A “just waxed” 12speed chain (shimano/the Silca stuff) did a 600km (mostly dry ) tour on my road bike earlier this year. I took drip on wax and some of the “mid-ride” top up stuff but didn’t need to use either…

Also did a 500km off road race on my 11speed gravel bike – it wasn’t dry for all of the race and it needed a re wax/top up at the end…

Tailfin looks like the only real option but struggling to justify the cost, thought this might have been the solution

Not necessarily cheaper, but the Old Man Mountain racks + a Robert Axle Project through axle might be something to investigate…

Bonne chance!

et Bon Courage!

If you’re doing it on your own, the temptation to go in a fast group in the first 50-100km won’t be there.

Good advice above:

Stay in zone 2 unless you are climbing
Climb as slow as you can.
Eat regularly, stop regularly for proper food, but don’t faff when you’re stopped.
Maybe think about “chunking” you got files – gives a boost to get them out of the way…

I’ve completed a 200, 300 and a 400 this year – still got a 600* to go for my Super Randonneur badge…

*failed on my first one.

If you can complete it faster than 15km an hour, come have a go at audax :)

The All Weather, or all season version (I forget what they call it) is £10 more, but many less punctures for hardly any weight penalty.

 One COULD be unlucky, two (unrelated) in a row: tyre’s had it / reached its terminal mileage

But also this in Conti tyres.

 I run GP5000s at 60psi (tubed).

Same, with a touring load,( I’m over 100kgs)

Overall time, as that’s what you use to calculate how far behind the bubble you are on your Audax…

Tranche one sales were done in a way I assume was to sell tickets for lesser watche sports.

Yeah, we’re going to water polo as well as the hockey and athletics we wanted to see.

I don’t mind seeing something new, some of the best events we went to at 2012 were “lesser” events.

The RX100 is a bit small and lacks controls. I want dials, not touchscreens!

Mine has two dials – one on the lens and one on the pad on the back. You can configure them to do what you want iirc.

Can’t make it any bigger though :)

I have an RX100 iV which I’m happy with.

I see they are going for £100 more than I paid for mine on eBay these days…

What bunker for next 5 years?

Optimistic view, only needing a bunker for 5 years…

Specifically for the KAW – if you look in the facebook group, somebody created a google map with places to eat etc. I think it has taps on it.

Probably.

Got back from bike tour last Sunday and I have had a cough /felt rough all week.

Don’t have any tests left to know for sure

Due to the new cutthroat being released yesterday you can pick up a grx600 cutthroat for 1900 quid in the UK right now.

That’s a bloody bargain.

That… is exceptionally tempting…

Yes. About 5 months.

It was due to arrive before brexit, it didn’t so they had to pay all the import duty etc.

edit: tbf, I’m glad I went in as I’d have ordered the wrong size without the trip.

They all ride like a decent steel frame ;-)

SO…

As good as steel, but shinier? Shut up and take my money ;)

Yeah, I have more money than time to work out how to do the waxing thing on my own.

It works really well, I’m really happy with the results – chains are lasting over 500km between treatments (I’m waiting until it gets noisy to re-apply  – or more specifically swapping between chains).

Don’t wax your quicklinks. You can wax a chain you’re using with a quick link.

In a “recommend what you ride” vein, the Sonder Colibri Ti is a lovely thing.

Buy it from the Yorkshire shop if you like :)

My recollection is that it was something hideously expensive. Silca Super Secret would certainly meet that criterion. ?

Super secret needs to be left for 12 hours prior to riding.

If you’re after a quick top up, Silca recommend Synergetic (don’t worry, it’s equally hideously expensive).

edit: found the FAQ

Interesting pile on for BrewDog on here.
I don’t see Sam Smiths regularly getting a pile on for their owner’s (arguably worse) views/behaviour.

Some thoughts, for what it’s worth, as a shareholder from the first offering:

James Watt is no longer CEO, although obviously remains a major shareholder.

I don’t shop on their online shop any more, and many of the beers I used to enjoy are no longer to my taste.

If I want a pint on the way home, I will sometimes pop into Waterloo. It is, by far, the worst managed of the BD bars I’ve been to in London.
It seems to get a lot of heat in the papers, but I wonder how many other massive pub brands treat their staff like crap too.

Seems like all the “craft-ish” breweries that get big turn into dicks eventually or get bought out by an in-Bev or similar (Meantime, Beavertown, I’m sure there are more examples).

three more hours

Zero when I left this evening, probably 1or 200 by the morning.

Not all of them need reading though…

Not needing to charge my 1040 solar for 3 or 4 days of riding (touring or bikepacking) is an absolute bonus.

