9 times out of 10 it is a headwind or cross wind.

The TR version is imminent. That has come from someone who works for them in the US and has been testing them for a while.

I wouldn’t worry about the 1.6 diesel. It is an absolutely brilliant engine.
We are giving back our Civic hatch tomorrow and it will be missed. Magic seats are ace too.

64 mpg in the Civic now down to 45 mpg in a Superb Estate.
120 vs 150 PS, but the Civic had better power delivery with more low down grunt.

Brechfa is perfect so long as you don’t mind a little extra driving.

Vredestein tyres by the sound of it. Certainly not a budget option.

Bankers draft is another safe method, but costs about £25.

Whatever you accept, make sure it is legit – ie. get the cash, draft checked by the bank.

Not sure where older Dacia Dusters are on price, but I love mine.
Great to drive on road, capable enough off-road.

Anyone got a link for those Kalloy UNO stems, can’t find much?

ebay.

Mt Zoom Carbon Bar – 125g (£95)
Kalloy UNO Stem – 100g (£20)
Hylix Carbon seatpost – 150g (£45)

Either head West, for the Gower which is nice and scenic.
For a harder ride head North. Through Felindre or Clydach and onto either Mynydd Betws or Mynydd Pysgodlyn/Garnswllt. Then through you have loads of choices, but the best ones lead onto the Black Mountain.

Joe’s have been making a “race” version for a while, so I guess it is a reaction to that.

How long are you planning on being away for? di2 lasts for months without charging for even a regular rider.

Shimano not worth it. Can’t comment on others.

It will make very little difference. On the steeper climbs it will wander a bit more perhaps and maybe a bit more bouncy without a lockout turned on.

The ones with the Bosch or Yanaha drive units seem to only really start on full dus at about £3k and go a lot higher.

Do they feel really heavy when pedalling without the assist or do you always have assistance on?
If pedalling with assists do they feel like the pedalling and progress are connected?

The Bosch and Yamaha units feel quite different to one another. The Bosch is a little more linear with its power delivery, the Yamaha is quite blunt. Yahama are catching up, but I’d say the Bosch is the better unit.

They do feel really heavy without the assistance. You really need it on at all times, even if its a low/eco setting.

I found the oddest thing is pedalling on singletrack around the 16mph limit. It is naff above it and quite odd.
They take some getting used to downhill, especially on tighter and twistier trails. You really need to use your bodyweight more.

Are you going to fit in those slightly loamy, bomb holey bit at the far end, thought they were really fun.

No, unfortunately that has all been felled. Some of the older singletrack survived, but the bombhole section is covered in felled trees and would take a lot of work to put back.

A new chute/drop is planned for the far end though.
There is felling in progress at present, so plans are changing constantly which is a little frustrating.

This drop was super hard for the Welsh round due to the soft sand and the dog leg after, been made bigger but looks straighter. I’ll still probably be riding the b line

The drop had worn away quite a bit over the year – so its been braced and hopefully won’t slip back any further.
The turn is still there, but the drop into it is a little further back and is around 2ft drop.

B-line will still be in place. More (new) technical sections like this will be included as well.

I think most would get that… but you also get races cancelled in Oz because of rain and that I struggle to grasp :)

Had a set of Torch hubs for a year or so. I found the freehub draggy, although it could be speeded up by removing 3 pawl and using oil instead of grease.

Bearing life was quite poor as above, but better with SKF bearings fitted.

I’d go DT 240 instead or American Classic.

Ah, I forgot about the DH specific block.

His preference for alloy wheels is probably because he doesn’t have access to a set of carbon wheels that he has ultimate faith in. Specialized don’t make a DH ready carbon wheelset.

If he had moved to a team that was sponsored by ENVE, then he would be singing the praises of carbon wheels…

If you do like dogs, wouldn’t it be wise to take them somewhere that they wont be subject to being run over or annoy trail users ?

