I’m 5′ 10″, but with short legs, long back and have a small but that’s with 100mm forks so the reach on it is going to be a bit longer than it would with longer forks. I’ve done plenty of long days on it and it’s been perfectly comfy.

However, I’ve also got a Rocket and that’s a medium so make of that what you will.

http://i.imgur.com/UGtKDFh.jpg

Best bike I’ve ever had. definitely recommend it.

Am I the only person who finds it bothersome when the seat stays and the shock aren’t in a straight line? I don’t care how good a bike it is, every time I looked at it I’d just be irked.

A hilarious riding companion would never think to screw those all the way through to rattle about forevermore while you’re not looking

What kind of monster even jokes about this?

Also, #notallroadies. I think you’d be hard pushed to find much footage of Wiggins standing up on a climb. Admittedly he’s not the best climber in the world but he knew what worked for him and stuck to it. It’s probably worth seeing if it does work for you but I’d not get too hung up on it.

Another good one to look at is Cancellara in the classics. Sat down on the bergs when everyone else is standing*.

As a general rule it seems to be that the, er, more generously proportioned you are the less likely standing up is to be a good call as you are adding all the work of supporting you rather than letting the saddle do it.

* Although the fact that pretty much every one else is standing is possibly an indication that taking Fabs as your model is flawed.

Eat and eat and eat. Also, the odd stop just to not be cycling seems to really help me.

Also, save something treatish to eat in the last hour or so that you can look forward to. It’s a small thing but being able to think “only another half hour and I can have X” is surprisingly motivational.

I’ve got a medium and it’s definitely at the small end of medium.

Main issue is the stretchy cuffs aren’t very stretchy so if you’ve got big hands or chunky gloves on it’s a bit of a stretch.

Can’t speak for the longevity of it as I’ve not used it all that much but it coped really well with some proper torrential rain and it packs down to nothing.

Worth spending a bit of time making sure your position on the bike is comfy. Little niggles add up over that sort of distance.

I’ve got a Soul and a Rocket and if I’m riding both of them regularly than its easy to swap between them. If I ride one exclusively for a bit then it takes a little bit longer to get back into the swing of the other but pretty much by the end of the first chunk of singletrack it’s all fine. I think the fact that they are reasonably different makes it easier to swap as they feel totally different to ride which acts as a reminder.

You might need to commit to a period of mostly riding the Soul to get there though.

I’m having much the same dilemma. I love the bike but the forks could probably do with replacing and I’m sort of loathe to get some new ones. I’m currently thinking that replacing it with a Solaris is the thing to do given what I mostly use it for. Only problem is I’d like to ride one first :/

Not that I’ll get rid of the Soul, it’s too nice a bike for that. I suspect I’ll just get a rigid fork and single speed it for winter/quick blast rides.

Something warm to wear when hanging about waiting for your team mates at 3am.

Let’s agree never to talk about Mayhem 2012 again and maybe we can pretend it never happened.

Spank oozy 295 maybe:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/spank-oozy-trail-295-bead-bite-mtb-rim/rp-prod114974

I’ve got some and they seem fine. Not had them long though but they seem to be round and a reasonable weight.

Never miss a changeover.

Something you need to get off your chest?

Bring food you are sure you will want to eat at 3am. It is more important that you eat something than it being a scientifically proven blend of whatever. I like Jaffa Cakes for this.

If you have spare wheels bring them with mud tyres already on them. not having to faff about with muddy tyres in the damp is a total win.

Showers are amazing. Things will almost always seem better after a shower.

Make sure you have a clear idea of when you need to be in the transition area in order to meet the next person out in your team. And then get there five minutes before that as no one liked to be standing about after a lap shouting for your team mate. Ideally agree where you will be standing too. For added bonus points know what they look like, are wearing, and what they are called.

Bring all the cycling clothes you have just in case.

And remember you won’t win, probably, so don’t take it too seriously :)

Despite feeling awful for the first three laps that was still great, mostly because no matter how awful you feel on the way up the descents are lots of fun. And glorious weather.

As with last year thought the level of encouragement from the marshals all day was great.

Specalized Rib cages work fine on mine.

I’m having another bash at solo, hoping to make 8 laps despite it meaning there’s not likely to be much time to stop for cake. If you do have time to stop for cake you should as it was very nice last year.

Only downside is the straight steerer on my soul, I really need to find a MK3 frame to enable me to get decent new forks when mine die.

^ This is exactly where I am :)

I’m hoping the neutral service needs might mean we get some sort of progress towards a concensus on the hub/axle thing. I expect I’ll be disappointed though.

Start list here: http://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=149887&c=3

I bet someone is regretting ordering those

Or alternatively, company in sees a gap in the market that other’s aren’t filling for which there are customers shocker. I think given the fuss people made at the time of the switch to 650B having a push that said “hey, if you still want a 26″ frame we have them” made a lot of sense. It’s now clear that for some types of bike it doesn’t make sense so you stop doing it.

I’m really not sure why it’s something to get irked about.

On the being able to tell front there’s a bit in the Phil Burt Bike Fit book discussing how some people are super sensitive to changes in bike set up and others basically don’t notice it. This is partly in the context of picking up strains and so on of their position is off but I imagine it’s a similar thing.

Of the listed things the only one I’ve got comparable experience of is pick-up and I definitely notice that in slow speed bits where your having to constantly give a quick crank turn to keep momentum up.

Is there any data on how tall a rim needs to be before it has any tangible aero effect?