I don’t think I’ll be going for 1050 until the 1060 (or 1070 ) comes out…

Eurocamp type place in Northern France? There’ll be quite a choice of ones that have multiple pools, near a beach, and probably near a nice town.

Something like this, but France has a lot of small hotels with pools near beaches.

Normandy is nice, or you can go further south to La Rochelle or Bordeaux.

Mate of mine has a Polish wife – they go up to the Baltic coast each summer.

Re: the Mica rack, I’m very wary of putting anything heavier than a win wing on my carbon seat stays. I have got a small OMM rack (forget the name) that can be used with an axle project through axle which does a similar job, or there’s the Uber pricey tailfin option…

To the OP – feels like a lot of your kit could compress more?

For comparison, on a recent event where I was going for speed not comfort:

I had my sleep kit (bivvy/quilt/pad/pillow) in a 7 litre bar bag, and my down jacket/spare/sleeping clothes in a 7 litre saddle bag.
First aid/poo shovel/power bank/chargers etc go in frame bag.
Top tube bag has all the widgets I need “on-bike”
I use two feed bags, one has jacket and arm warmers/lf gloves. The other is empty for just putting food/bits and bobs in.

If I’m planning on actual camping, a tent and comfier sleep kit gets spread between the bar bag and two fork bags. Maybe a bigger seat pack or a dry bag on a rack for more clothes and food capacity.

Edit: photo…

+1 to @finbar too:

So yeah – huge respect for people that do it, but it’s not for everyone.

IVF failure here. I will spare you the (many) details but we gave up because of the hormonal impact, not the financial – the %ages were always against us.

My one bit of advice is that the clinics do free counselling – use it.

Be kind to each other & good luck.

Thursday, not much.

Saturday / Sunday – daft long Audax,

It’s the sunrise that is getting later.

Thank f, getting bored of waking up before 5am…

removable back seats

We had these in our old Rav 4 – very useful when renovating a house, you can fit a lot of stuff in your tip runs…

Our Kuga fits a couple of front wheel off, medium sized,  29ers with the 60 bit of the 60 40 split down, but not fully upright, so you have to protect the frames if there’s more than one.

Single bike fits easily.

I’m a Padi Divemaster – haven’t dived “professionally” for 20+ years, and recreationally for 5+ as UK diving needs perfect conditions to be fun for me and holidays are not fun with a non-diving wife.

Still got all my kit in the garage though.

Anybody want to buy a 25 year old scuba setup?

TBH, don’t ride much MTB these days either…

If you can afford an £180 tent, look on sport pursuit for Big Agnes

They have the SL2, + a couple of other options.

*** must not buy any more tents ***

I have yet to see a picture of the Alpkit Aeronaut 1 that wasn’t a wrinkly flappy mess

I was able to get it reasonable on my lawn, but it took some effort.

Not had cause to use it in the wild yet, but I can see on a less than perfect pitch it might be a big saggy.

I have a Cloud up 2, but I really don’t like the end-on entry, and the way the rain drips into the vestibule area when you open the door.

I wish they would make a Mongar 1 as I would buy a smaller/lighter  Mongar2

My grandfather was evacuated from Dunkirk on HMS Anthony (his second son was named after the ship).

He later qualified as a military parachutist and joined the 4th Parachute Batallion, stationed to North Africa and deployed to mainland Italy.

He was shot through the shoulder, the bullet grazing his spine, outside of Melone in Italy and medically discharged in 1944. He eventually recovered from his paralysis and lived to the ripe old age of 82.

He lost too many friends to tell any war stories to inquisitive kids.

Aviva are still good for us, despite a massive hike it’s still competitive…

You just tell them the retail cost of your most expensive bike.

I would get something like a Revolut or Monzo as specified above. Pre paid account can work well. You can “own” the app and just give her a card.

Had to go through this with my mum for different reasons but them keeping control of a bank account is a constant worry.

following – need some new (old) gear for the TweedRun next year.

Read the whole Op…

ignore me

I keep meaning to have a go with the Vittoria gravel range. Their mezcal 2.1s get used a lot by folk doing the sort of riding I do, but I just don’t have the space in the frame.

I can recommend the WTB Byways in size 47 for a comfy and fast rolling ride.

I used Schwalbe Ultra Bite if I’m going somewhere where I need more grip and can suffer worse rolling resistance.

Count 1 – guilty

I’m a Principal Engineer, which means I tell people what to write, not how to write it (most of the time)

Not sure I prefer it, but it’s definitely better paid.