and you were closing in over the last few laps !!!!

That was the six tins of rice pudding starting to kick-in!

Touching cloth at Mayhem didn’t help me…

Came 19th on an SS doing solo this year, I could have got another lap in but it’s all down to preparation and sticking with what you know. I experimented with using more gels and energy powder instead of tried and tested foods. Needless to say it didn’t work.

I had a pit helper for the first time who passed me bottles every lap (as instructed). Usually I use a small camelbak, I think I was drinking too much.

I think food is the weakest link, you need something that you can eat on the bike but not something that is too sugary to give you stomach cramps. I ended up reverting back to the tried and tested rice pudding.

Next year I’m going to try having rice pudding in bottles so I can simply drink it on the bike (somehow).

Lets face it – they’re just homeless snails…….

What did the slug say to the snail?

Big Issue…

Leave you trainers outside, wait till the next day to go for a run, put trainers on, squelch…

This year my bother wanted me to compete in a relay team for the London Duathlon doing the bike section.

Entry for a team = £99
Price for 12 miles of cycling = £33
Price per minute or racing = £1.10!!! (based on a pessimistic 20mph avg)

Compared to Mayhem that I entered this year.
Entry for solo category = £60 IIRC
Price per minute or racing = £0.04

Very sad news indeed. Thoughts to his family and friends. Rest in Peace.

I have ordered this stuff as it comes with patches included. For anyone or also has a ripped jacket.

linky

Just Google to find UK stockists.

Cheers Marko, I will give that a go.

This is all you need to know…

Cheers, some good tips there.

Id wager most of you have bought expensive mountain bikes under the scheme

Spesh Tricross Singlecross that I use every day to commute to work on actually…

As for higher tax rate payers being able to abuse the scheme too, it shouldn't be open to them.

How would you legislate such?

I got a bike though the C2W scheme a year and half ago. I haven't paid for the final marketet evaluation yet. Previously my understanding was that the bike would still on loan from the company to me. But reading the link below it seems that for the bike to be "on loan" it needs to a bike that is available for use by other employees and part of a cycle pool.

linky

So it seems you need to pay up at the end of the scheme otherwise the "loan" of a C2W bike is a benefit in kind from the POV of the taxman.

Surfmat – bit of a slight highjack, do you know of any decent campsites in the South Hams area that is similar to the Highertown campsite?

We go camping in the SW every year as our main holiday so it would be good to find somewhere in Devon that's nice i.e. not a site with 100+ pitches and static caravans galore.

Aye it is a great spot. We stayed here for 3 nights (would have been 4 nights if the exhaust hadn't fallen off on the drive down). We then moved onto another campsite near Salcombe for another 4 nights and onto the Bonty 24/12 event.

The campsite at Salcombe was more than double the price and the showers and toilets were rank compared to Highertown campsite. We regretted not staying longer.

In that case I would recommend this place.

linky

Max 12 pitches. We were here last week and there were only 3 pitches taken. They also have a barn where you can charge electrical stuff. Very laid back. Plus great views and easy access to the coastal path + a "secret" beech.

PP, good luck finding a spot. We have just come back from that part of the world and all of the campsites we stayed in are booked up for the kiddy holiday season.

Cracking course. What I like about Bonty 24/12 is that they listen to the riders to make the course a proper riders course. The course was fully rideable and the muddy rooty sections were great fun.

Especially when you contrast the Bonty course with Mayhem. I have done three Mayhems (solo) and the I would say Mayhem is more tiring/tough because of the climbing but Bonty is more fun with more technical sections in. IMO this year Mayhem was oversubscribed and if it had rained it would have meant walking around 30% – 50% of the course easy no matter how good your technical skills are as faster riders will be held up by less confident riders walking. By illustration the first wooded section of Mayhem was a complete WTF moment…

The Bonty coure was sloppy but held up fantastically so this post is a big thank you to the course designers for making it fun. The mix of singletrack and fireroad/passing points was also spot on.

Won't be doing Mayhem next year, I will be spending my money on another Bonty entry!

Summer = 115mm
Winter = 0mm

Rob, great result there! I have done the SDW one way on a SS that was enough of challenge! Both directions sub 19hrs time is phenomenal.

For geeky curiosity what did you ride, 26er or 29er and what ratio?

I did.

This one?

linky

Another option is Chycarne in South Cornwall.

linky

They allow open fires and not far from the beech.

Cheers Stu!

PS I've got a in line Thomson seatpost and it's still comfortable. If that makes any difference.

I used to have and old Rocky Mountain HT, my feet used to go numb just from the trail buzz from riding on fireroads because it was so stiff. Never mind about over roots and rocks!

Used to have a full suss and an steel framed bike which were both comfortable for all day rides, though I used to have similar concerns regarding ally HTs.

