6’1″ and 95kg. A typical pale skinny vegan.

Just bumping this up for those who missed it this morning.

First right hander immediately after the start. Two gazebos on the right if anyone knows who it was.

Don’t the riders go round one at a time at horse events though ?
I don’t think you’d be able to provide personal videos of a bike event in the same way.

One variation I’d like to see would be a speed trap camera.
I was hitting 30mph down the zig zag at Bristol yesterday and I’ve done over 40mph down that chalk track that SPAM Biking use on their events.
I’d love to have photographic evidence of that. 😀

tonyfong, I see your point also, but 2400dpi scanners are pretty common these days. I don’t see how limiting sales to printed photos restricts people from copying your photos once they’ve bought them.

I was just thinking that, despite edric’s comments, digital images are far more useful and common these days than printed ones. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I saw a printed photo of anyone I know on a bike. Everything gets circulated on the web these days.

Thanks for the reply WEJ. I know there’s a few professional photographers on this forum and you’re the only one to reply so far.
I think you’ve missed the point though.
I can’t see the need for a 7.5t lorry and 10 computers, but if that’s what you need to take photos, I’m sure you know your business better than I do.
My original point, and the one that most people seem to agree with, is that you would sell more pictures at a substantially lower price.
More happy customers and more profit for you.

If it’s what those of us on the bikes want, why is it not what those of you with the cameras are selling ?

all items always come back better than they went

Isn’t that the whole point of getting any item serviced ?

The pros are that it comes back with a nice little TFTuned sticker on it which you can show off.

On a similar theme…
I was cycling home late at night through a nature reserve a few weeks ago when I saw a car on fire.
The gate I rode through was locked, presumably the car had been driven in through one of the other entrances.
I phoned the fire service and gave the location, but I wasn’t sure about giving directions from the nearest road, as that would be through the locked gate.
Do emergency service vehicles carry the keys to any public access land that they cover ?
I would guess fire engines carry bolt cutters, but what if an ambulance got called out to an incident on FC land with good fire road access, but a locked gate at the main road ?

don’t rely on mobile phone mast triangulation

Does this even work at all ?
As I understand it, the phone company can only tell if a phone is within signal range of a mast, they have no means of telling the direction.
If a phone is within range of two or more masts, they could narrow the position down with a sort of Venn Diagram overlap, but that’s not proper triangulation or Direction Finding.

how did that bike handle the course / or you handle the 8hours on that bike?

Without letting the whole 29er debate spill over on to yet another thread…

My first ever 12 hour solo race was on a Chameleon at Ashton Court a couple of years ago and was the reason I bought a Blur. The constant jarring from the roots and rocks was more than I could take.
Two years on and I find a 29er hardtail just right for almost any course. It really does seem to roll over the bumps better.

Despite what other people claim, I don’t find it a hindrance on the single track either. There were some pretty tight twisty bits yesterday. I find that if I turn the ‘bars, the bike goes round the corner. I can’t see what the problem is supposed to be. 😛

I use a steep, short stem to lessen the weight on my hands and I find the Wingflex feature on a Fizik Gobi helps to absorb the odd unexpected seated big hit.

[/url]
100_1395[/url] by Vegan Graham[/url], on Flickr

Oooh, you got one of me looking fast. Thank you. 😀

13 laps. 4th/8 Veteran or 17th/49 solo male overall.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/53212013

A sign that flashes up your speed ? That sounds like fun.
If I lived near there and didn’t work there, I’d be dodging the barrier, triggering the sign, then clearing off all the time.

I am sure hub gears are fine for pootling but they are not really high performance.

At the risk of resurrecting another thread I started, a friend of mine regularly finishes top third in solo marathons on a Rohloff.
He even changes gear while riding up hill without stopping.

The solo pit area is hopeless. The team and pair riders spill over in to it and get in the way.
I was coming back at the end of my laps at the last 12 hour event to find the entrance/exit completely blocked.
Not too much of a problem for me, I just shouted “Make room for a solo rider please” and barged my way through.
I asked the organisers to do something about it for the 6 hour race on Sunday as Mrs MTG was going to be riding solo and as she’s a bit smaller than me she’s not so confident about walking through the middle of a bunch of blokes and telling them to get out of the way.
Nothing changed, so tomorrow we’ll be leaving our kit further up the course before the start/finish.

All the people on this thread. 😉
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/oktoberfest-roll-call

That wheelbarrow picture.
Doesn’t the front bit tip up separately under power to save you having to lift the whole thing by hand ? 😕

See you in Bristol. I’ll try not to crash right in front of you on the singletrack again. 😀

Bike Radar’s handy for the forum rides section. The Wyre Forest thread is over 130 pages now, even though only 30 pages worth of that is actually organising rides.

I think Mrs MTG summed up the difference between the forums well when she was first thinking of having a go at MTB marathons.
She asked on BR for team mates and no one was interested. She asked on STW and everyone was already in a team.

