I thought you were not supposed to suck anything out?

I’ve had encounters while visiting Australia – which is funny as I know people who live there and have never seen one.

Scariest was at Mt Stromlo at the end of a 24hr race, the guy riding just ahead of me rode over a massive 2m+ brown snake (he didn’t see it?!) which pissed the snake off somewhat and he went to strike just as I was passing by with no time to stop. Poo’d myself.

Also rode over a red belly black, but only a tiddler and startled another big brown at about 3-4m distance – thankfully while I was going uphill.

I hate snakes.

Honda Civic 1.6 i-dtec

Not a sports car… but punchy enough for overtaking. Only real negative is lack of steering feel.
120bhp, plenty of torque.

BUT… 65MPG minimum. 70+ if you drive like a granny.
super clever seats, so bikes are easy.

Sporty cars are over-rated ;)

Steve Peat or Mike Hopkins.

Pretty non-tech stuff with Steve, but even then his class was easy to see.
Mike is an amazing rider. Big jumps, drops etc riding blind really good flow and a sound bloke.

In Australia they split road/track and MTB governing bodies apart.
Not sure that it really paid off – but it might be better than the current situation of paying subs to BC as a mountain biker and seeing no return.

One thing I can praise BC on – the L2 MTB specific coaching course is very good.

As an ex-postie… don’t buy a RM van.

Maintenance isn’t always on schedule. Vans are hammered, especially rural delivery vehicles. My van was used 10 miles off-road 6 days a week without any mechanical sympathy.

Transit Connects are great vehicles and can certainly take a hammering – but don’t buy an ex-RM van.

Try Anthony Pease Photography – link to FB & image set.

I switched to Rotor this year and really like them.
It is only when you switch back that you really notice the difference. Round rings just feel horrible now! As someone said above, rotor rings just make the pedals stroke more rounded.

For me the easiest difference to notice on the MTB was technical climbing. At times when you need that extra pop to get up a ledge/rock, etc you get in the power zone and it really helps.

The QX1 and QCX1 chainrings are very good with great chain retention.

Cambrian Way through the EV is all solid tracks isn’t it?
If thats the only section you are planning, then it will be fine.

Newcomer to 24hr solo racing though I think? I think that is either her second or third race, 2 of which have been WEMBO champs.

Quite a few successful 12hr races under her belt though and has raced World Cup XC (including at Fort Bill!)

Airace version is very good. Better than the Mobi and older dirtworker.
Nomad washers get good reviews as well.

If you want a specific model, then leasing can be expensive. In this case, look around and see if there is a deal available somewhere. Also worth noting that some deals are business only.

If you are flexible with make/model, then you can get really good deals.
We had a new shape Civic idtec on 3+23, £180 per month, 10k milage p/a.

Watch out for leases with 9+ initial payments or big admin fees, or low mileage allowance.

For us it was a no brainer and worked out about £100 p/m cheaper than a PCP deal on the same car when the deposit was a similar amount to the initial payment.

Lezyne Digital Shock Drive
Must be the ultimate shock pump out there!

480m climbing per 12km lap I believe.

Shimano XTR 9000 uses the same freehub, so you wouldn’t need to switch to an XD-driver.
You can get almost any crank to work with BB92. You just need to get the correct BB.

Pretty steep if I remember? Only ever come down on the MTB though and never thought about using a road bike on it.

You might have to push a few sections, but overall should be OK for the most part.

Cross Mountain has technical sections and its almost all off-road – but it can be ridden on a CX bike if you want.
People have done the Brecon Beast on a CX bike, so don’t underestimate what they can do – or think the event won’t be challenging because of it.

http://crossmountain.co.uk/

Other events I would recommend:

Dyfi Winter Warm up – Jan
Dyfi Enduro – May (sells out almost instantly!)
Scott MTB Marathon Series – April to Sept.
Wentwood 50 – March (sells out very quickly)
Salisbury Plain Challenge – Usually December.

Won’t work with Rock Shox forks, including Pike.

Riding (and racing) on the beach rules.

I could probably do with another one, if you do sell it.

Tune Speedneedle. 95g.
Comfy for me.

:roll:
So much BS on one thread.

It’s getting close to the bike weight threads.

