Funny, that Mawis with the truss fork is mine. Mathias really knows his stuff and is great to deal with. He was really pleased how the truss fork came out and is planning on doing one for himself as well.

Yeah it was mostly the blue that was slippy last night. Red’s a lot more grippy for the most part.

Anyone else find Swinley slippery as heck? All those polished pebbles in the trail I reckon. The bigger berms are ace, but the flatter twisty bits are really hard to take fast without risking the front wheel disappearing without notice.

Here you go @tdog…

http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/

http://www.bikecalc.com/gear_inches

Totally depends where you ride, but for hills a 32/19 (29er) is suitable for most stuff imho. That’ll give you approx 14mph @ 100 cadence on the flat, so can get pretty spinny but it’s a gear for the hills really. 32/18 for easy hills or more flat, 32/20 for hilly bikepacking. Obviously, there are other ways of achieving this…eg, 34/20 is pretty similar to 32/19 etc.

IMHO singlespeeding being hard on the knees is mostly a myth, so long as you get out of the saddle when you’re meant to. I have a dodgy knee and singlespeeding is far better for it than grinding up a climb whilst seated.

I used to be a petrolhead. Then about 15 years ago I decided I liked bikes more.

Those carbon Carnegies are awesome. I’d have paid good money for those :wink: .

FWIW, the S8 is a fantastic piece of design, takes phones to the next level imho. Every time I use it I geek out a little at how far technology has come.

OP, what’s your definition of “longer”?

Have you seen the SQlab stuff?

https://www.sq-lab.com/shop/en/Handlebars/%5B/url%5D

I’ve had at least two pairs of Race King Protections and they’ve all done the same thing after a while (maybe 6+ months). The sidewall goes light-colored and (maybe not related?) they stop holding air. Shame, because they ride great while they last.

Excellent, thanks

SS record is a tough ask. Pedalhead is up there on just about every hill KOM in the area!

I’ve been a bit lazy this year so I’m losing them all the time! DrP sounds a bit handy, would be ace to have some singlespeed competition on the leaderboard.

Excellent write up! I drew up the route exactly for this kind of scenario…where someone is pushing themselves a bit out of their comfort zone, but can see that it’s achievable. Great ride. SDD next…! :D

PS…don’t forget to send me your route!

Epic version of All Along the Watchtower.

Just finished this one (the Spielberg adaptation is going to be ace)…

Just started this one…

Hmm, looking at the two files in Tracklogs, there’s a trackpoint exactly on the corner of the road by the start of the footpath that actually takes you to Ivinghoe Beacon (which is correct).

Hey Mol, could you crop the ride so it’s just the ITT route & send it over to me please? Gotta get you on that leaderboard :-)

Great effort Mol, well done :-) Funnily enough, I injured my left ankle during my Ridgeway Double ride, and I was also riding rigid. A lot of small bumps hour after hour was my theory.

Looks like he’s done it! :-D

Spot is a bit behind again. He must be in for some serious rutting in the dark soon :-)

Just passed through South Stoke. Looking strong, more perky than this morning even.

It’s updated, phew. Excellent, off to say hello again.

It’s an actual Spot tracker. Tbh, mine is always shit as well, but that off track point is unusual (unless he actually went off route :-( )

Audio Physic Tempo 25. Absolutely love ’em.

Oh, and the final picture is just because he went slightly off track to resupply (Goring), so rejoining by retracing steps.

Hmm bit worried about the Spot track. Point #45 is off track and it hasn’t updated since Wendover over an hour ago. Spot trackers are frankly pretty crap at the best of times, but I hope all is still ok.

I caught up with molgrips on the Ridgeway near the A34 and rode with him for a few miles to Goring, where he stopped for some supplies. By 09:30 he had left Goring and was on his way to Grims Ditch near Wallingford.

He seemed to appreciate the lift of a bit of company as he didn’t get a lot of sleep last night and was feeling a bit sluggish in the cold air of the early morning. Bloody gorgeous morning though! Seemed to be riding just fine. I’ll try & catch up with him again on his way back.

Excellent, hope to see you out there. If you’re after the fastest possible time, stoppages make a huge difference (obviously). If you can start with your pockets/pack full of food, you could ride straight through Goring rather than stopping so soon into the ride. FWIW, I only stopped for water, carrying all food from the start in pockets/saddle bag. Of course, whatever tactic works for you is the best one :-)

Interesting stuff, cheers. That ST angle is quite steep! How does it climb with v3 geometry? Also, how tall are you?

There’s a tap at Og but the petrol stations are a way off route. Tbh, Goring is only 40 miles in…shouldn’t need to stop apart from maybe at the tap.

Going off track doesn’t break the rules so long as you rejoin in the place you left it, and all under your own steam :-)

The cafe on the roundabout in Wendover sells very good brownies!

The tap locations on the gpx should be accurate (I’m pretty sure I didn’t mess them up). Presuming it’s not a hot day, if you learn the taps you could probably do the route with one bottle. I’d still take two though :-)

Yeah the promised deluge was little more than a dribble round Goring way. Looks like you’re in luck as the forecast for the rest of the week is pretty dry :-)

Doc told me bruised/broken is all the same really with ribs. They usually don’t even bother doing an x-ray.

I definitely recommend trying not to sneeze 8O

Bad luck!

I’ve done it twice. I was riding gently within three weeks ish, but I think took six+ for full healing.

Yeah generally I don’t bother, but I did listen to some Startalk podcasts on the Highland Trail for a while. Bit surreal in places actually, being in some remote feeling areas listening to podcasts I usually listen to in the car.

yeah I’ve had snakeskin RRs on the front for years, good stuff.