Ok, that’s fine. So do track cyclist not do structured training on the track then as a rule? When I was running I’d be at the track twice a week to do things like 5 x 1 mile with 2 mins recovery or 12 x 400m with 60s recovery etc. It wasn’t really about having fun or not being bored, but about getting faster at running around a track. What do track cyclists do to train?

Interesting comments. It reads like a three slip process on the website, there’s a green slip as well that you’ve missed out. They really need a flow-diagram on the website as the text makes it all a bit confusing. Especially as they seem to refer to certain sessions with more than one name! I vaguely know what I’m doing in terms of getting accredited, it was the post-accreditation stuff I’m really interested in.

I went with a group of 14 people that I knew for the taster session last night, not a block-booking, but no one else had signed up, so not a problem to get a group together that want to get accreditation. I hadn’t realised that I needed to do the blue slip stuff that session, or I could have done it last night, but not really a problem to go back with the same group for that purpose.

I was expecting a bit more from the coaches, we were shown how to ride safely, then left to do whatever we wanted for 45 minutes. I was expecting to be given drills and things to do to develop skills etc. but it was very good regardless.

Anyway, so it looks like you can’t just turn up and ride. Do you know what the clubs that run sessions are at all? I did have a look but couldn’t find any club’s that weren’t Juniors only.

Maybe I don’t know enough about track cycling training, but I’m struggling to reconcile the fact that I’m finding it quite difficult to get into, the fact that there aren’t many velodromes in the UK and the fact that we’re so good at it as a country.

The Manchester prices are a bit cheaper than those you’ve listed and I’m aware of the Structured Training Sessions they run

I’m coming at this from a running back ground, where each track has a club operating out of it and if you want to race on the track you need to train on the track and race for your club. Most tracks you can turn up and pay and run round and do whatever sessions you want. Is this not the case with velodromes?

I guess with a shorter track and faster speeds there might be safety issues with people doing different sessions at the same time, but then I thought that’s what the accreditation process was for.

Ok, that’s fine, yes I know what ‘fun’ is, don’t worry. It just wasn’t immediately obvious why you’d done it as it appears to serve no practical purpose as it is. Carry on…..

I hope that’s not a Mongoose Transfer you’ve chopped up? (If you need another one, let me know!)

While I’m here, I may as well ask……….. er……… what’s it for?

I use Rock n Roll lube. When you apply the lube the parfin-type stuff in it cleans the chain, then you wipe it all off and off comes the dirt. There’s a waxy bit in the lube that stays inside the chain.

Seems to work very well in a minimum-faff kinda way.

It’s an Orange 225 prototype DH frame, as raced by Ben Cathro last year.

If it helps,I had a Diamondback WCF4.0 back in 1997, it developed a crack in the paint on the down tube, all the way around the tube. I rode it for about 18 months before I realised that it was a crack in the bond between the chromoloy lugs and the carbon fibre tubes. A rock hit the down tube and knocked a lump of filler out and I didn’t ride it again, but it worked no problems with effectively no down tube at all.

In short, it’ll be fine! :-)

Where is the crack George? Can’t work it out. Give Orange a call before you start messing about with the paint, they might prefer to inspect and sort it themselves given that it’s a prototype, they will likely be interest in where/how it’s failed.

We didn’t see any routes off Glencoe other than the DH track? Which is mental by the way, if you’re not a very competent ride, you’ll be pushing down at least half of it. Our group were all decent riders, but less than half of us rode down Scott Laughland’s Corner of Massive Death (See youtube for the video)

You can’t ride the World Cup course at FW and keep both wheels on the ground either, there are at least two drops with no chicken runs that aren’t rollable and a few more that would be hit and miss and much better to launch off. They’re all keep your bike straight and you’ll be fine type drops though.

It’s a Scott thing from a few years ago, Massive seat. Not sure what the point was. The other bit looks like some sort of steering damper?

Euro, that sounds interesting, might give it a go, just annoying as the forks aren’t on the bike!

Sounds like it’s definitely a seized bearing!

Cheers

Thanks, does look like the bearing may be seized to the axle.

There’s no amount of pushing on the threaded end that is moving the axle, I’ve belted it with the mallet already, it isn’t going to move and the hub not sliding on the axle once the fork legs have splayed wouldn’t be caused by a stuck axle.

The entire axle is rotating, so I don’t think the axle can be broken.

I don’t know how long the thread is on the axle (?) so I don’t know if it has released or not, the axle has moved probably 4mm or so through the threaded side. Hopefully it has unscrerwed completely and the threads aren’t damaged.

So do I just need to belt the crap out of the hub until it releases it’s grip on the axle?

Cheers.

What’s going on with the Whippet weights? It was advertised as 1000g when first promoted, now the site says it’s 1300g for the frame, but 1200g on the Reba build page?

Other activities? There’s only bikes round here chap!

