I used my old small road oriented Razorbak last night on the BHF L2B nightride as I needed to carry some extra kit for this morning.

I reckon 70% of my rides are with a Backpack (commutes) or Camelbak and the backpack usually avarages 13lbs / 6Kgs. Kind of got used to it after 15+ years of (road) commuting.

I guess I’m a statistical outlier?

theflatboy – Member

awesome, so much fun. flawless organisation and perfect from start to finish. loved it. bit tired now.

http://app.strava.com/rides/9439520

🙂

I see you went the wrong way in Cuckfield though that route you did through Ansty would have made more sense than the trip off down Isaacs lane.

Could have done with some more signs / marshals in a couple of places but otherwise well put together.

Quite pleased with my effort, unlike the hilly time trial I rode at 8am, which was an utter trainwreck 😳

PlanetX have a sale on their Gran Fondo[/url] until tomorrow.

I have a set of 3T ergonova on the winter bike and they’re possibly the the most comfortable road bars I’ve ever had.

Mostly Balanced – Member

Hoping here that the wind keeps up as I’ll be turning right at Brighton and winding my way back along the south coast towards Southampton. Wifey’s going to meet me somewhere depending on what time she gets up.

Well the forecasts for Gatwick and Shoreham continue with NE winds 🙂

jota180 – Member

All sorted now

Binned everything on my shortlist [as you do] and picked up a good deal on a Specialized 2011 Roubaix Elite SL2
£1400 is not too bad for that bike in my eyes

I’m happy now

I understand that the Roubaix’s are more comfort orientated, and with a compact chainset, you’ll be clocking up the long distance miles in no time!

Enjoy

Hi Si

Is this Dark Star do in Partridge Green?

If so, one of my mates, Rupert will be there. You can’t miss him as he has waist length dreads and is covered in tattoos.

Have fun 🙂

I’ve just done a chunk of the route on the way home from work.

All I can say is I hope the NE gale continues as it was a lovely spin down to Poynings, unlike the grovel I had back home 🙁

The Smallfield – Burstow road is its usual collection of bomb craters and speed bumps and there’s a couple of juddery bits near Balcombe station. Otherwise the roads on this chunk are all pretty decent.

And another for Enigma

Some bikes come from abroad though they weld their custom frames here in the UK.

Mark Reilly pointed me to a chap in Brighton a few years ago who Ti welded a new front mech hanger for me though I expect they’d be able to do it in house now.

Tim

I’ll be in me East Grinstead strip on the white Felt, same as when I popped down and said hello last year.

Shout if you want to try and meet up at the start.

WTF? Random but amusing nonetheless

Tim

See the thread in chat

Mike

cyclistm – Member

Mike, you are clearly nuts

Mark, two Wombles back at ya – Gibbo and Mr Baker. – Those two are most definitely nuts.

Mr Green of the Agreeables also informs me he’s done Coulsdon – Bton overnight, ridden back up to Broadbridge Heath to do the SCCU 10 and then ridden home.

Why don’t you hop on the train at Bton and join me? 😛

smokey_jo – Member
Hi M1kea

Please read this before relying on the trains:
http://www.southernrailway.com/southern/news/london-to-brighton-night-bike-ride-southern-and-first-capital-connect-cycle-policies/

There will be few transport seats available for purchase at the start site but they won’t be setting off until 5.30am so if you’re as fast as you say you would have a bit of wait

@rse 😐
well that’s solved my other issue, which is I’m doing a hilly time trial at 8 on Sunday morning and didn’t know whether to go home and change bikes. – I’ll just hang around a bit and then ride over to the TT HQ.

Cheers for the heads up Smokey 🙂

Thanks very much MB. 8)

I pretty much got the route spot on from Redhill down.

There’s a 25 mile TT that starts at the top of Devils Dyke and runs out around the area before returning back to Devils Dyke.

