I’ve dealt with commissaires for “local events”.  Assuming their culture continues up the grades I’m really not sure they are interested in the spectacle.     I’m not sure if at the top of the sport commissaires are “paid” or volunteers, or perhaps given a small sum for turning up / travel expenses.  In many sports these sort of officials are neither funded nor valued properly.

I’m not sure what you refer to by ‘culture’ but at every level of the sport, from your local U9 cyclocross to the TdF, commissaires are unpaid volunteers (bar travel expenses and sometimes, a small daily fee to cover incidentals).

In the spirit of recommend what you have – I second the previous-gen Synapse carbon.

My first one did 40,000kms as a winter bike and never missed a beat. Internal cables/hoses (not fully integrated at the bars) with no issues changing headset bearings. I modified the bb guide and rear stop to run a full-length gear outer.

The ride was smooth as silk, fitted 30s with guards, and I ran a screw-together BB in the BB30a shell.

Only sold it because it was starting to look a bit tatty and I replaced it with… another one. Built up with 12spd Di2 this time. The latest-gen Synapses are quasi gravel bikes and all the integrated lights gubbins put me off so I hunted down a NOS older one.

ME Vulcan +1, I have one and I’d buy another tomorrow. I’m fortunate to have the build for it though, I can imagine it not fitting a lot of people.

I have a 36h Paris-Roubaix rim built using plain gauge spokes into a Mavic 571 hub, all put together by Pete Matthews. I expect that to outlive civilisation itself.

I’ve got Xtraactives for driving and they do work behind glass really well, but just like everyone else’s they do take a while to go back to clear. I wouldn’t have them for ‘normal’ use.

Try turning up on the start line of a road race with a missing bar end plug. There is nothing else so cheap that can negate your entry fee and ride.

The majority of commissaires carry a couple in their pocket at all times for this reason – no one wants to see someone miss a start.

Nys rode 40+ races a season and was dominant overall due to his consistency, but ‘only’ won the worlds twice because others (Vervecken, Stybar, Albert for example) would really peak for it whereas he didn’t.

He wasn’t unbeatable-bar-own-error in the way that VdP has become.

FWIW my daughter’s CX bikes have had the Token BBs in for several years and still spin as new despite the mud/washing. Granted she’s small and not powerful but they’ve been great overall.

Same here – GX everything except XT mech on my hardtail. Works perfectly.

VdP and Pidcock aren’t ‘road racers’ though – they’re top level all-round cyclists who can ride anything. Both have ridden road and offroad since forever. It’s only really those two who are capable of doing this, there aren’t a load of WorldTour road riders who can drop into MTB and win at will.

Orbea use/used cheap nasty outer as OEM, I changed mine to SP41 and it made the rear shifting immeasurably better and that was on a new bike. At 3 years old I imagine it’s well past its best.

I knew that ‘Hell is for Children’ must have been even darker than it seemed (and it’s pretty dark anyway), quite apart from being a very odd homage to Heaven and Hell by Black Sabbath.

Standard external BB tool. Sometimes if you’re lucky Token will put a socket-drive tool in the box in any case.
They are very good BBs, I use them across road and MTB.

The torque tubes do eventually go bananas and are basically irrepairable. Could you borrow a G3 cap from someone to at least take that out of the equation?

as Eddie Van Halen would now be thinking to himself… ‘meh’.

I only opened the thread to see who would be first to write this.

Maiden all day long. Priest are just the stereotype of metal bands that everyone takes the mickey out of.
Chugga-chugga-chugga-SCREAM-chugga-chugga

One guy was getting a bit indignant as he was trying to pass around the outside, but the passee drifted wide and effectively shut him out. Whether the passee did it deliberately or just naturally it seemed perfectly legit to me?

Also a guy after the race complaining that someone didn’t let him past when he called ‘coming through’. I suppose this is trickier if there is an obvious disparity in speed, and it can be tricky to know who’s lapping and who isn’t, but there’s definitely folk who seem to think that people are obliged to move over even when not getting lapped? I was a bit annoyed that I gave the line to someone then realised they probably weren’t much faster than me and I could have legitimately made them work for the pass at the very least?

Drifting wide to close the door if racing for position is perfectly ok, so long as it’s not elbowing people or sudden line changes.
“Coming through” is utterly meaningless and if I heard it when commissairing would be having words with the rider to explain so as it confers no information. If lapping riders this needs to be made clear, if just racing for position then there’s no obligation at all to move off line.

I won’t be racing but will be on the ground at plenty of events in some capacity or other. I’m part of the officials team for three Trophies and the National Champs.

A lot of it looked like a CX course as it’s where the CX world champs were held 😂

I’ve got an M10 TR which I’ve had for just under three years. One bearing change in that time but I did upgrade to SKF when I did it, wasn’t too big a job.
Honestly can’t think of a better bike for what I use it for i.e. going pretty hard up/down/around the Peak District.

