55 and retired being older I’ve learnt to place enjoyment and happiness over achievement

Nope that’s not normal. Yes you can sort it out on garmins free download – base camp. It’s very good. I suspect it’s a long route with too many points. 30 is maximum. You can create a route for example using auto route for a 100miles using only 5 or 6 tops.

If you need a massive route. Use the trail format

There’s villages every few k’s it’s quite a civilised country Shred. Public toilets? Hmm most of us stop at cafés or bars or beside the road

Agree with JCL demo before you buy. Forums are just opinions.

Bronson and carbon

Plus one for multi day events in the sun abroad. In the sun, it’s important to mention that twice

Hopefully he has got the message

The other obvious alternative is for him to buy a house within his price bracket. That’s what the rest of us do.

My three rent, not ideal I know but their in their 20’s and like most need to move with jobs. So renting is far easier

No don’t mix relationships and money. Your obviously not sure otherwise you wouldn’t ask here. Also think about the context? He’s living at home parents who have given up work because they didn’t like their jobs. Common. The danger signals are all there. Mortgages are 20 or 25 years long. Your putting yourself in a long term pain position.

Bottom dollar mate if his mother and father are so keen why don’t they go back to work and guarantee the mortgage for their son. As a parent of three I know what I would do.

Plus one forbpowermonkey small easy to use. Bags power for recharging devices

Guess theses garages are remote?

I pay the extra for single room, life too short. Always met great people in the group.

Don’t forget to include entertainment. It’s a lot easier and enjoyable if you got a spin work out DVD or even the TV to keep you occupied on the long steady stuff

hearing about people wearing out a cassette and chain put him off

Fact? Hmm along with it doesn’t pedal like its weight LOL

Yeah no issues from me if you need to change your drive train every 4 rides I’d be at the SLX and Devore end of the range. Cost for the average user? Well I’m not sure it’s any more expensive I don’t bother if the conditions are that bad as the photo. Mines been everywhere in last couple months, Exmoor, Wales and Keilder and hasn’t missed a beat or worn out.

As you say, didn’t wear out the drive train. That was my contention. I’ve had similar conditions. Let’s be honest at that point it’s time to dig out the crap. It still wouldn’t wear out new chain or cassette or front ring. Those conditions would equally affect any chain set up 1 x 10 or 3 x 9. Just don’t see his point when he says a sram 1 x 11 wears out faster? Urban myth.

Plus one for relax and get to the gym

Northwind, I’ve put hundreds of miles on my xo1 x 11 can’t see how you could wipe it out on one race. It’s still going strong. I mean how could you wear out a chain on one race? Common. Brake pads maybe but not a drive chain.

I’d check your diet and position on the bike. I notice you don’t mention the food your eating. You need hydrate before the ride. 500ml of plain water an hour before the ride should help. A high protein meal 2 hours before will fuel you. I would also look at the length of my stem and top tube. A more up right position may help. Something’s not right. I’m not a fan of gels and powders myself. I use plain water and my home made power bars.

Did the long event 12 hours in total great enjoyable endurance event. Small is good. I’d like to see some sort of handicap system based on gender and age

Like mikesmith said its just easier and allows you to keep your cadence up. Shifting is faster no pause while you change the front mech as well up or down so you can get back on the power without having to make a second shift. I also found I had more useful gear range closer together. One less thing to manage on the trail has to be more efficient and make the trail more enjoyable IMHO.

Granny gears are more of a prop than useful and how often did I use them or my top gear in 3 x 9? Not very by the time I had changed to outer then shifted up I would be looking at down shifting for next climb etc Fire roads or tarmac es but then thats not what I want to ride well or at all if I can avoid it ha ha

Why not book a demo or mates bike with 1 x 11 and try it out? That has to be the best way to decide without a massive outlay?

Over 10 hours I take my power monkey and a USB cable for garmin 800. It’s heavy but gives about 5 days of power and more if I use the solar panel 🙂

Depends on your garmin 650 series can do 22 hours on one charge and one set AA should be good for another 10

Well it’s more engaging having to adjust your position on the climbs then just grinding up another fire road climb. Once you get some speed up on the short downs you can fire up the ups and over them with a few pedals at the top.

Afan

I’d agree it’s a engaging and varied trail. Not sure some parts will stand up to much use especially the top trail which is little more than a trench in the ground. Otherwise enjoyed it. Lots of variety. Climbs easy enough, few switchbacks

Try skyline cycles ? Camp site is still there

I run 36t up front it’s perfect. Not found myself under geared.

You won’t regret taking the plunge it’s just so easy to change into the gear on the trail you need. Just back from Cmw Carn loop. My only thought was why didn’t I change to 1 x 11 sooner.

Why not demo one ?

You can’t over grease. It’s designed so that you pump grease in and force out the old along with any contamination.

HR front ardent rear perfect combo. Minion too draggy for rear

We wont intervene as their is no reason to. What gives us the right to interfere in the internal politics of another country and burden ourselves with more debt and waste the lives of our servicemen to no purpose? Syria and whoever wins is no threat to the west.

If you advocate intervention then why not a middle east solution using their armed forces? They have several ‘UN’ type military co-operation agreements they could use to send a Arab or Muslim peace force to provide humanitarian assistance?

A large part of the decision is what you ride and how fit you are. 36 up front is ideal

1 x 11 superb, simple, light effective no more front mech faff. When you look at how often you actually get in top gear on say 3 x 9 or 2 x 10 you soon realize that its not on technical stuff its fire road or easy tracks. You also gain way more useful gear range. Ive just gone from 3 x 9 and Im glad I did. My 3 x 9 was nearly 5 years old so I needed to replace everything really as everything was pretty much worn out.

Wait until you wear out what you got though then swap was my view

Done a few it’s more off road these days and I’m going with my HR as it looks pretty damp

Why I stopped wearing shorts their just fashion rather than effective

Im in, think it will be a damp one

Zero

wish you were here

had mine since 2010 – brilliant bike no issues

Aim to drink 500ml water about an hour before and eat protein not carbs directly before ride. Carbs ideally 4 hours before so night before. If you had a bad nights sleep that can also cause problems. You may just have a bit of food poisoning it can have same affect. Food intake during suggest you were hungry maybe didnt eat well night before