Despite the steeper hills on the return from Poynings, the road flows much better and you carry more speed to the base of the final climb. IIRC I even big ringed it one year.

Now, can I get to Btn station in time for the 3:50 train? ❓

smokey_jo – Member

Devils Dyke is almost Ditchling Beacons equal. Check your last email from the BHF the route should be on there.

I’m aiming on entering this on the night. If someone has a detailed route can they let me know? I’ve a pretty good idea on the route through Sussex but don’t know the Surrey / London bit.

Cheers

Back in the mid 80’s I black Hammerited a road bike and thought it looked the bolx. – Obviously it wasn’t but such are the joys of ignorance in youth. 🙄

If I was going to pay for a respray I’d definitely go with something visually appealing and interestingly a quick Google image search has quite a few black frames.

60 mins

I’m no where near as fit as I want to be but average 13mph on the flat rough tracks where I put the miles in to get my fitness up and thats on an out and back so hopefully wind compensated.

I’d say 75 mins. 60 mins or less is good going on an MTB I thinks. I’d be made up.

Different on a road bike though and if you’re riding over 50 miles a week or more, 18mph average on the road should be very doable.

Last time I solely rode my full sus on the road was this ere time trial

I’ve found it very difficult to get close to 21mph in full bounce mode.

I’d budget an hour.

stumpy01 – Member

How often will you need a macro lens?
If it will be used infrequently you could just hire one? Google ‘lenses for hire’ – I think there’s a website of the same name.

http://www.lensesforhire.co.uk/

Top bunch of people who I’ve had 300, 400, 500 and the 17mm TSE from.

I wouldn’t bother with extension tubes and instead look at getting a macro lens if you are going to do a lot of close up photography.

As you’re shooting Nikon any of their (macro) lenses from the year dot should work.

This

was shot with a 100mm macro and 65mm of extension tubes.

You can get very silly and do something like this

which gets you in a bit closer

Or you can go to somewhere like Turkey where the locals don’t give a flying whatsit about people taking snaps.

In this 360 pano of the entrance to the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul, there are just two people looking at the camera. I was there for approx 3 mins setting the camera up.

Not that I’d ever try such shots in London but I strongly suspect some jobsworth oik would try and claim it’s illegal to take pictures in a public place 🙄

Work

Have a better download speed at home but pony upload.

Bit late to the party but my answer is Michelin Pro 4 grip.

Seriously went off Conti tyres and tubulars about 2 years ago. Utter B’stards to fit and no more puncture proof than anything else.

Plus I had a sidewall go on the bead. – That was a call to Mrs A to pick me up as that tyre wasn’t going anywhere except for the bin.

Definitely not ooop norf but Enigma[/url] can do a bit of Ti welding. 😉

‘Locals’ said they could surf in LA in the morning and then ski at Mammoth in the afternoon.

I’m sure you can but I certainly wouldn’t fancy the 300+ mile drive EACH way to do such a thing.

That said, the snow in Mammoth was fab when we went in 06.

I’m awaiting some of the XTR M985 non finned ones from Wiggle. Had a look at the Superstar offerings but decided to avoid them as their new user registration web page was unencrypted.

Back in 2001 such things would have been forgiveable, but not now.

Update

Had no joy with reseating the piston so that’s probably that calliper fubared.

Fitted a replacement quickly enough and recharged the system with no dramas. I was fully expecting some twatting about here but it seemed painless enough. Didn’t have chance to give the wagon a spin so fingers crossed she behaves herself tonight.

wwaswas – Member

can’t seem to embed…

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3d54v_badger-attack_fun

LOL. I couldn’t quite tell but was that Dom Joly?

Now, what tyres for XX?

daznal
“mmm running disk brakes without disk pads,let me just check the stupidity meter,as i thought 9.5 out of a possible 10”

And incorrectly presuming something of someone you’ve never met and then calling them stupid?

Hmmm, 9 of 10 for rudeness, all IMHO of course.