If there were likely to be lots of people around, then I wouldn’t ride with a dog, but where I do ride it is always very quiet. Trail centres are perfect as they have a line to follow and mine at least will stick to the singletrack and not wander.

I wouldn’t go ride Bike Park Wales on a weekend or anything daft like that.

Dog might be well behaved but how will it react to a bike suddenly appearing at reasonable speed? Ride with your dog by all means just not at a trail centre.

For someone to appear at reasonable speed it would assume that you have to ride slowly when you have a dog with you.

XD hubs only fit XD compatible cassettes and they are only available in 10-42t.

So what bike setups are people planning foe this? NB. This is a blatant post to get other peoples ideas ;)

At the moment I have a beachracer, so kinda monstercross bike with Ultegra di2/hydros but undecided on tyres. Narrower fast MTB tyres or gravel tyres, or maybe even a beach racing tyre.

I don’t see an issue if it is quiet and the dog is well behaved.

What about 4×4 commercials? Or do you strictly want a car?

Dothie Valley is wet in the middle of a summer draught, winter is the best time IMO as you expect to get wet.
Not sure if the far section has been repaired or not, but I always prefer to drop in on the bridleway that passes through the farm. You miss the worst of the stop/start section, but get all the best bits towards the end.

Easy to combine with Cwm Rhaeadr as well and that is always fun.

Why not? Can’t he just get a 29t NW?

Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not….

Is the hill exactly one hour long?

One rider might be capable of 4.5 w/kg for 30min and 3.5 w/kg for the second 30 minutes, the other rider more consistent.
OK, very general example – but you get the point.

It isn’t an accurate method of comparison between riders, but good to compare yourself and gauge performance gains.

New Madone looks like a very nice bike.

Banoffee pie +1

For Battle on the Beach I picked 3.5″ as the minimum “fat bike” tyre size.

There is a 3.5″ tyre that is borderline fat/plus, but almost all plus tyres are 2.8 or 3″.
4″ is too big as lots of fat bike tyres are 3.8″.

I’ve had it several times – always when in the camper van and always the same thing.

I can hear someone stealing bikes from the back and I can’t get up, or do anything about it.
I hate it, freaks me out every time and wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

Decided to do this for the first time. Number 1028.
How many places are there?

Your also 5w/kg and ready for a GC challenge, well done but probably not typical of the average stw’er.

OP- 2.8w/kg is pretty good.

For perspective 3w/kg is an hour up ADH

No chance!
180w average for a 60kg rider is not going to get you up AdH in an hour!

A heavier rider at the same w/kg is going to be even slower.

Does anyone know if these will work on a vinyl wrapped vehicle?

How many failure related crashes did we have before the limit?

I think there were far more bike related failures in the classics than the last few years.
Punctures aside, mechanicals are very rare these days, even in Paris Roubaix.

It is about time they scrapped the weight limit, but I don’t think it will make much difference.
Maybe Pinarello will have to pull their finger out a bit and make a frame that weight less than a family car. Wheels are probably the area that might see a bigger change. Carbon sports will probably be rubbing their hands together.

Decide how long you want to take doing it, then plan the route accordingly.

If you want to do it in a day, then that is possible – but although it touches a few trail centres it isn’t the most interesting.

A 4-6 day route is perfect. It will be 60-80km per day, maybe a bit more on one day and you can go through all the best areas. You can ride Marin, Penmachno, CyB, ClimachX, Nant, Cwm Rhaeadr and Afan.

Cowlyd is good, but Crafnant is better travelling South. Probably avoid the Black Mountain, there are better routes available.

Doethie is a love it/hate it thing. I love it, many people who I have ridden there with hated it.
If you like/want/enjoy flowing trail centres then chances are you will not enjoy it.

I tend to switch between round and oval quite a bit, although not through choice.
I much prefer the oval chainrings. They seem smoother and on the MTB I think they help on technical climbs.