Yes they are – see here for the legend for the 1:25k maps (in the Other Public Access section).

Similar for 1:50k.

Looks wrong to me – I’ve got a pair of mediums that look exactly like the website photo, not your photo. Doesn’t make sense that the large would be that different.

I wish I’d looked at the photos a bit more carefully myself before buying, was hoping for some padding under the ball of the thumb, but there isn’t any.

Good Morning Captain on Slint’s Spiderland.

National Shite Day on HMHB’s CSI Ambleside

Brilliant stuff Andrew, both the racing and the writing :-)

Really liking mine.

Not mastered the turn-by-turn navigation yet though – does that only work with routes you’ve defined in the app (as opposed to created elsewhere and uploaded via the app) ?

Charliethebikemonger is planning a Devon Gravel Dash for later in the year so that would probably be ideal if you enjoyed the Dorset one.

I don’t have an Elemnt, but I believe the Lezyne GPS units can also import nav details on the fly from a smartphone using their app.

(I don’t have a Lezyne either – but have been looking at both recently. The DC Rainmaker site is a mine of information.)

Where can I get info about the Devon event?

It was mentioned on FB maybe a week ago, either on the Dorset event page or maybe Charlie’s own FB page. Been a bit buried under all the Dorset posts since.

Not much confirmed detail as far as I know but that may have changed.

Did the 100, on a CX bike this year after using the MTB for the previous 2 years. Absolutely loved it once again, despite the weather being less kind than before.

CX was definitely the faster choice (although I’m also fitter this year) – apart from a high speed crash on the Shillingstone descent – for some reason I decided I’d adjust the worn brake pads at the bottom rather than the top.
I had about a minute to think about the error of my ways before I finally couldn’t hang on to the still-accelerating bike any longer. Luckily the anticipated crunch of bone against tree never came, and I got up with nothing more serious than a bleeding ear and a saddle pointing skywards.

Thanks again to all who organised and took part. Can’t wait for the announcement of dates for Devon, hope I can make it :)

I demoed a Pilgrim last autumn, loved it, drew up a spec and ordered one. But then found out there were no frames left in my size and it would be quite a long wait.

Bike shop suggested I try a Kinesis Pro 6 instead as the geometry was broadly similar – I was initially reluctant as I didn’t think I really wanted a CX bike.

Glad I did, as it turned out I absolutely loved riding CX, and with some nice road wheels it makes a great road bike too.

Lots of good advice above.

What’s the event? Sounds interesting.

Wow – will keep following that – thanks for sharing.

Lots of great stuff round there, Hankley and Thursley Commons are relatively gentle too, Punchbowl is a lot of fun but requires more effort. Moved away now but still go back a lot to ride :-)

Mad Jack’s audax from Hailsham tomorrow, then probably a S Downs CX ride on Sunday if my legs and/or stomach have recovered in time.

:-(

Is the Gorrick 100 definitely not happening?

Kurt Gödel.

Overturned the foundations of mathematics, then starved to death because he was too paranoid of being poisoned to eat anything.

ok, if you went at 100mph for the first 40 miles, how fast would you need to go for the second 40 miles to average 80

66.6666 mph.

Racing Ralph on the front was a bit optimistic.

“Which side are you coming past?”
“I’ve no idea”

Great fun though :)

2hr vet for me – didn’t take the summer tyres off for Rd1, and got away with it once I’d remembered how to ride singletrack. So they can stay on this time too.

I use AQR Coaching run predominantly by Kate Potter. Kate looks at more than just the fitness side, she will cover nutrition and wellbeing if that’s also what you’re looking for. It’s really flexible and what I particularly like is she listens to you and adapts your training accordingly for your life situation. Compared to some other UK coaching companies the value for money is exceptionally good. If you have any equipment (bike!) issues then Ian Potter can assist. I’m really grateful that Kate was able to work out from my descriptions of how I was feeling that I had a vitamin D deficiency; eventually confirmed by an initially non-believing GP as a severe case.

+1 to all of this. I used Kate in 2015 and successfully achieved my goals for the year. Had a year off last year but will be starting again with Kate in 2017.