My Lyriks are u-turn, I tend to ride them at 140 when I can’t be bothered messing about with them. Probably the perfect compromise for all round riding if you haven’t got travel adjust. But it is designed to be very versatile and it’s really wants u-turn forks if that’s an option for you. Climbs a lot better at 115mm and it’s a shame to not have the full 160 available for Lakes smashing.

Grinding disc for the extra sparks surely?

You don’t need a perpendicular finish, you’ve got a gap between the top of the steerer and the headset top cap to allow you to tension it. So long as the angle of cut leaves you within a suitable tolerance for the size of that gap it doesn’t matter t all form a mechanical point of view. Apparently there are 100 man points available if you use an angle grinder…..

Spitfire is 5″ and 66 degrees with a Mythic Munro Headset and Lyriks. Absolute monster of a bike, love mine!

You know as soon as someone starts telling you the RRPs of individual parts that it’s over priced nonsense. That aside, I’d be more concerned about whether Orange designed that frame for 180mm monster forks?

Have you changed anything recently?

Things to play around with:

Lever position and angle on the bars.
Increase the rebound speed of your forks.

Just smash it about a bit, you need to find out if it’s going to brake or not ASAP! Otherwise you run the risk of it snapping out of warranty.

It won’t break though, don’t worry.

It’s wrapped all the way around the fork, it might work and it might actually work quite well if you’ve done it right. The wrap could spread the load to the back of the fork quite effectively and apply it to the fork over quite a large area. Doing it the other way would produce two point loads that could be too much for the fork possibly.

Real suck it and see territory though, good luck!

I think a lot of frame designers use it so that they can use bigger tubes on the rest of the bike, with bigger weld areas and massive overall stiffness. Seriously though, what’s not to like? You get a new frame if you want one, it doesn’t matter what the headtube is, all your forks will fit, or you can get new forks that fit a little better. Easy.

Ok, that’s an option. Is the GPX folder where it stores the current ride data? I found a temp.gpx file there that I loaded to bike hike, it was a random route that I’d added as a Course about a year ago! Not sure why it was in there!

Firmware is up to date, email sent to Customer Support. I tried to manually upload the file that is there, it failed, so I suspect it might be corrupt. Is it worth me deleting that file from the device in the hope that it’ll let the device sort itself out? I’m not bothered about the data from that file because it was just a road ride to the train station, but I’d like to get the route and HR data for the other ride.

If I were to check for a firmware update and install one, would it wipe all the data from my device?

I’ve found SS really good training for downhill, grunting up those hills gave me the strength to stay on my bike stood up for full descents instead of having to stop every 90s for a sit-down. It’s built up my arm strength for resisting arm-pump massively too. Other bonus is much better core strength etc, which is good for all biking.

For general riding it’s built up my ability to generate power at low cadences, which is very handy for short-sharp sections on the geared bikes. Overall fitness must be improved too, but difficult to measure.

The best thing is that it’s not as hard as people imagine, so they think you’re awesome, when really you’re just moderately determined. And if you try to explain that they think you’re being modest. Win-win!

Ah, yes it does, it just isn’t labelled properly. Think I know where you mean now.

The West Highland Way doesn’t go up to Loch Eilidhe Mor on my map?

How long will that take? It’s down on our itinery for the Sunday, so I was hoping it would take longer than a few hours!

It just looks amateur doesn’t it. The cigarette thing isn’t really relevant, but what is relevant is that you’re talking about the fact he was holding something rather than a quite interesting bike.

Have a look on connect.gamin.com find Hope, filter by MTB and diatance and you’ll get plenty of options, mapped and upload able to GPS if you have one. HTH

Nice one chaps, ordered the CRC one, looks perfect and cheaps.

WAs worried I wouldn’t make Moelfre on Saturday, now I just need to find a big hammer…..

It’ll be a while before I consider £400+ forks as cheap, but I suppose they were less than at other places.

68kg, stabdardvspring is too stiff, light works well. The springs are pricey won’t find avforknwith a lightvspringbfor sale, so justbgetvthe fork and see ifbit works ok. The medium felt good, but lacked the plushness of my bombers, so I changed.

Ok, no worries. Its an odd wheel anyway, Hope XC 9mm with a heavy DH rim, if I could have got it to fit my 20mm forks it would have done as a wheel to hang a wet weather tyre for my DH bike on. As it is, I’ll dismantle and sell the hub, will get my money back no problem I’d expect.

Cheers.

Nice one chaps, yes all very friendly.

Yes I did realise that the white shoes were where all the speed was, I was planning to start out with regulation black shoes but a mate said these didn’t fit him and did I want them for £50. I did. I forgot to check the colour with him first, but they do match the bike, if not my prowess. They’re probably worth more than the bike!

There is absolutely no way I’m resting my elbows on top of the bars. No way at all. Admittedly it would feel safer if I sorted the headset bearings out so the bike wasn’t all rattly, but still no having any of that!

Re my t-shirt, I was planning to wear my MMB race top, but I didn’t think it would do to rock up all covered in mud!

Oh yes, I was admiring his bike. There were quite a few retro fixies out last night. Right, you can assess my aero-style if you like: