I’ll bite

Yesterday whilst roadieing into work I approached a bridleway junction with a chap on a MTB waiting there. Nodded hello to him and got completely ignored.

This morning on’t MTB, riding down a quite crappy gravel track on NCN20, I met two women coming the other way on road bikes. Good mornings were exchanged all round.

Conclusion? One nil to (us) roadies 😆 😛

kudos

What about “Pretentious” and “Moi?”?

Kudos, for well, you get it

Cheers Greg, some nice little drags there. I rarely get out over that way so must make more of an effort. I’ve also sent you a stalking request.

I know a couple of the Wheelers who ride up from round here but they tend to follow the A23 corridor.

geetee, care to share the route?

Molgrips

If you’re still down here Crawley Wheelers[/url] have a club 10 TT tonight.

Should be a quick evening and on a pretty fast course.

nemesis

John Warnock was second with an fantastic 517 but no one remembers that.

I do. That’s my mate He’s a machine.

I used to row with him…

8) 8)

Here he is on the 2011 night circuit around 2.30AM IIRC – don’t have access to my photos atm

@nemesis

Quite a few of the fast boys can do 300 miles in 12 hours!

Back in 2011 we reckoned that it was going to take some doing to get over 480+ miles on the roller coaster tour of Sussex that was the course.

The fact that Andy smashed his previous record was unbelievable. – John Warnock was second with an fantastic 517 but no one remembers that.

Can’t be too bad as Chris Noble did it in 8:20 last week. – https://www.facebook.com/ChrisNobleMTB 8)

There’s plenty of opportunities to go off course so do some research

http://www.bikedowns.co.uk/ and

my Strava track from last year

Should get you started

footflaps

– Have fun. Don’t turn into a miserable tester!

is there any other sort?

How very dare you 😛

Mind you, I’m helping out on the National 24 hour TT this weekend and there WILL be some tired, miserable and emotional peeps on that.

Whilst on the subject, whilst Dowsett’s bonker’s 10 time is seriously impressive, Wilko’s 24 hour record is just mental: – 541.214 miles 😯

Completely get the desire to throw money at this but I’d suggest doing some more training, and more importantly, races. – Race yourself fitter can definitely work.

Position is key and whilst TT bars and aero frames DO make a big difference, I’d focus on tweaking your current set up before spending pennies.

After TT bars, pointy hats are probably the cheapest way to knock time off

Oh and get thee over to the TT forum for more on the subject

33 mile loop around Crawley?

Couple of lumps in it and only one local club hill climb course

The world and his dog seem to think Box Hill is some sort of challenge / mecca. Just look at how many sodding Strava segments there are on it…… 🙄

I’m a bit further south (Strava log) but know the area well. As with geetee1972, drop me a note if you want to have a spin.

You do get some variation between the different lock rings and from memory some don’t fit the bigger (13 + teeth) top gears.

As you’ve done a 11t – 11t swap I’d be VERY surprised if you have an issue.

I’m currently on Shure SE315s having spent a blissful hour in Mingo’s[/url] trying loads of different iems last year.

Mrs A was delighted that having gone all the way to HK, we spent time in a real geeks shop 😀 🙄

wwaswas

“now go away and price that lot up”

the more I look at their stuff the more I think it looks like it might represent value for money. Which is quite worrying.

I know what you mean. I’ve looked at Festooning myself with more kit.

🙂

There’s car parks all around the estate and you’ll get directed accordingly based on where you’ve come in from. Be prepared for a bit of a walk from them.

Referring to this aerial view – http://goo.gl/maps/BRzGF

The super car paddock and Style et Lux cars are in the area SW of the main house.

The concrete hard standing to the NE is where the F1 cars etc are mustered.

All the big trade and manufacturer displays are inside Park Road and extend round the cricket pitch you can see.

If you zoom out and head north towards Goodwood racecourse, you’ll see an open area N of Birdless Grove. This is the top of the hill climb and the mustering point for the rally stage.

Do a search of Goodwood FoS aerial pictures and you’ll see how much stuff gets erected there.

Enjoy

wwaswas

now go away and price that lot up and let’s see what the STW massif make of that!

(you don’t have to price the up the new cordless TS55 btw)

I eventually persuaded Mrs A to get some custom sleeves after years of having issues with various headphones not fitting or being comfortable.

The audiologist had to take two impressions as her ear canals were (are) so small.

I wouldn’t be able to get a subjective review out of her of the audio improvements but having a pro confirm that a custom solution was required was possibly money well spent?

BTW ACS’s custom sleeves only fit a selected number of IEMs. I had to track down some Klipsch X10s for the job.

Haze

Too early to say m1kea, although I do have 50/36 with 11-25 (10S) on another bike which I get along fine with.

It had a 34 inner with 12-27 on originally, didn’t really need that around here (Mids) so switched to close the gaps up a little.

I’m hoping this will offer the best of both…

+ bluebird

Cheers

I found 50/34 too low a few years ago but then I had better legs then.

Hills round here (Sussex, Surrey and Kent) are generally short sharp ones as opposed to long long drags.

At the other end of the spectrum my TT bike has 55/42 11-23. It doesn’t see much action these days 😐

Very likely over budget but get a Ti frame. – Will take all the winter abuse in it’s stride and v comfy to ride.

Haze, grahamg

What do you make of the 52/36 type chainsets? As the years advance my gearing is getting more ‘granny’ and I’m now on 53/39 – 11/25

Speeder

We’re quite local so don’t get caught in the traffic which I gather can be pretty bad. As you’ve got a 2+ hour drive I’m not sure what to recommend; get there early to avoid the local queues or arrive later to avoid the joys of the M4/M25/M3/M27 etc

FoS has got really popular and busy in recent years, possibly too busy.

