Mike from 1st Gear Cycles is hoping to get his pics up tomorrow.

There was at least one other guy taking snaps early on, not seen them though.

Citroen Berlingo type thing with one of the seats folded down/removed?

This is what I do – medium size Whyte 29C fits in upright with both wheels on, albeit slightly angled rather than straight.

Stunning course and beautiful conditions, absolutely loved it but hit the wall just before the 4 hour mark and suffered like a dog for the last 2.

Glad we could rekindle our Brass Monkeys bromance for a few laps Dr P, before you left me for someone younger and faster (sob). ;-)

That’s why bike magic is off the air then.

Although CyclingNews isn’t.

i would have to get the train over from Farnborough too, where would i get off, Dorking?

Yep, use the Reading-Gatwick line, getting on at North Camp and off at Dorking Deepdene is probably your best bet as the fast trains stop at both of those. Farnborough North is the slow train only.

You could get off at Gomshall if you are aiming more at Pitch or Holmbury than Leith. But not many trains stop there, sometimes there is only one every 2 hours.

Yes, I’m pretty sure it is “long” format, all previous Gorrick events have been, so any laps started before 6 hours is up will count.

Best to check the rules yourself though just in case!

6 hour vets for me too. Will see just how much I am going to suffer after a month of slacking off!

Not sure when pre-entry closes (either today or tomorrow) but there is no entry on the day, so probably best to enter today to make sure.

bikebuoy if you are coming along for a laugh I’m sure you will enjoy it!
If you don’t have much experience it can be hilarious in a farcical kind of way, especially in a pair where you can’t decide which of you is in charge…

Having said that I now have plenty of experience and it still descends into farce more often than I would like :oops:

Competitive or for fun – either way, 3 hours will disappear before you know it.

And you always finish at a pub :)

There’s no ideal point to do a rider briefing without giving the same spiel out lots of times.

Perhaps some reminder signs up might help but some people won’t care no matter what you do.

One or both of these may happen. I don’t want to promise, as it won’t be me doing it.

Having done them quite seriously (winning a few series)with Mrs B for several years, we never felt it necessary to barge past horse riders or walkers so I’m afraid there’s only so much organisers can do.

This is true. I’ve done well in the Trailtraxes without being an idiot (at least in relation to other trail users!) and most of the competitors I’ve met are well-behaved too. It is always hard to legislate for the outliers who don’t listen.

I often get brain-fade towards the end of the event as the pressure of the time-limit approaches, this is the case regardless of the overall length of the event, so I’m not sure a longer event would make much difference. Regardless, it’s my own fault if I’m running out of time, no excuse for being inconsiderate.

Still think it’s a great event, and as expected I’ve heard nothing from them.

I’m not sure you will necessarily get a reply, but I’ve raised the issue and there will hopefully be a reminder about trail etiquette at next month’s event at Cliddesden. Do come along – you won’t have to listen to me droning on at you at the start :)

Cheapest, or lightest?

You might need to decide which one as you won’t get both.

I used to vote Lib Dems purely because they supported proportional representation for all UK elections, which if implemented would allow my vote to actually count.

But their idiotic decision to be fobbed off with a referendum on PR rather than legislation, means that fond hope has been trashed for the foreseeable future.

Labour – never after Iraq.

Tories and anything to the right of them – obviously not.

So looks like the Greens for me by default. And at the Euro elections my vote actually DOES count.

I meant you cannot pick and choose between political parties, if you allow one you should allow all. I think it may even be a legal requirement.

Of course they can choose whatever they want, why shouldn’t they? Although I doubt they do, as mentioned above the ads are probably served based on various algorithms from the ad provider.

There is a legal requirement for public service broadcasters to provide balanced coverage, not for anyone else though, that’s plainly absurd or else all the newspapers would be in breach every day.

What dunmail said.

I suddenly got a rash of punctures in a relatively new tyre and despite checking it carefully I found nothing.

After yet another flat on the next ride I checked it even more carefully and found a tiny flint buried in a small cut, not detectable by checking the inside of the tyre.

Removed and tyre has been good for months since.

Not quite the same requirements as yours, but try this thread for some ideas.

Why bother to do the event if you aren’t going to ride the course?

If you’re interested in competing, compete fairly, otherwise just go for a ride.

Personally I loved it when it was Set2Rise, 6pm start left plenty of time to travel down and get set up, a few hours riding in the fading daylight, big chunk of night-riding, then the dawn laps and the finishing line!

But I can see how that would put off people who don’t often night-ride, or who don’t have enough battery-power for the whole thing, so I understand why it changed.

As one of the organisers of this event from its birth, I’ve never really understood why the numbers don’t increase more each year?

Possibly due to it being bank holiday weekend, so many people have family commitments?

I know that Gorrick’s Torq 12:12 is on a B/H weekend too, and is very popular, but in that case it kicks off at noon on Sunday. So people have got the whole of Saturday to travel, get tents pitched and pits set up, pre-ride the course etc etc, and then have a relatively relaxed morning before the off?

Also, maybe a bit early in the season for a lot of soloists? In both 2012 and 2013 I felt I hadn’t really got enough big rides in through the endless grim winter to do a 12hr in May, whereas later in the year summer I had.