Until recently I’d have said Fat Chance but they seem to be making a comeback.

Was it Boulder Bikes that had the shock mounted inside the top tube?

Out of interest, how does one come to lose pedals?

On the hotspot front I think that’s as much about having the cleats set up correctly as the fit of the shoe. If the cleats aren’t in the right position for you then you’re much more likely to get sore feet. I did a chunk of shuffling cleat position about on mine till I was happy with them.

Fit wise it’s worth thinking about what shape your feet are as some brands are better for wide feet and others for narrower feet. Also height and shape of the toe box matters.

So it makes less of a difference compared with buying a shoe with a stiffer sole

This ^. My road shoes are fancy pants carbon soled things and the first time I used them they felt like they were worth an extra gear up the hills compared to the previous middling MTB shoes and SPDs combo. However, I’m sure it’s mostly the stiffness of the sole as there’s a difference between my slightly racey MTB shoes and the winter pseudo hiking ones that is noticeable.

The main advantage of road shoes, IME, is it’s slightly easier to get overshoes over them as they’ve got less nobbles on the soles.

One that you know will be comfy. Unless you are a whippet you are going to be spending 10+ hours on the bike so it’s probably more important that you know you it’s going to be as comfortable as possible. I did the Keilder 100 on my Soul and it was fine, for the small values of fine that result from riding 100 miles off road.

In comparison I did one of the Gorrick 4 hour things just before xmas on a borrowed rigid 29er and it was not fine mostly because it did my back in as it was a bit on the long side. Plus, you know, rigid.

I think for most people doing that length of ride it’s more about the head than the bike or being super fit.

Oh, and having enough gears that at the end of the ride you have a low enough one to grovel up the climbs.

I’ve got some of the thermolite ones from a few years ago that are still going strong and are pretty comfy. The lettering on the legs is peeling off but otherwise they’re good. I’ve got some DHB ones as well, also from a few years ago and they’re not nearly as nice.

My reasoning for buying a road bike without discs earlier this year was if you’re an early adopter you often get something of a raw deal on ending up with what turn out to be short lived ‘standards’ that you can’t get bits for. And given the number of non disc road bikes out there it’s going to be ages before you have trouble getting hold of spares and wheels for callipers.

Plus I figure it’ll take a few years for them to get really good at road discs, more so on the frame side than the brake side, so you might as well wait.

Dunno if they’re available separately, they are just ANT+, so they should work with an Edge 500/510/705/800/810

I’d read, I think in the dcrainmaker review, that it depends on the accessory settings that your computer uses as to whether they’ll work. Certainly seemed to imply that on some units you’ll have to use both sensors at the same time, however it was a bit confusing and the garmin site doesn’t seem to be keen to say one way or another.

They do seem to be available separately though, or at least they are on the US garmin site.

Based on doing ok at 10 under a few years ago I’d say that if you’re just aiming to get it done then making sure you ride quite a bit between now and then is probably enough. Might as well go out and do some decent length rides just to get used to how it feels but I found a few months of commuting 17 odd miles each day 3 days a week left me in decent enough shape for it.

If you do go out for decent length rides then do them with no, or almost no stops so you can get used to what it feels like to just keep on going.

And yeah, find a support crew, even if it’s just some mates who are doing it as a team who you can dump stuff with. If you don’t have a support crew then a) use a camel bak as you don’t need to stop to fill it as often and b) if you’re using energy drink pre mix a whole load of it.

Oh, and enjoy it as it’ll seem so much easier if you do :)

I sort of have my Soul for racing as the Rocket really isn’t ideal for Mayhem or the like.

I think the perception that 29er’s will make you faster isn’t helped by the fact that all the quick people at races ride them. I’m sure they are a a bit faster but the quick people still went past me pretty quickly when they were on bikes with sensibly sized wheels too ;)

Next time you race try counting how many 29ers you pass. Even if you’re mid pack then I’d hazard it’ll be quite few.

I don’t think you’d even need to pick up either bike to tell which of mine and njee20’s was lighter :)

I don’t know if it was the sun, the good course or the great amount of support on the final run in but this did seem like the best atmosphere of a Mayhem in recent years. Even out on the course in the wee small hours everyone seemed happy, friendly and polite. Made for a really nice weekend out.

And, should you ever require a last minute stand in for your team I can recommend njee20. He even brings scales in case you want to weigh your bike :)

Northwind – It’s all the laps they do, they just get more practice at riding the course so of course they’re better. *coughs*

This entire wheel size thing has been entirely worthwhile for that last gif of the cat and the bath.

I don’t commute any more but when I used to do about 17 miles each way 3 or four times a week.

If you’re a taking lunch to work with you person make it the night before if possible as it’s one less thing to do in the morning.

Buy a cheap spare track pump and leave it at work. You might not need it often but when you do it’s great.

Most importantly, work out ways to make the cycle enjoyable. I bought a cross bike so I could go a slightly longer but much more pleasant route and it greatly reduced the number of rides where it felt like a bit of a chore.

Last descent was definitely of the smoother if you were quicker variety.

What amazed me was just how quickly some people could ride the steep descent after the cake stop – which was great and a feature I encourage all event organisers to adopt. I’m a bit of a mincer on things like that but even so, some people just fly down those things in defiance of reasonable laws of physics.

I used to run gatorskins and recently changed to GP 4000S after one too many ride feeling like I was riding on glass and it’s been something of a revelation. Grip, actual grip in the corners! Can’t really tell if they’re faster but in a straight line but as I’m not it doesn’t really matter.