Me?

I would go up from Kentmere, down Nan Bield techy bit at the top, then push back up, ride onto High Street via Mardale Ill Bell. DO NOT go down Riggindale Cragg, even though it looks EPIC from Nan Bield, it’s not, it’s mostly unrideable. Kidsty Pike is the descent you want*. Up Gatesgarth then turn right onto Harter Fell and drop back down to Nan Bield, then back the way you came.

Sorted.

*Not done it, but looks like it should be good.

That’s similar to my thought about starting near the Swan Inn, it’s that section of fire road that you’re talking about that takes you down there. Question is how far down do you need to go to make it worth the hassle of moving the start and having people riding further (albeit downhill) to the start line?

I think the existing course is probably the best of the ideas I was able to come up with.

While we’re on the subject of that hill, does anyone else think that a Black/Orange descent through the trees from where the bottleneck was to near the Swan, then a climb back up to the red loop would be a fantastic addition? As it is, the red trails only take advantage of half the available altitude. Imagine how good that first climb would be if it was twice the length!

I thought the course was really good as it was, I didn’t think congestion was too bad if you were inside the top 100 at the top of the climb, but I realise that a lot of people weren’t and would have struggled more than me with the congestion.

I was thinking it would be better to use the long fire road climb at the end of lap 1 to spread the field by doing that straight from the start, but I guess the problem with that is that the track where we turned off the road would probably cause a bottle-neck because it was a bit technical in places and only double-track at best. The alternative is to run down the road to Spout Force, but that would be a long section of road that would need to be closed briefly. I suppose you wouldn’t want the field racing at 30mph bunched together either.

So I can’t think of a better alternative, other than running the start from the Swan Inn near Braithwaite and doubling the length of the first climb to get things spread out!

pypdjl – Member
Thanks for that, I remember you overtaking me! Tried keeping up butto no avail…

How did you make the link between me going past you and my GPS track? Where abouts did I over take you? I was about 75th going up the last climb on lap one and finished 42nd, so the 2nd lap I went past a lot of people, what bike were you on, I’ll probably remember you better that way!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/74271922

The queuing wasn’t too bad, it gave you a well-earned rest! Actually, I found it quite entertaining as there was a girl a few places in front of me getting aggro with someone for slowing down for a technical bit, only for her to spin out on all three steep technical bits and cause a 4 bike pile up each time! :-)

I had last year’s route on my GPS and rode all the trails when I was a kid before the biking trails went in, so I knew what was coming. I enjoyed it, but I’d picked up about 30 places on the second lap, 5 on that climb, so was more than happy for the climb to continue.

I do remember thinking “WTF” when I over took a chap with only two cogs on his bike up that last climb – hats off!

The positions on the printouts we were given are wrong, some people were missing somehow, I was bumped from 35th to 42nd, a friend was bumped from 104th to 128th, so looks like a computer glitch somewhere. Anyway results are here:

http://www.sportident.co.uk/results/2011/WMBC/enduro.html

Suspect you mean Bob Adey at a guess.

Hve a look at the Cannondale Jekyl or Claymore that are due out in April. Anyone know if they’ve done clever stuff with Fox to get the fork to match the rear end?

Anyone else find that rear suspension doesn’t make much difference on techy stuff like this? I rode off Old Man of Coniston last weekend and for bike-build reasons (missing crown race) I took my C456 instead of the Spitfire I was intending to use and didn’t think I missed the rear bounce at all. Have felt the same on plenty of similar rides in the Lakes, so wondered if anyone else thinks the same? Lyrics upfront, not bothered what’s at the back.

Was riding with a group I know well, would normally expect to be slower than most on my hard tail and similar pace on my FS, the others all on 6inch bikes, but wasn’t slower at all relative to the group.

Keep bumping this thread so I remember to pop down and give this a go soon.

Cheers.

Nice Cannondale!

Wow, what a pile of rubbish!

Some good answers, the obscurer the better please. (Even though I know the answer now)

Genuinely wasn’t a way to publicise the sale!

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/santa-cruz-bullit-frame-with-5th-element-shock?replies=5#post-2385248

Does this look Ti to you more knowledgeable chaps?

Ah yes, good plan!

Ok, I’ll bear that in mind if I ever need to get it out. I wanted to borrow it for a new bike frame that was sent with the wrong lower crown race at the weekend, but I’ve got the right one now, so it can stay where it is for now, just glad there’s a way of getting it out.

I’m hoping my Banshee Spitfire matches up to that general description.

You’ve got loads of options straight out of Keswick, depending on how radgnar you want to be, pretty much everything on the map goes pretty well. Anyway, Helvellyn, go to Wythburn on the road, into the forest, follow the lake, then left and up, onto the top, down to Raise, and keep going in that direction to Sticks Pass, left down Sticks back to the road and ride back to Keswick. Awesome ride and about the right length, will be fine weather wise, though sticks might be a bit slippery with water in places.

What’s necessary got to do with it? Mountain bike magazines aren’t necessary, mountain biking itself isn’t necessary.

What a load of nonsense this thread is, it’s clear that the article will have no impact on the area, even if a few more people popped up there, they’re riding on already eroded paths.