We’ve been going for the past 10 years and have never picked a day based on who’s there or what’s going on. If you’ve never been before then you’re unlikely to ‘miss’ anything per se as there’s stacks to see and do.

Be prepared for loads of wandering about, especially if you do the rally stage up the (surprisingly) steep hill. I’d also recommend getting there as early as possible (before 9)

imnotverygood
I had this about 3 years ago. The sidewall split from the bead on a nearly new tyre.

+1 (for a GP3000)

Nailed the lid in the coffin of Conti use for me after getting sick to death with their beyond stupidly tight tubs.

Update after 70ish miles of riding.

So as I said on Friday the short cockpit is rubbish for road TTing but I managed to get 50+ miles of off road in, including one of my regular commutes, a decent prat about some local trails and a run around a bit of the South Downs.

This stock M109S came in at 29lbs / 13.2KG, which is 3lbs heavier than my Devinci. The Maxxis Ikons were a little bit too slick for some of the conditions and I’d want some rubber with a bit more bite.

Oh and 730mm bars are waay to big for me!

It felt like more work on the ups and I did make use of the whole triple chainset. I reckon I could get away with a 38/26 ish double combo.

Bike definitely flattened out all little roots and ruts and a run down a short flight of wooden stairs was noticeably smoother.

Would I buy one? I definitely don’t NEED another bike but N+1 and all that!

Here you go TiRed

Personal Bests
10 Thu 08/06/06 G10/98 0:21:29 M Anton 00:21:29
25 Wed 16/08/06 P885/25 0:54:52 B Instone 00:49:33
50 Sat 31/05/08 E2/50C 1:56:52 Nik Bowdler 01:39:02
100 Sun 23/07/06 G100/59 4:09:35 S Jardine 03:58:58

Speaking as a roadie, TTer, photographist, it’s not difficult to make someone look like they have a massive paunch when they’re tucked in.

The tester in the 1st pic will have a bit of a belly ‘in real life’ but I strongly suspect he’d look a lot better than many other folk (on here).

I’ve taken photos of Hutch that make him look ‘overweight’ and he definitely isn’t!

It’ll need a full length chainguard as well. Suitably out of alignment to ensure the crank hits it on every revolution.

Speaking of which, mismatched cottered cranks?

Hanky

Be really interested to hear your views at the end of your M-109S demo, I’m currently resisting the temptation to buy the C as a stage-race / endurance type bike.

I immediately started with looking at the plastic version but have absolutely no justification for stumping up that sort of money! 🙂

The S feels heavy to me and I’d want to shed some weight. I’m currently riding a 40/28 chainset on my 26″ FS and would probably look at 38/26 for a 29er.

Hope to have a longish commute home tonight and a good spin tomorrow (if it doesn’t persist down). Will update this thread after then.

Just to resurrect this thread, I’m demoing a Whyte M109S for the next few days.

Thoughts so far?

The 70mm stem is far too short for 10 mile road TTing 😀 🙄
The bigger wheels seem harder work up hill but roll very nicely on the flats and downs 8).
Don’t know if it’s the fitted Ikon tyres or the bigger wheels but I’ve felt the wheels wash a little bit on some descents.
Seemed to flick through the (climbing) gears more compared to my 26er

Finally, it’s got a cool colour scheme (tart)

Exposure’s Flash and Flare can be unreliable though their size and fittings are very nice and to me, preferable to Lezyne’s Micro lights.

Since 2005 I’ve gone from Cateye dual halogens up to a Exposure 6 Pack. Once you get a better light, you can’t go back.

Give Exposure a bell and ask em nicely if they have any spares

Dunno if you’re aware that you can’t take a full sized bike in/out London during rush hour(s)? – folders only then.

This may impact your travel plans and timings?

Thanks z1ppy. There’s a Whyte dealer fairly close by so I’ll go and have a scoot

Cheers for the replies guys

Alex (CGG)is probably right 8) about the (over)spec of some of the suggestions as I’m definitely more XC than enduro.

fenred and johnny.

I popped into Freeborn last Sat, which is where the Ellsworth came up. – Those they had on the shop floor but Joe didn’t think they’d see any more Atlas carbons this year.

Some of the Ellsworth customer service comments I’ve seen also give me pause.

What about the likes of the Cube AMS and Scott Sparks?

[edit]
@ dickie

hmmmm 😀

theupsetter

Try a yeti SB 95. Best bike I’ve ever tried.

Cheers. A guy I know moved from a Dexter to a Yeti ASR. Will have to track him down to see if he’s looked at 29ers.

That SB95 doesn’t look to have any bottle mounts?

Kwality

I’m going to hazard that it’s Reynolds 501 main tubes.

My first ‘decent’ road bike was a Puch with said tubes. I thought it was the bolx back in 1985/6 🙄

These look nice and prompt me to think about resurrecting my 94 Cinder Cone.

That came with a 1″ fork

I’ve had custom footbeds in my various bike shoes for years but still get hot foot from time to time.

Look road pedal user for 25+ years and Egg shoe Eaters on MTB’s for 5+. Currently have Sidi, Carnac, Spesh and Northwave shoes of various types.

I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a combination of my mutant high instep, wide feet, + tending to be an out of saddle pedal masher.

Cheers

I was in Pewsey this weekend photographing the Terminator running race and my muddy boots and car bear testament to the moist conditions in that area 😀

I’ll add this to the possibly list as I could probably stay over with family.

Apols for resurrecting this thread for 2014.

I recently had a spam about the summer ride and wanted some more info on the routes and area.

Interweb searches indicate the ride loosely runs in between the M4, A34, A303 and A338. I know some of the area to drive around but haven’t ridden there. How does it compare to South Downs?

Cheers