Same here, I’m 10 mins down the road and we’re usually in there twice a week in summer but I can practically count my visits on one hand this year 🙁

I think it will be fine if we get a nice run of dry days beforehand. Foliage needs some serious cutting back in places though…

Just saw this on the Big Dog website: At present the course is running well even with summer tyres.

They’re optimistic!

Indeed! That’s a different Stanmer Park to the one in Brighton next to the A27 then…

Tops! Love the music at the start and the shoe in the door.

I’ve entered 6 hour solo. It’s been well boggy in Stanmer (Great wood) for a while now, haven’t ridden there in weeks even though I’m just down the road. Fingers crossed for this jetstream relocation thingy.

Looking forward to rehydrating with a well earned Dark Star.

S/H Hope – Even new ones if you can stretch to it. Well worth it in the long term. They’ll last you for many years.

Shimano’s are good too though..actually the only manufacturer I would go out of my way to avoid is Avid – wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole. Most of the others are pretty decent.

Don’t forget to check the toe overlap (and allow more room for when using mudguards)

Re: the pee thing. This is just stupidity on the part of the designers IMO. No reason not to have the front low enough to hoik down. I have some Assos bibs (can’t remember the model but they’re the “cheap” ones) and you can just pull the front down no probs. Avoid bibs with a high front and you’ll be fine.

Amazing bike, a little “high maintenance” but totally worth it.

The 2013 models will have the new lefty..slightly lighter, slightly stiffer, no shock boot and doesn’t need resets. Might be worth hanging on for that but the top end Cannondale’s have been difficult to get hold of so if you want one I’d grab any carbon model while you can, especially if you can get a discount of that magnitude.

Best place for further info, discussion, 2013 range etc. is here:
http://forums.mtbr.com/cannondale/

I had a couple of lessons years ago. It was quite different from how I thought it would be…very tactical and I found the stance and the lunging quite awkward but I guess you would get used to it pretty quickly.

I think what I really wanted to do was “Swashbuckling” rather than Fencing. 😀

philconsequence i think i like not knowing if i’m good or not, stops me from ever getting competitive with anyone but myself!

Maybe people should race with their P/W on the back of their jersey? that way you know if it’s ok to overtake or not… 😛

Interestingly, the top MTB women in the XCO are a similar P/W to the men, yet on average, 12% slower.

Already posted this in the “show me your 1×10” thread but might be of interest here – XX1 on Schurter’s bike:

Not mine, of course (Nino Schurter’s) looks like you really don’t need a chain guide with it, though. (XX1)

You can get some idea of where you’d sit from this chart: (http://cozybeehive.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/power-to-weight-ratio.html)

now back to those glutes…(I reckon that guy’s gonna break some toilet seat if he strains)

Yes, from what I can remember from Armstrong’s book, the supposed magic figure for a “tour winner” was 6.7 watts per kilo at FTP. That 470 watts for an hour if he’s 70KG.

It does look really good. Only two downsides for me:-

1) Cost

2) “…SRAM dished the 42T cog (which serves as the backplate) to follow the contour of the spoke angle a bit and take advantage of otherwise wasted space. Brilliant.”

….As something of a specialist at stuffing the rear mech into the spokes I am a bit worried about perilously dangling a £150 rear mech even closer to them – I think I’m gonna need a dinner plate sized dork disc as protection…

Thanks for the conditions report, Shortcut. Much appreciated!

Teetosugars: I’m sad he’s leaving radio 1, as I don’t listen to it.

At least you knew where he was…

Inspired! 😀

Yup.

Look at it this way: with a higher stem you’ll be able to spend more time on the drops as they’ll be more comfortable too.

Courses:

mrlebowski

I like long marathon style races & we cant “race” on bridleways etc

iomnigel

Most of the remaining events don’t fit my niche enjoyment – of long distance endurance events that are not continuous short laps

This…what would it take for us to be able to have point to point races in the UK? Seems crazy that this is “impossible”.

Cost: Generally I think the cost of the longer events is not so bad when you bear in mind camping for a couple of days, facilities etc. Some of the shorter events are really expensive though. I’ve entered Big Dog again, as it’s my local and great fun but come on.. 6hrs for £35? Erlstoke gave us a whole long weekend for that!

On the plus side, really enjoyed Gorrick 100 and Erlstoke this year. Would be doing Sleepless if it didn’t clash with Big Dog.

We’ve got one, it’s ace. Someone at mayhem had two fastened together and looked like it worked really well so I don’t see why four (or 16, for that matter) wouldn’t work.

Brass nipples are pretty strong. I doubt they are brass. Techsmechs is right, it’s probably down to not enough thread in the nipple. Really you want the thread of the spoke to go to the top of the thread in the nipple, that way it’s helping to support the crown. Like the 3rd one here:

Unfortunately, this is difficult as it’s hard to get spokes in 1mm increments and spoke manufacturers seem to have reduce the thread depth on spokes which means you can’t use a slightly longer spoke any more.

Your current lowest gear – 22/34 combo is 16.8 gear inches. A 26/36 lowest gear (26/39 double with an 11-36 cassette) would be 18.7 gear inches, so only slightly harder.