Don’t want to knock the event in any way though, done it 5 times and loved each one (in different ways!)

Was hoping to go as I love the event, but I can’t get the logistics sorted in time for a Saturday midday start and a 12hr solo.

There’s always the 6hr, but then you miss out the night-riding, which is the best part. Last couple of years I’ve done the 6hr 6pm start, but they’ve scrapped that this year as only 5 of us raced it last time – shame.

Fantastic course, wish I was going!

Haha thanks for the compliment bikebuoy (although I can only take credit for part of one event!). Hope the incident didn’t spoil your ride too much.

But you’re right, and as a regular participant I wouldn’t like to see the events get a bad name from a few people who don’t get it.

There isn’t really a pre-event briefing, more a chance for each rider to ask questions of the course-setter just before they start. Usually this is map or rules related, but it won’t hurt for us to remind folks about trail etiquette. I’ve missed my chance this series as the only event I am setting has already gone, but I’ll raise it with the others.

There are mentions of respecting other users and giving way on the website here, but it sounds like a more prominent reminder wouldn’t go amiss!

I wasn’t at the Trailtrax yesterday although I often do them, and was the course-setter for the one back in April (although I don’t claim to speak for Gorrick).

As c_g says, it’s bike orienteering, which means there is no set route, just 20 checkpoints and a start/finish location, and the riders decide their own route.

Add that to the staggered start times, and you’ve got around 100 riders spread over approx 100 square kms, so not really too much like a sportive with everyone following a fixed route (although some clumps of riders will inevitably form at times before dispersing again).

Most riders know how to behave around horses but some don’t, usually ignorance rather than aggression (bike orienteering doesn’t appeal to too many of the gung-ho crowd). Sounds like you had the misfortune to meet the ignorants…

Anyway, if you’ve contacted Gorrick then I’m sure they will take notice.

I’ll mention it to the other course-setters to suggest that participants be reminded at the start of the next event, possibly emphasising the advice about talking to horses when approaching from behind as well as slowing down and giving space.

I want to stay in Europe. I like being a European. And I like I can work in France or Spain if I want.

UKIP can **** right off.

This.

Not at the upcoming European elections, which are broadly proportional representation. Voting UKIP in these gets you UKIP, not Labour.

At the UK general election, which is first past the post, splitting the right wing vote will help the Tories main challengers in individual seats – unless the UKIP vote is so high they get elected themselves.

Just me disappointed to open the thread and find it wasn’t about this?

MBSA

Basically Gorrick’s platform for online entries.

You could always speak to Gorrick, who set up their own registration system (MBSA).

Don’t know if they would want to host your sign on too but it wouldn’t hurt to ask, or they might give you some pointers.

Meh – working.

I’ll ask the cats how it was when I get home.

Stay Away From the Buttercups.

An account of Richard Sterry’s epic South Downs Way Triple ride from 2 years ago. There was a big thread on STW about the ride at the time, some of the posts make it into the book :)

Wow! Nowhere near Bristol unfortunately as would love to see this :(

Oooh – like the sound of this, if I can sort the logistics!

Was bone dry for the Gorrick Spring Series race a couple of weeks ago. Plenty of rain since, but it drains well so probably will be fine unless it batters down on race day.

Possibly.

Been feeling a bit empty recently after a lot of early season racing so was planning to take a break, but I can rarely resist a race on my doorstep…

Works fine on my Nexus 7 2013.

Massive queue at the empty hire bike rack outside Waterloo station, waiting for bikes to return. Must have been quicker to walk for many of them, or at least walk to another rack that still had bikes.

I watch Eurosport via the ES Player app on a tablet (Nexus 7 2013) – picture quality is excellent in my opinion. Also, if you sign up for a year then it is £2.99 a month, well worth it for the season even though there’s not much I want to watch over the winter.

As for hooking it up to a TV, that depends on what device you are using and what TV, so you’d need to investigate it yourself. As far as I know the app doesn’t currently work with something like Chromecast, don’t know if there are any plans for this. The feed is in HD so I would expect it to scale up fine, but I haven’t actually tried so wouldn’t want to promise anything.

Good stuff bikebuoy – has there been much surfacing work done on the off-road parts of the Shipwright’s Way, or is it the pot luck variety of surfaces you would expect from bridleways and byways?

At some point I’m hoping to try a circular route of Shipwright’s Way, SDW, Downs Link and NDW, not everyone’s cup of tea but will keep me busy :)

Enjoy!

Might be worth taking some spare brake pads if you have some, the sandy sections (broadly anything south of the A25) can eat pads in no time if the rain is biblical.

Sounds like the North Downs to me, so you might get more helpful replies if you change the thread title.

Not ridden there for a few weeks so can’t answer that myself. In general Ranmore is clay so will be sketchy in the wet, sandy ground further south holds up better but gets a lot of traffic.

Hopefully will be too busy in August, but if not then will be up for this :)

Do you remember the foot-high fungi growing underneath each urinal in the toilets at the club entrance of the Tumbledown Pete?

Had some great times in that place (not the gents) but it was neglected for decades and the beer was dire.

As for Farnborough town centre, I only go there if I absolutely have to, but the local riding is great and there are plenty of transport links to other good riding too.