Yeah, or maybe tweet them so everyone can see it, they’ll appreciate it after all the hassle they’ve had.

Yep that was an absolute blast!

Great job by the team getting the trails running that well, all the prep pays off :)

That Preoccupations gig at the Haunt was amazing indeed.

Also saw Dangerous Journalist there supporting Chameleons Vox, always loved Chameleons but they were totally blown away by their support.

PINS at Prince Albert was another high point, I thought they would be quite good, but not that good.

they are giving me one normal strength lens so I can see distance and one weak lens to see close up

I went for this back in July, after wearing varifocal specs for a few years. Had never used contacts before. Works surprisingly well for me, distance vision isn’t as good as with the specs but still good enough for riding and driving. And now I can see close up too, which is great for map-reading on the bike (I have been known to do some MTBO).

Not tried varifocal contacts, so can’t comment on those, but definitely worth giving these things a chance.

It’s on the show page.

Problem is I believe that the army can’t publicise when they’ll be using their land as they could end up being the target of a terrorist attack.

I very much doubt that’s the reason. If it was, the MOD and DIO wouldn’t publish a monthly newsletter detailing upcoming activity and access on Salisbury Plain, but they do here.

The problem in the Aldershot area is quite a lot more complex and I really feel for the Gorrick team who have put so much into events over many years and are increasingly coming up against booking issues :(

It would be nice to have a little more detail – it wouldn’t have been hard nor giving away state secrets to state something like “the MOD had informed us that the area was no longer available due to operational requirements….” or something similar…

I think you can take it as read that this is the case – there is no way they would cancel unless forced to.

Round 1 postponed :(

Now to be held on 18th Dec, which was the date for Rd 2.

Everyone who entered should have an email.

+1 for dovebiker’s suggestion. For extra mileage you can extend past Haslemere to Black Down without hitting clay or chalk. Nice views too.

For the Weldtite ones, I just use the knife in the kit to slice them in half lengthways.

First time I rode with a helmet light, the extra weight of the light meant the helmet was slipping down a bit. So I tightened it up, but being an idiot, tightened the chin strap instead of the adjustment mechanism.

Next time we stopped, I took the helmet off and then almost fainted as the restricted blood flow through my neck suddenly returned to normal.

So if you’re as dumb as me, maybe you did the same thing? Otherwise, as others have said it’s probably just getting used to it.

I managed to ride into the back of another rider on an audax yesterday, so they aren’t completely immune from muppetry (it was entirely my fault). Luckily the rider I hit was fine and not angry with me, first time I’ve ever crashed a road bike!

Excellent array of food at halfway and the end, and perfect weather :-)

I don’t usually follow it – but a rain delay with Yorks 1 run away from a crucial bonus point with 1 wkt remaining – that’s tension!

Not on the seafront, but Cafe Plenty is very bike-friendly, and next to Rayments Cycles in case you need a bike shop too.

Interesting stat: 80% of FB users who click on an external link give up before the destination website has rendered in their mobile browser. That’s an 80% dropout rate for every external link click for every publisher. So by clicking in the first place the user has indicated they want to read the content but the average delay of 8 seconds between click and the content loading is enough of a delay to make 80% of those users give up and click back to continue browsing their timeline for something else to read.

I’m not sure about this reasoning – In my experience, the 80% dropout rate is much more to do with not intending to open the link in the first place.

Probably most of the times I open a link I was actually trying to either open the comments, or just scroll past. So obviously I close it down before it renders. The joys of fat fingers and small touchscreens!

Well yes, I use that every day, but I wouldn’t leave a nice bike there for long. Anyone can get a key card.

there’s secure bike parking at the station if you want to go for a wander

Is there? I wouldn’t be that keen to leave a nice bike at the station to be honest.

It would be interesting to look at Josh Kato’s equivalent from last year and compare it to both his and Mike’s from this.

There’s a flag for JK’s ride last year on Trackleaders – it’s currently in Ovando, so several riders are ahead of it at the moment.