Finally decided to cough up for a(nother) Ti frame to replace my rather tired 531 winter bike.

Not a fan of compact road frames but ended up with an off the shelf Enigma Etape as their custom build wait list is approx 4 months.

Transplanted most of the 9 spd running gear, guards, saddle etc over but needed a new longer post and I’ve thrown some Dura Ace bits on it as well.

Defo not a cheap winter hack but having lost the two past winters I’m determined to keep the mileage up this year and some new shiny should help.

I’ll need to juggle some wheels around as it’s 22lbs atm and obviously waay too heavy :roll:

Lifer
There’s the big path in the middle that runs parallel to the railway, this is from the main entrance on parish lane. To the left of that it drops away and gets steeper as it goes towards the pond/lake (bottom left on the map). It’s not a big hill, runs are about 30 seconds, there are some videos on the Ride Tilgate facebook page. Looks pretty good.

Got you. I’ve wandered in that bit in the past and there’s a distinct if small ridge in there.

Neil Newell has Single Speeded the SDW Double so knows what he is talking about. 8)

Last time I corresponded with him he was h2 at hazeii.net. V helpful and all round nice guy.

http://www.southdownsdouble.net/index.html

3 – 6K on a road chain? Dear God, how are they doing that?

If you ride across the block, ie big front ring, big rear cog you will stretch and deform the chain quicker (guilty m’lud) and road grime in winter makes a very nice grinding paste. I think I manage around 1K on’t road bikes.

Of course cruddy off road conditions will grind moving parts even quicker.

I’m quite partial to Asics products and have found their ‘Eikoku’ base layers to be good in a broad spectrum of temperatures.

Lifer

If mtb commuting in to work, I typically enter the forest up near the Cowdray and chug down the track to the railway at the far end of of Parish lane. I’ll then wander up through the south side and cross on either of the bridges.

I seem to get lost :roll: trying to find the western bridge at least once out of every four trips through there :lol:

For the sake of a few quid, get a chain checker, such as this Park one

I tend to replace chains once they get close to 0.75% as the shifting starts to get a bit sketchy.

It’s got to be Hurt, think Johnny Cash does it better than NIN.

Heretic!!!!!!!! :wink:

You needed to experience Hurt being performed live by NIN. The various DVDs available give you an idea but tis not the same.

Oh and highclimber, get a bigger music player

If you go abroad to pretty much any hot country, you’ll see most of the locals with a vest of some description under their top.

I use a selection of base layers all the time now, ranging from running vests through to short sleeve tops, depending upon the temp.

Most of the tech tops wick moisture away (to the outer layer) so you do tend to maintain a more even atmosphere all round.

For the price of a top, what’s not to loose trying it out?

I have the bike handling skilzz of a housebrick and can’t(won’t) do jumps etc so won’t diss the technical aspects of Tilgate.

However I’m still stumped as to where the hills are? :?:

Having gone for a spin with Timnwild round Steyning on Sunday I’d class the run down off Chanctonbury as a hill.

As dans160 mentions, the forest north of Rogate kind of looks a bit Welsh and the times I’ve driven through there it looks quite good.

What on earth do road suspension forks (I believe you are referring to the short lived Rockshox Ruby, which were not especially light, just Mag21’s with a different arch) have to do with a discussion about disc brakes on road bikes?

Sam, if you look at my original post, I said ‘on a vaguely connected note’. :?

Anyhoo back to wheels.

‘Stronger’ may not have been the correct term though it can depend on how deep the rim is. In answer to to oldgit’s comment about deep rims, yes they can be susceptible to cross winds.

I recently added a pair of Easton EC90 56mm wheels to the collection and the front can be real twitchy in a cross wind. Easton do a 90mm version as do numerous others, but that’s too deep for my liking and I weigh nearly 13st.

On the back disks, tri spokes deep sections are NOT affected by cross winds.

The CTT[/url] are responsible for UK time trialling, and Zipp 1080’s are not allowed on the front as they have more than 45% of their surface area enclosed.

I’ll stop now as the regs for bike design, weights etc etc, are an utter utter minefield when you factor in the different regs of the UCI, BC, CTT, BTF yadda yadda yadda :roll:

I have been told it’s pretty good up there and alot of effort is put on, they have dig evenings up there too

I reckon with some careful planning you could get a cracking enduro XC event course laid out, something like the Dusk 2 Dawn at Thetford.

Compared to what I’d class as a hill, such as the north face of the South Downs, then no it’s not up to much. However if you’re after lots of repeatable jumps and so on to practice at, I’m sure it fits the bill nicely.

Check out the Tilgate DH club site

There’s hills in Tilgate? :?: :wink:

I chug through there every now and then on a commute and whilst I reckon you can get some nice singletrack action in there, I guess my definition of a hill for a downhill course is different to others?