It’s a total non issue as far as I can see, similarly based on the evidence presented in this thread.

Ok, I can’t think of any reason why I would go off the track, perhaps walkers might step off the track to let me past maybe. What percentage of the plateau area does the track take up and if people getting out of cyclists ways doubled the width of the track, are we talking about the square root of not much difference?

Next question; what is the plateau for? Is there any grazing, hunting etc up there. Can walkers take their dogs up there?

Interested to know whether my nitrogen would help the tundra to grow faster now? Could be a way to ameliorate a persons impact perhaps.

What am I missing?

So that looks like if I rode it and stayed on the path I’d be having no impact on the rare vegetation, or am I reading that wrong?

Round here there are few roads where the drain covers run at 90 degreees tot hat one, far more dangerous than the potholes!

Can someone post some pictures of the area, just a few of the general surroundings, and a few of the paths themselves please. Don’t post any pictures of the rad-gnarr bits as that’ll probably excite a few people one way or another.

Cheers

I’ve never seen any mountain bikers riding irresponsibly, I don’t see mountain bikers being slagged off in the media, I’ve never been shouted at for riding my bike somewhere I ‘shouldn’t’ (And I do that quite a lot, especially in the lakes). I’ve never seen an abandoned inner tube outside of a trail centre.

When I ride I regularly get people asking me where we’re going, where we’ve been and/or questions about the bike. Walkers usually seem to be genuinely impressed that we ride bikes in these places. I’ve come across the odd sour-puss that won’t even say hello, but nothing overtly negative.

Based on my personal experience going back to the late 90s, I don’t accept that mountain biking has a bad image at all, enlighten me?

Any pics of Chapel Gate please?

It looks sketchy, but not so bad, three people blast through it, no issues, so it’s not a total death-trap. As above, most of the crashes are people coming into it too fast and then jamming on the front brake while being stood up with weight forward rather than back.

How are you clamping it up? Metal on metal?

Win?

[/url]
Old Man of Coniston[/url] by paulrockliffe[/url], on Flickr

leverage is a non-issue as you won’t be able to apply any significant force through the extended section.

Can’t see this working particularly well though, it doesn’t seem like you’ll be in a better position than if you just moved your hands further off the bars.

You could try jamming a cork half in, putting some coper pipe over it, then putting a grip over the top of it all, that might work a little bit, but I would just get some new bars.

10% after stock+wages+equipment+building costs+tax sounds pretty good to me!

I thought Race Face wuld be ISIS and Shimano Octalink? Shouldn’t fit, or am I wrong?

Hayfield wa fairly dry on Thursday night.

On one do one, Mythic do one. Ten Hope let you mix and match their various bits so they’re an (ugly) option. cane creek do one too. Not sure if more are on the market since i last looked.

Yeah, i took it to a shop. The problem is that a tool like that will be sat up against the aluminium insert inside the head tube, so won’t expand far enough to sit on the edge of the headset. Might email on one for advice as it’s their frame, and their headset designed specifically for the frame.

In the meantime the correct race will be with me for 11am tomorrow, so having to re jig my 10 am ride a bit. Might end up doing the Borrowdale Bash instead.

Same bearings, but different lips on the bottom of the races, so the on one headset race fouls the mythic headset and jams so can’t turn.

Changing it as I want to pop it into the mythic as that was supplied with the wrong lower race for the forks (non-tapered). Waiting for the right one means rebuilding the donor 456 and no riding new frame.

Mybcurrent best (only) solution is to leave the on one crown race on, then drop the mythic one over the top. Have done this and it seems to be ok, but what happens when I ride it? Can this possibly work?

Make the features wide and have good run ins and outs and it’ll be much more accessible. The drops at Llandegla are too narrow for beginners and the ones dat Lee Quarry have no run in and are on too much of a slope. Actually at Lee Quarry the access to them is over a berm and quite tricky for a relative beginner.

If it’s that fragile, surely people shouldn’t be walking there either?

20mm rigid carbon forks please.

Actually, I’d settle for 15mm if necessary, and I’m not that fussed about the carbon really but I’m never buying a QR wheel again thanks.

Ta.

(Yes I know there are some dirt jump ones available, but they weigh too much)

If you’ve got a good bit of tension in your chain then there’s a lot of sideways force on your axle, so it can be tricky to extract it. Obviously how tricky depends on the tension and the state of the axle and hub, but I found that just the friction on the frame meant that I needed to drift the axle out.

With bolt-in the bolts are a bit tight to extract and a tiny bit more difficult to put in than an axle, but overall it’s less faff.

Don’t think there’s any difference between the two systems in terms of holding the wheel. I was using chaintugs, but randomly my chain stretched enough that removing a half link left it setup perfect, so , while they’re fitted, the tug part isn’t being used.

I’m using a Hope Pro 2 SS/Trials rear hub as pictured above, but mine is the Bolt-in version. It’s subtly different to the bolt-through one, but the difference answers one of the criticisms of track ends mentioned above. With bolt-through it can be a faff getting the wheel out because you need to either force the chain off the sprocket, or drift the axle out. With Bolt-on, you whip the bolts out and the wheel comes straight out, no faff, job done.