At the top end, a 42/11 combo gives you 99.2 whereas a 39/11 gives you 92.

I find I much prefer a double and I doubt you’d miss that slightly higher top gear. If you have the cash, the shifting on the Sram XX chainrings is superb but they do seem to wear quite quickly.

I’ve not been aware of dynamo tech since those terrible old “wheel on the tyre” contraptions but this looks completely sorted. Brilliant that you can use it to charge up other gear. Must be so good not to have to carry tons of batteries for GPS / phone or go off route to find them on multi-day trips.

Lots of questions spring to mind…Seems like it could be pretty good for 24hr racing too…Is the light unit a standard Maxx-D output? How fast do you have to be going to be able to run it on the brightest setting? (Can you get 1200 lumens out of it?) There’s some sort of small backup battery in there isn’t there? If you brake hard for a corner does the light output reduce instantly or is it somehow stablised by the battery?

Best of luck in the EWE!

I quite like it when he says: “job of work“. 🙂

Love all the “ex-mountain biker therefore has mad road skillz” stuff.

Mattbillard: Sorry, just reread that and realised you are talking about the Rotors….

Would be good to know any other places that have these in stock or any alternatives that work well. I’d also be interested to hear how much worse the shifting is with other rings (different brand). Sram’s big selling point is the X-Glide “14 points of perfect alignment” or whatever, yet the ramps and pins allow for upshifting in only 4 places as far as I can see, so I don’t understand the relevance of the 14 points.

Yeah, the availability of XX rings is terrible. Nobody seems to keep them in stock for some reason. You’ll have to hunt around but you should be able to find an inner (26t, 80mm BCD if you’re on a 26/39) or get someone to order one in. This Amazon reseller reckon they have them in stock (28T though)…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Truvativ-Chainring-Aluminium-10spd-%C3%82%C2%A322-49/dp/B003YML6M2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1341387387&sr=8-2

CRC do the pair but not single rings: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=42790

mattbillard: That seems wrong to me. The inner is comparatively reasonable (around £25) it’s just the outer that’s expensive in my experience.

The shifting is fantastic. Just a shame they seem to wear out so fast.

I did it last year in a team and had a great time. A really nice, low key event. Much better course than Mayhem, not that much climbing but much more singletrack, yes I really enjoyed the course (though it was mostly dry last year). Would do it again this year if it didn’t clash with Big Dog.

It seems to give you a pretty decent range without sacrificing too much…
For comparison vs a triple with an 11-32 cassette (on a 26″ wheel bike):-

Low Gear:
22 front / 32 rear = 17.8 gear inches
22 front / 28 rear = 20.4 gear inches
32 front / 42 rear = 19.8 gear inches

High Gear:
42 front / 11 rear = 99.2 gear inches
42 front / 12 rear = 91.0 gear inches
32 front / 10 rear = 83.2 gear inches
34 front / 10 rear = 88 gear inches

You’re not missing that much range. If you’re used to a granny ring it can seem like you couldn’t possibly do without one but it’s surprising what your legs will get used to.

Unless you’re swimming, gyms are a massive waste of time and money IMO. Spend the money on a few weights / kettlebell and a pull up bar for home and you’re set. A turbo is good if you can stand cardio indoors but really…take up running, best bang for buck if you’re strapped for time. Shoes on and you’re out the door….

If you are going to buy a turbo you must buy a decent fan too. Makes it a lot more bearable.

Yeah, they wear out eventually. Ours is now our front door handle 🙂

That Fabian Barrel video is top notch. Best vid I’ve seen for cornering.

I still don’t really understand why you push your inside hand down though, that would seem to make your front wheel want to wash out, surely?

I don’t think it’s terrible but people above have it bang to rights with the ELO / Queen spotting.

We should just use this and have done with it…

I would have gone for the Blake’s 7 but that’s taken so…

Logan’s run runner splatterer:

Mattjg: I’m using KMC chains (KMC10SL) havn’t had any breakages or problems with them. They seem to last pretty well too.

22×34 = 16.8 gear inches
22×32 = 17.9 gear inches
22×28 = 20.4 gear inches

28×36 = 20.2 gear inches

So it’s about the same as granny 2nd on a standard 26″ triple setup. I reckon that’s fine…well worth the sacrifice IMO. (depends how steep your local climbs are though)

I built a new hardtail with a 2×10 last year. It’s a 29er so with a 26/36 lowest gear, the gears are quite a bit harder than my 26er but you do get used to it. I much prefer the 2×10 – I hate the way a triple feels now.

Not saying some people wouldn’t benefit from vitamins or other supplements if they have a specific deficiency but I’m not convinced they do much for people with a balanced diet…If a given pill contains 100% RDA how much of that can you actually absorb and make use of anyway?

This guy is a bit of a ranter but there’s a lot of sense in his message:

organic355: Very interesting. I had no idea it all came from that one “Amen break”….

He’s done very well to get it this far I reckon… The farmyard in a stadium would be quite a tough concept to sell I’d have thought. Just reminds me of this:-

Top Tip: A brazier and firewood. Makes getting up in the cold at 3am much less daunting if there’s a nice fire to go and warm yourself up.