try the Quantocks 😉

BWD nope thats my solo experience. People waste time in the solo pit. And you’re right I remember at least two events where I waited around in early in the hours of the morning for a no show team member before having to crack on for another lap. Once I did the first lap and the next guy didn’t show on handover for lap 2 🙁 Hence I no longer do teams. A race can be won or lost on the transition.

Also consider not doing 1 lap but 2 or more. Slowing down to change over and accelerating up accounts for a large amount of lost time. I base my number of solo laps on the water fuel I can sensible carry. Short course like Bristol 4 laps makes sense not every lap of 23 – 27 mins.

Geometry has been tweeked to for the better I think.

Had mine for over two years. Cant fault it really. Equally at home on trans alps, Spain, Italy and UK. Light, fast down and up. If I got a new bike it would be another Zesty.

Zesty 160mm travel sort of Spicy light is an attractive option. Been lusting over Spicy 916 for euro holidays. Been on demo bike for an afternoon. Crushes everything on the trail! The Zesty is the UK weapon of choice though.

transapp agreed. Its not a question of keeping up with technology more depends on what you ride. The article contradicts its self as they also found for steep hills the 3 x 10 setup was best. Used both and both have their place.

Says more about the writer I think than the bike.

Sat Nav for a road bike. Garmin 450 with 1:50 works. Shows direction like arrows etc at turnings on road. Robust enough for off road to. Garmin 800 same but not so robust IMHO.

Pit faff is where many loose their time. Some simple maths:

Maximum Laps
Assume 10 mph, 10 mile laps, 1 hour per lap for 24 hours total 24 laps.

5 min per lap in pit sees something like 100 – 120 mins in the pit!

So most laps that you can do is 22.

Aim to have eveything ready and look at a F1 style pit change 🙂

The review seems to suggest that with a fork and shock change you can convert it to a Spicy?

+1 DH basecamp works well using OS 1:25K or 1:50K

+1 for Zesty awsome bike I dont need to up grade my 2010 version do I? I must resist.

He clearly needs help. Seems to be long term issues so it’s not as simple as a one off incident. That’s not a mitigation for what he had done but you indicate there are other long term behavioural problems. May be talk to him about parents or family? Background, social, financial aspects can affect behaviour. Having brought up three children I know how deep rooted these problems can be. You don’t mention your parents, maybe an area to explore. You seem to be taking the lead, older brother, that a father might provide? Nothing personnel but think wider.

I will accept your sponsorship 🙂

want 34mm Fox 140 or 150 for 26″ is that likely?

Go Kashima coating it made a big difference to my ride. Makes it quite smooth. I would get the forks coated as well now when I get them serviced next. Great upgrade with potentially more noticable benefit.

cut down buff for me under helmet works by wicking away sweat

I think his problem is that he cant get it up. Oh errr

UST have thicker walls and tighter fitting etc. Yeah stans helps but in this case I think its your tyre. As I said I have no problems getting them to fit even without stans etc using track pump. I have used HRII non UST. So brand new non UST tyres maybe fit but why waste money trying to make it happen? Try HR or advantage UST works fine for me and saves the faff.

My maxxis go up with track pump every time. As said above they sit in the centre of the rim. Give the tyre abut of a bash with hand should do it. Check around the valve that can be an area not seated. Are you using UST tyres? Don’t think aspens are UST. That will be the problem.

Maxxis and ZTR rims 20 psi no issues here. I do replace the sealent every 6 months and over pressure to 40 psi to seat them when I fit them over night. NN are way to thin IMHO.

The Ashton court project has been a great success. See it for what it is. It introduces people to what we love, mountain biking. If your looking for more got to Wales, Lakes or Quantocks. Gravel on my trail shocker – yawn zzzz

Singlespeed shep

surely this is about the right to enjoy are great countryside? Lets not legislate for a few cyclicts and walkers who cause issues. Lets live together, one planet.

crush the bumps, full sus is the way to go. Did race last weekend along South Downs Way. Saw the CX and hardtails at the end at they acknowledged that they were pretty sore and beaten up. Full sus on that sort on that of long event and multi day just makes a lot of sense. There are always fatser down hill too. Despite the – get some skill nay sayers 😉

I have polar and Garmin. Garmin for navigation polar for training. garmin on line diary isnt much use except for recording. So I guess it depends on your intended use.

Stans supplies a cup and its 2 of those. There should be enough to slosh around the inside otherwise there will be nothing to seal the hole. I had a flint cut on a descent on SDW. Tyre went down a bit. Sealed nicely with sealent, just needed to pump some air back in and it lasted the next 70 miles. First puncture, if you can call it that, in over 2 years. +1 for real UST tyres

Polar has good on line training diary. Its free to have a look.

Try Strada in Bedminster very good cycle shop

I don’t over train, events just get in the way of training! . I treat events as getting in the way of training :-/ I got polar HRM last year and made and stuck to a plan and it worked for major event. I now rate myself as rehabilitated. In all honesty applying some plan, rest, science and suitable goal produced a far better result than when I was a serial over trainer. I was just doing poor training because I was tired.

I guess I upped the quality not quantity.

314 is a Zesty and 516 is a Spicy

difference is here:
http://www.lapierre-bikes.co.uk/

Retire next year. Thankfully I have a good pension. It’s been worth the effort to now be able to spend time enjoying life and more MTB. Not something I could do on state benefits / pension. That’s a losers approach.

Solo – agree Gym is best placed for improving power using static weights. Many of us concentrate on the legs aspects and forget the rest of the body that supports them to provide power. I have found that improving core, back, arms etc has provided an extra boost to performance. Important that you use the gym to increase power not size. Lots of repetitions, I did find over the winter that I had increased weight I think because of a fair amount of gym time and lifting progressively heavier weights.

Weight makes a difference but performance matters more. Surely diet should boost performance as riders? Unless you just want to be thinner then diet.

+1 below the bar

Want to go faster? Its you not the bike. By the sound of it your always going at the same pace effort. You need to increase cadence and effort over short periods to improve.

INTERVALS at 90-100% MHR:
1 to 2 minutes. Recovery 1 to 5 minutes. Repeat from 3 up to 10 times. Depending on fitness and period. High cadence 100 – 105 rpm.

INTERVALS at 90 – 95% MHR:
3 to 5 minutes. Recovery 5 to 10 minutes. Repeat from 3 up to 10 times. Depending on fitness and period. Heavy gear, up hill at cadence of 80 to 90 rpm.

Note the effort and cadence required

If you want to go faster then train harder and measure what your doing HRM, power meter etc. I find turbo is the best for this sort of training. You can go hard and not worry about the road. Join a road club. 180 miles couple weekends ago club run average 18 mph. Lots of fast sections and hills in Wales.

Interested in in the tracx I magic. Any options tips ? Got basic turbo now which I use regularly

+1 spit pins

Crankbros here on mtb road and commute. Works great. Recessed cleats are just sensible. Never have hot spots. Cheaper to I use same shoes.

whats conditions like? was soo great last year

Use polar and online diary it helps you to see your estimated training load so identifes when you need rest which is a real plus or when you need to put more effort in!

Since using it training has just been more efficient. Helps cut out junk training and monitors any slacking. If you your not disciplined or motivated enough to train using its data though it wont make you fitter.

Nothing wrong your just concentrating on you for a change a lot men work bloody hard for years. Time for some pay back – 53 years young time for that 160mm spicy me thinks!