Well, as I said, nothing at all scary or difficult in isolation, just a constant series of little ups and downs, tight twists and turns, roots and bumps. Much like some of the less-used stuff at Swinley.

But very hard to keep it all together for an hour or so of chewing-the-stem XC race pace!

This is why all mountain bikes should have a map board.
Not only do they look cool, they save all this trouble.

+1 :)

Most of them were revived from a few years ago when it used to be a regular race venue. But a couple of new bits thrown in as always!

Yes, although I’ve not explored there for a long time so I couldn’t say how extensive the trail network is beyond those we used yesterday.

It also gets used for paintball and the occasional motorbike enduro, so watch out if either of those are going on!

Nearby Warren Heath also used to be a race venue, so maybe give that an explore too.

Cheers Si, always like to see the info.

What a great course yesterday – 2 minutes of fire road drag race at the start, then the rest of the lap was almost constant singletrack.

Pretty technical overall, even though nothing in isolation was difficult to ride. But no room anywhere for a lapse in concentration.

Didn’t really play to my strengths, but loved it anyway! Thanks to all who made it happen :)

Embers Merino do some lovely socks, particularly the quarter and shorty socks. Thick enough to cushion hard-soled SPD shoes, but not excessively big.

Quarter

Shorty

One thing to bear in mind – the KMC connectors are sturdy but a little wider than the chain itself. My girlfriend uses an tensioner and has to be careful that the connector doesn’t rub against the guide plates.

I use an EBB so don’t have the same problem.

Having said all that, KMC’s US website shows the same kind of link for the 610.

Url doesn’t seem to want to work here but google “Z610HX-CL” and take the link to KMC’s website.

By the way, are you involved in organising the Gorrick Trailtrax series? Looking forward to it :)

MTG – sorry, I must admit I don’t personally know about the 3/32″ chains as I use the Z510HX, which is the 1/8″ version. I assumed the connector would be a similar design but quite possibly it isn’t.

Charliethebikemonger sells them (both sizes), maybe he’ll see this and let us know

Not tried riveting either, so I’d better not comment on that.

Although hey, its the internet – I could just guess ;)

The joining links on my KMC chains look like this and work fine: http://www.kmcchain.eu/?en/products/connectors/uni_connectors/2/

Obviously get the correct size, 3/32″ or 1/8″

PC-1s are terrible for stretching. Give one of the KMC anti-stretch ones a try before you try anything else.

If the bearing is close to seizing then it will probably be scoring the steerer tube nicely.

So it depends how valuable the forks are.

The Black Mountain Three Day event is on in July, I really like the look of it, three ~80km days with a tent village at the end of each day.

I like the look of it too, but its not 3x80km. Its 13km, 72km, 68km according to the website.

Yes, fish tank hose does the job. And cheap as chips.

And if the freehub won’t come off easily, this is a handy tip.

Mine went totally silent towards the end of the mudbath that was December’s Brass Monkeys Round 2.

Opened it up after the race and one pawl spring had snapped, and there was plenty of mud in there. And 2 seized bearings. Easy enough to fix though – so yes, time for a service.

Cheers for that! :)

Which way up do the oil seals go in?

I’ve got the seal pack for my Rebas and the oil seal has a slot in one side and not in the other.

Can’t tell from the photos on the SRAM service pdf :(

The lube service in the video is easy enough, it must be because I’ve done it twice on my Durins.

I’ve also done the major service (i.e. packed it up and sent it off to the UK service centre) :-)

I’m in :)

XCRacer are very quick, as julianwilson said it was either next day or the day after when I ordered some KCNC bars.

We found that interesting magazine hidden in the undergrowth near the drop when recceing the course before Xmas. Seemed a shame not to make a trail feature out of it :D

Haha I did spot maybe one or two muddy sections – both about 3 miles long! At least it was handy for scrubbing off speed once my brakes were no longer functioning :-D

Plenty of fun bits though, even in the slop!

No it isn’t! About 180m of climbing per lap from what I tracked last night. I think Pants has elevation correction switched off.

Running nicely tonight – good work Pants :)

Matt, Vik – you have (long and rambling) mail.

Yes, as Vik says it was certainly an experience! He’d done a few big week-long stage races before, and some epic non-competitive riding, and I’d done nothing of the sort…

I think 2 of the stages took me 6-7 hours each, another couple were 8-9 hours, and the others were 10-12 hours. Even with the early starts, some days you’ll not be doing much other than waking up, packing away tent and kit, eating breakfast, riding, eating dinner, putting up tent and sleeping. Having said that, you’re quite a lot faster than I am!

It’s brutal, some of the days we did 4000m of ascending, but the riding and scenery are worth it. The IB website should have the roadbooks from previous years somewhere, which will show rough route profiles (although they don’t show all the little wrinkles, so height gain/loss is underestimated a bit).

You’re welcome to email me (in profile) for more info, I can copy in Vik as well.

Briefly, you’ll need to like climbing for an hour or two at a time, two or three times a day.

Find a technique for carrying the bike that you can get on with for 10 mins at a time, and practice that.

And eat all your pasta before you go away, as you’ll be eating it breakfast noon and night for a week, so you won’t want any for a while when you return :-)

Best of luck, I want to do it again some day, maybe I’ll be there in 2011 too!

Set2Rise
Torq 12:12
Brighton Big Dog
Are You Tough Enough

All well-organised, chilled out, and packed with singletrack.

I was on the phone to the UK service centre this morning – give Mike a call on 01530 414142. He’s very helpful at talking things through, in case its something you can do yourself.

If it needs to go in, turn-around time may be 3 weeks or so, as its just him, and only part-time on Magura stuff.

That was my girlfriend who jump-started your car – hope you found the M3 ok :)

Was certainly a proper fisting today, respect to anyone who managed to bully a singlespeed round there for the duration. Even with gears and suspension I went from fast and furious to slow and old in the space of 4 hours :(

Here’s to even colder races for rounds 2 and 3!

Is there a map of the proposed route? Even after playing with the Surrey CC interactive map, I’m not quite sure what’s being proposed.

Is it intended to link up with the existing track along Miltoncourt Lane?

Will you have to head down Lince Lane and rejoin the A25 to get into the centre of Westcott, or can you get further west without using the A25?

Regardless, good stuff.

I’m using these, seem to be just the job so far.

Course was riding beautifully last night, about 20m of mild slop and the rest was bone dry. Fingers crossed for Sunday :)

anyone seen a Military OS map?

Orienteering maps are well worth a look too.

Very little bog on this morning’s recce, much of the course is bone dry.

Hopefully will be crisp and crunchy on the day, but still a bit early for a reliable forecast…

Letter of authority? Never been asked for one of those, but then I wasn’t doing anything UCI-sanctioned.

Some European events require you to have a licence from your own national body. I’ve never done a race in the UK that’s needed a licence but I’ve twice ended up paying for one to race in France or Italy.

The first Brass Monkeys race is at PorridgePot this Sunday. There’s a link to a GPX on the website here – although I think its actually a plot of the Are You Tough Enough course from July.

Regardless, it includes plenty of the best trails to get you started.

I think its going to be pretty similar to the AYTE course, but maybe with one or two changes and the odd bottleneck climb removed.