual size, so you there are not many aftermarket options, and the e-type front mech(not sure if that has been changed on 2010 bikes)