Pretty, funny, insanely clever (more so than me, which can be a bit annoying sometimes), short.
And she finds me talking about cycling interesting (apparently)! But we’ve only been going out for a couple of months so there’s plenty of time for her to grow to resent it.

Had to replace the pads on the rear brake (Elixir 5) of the winter bike, then the pistons wouldn’t retract to the point that the disc just wouldn’t go in with the new pads.
So undid the bleed port and pushed the pistons out until a little bit of ‘orrible DOT 4 fluid came out (straight onto my shirt no less), which completely fixed the problem – brakes worked well with no rubbing.

Well they still worked until the first corner of the second lap of the race today, when the back brake completely deserted me, not great. Luckily it was only Thetford, so not too much braking needed.

Just a thought while we’re on the topic:

If money was no object (i.e. you’d get both free), XX1 or XTR Di2?

Don’t ignore things like this, go to the doctor and get them checked out.
My dad rode a bit, but a lot more with me on holidays, and had always assumed that being out of breath was just part of him being unfit (he was a bit overweight).
This got steadily worse, but he was still riding, and just put it down to getting older. But recently he was diagnosed with lung cancer, which has most likely been developing for the best part of 3 years.

Don’t ignore the signs, go to a doctor and get it checked out!

Lad who races in the western league Matt Fratesi is racing the junior race

Ah excellent! I’m good friends with Matt, we raced each other all through 2013, and will be next year when he moves up to junior in XC.
Give him some good cheering for me.

Simon – Member
Lad at work is racing in juniors and I wouldn’t mind watching.

Can I ask who it is? I know a fair few of the British juniors that will be racing, and it’d be nice to see how they get on.

I seem to remember a live stream of the junior races from the CX world champs last year? Hopefully something similar this time.

Canyon Grand Canyon CF SLX, nothing’s original on it any more except the forks, all the rest has been upgraded/ broken and replaced!

Singular Swift set up rigid (but geared)

On One Whippet set up suspended and SS

Merlin Maven road bike, with a Powertap hub that’s worth more than the bike it’s on.

Saracen Amplitude jump bike

Raleigh Mountain Lite (vintage CX frame) built up as a commuting fixe, with mad Cinelli LA84s

Dawes Jaguar vintage road bike set up as a SS winter road bike

7 in total, unless I’ve forgotten about one.

I put the wheel down on the floor with the cassette side facing down, with the end of the axle adapter thing on the floor, so the freehub doesn’t pop off. I then put a (very) blunt screwdriver with some cloth wrapped around it through the spokes and onto the back of the cassette. Give it a few sharp knocks with a hammer and it should come off.

Try to get hold of a cassette cogs mounted on an aluminium spider, which will stop this problem in the future.

It was pissing it down all day in Suffolk. I had a 1 hour tempo power test to do, which would have been reet grim in the rain, so I stayed indoors on the turbo. Which was also reet grim.

Could use one of these little things http://www.xcracer.com/shop/viewproduct.php?productid=351

Or alternatively (if you had a larger seatpost this would be perfect), one of these with a small shim. The clamps have no lip, so they can be used for exactly the purpose you described. And they weigh bugger all so you don’t have to worry about weight gain.
http://www.xcracer.com/shop/viewproduct.php?productid=259

Had a guy in the bike shop the other day complaining that his new-ish bottom bracket had seized. Before we took it apart it was impossible to see what had caused the problem, as he’d only ridden the bike a few times and in good weather.
There was a funny shiny finish on the lower half of the down tube and around the bottom bracket, but I thought nothing of it.
So we stripped the thing down, and the whole BB was covered in this clear, crystalline deposit of something, which had clearly got into the bearing and caused it to sieze. I couldn’t work out what the **** it was though, until I remembered the shiny stuff on his down-tube, and figured it out. When asked, the bloke said his bottle was a bit leaky and some of his SIS had been running out!

It didn’t seem to damage the paint though, but it was a bit of a bastard to get off. Just don’t get it in bearings!!

I’m just going to use the hubs that are on there at the moment I think. They’re pretty standard fare Maillard, but I think with a couple of spacers a DX freewheel should fit.
Then I’ve always got the option of going 1/2×6 if needed.

Hmmm, I wasn’t really after a flip flop hub, purely for bike-tart reasons! I don’t want unnecessary unused threads cluttering it up!