15 all, your serve 😛 😉

As above, how much do you want to spend and what quality are your source files?

Firestone Audio have a good rep but aren’t particularly cheap.

The-milkybar-kid

My piston popped out on the same brake on my last lap at D2D i pushed it back in but it broke around the edges mine was the spoke side aswell.

Bummer

I ran out of light last night but will see if I can get some life out of the piston (after I’ve got a replacement unit).

Twas the spoke side piston. – I guess the other one was more jammed than I thought?

I pushed it back in but TBH it looks terminal.

Is it unusual for the pistons to become asymmetric with their action? The fact that the brake rubbed without having pads left suggests to me that it got out of alignment during the race and didn’t recover.

I had a huge ditch rate with my photos and apologies for my meagre efforts.

Perhaps I should have concentrated on riding the event and maybe getting us into the top ten?

Props to all the Togs who stayed out all night to capture the action in what were very testing conditions for photos.

BB

The rain notwithstanding (I like the alternate name ‘Wetford’) we enjoyed this year and thanks to everyone who put this on. I certainly preferred this (easier) less techy course to what we did in 09.

Two thoughts do spring to mind for next time.

1) Any scope for showers?
2) The Forest Centre could do with improving their road signage. We followed a couple of other cars trying to find the way out before discovering you come right round on yourself before leaving via a different exit.

IIRC the Topeak extenders aren’t that great.

I think my latest set of extenders are Vittorias. These just screw over the existing valve. You can get some that require taking out the original valve, inserting the extender ‘upside down’ and then reinstalling the valve core.

Oh and as an aside, have you every had a problem with a co2 inflater that’s involved you using it up and still not getting the tyre inflated? A manual pump wins every time imo.

bigyinn

TJ will be along to say you drag your brakes too much as his Hope pads last several circumnavigations of the globe.

Lol. As I posted in the D2D thread, I graunchsquealed the whole way round. Dunno why the discs took exception but I pretty much ended not braking for anything other than 90′ bends. Mind you I was going so slowly I didn’t need the brakes!

I think I’ll have a go with some sintered and maybe the kelvars, just for comparison.

Cheers guys

I presume this is the place to buy Superstars from – http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/ and I’m looking at the S5 version ?

Bearing in mind I need new pads and winter is coming, what pad material would folk suggest?

Second D2D for me, this time in a triple. My 1st lap was by my standards and hopes, pretty quick and I foolishly thought the course might hold up in the rain.

Dunno the trail names but somewhere around the 5 mile mark was a git of a singletrack slitherfest and I had a few stall offs. – Clearly Panaracer Razers don’t do mud! Did finally manage to negotiate this on my final lap safely with Mud X shoes.

I passed quite a few people but being a roadie I can’t do this wavy stuff so was happy to sit in until I was absolutely certain I could get by without sticking it into the scenery and thereby taking someone else out.

I can’t understand why people can’t make the effort to say thank you or ask if someone is OK? How hard can that be??

Apologies to all who had to put up with listening to my graunching chain and discs. Even early on in the first lap I appeared to be the only rider in Norfolk whose bike had decided to take exception to the weather.

Finally, the best purchase of the month? £280 on a decent pop up gazebo. Twas a goodsend having a spacious space to stay in. I suspect the three of us may have packed early on if we’d only had a small tent and cars to stay in.

Fab pano and it would look cracking on a large print 8).

I can see all the seams but then I’m a pedant and know what I’m looking for :roll:. That said, unless you’re pixel peeping, I’d be very surprised if most people could spot them, even on the print.

Not had any big prints done for a while but I had this printed up at 40″ wide a few years back. The 300ppi .TIFF file was approx 300Mb. and I sent the file to a local company on CD.

TBH If I’d taken the effort to do such a shot, I’d want maximum quality and wouldn’t use a JPG copy. – That generally precludes the ‘big’ on line printing firms like photobox etc.