4300 miles across the USA in 23 days on a Tripster V2 and not a single ache, this bike is indeed lush. 6 months of use and over 9000 miles on and off road, beach racing and gravel racing it’s had a battering and taken it all.
For balance: I am not overly keen on the internal cable routing and the QR rear dropouts are best avoided go 16mm

Loving my V2 so far. Messing about with some old bits before chopping the forks down and final gear choice.
I’ve ridden many bikes, lots of Ti, but this just feels right. Weirdly very quiet, extremely comfortable, it’s almost has a “cocky” attitude.
Cross tyres on next, and has anyone seen the larger PDW guards on sale anywhere?

opps should have said 57cm size

Great thread, its like a tripster owners club 😉

V2 frame received, built up, and ridden. Thanks to upgrade and AJ cycles, and some super speedy service from Hunt wheels in Christmas week supplying 12mm wheel adaptor parts. No pictures yet as its a bit of a lash up while I sort out what’s going on it and positions.

The frame is lovely and just makes me want to stoke it constantly, really like the fact I can assemble it with no pressing or hammering required for bearing races. Mighty confusing though for a while that the fork has an integrated lower race and the bearing sits on it directly……..or I have seriously messed up!

Interesting reading they have increased the gauge on the V2 downtube, why is that? As that’s where mine and DrP’s cracked.

Guess its because it has several holes in it now? I will say though I was quite shocked by the frame weight, 1900g for a 67cm. But hopefully that will make it Jack proof, this one is going to be worked very hard.

Anyone know what he’s riding?

guessing singlespeed ti frame.

good going so far going on the tweets.

Might have to revist the Ridgeway, not riden there for 15 years at least 😉

Interesting I thought there would be less love for the V-twins.

I have used them since they came out and find them to have a really wooden feel, this on standard pads. The pads last so long they are still on there.
Just didnt get on with them and they now reside on the commute/touring bike.
I replaced them with (secondhand) BB7SL’s and they felt fantastic by comparison on the same rotor size.

I have two race mtbs with Hope Race brakes on which are the same calipers as the V-twin and have no problem with them, so I really wanted the V-twin to work.

prizes surely go to the third placed guy who cycled down there from Northampton, won a pair of rims which he now has strapped to either side of his front wheel ready for the return trip but had managed to rearrange his face after riding into a tree on the campsite after a few beers

what kind of idiot was that 😀

Friday night firepit and beers was cool, and the food, oh! just superb thanks Ladies.

Great event, fun route, the dice with the CX boys on my BurlyCross setup was ace fun. trying to gap them enough on the downhills before they powered past on the flat sections. Finishing in a pub was brilliant, such a great welcome for all the finishers, and good ale.
Nice to meet some of you guys there, nice one Charlie.

Me and rims got home OK,if a little wet. Now I’m destroyed.

I’m in on me BurleyCross Ragley, making a trip of it and riding down loaded up. Hoping for not to many thunderstorms over the next two days.
Good to hear there will be a good mix of bikes out 😀

Simple stuff like make use of any stop in civilistaion.
Eat well, fill your water bottles always,use the facilities, have a quick wash, grab usefull paper towels, sugar/milk/sauce sachets, unpack anything thats wet for a short drying session.

Get used to wearing wet kit, it will dry quicker on you in the evening, and 5 mins after that horrible feeling of putting it on in the morning you’ll be used to it.

Don’t be self concious about looking a tramp, pubs will always take your money 😉

Hook up with other riders at WRT, it’s the perfect place for advice and help. see you there.

Good to see one of those in the flesh so to speak.
So what is actually in the fork leg mounted box, apart from a cable split junction, and a switch?
Is that where the capacitor for the standlight lives.

As stated above it’s interesting their are no clear “assembled” pictures on the website.

I’m using Revo with a Kemo USB output unit tucked unobtrosively under the stem Teed into a Revo and the USB lead feeds into a Toptube mounted bag with a small 4000mAhr USB battery pack and room for food. Eventually I intend to combine the Kemo and the battery in a small waterproof box and have the lot tucked neatly under the stem.