Oh and FYI Turners Hill – Lindfield features on one of my commute routes and as a gauge of time, it typically takes me 23 minutes to do the Turners Hill cross roads to Lindfield church on the way home.

Last time I met up with some folk doing L2B, it took them 1:15 8O to do the same stretch, mainly because of the sheer volume of idiots, sorry, people riding.

Carbon wheels are lighter, stiffer and generally stronger, especially if you’re after aero wheelsets.

Tubs (tubular tyres) are generally lighter and typically more comfortable to ride on, even with the 140psi plus pressures you need to run them at. Big downsides are they’re difficult to repair, can be very expensive and because they are usually glued on, you do need to be a bit more careful at the extremes of riding;- fast downhills, fast corners etc etc.

Tis very easy to blow £2K or more on some high end hoops.

Re disc brakes. Ha Ha, no chance that’ll happen on high end road bikes.

They don’t need need them and the focus in recent years has been towards aero. The Scott Plasma 3[/url] is one of the slipperiest Time Trial bikes at the mo though manufacturers are chucking more effort into making conventional road bikes more aero.

Take a look at the Cervelo S5[/url] to see where things are headed.

Oh and on a vaguely connected note, Rockshox did some lightweight sus forks for road bikes back in the 90s for the pro peleton.

Didn’t catch on for a whole host of reasons, weight and flex being two biggies.

Here’s one I found on Garmin Connect – http://connect.garmin.com/activity/98208778

I’ve never ridden the ‘pucker’ BHF L2B but this course looks right – http://connect.garmin.com/activity/93857740

LOADS of pubs enroute plus quite a few name restaurants in the Broadway in Haywards Heath, just south of the railway station.

I had to recently send my Corima disc wheel off to the doctors and HQ Fibre productsdid an excellent job.

You’ll see their name pop up in various searches, including one from this forum

I’ve historically been a big gear masher (I run a 55 on’t TT wagon) and put a compact on my winter bike a couple of years ago to make me spin the pedals more in the off season.

The compact also helps offset the extra weight of the winter bike.

Re tubless;

I’m too old to learn new tricks :wink: and the requirements for going tubeless just seem to be too much effort for, IMO, negligible gain.

Interesting that folk seem to have a lot of punctures. My last clincher puncture was IIRC 2009, and that’s including probably 1000+ miles of off roading………

I understand the sentiment behind the ‘ride until you puke’ levels of effort but that doesn’t float my boat. I much rather prefer to go at a decent level but not blow my brains out, which probably accounts for why I’ve never been faster than 21:29/54:52/1:56:52/4:09:35.

I recommend getting to know the course and the prevailing wind and adjusting your efforts accordingly. If you utterly cane it for the wrong section, you can run the risk of blowing up horribly and watch everything go pete tong.

Defo have a warm up and if allowed, 2 – 5 miles of the course will give you a gauge of what’s going to be required.

Getting aero and keeping smooth and still are the biggest improvements you can make but if you fancy having a laugh, don’t take it seriously

I’ve got more road wheels than bikes, and that’s not including the C/F bling jobbies for TTing.

Got a pair of D/A 7850 CL24s for my ‘best’ road bike and they’ve been very nice 8).

My 2004 Campag Zondas are still soldiering on nicely though the bearings need some TLC. – Campag make some nice wheels.

Went off Mavic three years ago when an Aksium rear did what DezB’s did. Replaced it under warranty and that one went in the same fashion :x

Never tried tubless (road or MTB) though I really can’t see the point for road tyres. And this from someone who has 6 C/F tub wheels and was so happy that he managed to fit a Conti tub in (a clocked) 10 minutes.

(For those that don’t know, Conti tubs are infamous for being utter utter utter gits to fit).

Get some Project 2 rigid forks and a nice fat front tyre. Cheap solution – fun in a different way – makes your ht lighter and different to your other bike.

Or resurrect my 1994 Cindercone that’s been hanging up unused for the past 7 years. – I have toyed with rebuilding this back to it’s original spec on and off but it’s one of those “when I get round to it” jobs.

Cheers for the replies folks.

I put some basic (2008) 100mm Rebas w/o lockout on it a couple of years ago having completely given up with the Zokes it came with.

My HT is actually heavier than my F/S so I thought some SIDS would lighten it up a bit and a lockout would be nice for the road/flat sections.

Yes that’s throwing money at a ‘weight weenie’ problem but hey it’s my money and short of a C/F frame, I’m unlikely to get the weight down more without a major change of spec. – It’d be cheaper to spunk £1700+ on a new bike if I was to go down that route TBH.

I’m planning on pedalling down unless it’s persisting down on the morning.

I only know the SDW track so bits like Findon etc will be new to me.

