I’ve seen a Cervelo locked up near here with a pretty feeble looking lock several times. I think it’s possibly ‘only’ one of the Aluminium ones but even so.

Someone clearly forgot to tell David Millar and his buddies from Team Sky about The Rules (Warning: image contains scenes of gratuitous baggage attached to very fast professional racing bicycles, pretentious roadies of a sensitive nature are advised not to click).

Ah well, what can you expect of people who go to foreign parts with nice weather to train rather than go out in the rain and tell themselves they’re just like Jens Voigt/Sean Kelly/Eddy Merckx[0] :)

And for the record, CO2, tube and multi-tool in seatpack, phone, money, food, extra layers in pockets.

[0] Delete as appropriate to age

Looking at the map and comparing it to last year’s GPS map they look pretty much the same.

I quite enjoyed the course so suits me.

The Rules

-1000

Am I the only one that finds constant referral to the rules irksome? They always strike me as a large dose of snobbery, elitism and snark that are, I hope, lightly camouflaged with irony. Actively trying to engender a culture of excluding people for not adhering to a set of arbitrary preferences really is just the height of gitishness.

Really, as long as someone is enjoying riding the bike then it’s fine.

( and yes, I can see there’s a chunk of knowledge required to ride safely in a group on the road but most of this is irrelevant to that and regardless, this is not the way to disseminate it )

I always tend to think the GT red is a bit shorter and easier than Inners but possibly once you factor in the drive to/from GT then it’s much the same.

NB: if you do not like all your climbing to be in one big lump at the start then GT red is the one as the climbing at Inners is _all_ at the start.

Inners is also, for me, the more natural feeling of the two.

salsa: Used to love the Boltby Bash. Somewhere I may even still have a video of it. Nothing to play it on though.

I did it solo twice. Once in lovely weather and once in not so lovely weather.

As Northwind said unless you’re fast expect to queue on the first lap. Even if you wait you will have to queue so you might as well get stuck in the middle queuing as at the back :)

On the basis of other events where I’ve been in a team I can say take all your cycling clothes. _All_ of them. Changing into something warm and dry, or clean and unsweaty is a godsend.

Definitely clipless as there’s a chunk of fire roads on the course and hence also super chunk tyres are going to be a bit draggy. However, if racey tyres make you nervous on things moderately technical then perhaps not as ISTR bits of the course were.

If you’ve not done this sort of thing before then make sure you keep eating and drinking. And bring things you’ll feel like eating after 9 hours.

If you can persuade a third mate along to have someone to chat to, fetch you food, bully you into going back out again then that’ll help a lot.

And take midge repellant. Not that it’ll make any difference but at least you won’t curse yourself for not taking it.

It’s not really all that more expensive. I seem to recall paying 250 quid for a set of Rock Shox Quadras way back in the early 90’s which a random internet inflation calculator tells me is 400 quid in today’s money. These days you can get a set of forks for 200 quid ( http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=70299 ) that I imagine[0] work way better, in as much as they’ll work in winter for a start :)

Same goes for my first decent bike: 500 quid for a rockhopper in 1990 which is about a grand in today’s money. You can get a nice bike for that that’s pretty much the equivalent sort of thing.

More recently, 40 quid for an X7 rear mech in 2005 from chainreaction, still 40 quid now.

So yes, in absolute terms it’s more expensive but not in real terms.

[0] I say imagine only as I’ve never tried the marzocchis in question but as I still have the Quadras the Marzocchis would need to be terrible to be worse.

To add actual light to the debate I had the same bike metalheart had for a couple of days and I really don’t care if it was made of pig iron and tin; it’s good and fun. Goes up well, especially on steep techy stuff where it has more traction than I have fitness, and goes down where you point it. It’s certainly enough fun that I’ve put down a deposit for one.

If you just want to try it out then these people will rent them:

http://www.cyclepowermeters.com/index.asp

I’ve not used them so can’t say anything about them but possibly a good way to try it out

I’m slightly with Brant on this in as much as, yes, it might not be to some people’s tastes but there’s no real need to be rude about it. Particularly not given that it’s likely that the chap responsible will a) read it and b) as seen above respond helpfully and with a deal more grace.

I just get bothered by people who are so ready to casually denigrate other’s hard work in the strongest possible terms and then if called on it throw up the weak defence of “It’s only an opinion”. It’s not the opinion I have issue with, it’s the manner of expression; there’s a world of difference between “I do not like that” and “Single ugliest x ever”.

it’s the only bike that i own that i’d replace if it broke, everything else would get changed.

Totally.

I think the best way to describe it is that it’s a cheer you up bike. Every time I ride it there’s at least one moment in the ride where I think ‘Blimey, this is good’.

Newcastleton? The trails there were the bit me and a mate doing the Keilder 100 the other year enjoyed the most and if they’re fun half way through that…

If it’s just your legs that feel done in and you have a shower at work try 30 seconds of cold water on them. It sounds mental but it does seem to work.

Another vote here for Land Cruisers. They’re not too bad on the road and pretty reasonable off and they seem to be pretty puncture resistant as well. And cheap as well.

One tip if you are doing the pannier thing: get two and balance them out weight wise. It’s surprising how much you notice having only one on, and if you’re like me then that slight feeling of things being unbalanced is annoying.

From what I recall of the AMP forks I had years ago the only problem with them was they squeaked a fair bit.

Oh, and I broke them after a rather heavy landing :(

They were light, seemed to work pretty well and looked quite nice.

They’re also the only bit of kit I’ve ever owned that people have shouted covetous thoughts about when they’ve seen them. That may not be a benefit.