In for the 200, aiming to go drop bar gravel racer stylee just for the hell of it, but fully expect some severe body abuse after 200 miles of Welsh fireroads. optomistic 24 hour target!

just spotted this.
“Old git” and Chicksands guys, the FNSS is still going strong but its been strange at the lack of local entries at the MK rounds, particularly with the good weather. I guessed it was just a lack of local publicity.

The two bowl races were great fun, and we think we are pretty low key, its just buddies who still sort it all out.

would love to return to chicksands if there was a chance of creating a course there.

On the timing front, we survived on bits of paper for years, but one easy way is to just set up a video camera at the lap point and then go through the video in real time afterwards to get a full result and timing in peace at home, then publish the result, simples.

For free timing software try this Free timing software[/url]

Fun watching, I’ve always found it hard to keep up with ian even with gears.
See Rob Wixey is having a good fill up at McDonald’s in Fort William. Technology is great.

Big Kudos to all riding. Brilliant fun watching, hope the weather is not as bad as last night forecast I saw. 3 out of top 4 on Singulars, Sam will be happy. If you do a search for #HT400 on twitter there’s some extra info.

Nothing lasts for ever
http://instagram.com/p/VZX99ONNG4/

Simon Noooo, But then it must be 10 years old now. My On-one Ti-CX is still going strong, does that mean its just got rarer 😉

Wouldnt buy anothet Ti bike, after two painfull experiences, It’s great material untill it gets welded!

just bonkers

Richie McCoy! The semi pro rally-driving-photographer-DJ-mountain biker. Amazing

Nice to hear he’s not forgotten, the FNSS race he did was a classic, he’s a cult hero round here 🙄

I first thought great when I saw these from Hope, mainly as they were screwed together. This would make them easier to remove without battering them.
Seems like there wont be much change there then.

I bought one of the K force light mtb dual cranks in 2010, very cheap from priceshaggers. Like you, would never pay their crazy full prices and had so many other riders offer comments about thread pedals falling out, and poor bearings.

The bottom bracket bearings are very poorly greased from new, I didnt find this out for 6 months and thought they were gone. stripped and regreased with marine grease and they are still going strong 3 years later with regular greasing.
Probably done about 8K on various bikes and cant really fault them. the only thing that has failed is that the sprung preload washer just rotted away, a sign of how much abuse these have had.

Replacement Control tech rings for the dual work well too.

So tuffty, do you work for the Duke of Buccleuch estate then if theres a tough mudder there?

Sadly I don’t have a cx bike so looks like 29er with some cx tyres might be best of what I’ve got

I’d go for some quick rolling 29 tyres instead, much more fun and won’t slow you down much. A few years ago I did the first half in a group of 5 at the very front. The 3 cyclo-x bikes went backwards big time on the lumpy downhills, then we just tucked in behind them on the road when they caught us back up.

Was fun untill they didnt stop for cakes and tea, where’s the fun in that, so we let them go.

Trying out the same setup as you V10
XX10 [/url] for pics. Nice crank and like the quick ring swap options.

With the weather it’s not had a lot of hard abuse, but there is plenty of room for the mud to escape around the BB now. I’ve been throwing myself down any flights of steps I’ve met on rides with no problems. I did give it a sort of hard test by spinning the drivetrain while forcing the chain around with a stick 🙂 it does take a huge amount of sideways flex to derail the chain, more than a natural position in use. Getting It runs really quietly which is not a surprise as it takes quite a force to pull the X9 mech forwards against the clutch/spring.

Time will tell, the Anthem rear end is not the stiffest so let’s see when we get some sideways flex involved on a lumpy downhill.

Gee, there should be some XX retro fit spiders appear sometime, if there the same design?

[/url]
Untitled[/url] by numplumz[/url], on Flickr

Coldest ride ever last February -15 when we started and a max of -8 and we stayed out for 8 hours, brilliant fun. I’d take that right now over the swamps we have.

This is not unusual its an age old problem on the Mayday/High lodge side of the forest its been happening since the days of Kens races, which always seemed to start down a fireroad.
have seen so many friends puncture just off the start line.

It seems to be more common in groups almost that the rider in front flicks up a flint and then you run over it and cut the tyre.