But it does seem like the most likely option at the moment.

I’ve read a couple of threads that reckon putting a freewheel on a track hub would work, but not engage all the threads. So the consensus was that it’d be fine for smooth/light riders, but not for mashers for fear of stripping the thread.
I do have a bit of a tendency to mash, and I’m not too keen on stripping threads!

I’ve ended up doing loads of racing this year, so haven’t actually done much in the way of normal rides.

The stand out one for me was the national series at Cannock. Loved the course, and that must have helped – my first national podium in the juniors.

I wouldn’t say D2D was the most fun race I’ve ever done, but it was a really good experience, and another good result.

Other than racing, the week spent in Shropshire after the national champs was pretty special, despite getting quite hopelessly lost somewhere on the southern end of the Long Mynd.

At the first Thetford I was running a RR front and a Rubena Kratos rear, not the grippiest(or light combination) but they seemed to do alright. I’ve never bought into mud tyres really, and I don’t go for narrow ones as they bugger my wrist up when I’m on the rigid winter bike.

The Winter Series/Brass Monkeys are just a bit of a piss about really, so I wouldn’t worry too much about having appropriate tyres – it’s fun going sideways!

@Rorschach , did you race on the Saturday? I found that by Sunday the mud had gotten sticky enough that double Fast Trak 2.0s were all that was needed. Practice laps on the Saturday were a tad sketchy on them though.

In short – I wouldn’t go for anything heavier/grippier than Rons unless it’s a proper slop fest that you really wanna do well at.

I’ve raced on the same course at the same time as most of the top XC guys in the country, albeit in a different category (junior vs elite).

Outside a race, last week I was down in Bris getting a fitness assessment at BW cycling. Popped out for a blast around the natural stuff in Leigh with Oli Beck afterwards. It was great fun following him around his local stuff, and he’s a properly nice guy too.

On One Whippet – stiff in the wrong places (kicks you up the arse), flexy in the wrong places (noodles a fair bit). It’s still built up as an SS, but I haven’t used it in so long on accoount of hating the thing, that the headset’s seized completely solid.

Merlin Maven Road bike – flexy, heavy and harsh. How did they manage that? Oh yeah, by making it dirt cheap. I’ve taught myself to put up with it though, by putting in well over 4000km on it this year. But for anything longer than 100km I’d rather ride my old fixie converted Raleigh – shows how shit the Merlin really is.

Strongly extroverted (89%)
Moderate preference of intuition (50%)
Moderate preference of thinking over feeling (38%)
No preference of judging over perceiving (1%)

Interesting, as if I think about the answers to the questions with my non-cyclist head on, I come up as very extroverted, but get almost exactly the opposite if I answer based on experience from cycling.

High level cyclist are usually the most introverted personalities around, with the odd exception. So it’d be interesting to see the results of some top pros on this test.

Two of my recent efforts, both from a smartphone camera (and not a very good one!) Both were taken on early morning rides to catch the sunrise.

Didn’t fancy it padkinson?

No bloody way. 6 hours in flat Thetford was painful enough, and besides, there’s no under 18 category.

Massive congrats to Ant White for 2nd, especially racing in elite rather than taking the easy* route and racing in vets.

*immensely downplaying the task

And the same to Richard Dunnett, who rode a storming few laps towards the end to bring himself up to 3rd, incredible ride.

Also, Richard Dunnett back up to 6th. Big up the flatlanders!

With a lap gap back to third Ant should have 2nd tied up. Assuming he doesn’t stop for a picnic like at 24:12.

They’re coming round after the first lap. Richard Dunnett in first with a flying first lap, come on Rich!!

I’m not quite sure how accurate the timing is though – is it missing people out?
I say this because there’s no sign of Jason English (insane Aussie defending champ), and some other quick people that should be around by now (e.g Ant White).

Having the pins pulled out of your radius (they were put in lengthways along the bone), without anaesthetic, with a massive pair of pliers.
I was only 15 at the time so my bones had healed around the pins and didn’t want to let go.
It was painful, but the feeling of a massive force that seemed to be pulling from the inside of my bones and the cracking/crunching when the pins finally let go was far worse.

http://www.xcracer.com/dusk-dawn-and-a-lot-in-between.html

My ramblings from the race.