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generic sign[/url] by mr_stru[/url], on Flickr

I’ve got a Croix de Fer and it’s a nice bike but it is very much on the heavy side. And compared to the 6 year old Trek 1000 it’s noticeably less nippy. It’s solid, pretty comfy and been fine for everything from proper cross races to 80 mile runs on the road. It doesn’t excel at any of them but it does them well enough. If you’re looking for something that will do a passable impression of a proper road bike then I’m not sure it’s for you.

It was a great commuting bike for me ’cause it meant I could ride it all year round, could take it off road and it was still reasonably quick.

It’s worth noting that the way the discs are mounted means you might have issues fitting a normal pannier rack.

I did a mini skills course he gave at one of the Malvern Classics and he seemed very nice, patient and encouraging so he gets my vote.

I look forward to the thread about the Muddy Fox Courier that should be along soon :)

Save up and buy the soul, or as suggested above get one second hand. I bought one, er, blimey, must be four years ago now and it’d had a few owners before that and it’s fantastic. It’s a replace it without even looking at anything else sort of bike.

Even if everything goes fine at the junctions and the odd crossing point the flight of steps at one end of the tay road bridge conspire against me. I guess I could try and trackstand in the lift.

I've now got mine up on garmin connect and it makes it about 12500 ish ft for the whole thing with the height correction, more without it. Either way it's rather a lot.

All I need to know now is the itchyness half life for midge bites…

Also looks like the one you get from edinburgh bicycle. The one I got from there seems fine although only been used for shopping.

Anyone got an idea how how much climbing there was, other than a lot?

13 1/2 hours for me. I think the worst bit was the slog to make the last cut off. And then not being sure if making it was actually a good thing. Although the stony bit to the border wasn't exactly happy making either.

Still, pleased I managed it this year. Never again though.

I've got the previous years model and it's been great. Mine's mostly for commuting but it's done the odd cross race – clearances area bit tight in the mud for this really – and a few 4 or 5 hour rides on the road all without complaint.

If you're going to do a lot of riding on the road then something lighter is probably the thing as it's not that much lighter than my Soul, if at all.

Only the rack fitting faff counts against it really. Oh, and the stock tyres. They were bloody awful – slow on the road and confidence draining off it.

Ah, brings back happy memories of Sleepless and Mayhem.

"If you're that bloody l33t, shouldn't you be on the red rather than tearing up the easy routes and looking at us like we're dog eggs?"

Not to excuse the skidding or hammering past people which is just bad riding but I'm an 'experienced' rider and the 2nd half of the blue is my favourite bit at glentress. It's a lovely bit of riding.

Anyone know if you need to register or can you just rock up?

I'm another pairs who's team mate had to stop with knee issues – he reckoned it was the constant hammering from the bumps. I just carried on as if he was still going as the notion of doing it solo from 2am onwards wasn't in me. Quite pleased with our 17 laps given that.

Gee – know what you mean about it seeming a bit quieter on the course than usual. Didn't mind as it made it even more relaxed which is a nice thing.

Great weekend though.

Oh, and I really didn't mind the twisty bits. It was only 50 yards in a 7ish mile course. There was plenty of nice flowy bits to make up for it.

I'd agree with the 12 start.

I like the finishing after the 24 hours. I think it encourages people to try and get one last lap in. Possibly following the No Fuss approach of you have an hour after that to get in otherwise it doesn't count to minimise the hanging about might be a decent half way house.

I can certainly see the argument for changing the rules for the mixed teams, but I know when we had a mixed team at mayhem our female teammate wasn't too sure about whether she wanted to do it and the fact that she only had to do two laps was definitely a plus point. It'd be a shame to loose that. I can see it's a problem further up the rankings.

Mostly I think Pat gets it pretty right though.

And I was just wondering what that said yesterday. Hurrah for the interwebs!

This is kinda neat to watch during a stage:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/mytrackstour/

Tracks speed, position, power and so on of the HTC Columbia lot.

I'm another happy Croix de Fer owner. Mud clearance isn't great for a cross bike and the disks make rack mounting a bit of a pain but other than that I love it. Absolutely flies along off road and is surprisingly capable.

The main reason I wanted disks was to avoid wearing out rims in the grit and crap of winter.

I'm doing it solo. Just hoping it's not as wet and muddy as Kirroughtree. That would be tough.

Mayhem was dry so we're doomed for SITS.

I think the advice about riding with someone is good. I tried it on my own last year and bailed half way round, as much due to having got myself in a funk as being knackered. I'm sure there were people a chunk behind me who finished and I think that if I'd been riding with someone then I'd have been much less likely to bail.

So, this year I'm doing it with a mate.

And researching the correct offerings and the appropriate deity required to ensure good weather ;)

I can't help but think that the increase in traffic on the roads isn't helping matters. I'm pretty sure the roads are a chunk busier than I recall them being when I was a kid and that's always going to increase the hassle of running a race on open roads.

Admittedly that's a slightly trickier problem to solve than grumpy clubs telling people sportives are for pansies ;)

I've been using the Pedros Ice Wax stuff and it seems ok. You do get a lot of black sticky clagg building up, especially on the jockey wheels – I tend to wipe off the jokey wheels as well as the chain after application. The chain does get a bit noisy after a few rides, although I think it's probably better than squirt in this respect.

Doesn't seem to attract much crap though, just not as wonder clean as the blurb would have you believe.

Does come in decent sized bottles which seem to last a fair while which is a bonus.

Used squirt on the commuting bike over the winter and the chain seemed to wear out at a fearful rate but it was a grim old winter so hard to say which was the cause.