1986, Bernard Hinault trying to win his 6th Tour de France

Depends who you ask, Bernard would say he wasn’t… :-)
Best Tour ever!

Hmm, not sure but I doubt it!

The Orbea Squidlock works really well and is a sturdy piece of kit, it’s standard issue on their bikes with Fox f+r. There’s two versions, one for forks/shock and one for forks/shock/dropper.

I must be the only one with shovel-sized hands who likes the thinnest possible grips and bar tape. What am I missing out on?

You can replace the bearings in a Token Ninja. I have one on most of my bikes and recently changed them in the winter road bike after a couple of years of heavy use.

7700 are smaller but I have huuuuge hands and get on with them just fine. Bars were a different shape back then and so they were mounted at a different angle, generally further round the bar than now. There were very few flat transitions from bar to hood, by 7800 it was more common to use compact bars and so they were designed as such.

7700 shifters are great but 7800 is basically the pinnacle of mechanical shifting. The entire groupset is perfect in terms of function.
But, 7700 is prettier, so it depends on your priorities.

I was fortunate enough to run both for many years and still have a 7700 setup waiting to go onto a frameset of suitable vintage. Sold all 7800 and most of it runs on the bikes of my friends, still going strong as daily users.

Van Halen / Dave Lee Roth

DLR-era Van Halen have no place in this thread. Van Hagar certainly, and definitely DLR solo stuff, but those first few VH albums are off the charts brilliant. They laid the path for all the dross that came after, granted!

Reckless by Bryan Adams

Oldest is from June 2012, a road segment near me with 6,000 individual attempts on it.
I can’t see the Veloviewer stats right now but I’m sure I still have one at Penmachno from about 2014 which has 20,000+ attempts.

No way I’d ever get either nowadays although I still pick up the odd obscure MTB KOM.

sacrificed a probable nailed on CX World Championship

NP was 373 apparently!

5000kms of Peak bashing on an XTR M9100 and still works as good as new.

45
1m90
71kgs

And top marks to TomB for the Jerry Reed reference!

I’ve got the Spesh Roubaix and they are some of the best tyres I’ve ever used. Fast rolling, tough, comfortable and grippy. Will cope with a surprising level of off-road before they get out of their depth.

Walker; You need the the landowner’s explicit permission to ride here, it’s a permissive bridleway
Me; That’s not how permissive bridleways work
Walker; Yes it is, you need the landowner’s permission in each case
Me; That’s not correct, but ok (pulls out phone)
Walker; What are you doing?
Me; I’m ringing the landowner
Walker; How do you know the landowner, you aren’t a local
Me; I’m 12th generation in this area, I grew up in that house over there (points to house on the other side of the valley)..
Walker (interrupting) But I don’t know you
Me (phone now calling landowner); If you’d let me finish I would’ve also been able to tell you that I was the landowner’s best man
Walker; Looks sheepishly at the ground
Me; Do you want to ask him yourself?
Walker wanders off muttering
Me (on phone); Hey mate, I’ve just had a classic with one of the local nutters!

I’ve seen her a couple of times since while out riding and she can’t even look at me :-)

I ordered from Bike24 a couple of weeks ago for a £135+ order and always the service was exemplary. They’re UK VAT-registered so that’s all paid at source.

I used to be the kit bod for a club and also a racing team. We had variable quality and customer service but we gave up after one particular occasion – an order of 35 items was three months late due to ‘being held up in QC’.
When it all finally arrived I opened the box and then sent 20+ of the items back to be remade. Men’s chamois in women’s shorts, panels not sewn in the correct places, incorrect bibs on shorts, it just went on.
So the ‘QC’ argument was total rubbish. I got it all fixed but I didn’t use them again nor will I ever do.

Macc never becomes a swamp, it’s generally wet mud or just a slippy layer so you don’t need a mega-mud such as Limus, Supermud or Rhino.
Baby Limus or Michelin Mud (which are less aggressive than the originals) a good option and come in both tubular and clincher so suitable no matter your setup.

Ok, don’t want to get into an argument and I’m no fan of BC most of the time either, but – up until very recently Regional CX champs were only for Youth and above, U12s/U9s etc were not championship races even if held on the same day, they were supporting events. This was for the same reason as a lack of the same categories at National champs, i.e. to try and put a lid on pushy parenting.
Don’t shoot me, that’s what the rules said. The technical regulations have changed recently and what happens at Regional champs now isn’t specified, but that looks to be an omission more than an intended change.

(N.B. I have been chief comm at several Regional champs across the country. Wasn’t on duty yesterday at any of them so not sure what West Mids intended to happen)