Would having a £6000+ 1.5-2kg lighter roady give me 5mins over, say 50miles?

Maybe as a placebo effect.

I’d be surprised if that conti tyre clears the crown – but a Fox 26″ will work with some 650b tyres.

To give an idea of what speeds these races can be, while certainly not the fastest circuit, a race I did today was:
100km, av speed 37kph. 1300m elevation, undulating all the time. Open to 2/3/4.

I’ve been in crits and road races where the av speed is above 40kph.

Until you jump in and try one, you won’t really know if you can cope with the speed because its only races that can replicate it.

Edit: Nobody else cares….so long as you hold your line, and don’t ride erraticly or like a nob

Plus… if you get dropped and get lapped, don’t try and get back in the race. If you are dropped, you are dropped. There are exceptions, sometimes you can take a lap out and still feature – but thats mostly aimed towards people who puncture/crash, etc.

Not a race, but there is no real marathon racing in the UK. It’s still a good, fun day out and plenty of faster riders there to ride with.

Midlands XC Series[/url]
MTB Marathon Series[/url]

Couple for starters.

road racing isn’t all about fitness. Obviously fitness is important, but its different to XC MTB.

They don’t.
I have cat 3 on the road. I do very little road racing though, 1-2 a year max.

I wouldn’t say elite MTBers are ringers though, its a different type of racing, especially if you are smaller.
I guess it comes down to experience. I don’t see myself as a cat 2 roadie. Even if I raced all season I’d struggle to get enough points to go from 3 to 2.

Do some local crits (ideally 4th cat only). start at the front as most circuits are super tight and moving up is hard.

If you ever want to be good at road/crit racing then moving through a bunch is a vital skill, so stick yourself at the back instead and use it as practice :)

Join BC, get a racing licence, enter 4th cat only crit races.

It simply blew me away and I want one (with a dropper). One bike to rule them all? This would be my choice.

If you run a 1x drivetrain, then you can run a stealth post with routing through a gear cable port.
Really incredible bike, uphill and down.

Switched to gloveless this summer and it feels ace!

Isla Short maybe, Kenta’s jacked in XC racing – as you say, perhaps going to Enduro. Grant Ferguson and Annie Last are good, but not quite there, much like Liam Killeen. Lee Craigie’s among the older riders in the field.

They’re all good, but (Isla perhaps aside) they’re not setting the world stage on fire.

Lee Cragie has retired I believe. Out on a high after the Commonwealth games.
Grant is most definitely there. Several podiums at World Cups in U23. This weekend is a very bike weekend for him. I know for a fact that he is being coerced to ride on the road.

The top brits (Kenda, Grant & Annie) all went to race for a Dutch team as there wasn’t a team with a big enough budget to support professional riders.

The sport in the UK has no money because there is no TV coverage.
Other countries it is very different.

DH isn’t an Olympic sport, so it doesn’t really matter ;)

Grab a bike, spin the back wheel up and let it go.

If it moves by itself, then you are a cheat, obviously.

If you had entered during the first few years, or other events such as Kona Mash-up where timing was best described as a cock-up then you wouldn’t say that.

Chip timing failed repeatedly. The accuracy is 1 second, so results to 10th or 100th or even 1000th of a second are not possible. Plus there are issues with transceivers etc needed to communicate with each other and the speeds of riders passing the equipment.

Reliable results are one of two ways, light beam or dibbers. Both have pluses and minuses.
RFID and J-chip systems simply can’t cope with the demands of most GE events.

sort of…. I organise running events, the chip timing we use costs about £500-£600 for 300-500 runners depending…

That type of chip timing has been proven to be inaccurate for high level enduro events.
It suits mass participation and multi-lap events, but not races where winning margins are sometimes within seconds.

Accurate light beam timing as seen at DH and top level enduro events is several thousand.

Until you organise an event yourself, you never really understand how time and money takes. (not aimed at anyone, general comment).

The biggest cost for a gravity enduro event, especially ones like UKGE is the timing.
It costs a small fortune to have accurate and reliable timing at events.

Then you have first aid, insurance, land costs, etc, etc.
UKGE will probably be VAT registered too, so thats 20% of the entry fee before any costs are accounted for.