Years of racing there have taught me never to follow anyone closely down a fireroad and to try and pick a line away from anything white 😉
seems to help

robert-millar- the-bare-minimum
confirmed by Robert Millar
50% is just unnatural

legal boost
I always though it was interesting that the altitude simulation centre was in Manchester ;-)funny that.

So if they are all clean how come you hear comments about their blood hematocrit being just on the limit of the suspect 50%

I am right in thinking most of us normal Joes have a much lower level yet all these pro’s mysteriously have a high level. They can’t all sleep in tents every night surely.

Why not just draw blood from every entrant to the big races on the morning of the race, and publish the levels, you soon see the mystery changes in a rider, or is that how the blood passport is supposed to work.

How was the front mech clearance to the rear tyre when you had it on the frame, ta

Nice bloke and superbly skillfull rider.
Love the way he also dosent milk the age category thing. Still races pro mountainbike and senior in Cross even though he could be winning everything in the Vets classes.

Oh yes, wrung out all my kit in the sink when I got there. Watching the radar pic just swirling around us, looks like a repeat on the way home. Embrace the wet.

Rain radar

I think there are valid general points made here, but as usual its straight out with the knives.

note from hayes:
Another thing people don’t think about is, even though they’re skinny, a grippy road bike tire on hot pavement can create a tremendous amount of torque at the rotor and caliper. It’s much easier to lock up a mountain bike tire on a loose surface than it is to lock up a road tire in good conditions.

People are quick to call the guy a fool, not every rider will be riding in the relative flatlands we have here.

The point is surely roadies will want super light weight brakes and although we might have no problems in the Uk, in the Alps and other countries with huge descents they will boil them.

On some long alpine descents even the best rider will have to drag a brake, traffic, road conditions, you cant let gravity take over some time, and not every one has big Kahunnas

I’m nobodys fool and had one of the old early crappy Hope XC brakes fail on an Alpine descent, The front boiled after repeated hairpin late braking and lost all use. You dont get far either on just a rear brake, that went the other way and locked the rear solid, hell of a skid and a luckily just a long walk home.

Hugh’s doing the mountainbike commentary too, god help us.

Another Porterism, when he stated that That two of the best women cyclists in the world were “punching above their weight”

Some alternatives

Schmoo (Maurice Levenson)
Rory Hitchins
Martyn Salt

Vic Barnet – double world champ 😉

Interesting to see the choice of routes, some enjoying the sun while others complain of fog and cold in Germany. One of the routes follows the Australian North coast, boy that looks a tough choice, hot and rough roads up there isn’t it.

Great fun watching the trackers

Friends opposite us back onto fields. Pete is a very reliable bloke, they take in sick and injured wildlife from the RSPCA and other organisations. They know a lot about animals. He tells a story that one night he was alerted by a commotion in the area of his out buildings where the animals are kept.
An adjoining field has sheep in, he found a sheep freshly mutilated by what he recognised as another animal, and states he had never seen anything like it. Went back to his house to get a camera and a gun and when he got back the sheep had gone!
He reckons that was one powerfully fox if that’s what it was, have you ever tried to carry a sheep!

Oops
Copy and paste this
http://www.numplumz.com/Ride_reports/USA/usa_04.htm

Flagstaff is ace and quite high altitude for us brits, superb single track trails in woods. Sedona is like a mini Moab, slick rock and fun, you’ll love it.
Here we go Internet is better than my memory, some pics and old advice here.
Road trip from vegas

I’ve opened a dispute with Paypal and the sender will replace the order, but it seems crazy that I can’t even talk to someone in the UK to ask questions!
the modern way I guess

Micrrofiche readers, or has that been said. Peering at there scratched image to find engine parts is not missed

I had some of the bargain pads from XC racer on, they have felt fine for all rides before Kielder,and they were well bedded in, but in that fine sand dust they seemed to glaze over. I had to change from my usual 1 finger braking to a full hand on the lever and pulling hard. It was like using wood for pads!
Pulling the brakes apart today, this appears to be the case, half the pads still left even though I had the impression of no brakes.
Next year I might carry some abrasive paper with me. Lucky to get away with the two big crashes Though, so perhaps not a good idea.