I've now got a Scandal and it doesn't feel like an ally, bike. Little or no trail buzz (dependent on tyre pressure of course) and still comfortable to ride all day.

Bit of a delay post but here goes for the travels of Thomthumb and I.

Time start: Sat 2.30pm
Distance: 194km
Ascent: 6194m
Travelling time: 17h 12m
Beers consumed: 12 pints
Flapjacks consumed: lost count
Checkpoints visited: Quite a few
Gears: more than 1
Time finish: 7.00pm Monday

Thanks to Stu and Dee for a cracking weekend. It was one of the best weekends riding, period. Even though it has been a few days after the post-ride grin is still there!

Hello to the Shropshire lads from the Teifi Arms. Thanks to the landlord at the Teifi for persuading us to go into the Teifi Arms instead of the Red Lion Hotel down the road. I don’t think the Red Lion would have stayed open till 2am!

Bog of doom on Saturday. Futile effort to keep feet dry.

Bivy spot for Saturday night. We woke up to find that we bivied in the middle of a fly tipping site, great…

Doethie valley

Climbing up the hill of despair. We could have gone round on the road if we had looked at the map, instead it was hike a bike up a 500m+ hill following a bridleway that didn't exist. It was midday on Monday, and it took 2 hours to climb up the hill and walk down the other side (too steep to ride down).

Where is everyone?

Stu and Dee made us cups of tea and offered us choccy biscuits on our return at 7pm (cheers guys!). Will definitely be back again next year!

Further to the previous post. One of the tricks of the trade for the local business mafia was to offer "rooms" with beautiful women included. Get the guests shite faced, then blackmail them to win a business deal.

This is another reason why I didn't venture outdoors.

I went there on business some years ago. We stayed in Bucharest for a week (fortunately in a rather nice hotel with expenses paid by the company). We had a tour around Ceausescu's Palace which was fairly dull I have to say. Apparently it's one of the largest buildings in the world.

We also went to a restaurant that had opera singers, served wild bear meat (yep grizzly meat – only country in Europe where people are licensed to shoot bear) and was generally nuts.

That's about all I can remember from Romania as the rest of the time we spent in the hotel as we were warned not to walk around on our own.

Still contemplating options for carrying stuff. I am look to carry stuff on the front.

Alpkit have sold out of 13l and 20l dry dry bags. Does anyone know of any other dry bag that has holes for webbing straps so that it fits securely on the bars?

I like the idea of the POD Airstream though concerned that webbing straps may come off.

Wouldn't a nuclear tipped Tomahawk cruise missile launched from a nuclear sub (SSN rather than a SSBN) be a cost effective compromise?

Most international situations come with a little bit of warning so it would be reasonable to assume that a SSN could be maneuvered into a position to deliver to cruise missile with a flight time of under an hour?

After reading this thread and the relentless slaughter of tree rats (still vermin though) may not be for me.

My auntie drowns at least one a week.

We've been talking about getting a dog for a while and a jack russel is the current favourite (more thinking to be done as it is not a decision to take lightly). May be this is a good excuse and doubles up as a squirrel deterrent.

I like and do respect wildlife of all types. If they were rats then the it would be a forgone conclusion.

They are comical to watch but if they looked like rats I imagine this post would have probably received a different response rather than a mixed response. Is it because they are fury and cuddly looking creatures?

Not having a go, just wandering? They are classed as vermin and I suspect that this is for a reason, putting personal and moral issues aside.

tree magnet: already got some of that, to be deployed this evening. That's phase 1 of the plan.

This post is about phase 2…(if required)

We don't have access to the building as it owned by a nursing home and the council are not bothered with the building. They are happy to leave it to rot (based on a previous conversations with them on other issues that are far too long and boring to go into).

coffeeking: How? Any suggestions are gladly welcome. "Dispatching" the creatures is a last resort.

slowjo: As a nipper in the cadets I got a marksman badge for putting a 5 round grouping in the area of a fifty pence piece at 50yds with an L98 and '22 rifle. But that was some time ago…

linky

According to this article in the Times, without a special license, you are legally obliged to dispatch the squirrel if caught.

If they were red squirrels fair enough, they are grey squirrels which are legally classified as vermin.

I don't mind the odd the squirrel coming into the garden as they are wildlife. But we have an outbuilding that backs on to our garden and the squirrels have a nest in the attic of the building so they are permanently ripping up stuff in the garden.

Never killed an animal in my life, but they are a pest.

BigDummy: Can't use helicopters as it all went a bit wrong for the humans in the film. Tree rats may start an uprising against mankind and technology. May be eradication by proxy: a could borrow a jack russell…

Nature against nature!

thom, char grilled squirrel as a bivy snack for tomorrow night?