Definitely SPDs for the convenience. Interesting folk are suggesting road shoes are better with hot spots. I’ve only ever had probs on long rides when I’ve been on a road bike…….

I’m not actually racing or shooting anything this weekend so do need to get some miles in.

If you can poke up with a roadie wannabe trying to keep up then LMK

My old Deuter bag died a year ago so I replaced it with the Trans Alpine 30.

I don’t believe that’s available any more but I can defo recommend their kit and I’m sure there’s a comparable version.

ALL my commutes are done with the following;

Main compartment
work shoes, trousers, shirt and undies
packed lunch
misc paperwork, b/o basher and waay too many keys

Lower compartment
multitool, repair kit, basic medical kit, emergency blanket, glasses case
2 X MTB and 2 X road tubes, basic padlock and hi vis ankle bands in side pockets. I occasionally lob a tub in there as well when the TT bike is in use.
Spare smart LED rear just in case.

There’s enough room for other guff and it’s been known to comfortably transport a bottle of wine or spirits. :D

Does generally tend to weigh in around 14lbs though…………

The fluo yellow waterproof cover works well enough though the old bag also had a emergency tabbard that you could also fold out and put over yourself.

Oh and they will take water bladders as well

23lbs not bad? Damn and there’s me moaning about the 22lbs my winter bike comes in at…….

imnotamused

Dunno how far they are from you but see if you can pop in to Bob Jacksons[/url] in Leeds.

Kirky in there is a mod on the TTForum and knows his stuff and will definitely be able to chat about a steel road bike 8)

@ oldgit

I was meaning more generic sections such as rides, kit, how to, and so on.

Hell if you look at the TT forum, that’s nicely segregated out and Testers are complete weirdos :wink: who do all their racing at sparrows fart o’ clock of a morning

As a complete noob to this forum I am slightly surprised at the amount of road stuff on here.

I’m a roadie at heart but have come here for discussion on MTB stuff, this being a MTB forum and I have 2 mtbs.

However what would be good would be sub sections for various topics as opposed to dumping everything in to one giant topic section. I think this is the only forum I know that is like this?

Can’t recommend specific brands but I will waffle on about fit.

Getting the right sized frame is very important with road bikes, arguably more so than MTBs where you don’t spend the same amount of time in one position.

IMO the horizontal top tube length (or equiv if it’s a sloping top tube) takes precedence over the seat tube length so I’d definitely recommend sitting on a couple of different sized bikes if you’re not sure of sizing.

I’m 5′ 10″ with a slightly short torso and a recent bike fit recommended a 547mm top tube. – I typically ride a 54cm frame and make any adjustments with stem lengths.

Things like 12cm+ stems and 3cm+ of h/s spacers are indicators of the wrong size frame.

I’d personally not bother with flat bars as drops will give you more hand positions.

Similarly unless you live in a really hilly area, you won’t need a triple chainset. A 34/50 compact c set + 12/25 cassette should get you up just about any hill.

Oh and you don’t need disk brakes on a road bike either.

timnwild

Which way are you referring to? I tried to go up from Washington on Sat but it was closed due to a ‘police incident’. Had to wander round to Chanctonbury to go up from there, which was a first for me. Not sure if that climb was worse than the grind from Washington?

I see some TTFers have replied here 8)

I’ve done various long duration MTB events but never had the bottle to enter a 12 on’t road bike.

A big difference with road events is that you won’t generally have a HQ area to go through on / stop on each lap, and you won’t have potential situations like needing to stop/walk for a technical bit, and thus get a break of some form.

Whilst personal music will help while the hours away, mp3 players are a no no on the road for a whole host of safety reasons (and let’s not get in to that discussion now) so you’ll need to be able to mentally tough it out.

Make sure your bike position is already good now, possibly raising bar height a splash if you’re riding quite low. Once settled, DON’T touch it until after the event.

Support will help no end and you may want to consider having a couple of folk help over the course of the event, so that they can have a break.

I recently helped out and photographed the National 24 hour TT in Sussex and that was cracking event with a great atmosphere. What was even more impressive was we didn’t reckon many would get over 480 miles on what was a lumpy old course.

As it turned out Wilko set a new championship record with 541 miles!!!!! 8O

wwaswas

I actually did a number of the old SAMS races back in the mid 90s but was never any good.

The last MTB ‘race’ I did was the 09 D2D and here’s my write up – http://egcc.net/display-items.asp?intTypeID=211&intItemID=522

Cheers folks

The Razers are on the full suss and I think I’ve got some Fire’s on the HT atm, which kind of look similar to those Bontys? – Will investigate further.

Further disclosure; as the worst kind of roadie (a time trialler :lol: ) I can’t do technical stuff for toffee so I much rather prefer to ride longer distances / easier routes. – Much safer for all concerned than having me bouncing off the scenery everywhere!