Have a read, share it around. You know you want to…

I really enjoyed it, especially winning. As per the comments from others, it was bloody cold. It took me about half an hour to stop shivering and return to a colour other than grey.

Great shoes (in terms of fit and performance), I was racing in them for a year and a bit (I’ve got the Code ones now, for more bling like).

Durability wise, I haven’t been particularly impressed – the scuff guard on the toes started developing holes (but only in the very outer black layer) after less than a month Towards the end of their life the sole started to come away from the rest of the shoe, a problem that was temporarily solved with superglue, but it was terminal eventually.
Sadly, the same thing has started to happen to my Codes, which I am quite distressed about.

No shit Sherlock!

Missing the point entirely… fat bikes are harmless fun

That they may well be, so why do a race on one?

Exactly. The Singular fat bike team at Brighton Big Dog were ripping up the singletrack; up, down, steep and twisty, and putting in lap times far quicker than many riders on their carbon enduro machines.

And were still going slower than people on non-fat 29er race bikes…

As far as I’m concerned, the massive amount of money needed to get a fat bike (the category doesn’t deserve a compound name, unlike singlespeeds) anywhere near a low enough weight that it’d be fun to ride makes any sand/snow/mud advantage negligible.
See George Budd for example, his fat bike looks like a great laugh, weighing 23 and a bit pounds, but it’s cost him more than it’d take to build an 18lb XC hardtail.
Singlespeeds are extremely fun however, but only on the right terrain: Thetford, Tunstall (anywhere flat, i.e – where I live).

In my eyes: Fast=fun , Fat=slow , hence Fat=not fun

An MRP 1X chainguide – came with the tiniest, furthest from stainless bolts that I’ve ever seen. And the whole thing was flexy enough to not function as a guide, the chain just went wherever the hell it wanted to.

Schwalbe Racing Ralph/Rocket Ron tyres – I loved the grip, the low rolling resistance and the light weight, but the sidewalls were like paper, even on the snakeskin versions. I ripped 3 of the bastards over one race weekend.

stanleigh – Member
Anyone else now stuck on the sofa willing themselves to get off their arse & empty the car of soggy camping gear ?

Yep. I’ve got a tent that needs taking out and drying, but given the amount of effort it took to get the bastard thing in there, I feel like it should spent more than a few hours in the bag.

Ahh nice one.

I’m really looking forward to it, hopefully it’ll be as much fun as Bonty was.

I’ll be there, in a mixed team with the rest of the XCracer lot.

Jason, is there still some trackside space available for us (although I suppose it is a lot less necessary in a team)?

Norwich local Richard Dunnett (no.2) will be one to watch too. He’s been right at the top end of the Eastern XC races all year, 2nd in Mountain Mayhem 24hr solo and came second in TC last year.

The events looks awesome, although I believe that everyone competing must be at least a little insane. :D

And I used to run bar ends on the SS (where they are most useful IMO, when you have to grunt up hills), but ditched them when:

1. I moved from 600mm to 700mm bars, and found I could get the leverage from the added width without using the bar ends.

2. I managed to go over the bars after getting both bar ends caught simultaneously on foliage.

On the main race bike, I’ve never run them, and never felt like I’d want to, especially now with the 710mm stick I’ve got on there at the moment. I reckon I’d probably forget to use them in an XC race anyway.

Nino knows best

In 2011, when that picture was taken, maybe he was running bar ends.

But now, he’s on the wide bars with no ‘ends.

I had a very similar problem recently, after replacing a KMC X10 gold, with the same chain. I was using a Wolf Tooth N/W ring, and the bike had only been used in the dry, and the chain changed before 0.75% wear.
I’d washed off the sticky, shitty grease that it came with and used a small amount of wet lube in it’s place. But once I started riding, with every pedal stroke the chain would suck up just a little, not enough to jam anywhere, but making an extremely annoying noise, and wasting energy.
This didn’t get any better with a bit of use, so I’ve changed the whole setup to a MRP bling ring and chain guide, and I’ve had no problems (or dropped chains, which I had several of while on the N/W ring with no chain guide).

Any idea of the cause of this? The chainring, excessive wear or maybe the chain?

Lightly toasted in a toaster, then red onion with (thin) slices of cheese on top, in the grill so it melts. Beans with pickle stirred in on top of that, then a poached egg.