A lot of people on STW, not just 29er owners, seem to run their bars far, far too high.

That’ll be me then.

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Lynskey[/url] by Vegan Graham[/url], on Flickr

I know it’s wrong, but if it’s the only way I can keep riding for 8 hours around Ashton Court tomorrow, it’ll have to do.

njee, I know what you mean, that’s why I replace them when they’re worn.
I was just thinking it might be worth a try for an absolute beginner’s first ride on clipless.
It would also depend on exactly which pedals.
Unexpectedly unclipping from an egg beater in hard soled shoes can be a bit of a disaster.
I would imagine it’s not so serious with soft soled shoes on Candies or Mallets.

I replace my cleats when they wear and clip out too easily.
If you can blag some second hand worn out cleats it may give you more confidence to try the pedals out if getting trapped in them is your worry.

Short 30 degree rise stem on both, due a neck/wrist problem, to get the weight off my hands.

If I fall off when using them will I still be attached to the bike etc etc.

This is probably the most common fear with any type of clipless pedal.
I don’t keep exact records, but I reckon my last crash caused by failing to unclip was over 10 000km of egg beater riding ago.
As for other crashes, and there have been many, I have never remained attached to the bike after hitting the ground.

Whatever other faults egg beaters have got, clipping in or out when, and only when, you want to is definitely one of their best features.

I use Ward Industries titanium spindles now with their 250lb rider weight limit to avoid this happening again
.[/url]
Broken pedals[/url] by Vegan Graham[/url], on Flickr

Can’t fault 2pure’s customer service though. It’s just a shame so many people have to use it so often.

I’m a bit puzzled by the new version of the egg beaters.
The most common problems with the old ones are that the spindles snap, the outer bearings collapse, the wings wear out and the springs loose their tension.
As far as I can tell, the only significant change on the new ones is that the inner bush, the one bit that has got an acceptable service life, has been replaced with a needle roller bearing.

I’m interested too.
Forgive the dull question, but is this a modification to the light unit or the battery, as I’ve got 2 lights and 5 batteries in total.
If it’s the light unit itself, is that £16 per double unit ? In other words, £32 for a full ‘bar and helmet set ?

Those wrap round brackets always seem to rattle.
Bolting straight through the ‘guard is a much better system.
Why did you want it the other way in the first place ?

Lynskey Ridgeline.

[/url]
Lynskey[/url] by Vegan Graham[/url], on Flickr

This is my 4th 29er hardtail. I can’t explain it, but it just feels fast than anything else I’ve ever ridden.

Yeah, I was going to top the sealant up anyway, there was loads of it all over the road and my legs.
I’ve used heavier patches, the same ones I use on my Land Rover tubes, to patch damaged tyres before.
I’m a bit concerned because I’m riding Oktoberfest next weekend so I don’t want to take any chances. If I was just commuting I’d put up with a possible slow puncture.
I guess I ought to just get the bike home and dunk the tyre in a bucket to see where the air is escaping from to see if it is the plug or not.

Thanks for thinking of me catflees. You made the right decision.

I do find it fascinating how many seemingly normal stwers take pics of themselves naked or near naked outdoors

I find it disappointing how few normal people who like taking pictures of themselves semi naked outdoors post on STW.

As requested, another picture of me, semi naked, in a field.

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56lb[/url] by Vegan Graham[/url], on Flickr

Well, I think it was requested, or did I just imagine that bit ?

I’d still ride a bike no matter how good or bad at it I was, but I think I would lose my enthusiasm for racing if I was consistently near last.

About 19km/h for a 14km mixture of singletrack with gates, road, off road Sustrans route and canal tow path.

It’s Tuesday. Am I allowed another go yet ?

[/url]DSCF0003[/url] by Vegan Graham[/url], on Flickr

Trailquest around Chieveley, Berkshire.
60km in 3:38
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/52439360

I put the rice in a separate bowl to keep the main food groups apart from each other

You need to eat a dollop of raw pastry dough between each main food group.
This will keep them apart in your stomach, a bit like the wadding in a shotgun cartridge, otherwise they will all mix up inside you and you will have wasted the effort keeping them seperate on the table

…but it seems very few people are prepared to return the compliment and accept that there may be some validity in my thinking.

Because there isn’t, maybe ?

Except the bit about replacing chocolate with ice cream.
Ice cream melts once it’s inside you and the calories simply disappear.
You can eat as much ice cream as you want.

Third hand account of a potentially big local story that hasn’t appeared in the local paper.
Is it on Snopes yet ?

A hand drill will slip off the hard screw and go in to the soft aluminium.
The only positive solution is to get it drilled out on a pillar drill or milling machine and helicoiled.
Or just run it with fewer bolts.

She said: “We’d never been so insulted in our lives.”

No one off this forum then.