Top of the rhigos as mentioned, ride in through the windfarm site and do some skyline/blade. I got plenty of routes from there if you want any, just name the amount of miles you want to do.

I’ve 3D printed a dropper lever to an i-spec mount. Mounts its nicely underneath on the same way as a shifter.

Also printed a iphone 6 holder to use on my turbo bike.

Michelin Lithion 2 for me too. Cheap as, light and i’ve not had a puncture despite my dubious choice of commutes to work and i’m 100kg.

Dont be put off with the grey versions, i couldnt even tell they were grey.

No way its 10%, its way more than that.

Wrecker when was the last time you rode it? It definitely has rocks and drops on some descents.

Fire road up to rapist tent ftw. Then when you do the loop to forest drive, back up the fire road to the shortcut to pedalhounds DH, do that then over to last Twrch descent is one of the best couple hours of fun you’ll have at a trail centre imo.

Twrch is a rubbish trail. All the descents bar the last bit loose too much heigh quickly with no real challenge.

The only time i’d ride Twrch is to do it backwards in the night. Now that is good.

I wonder how many people commenting how good/bad it is on here that actually ride it regularly? Cafall has changed loads since it opened with some sections feeling really natural.

I’m up the valleys in Treorchy and all is well up here. A little wet today tho.

They just moved the rivet inboards to avoid clashing into non hope calipers.

I’ll be moving mine inboard too. Fed up of bending mechs outwards and the only thing i can see doing it is the added tension/bad chain line in the lowest gear.

I must have rode a difference trail because i thought the blue/green was pretty boring. The last bit to the car park is ok.

Red is quality tho. I like riding Cwm Rhaeadr then drive down to Gorlech.

I’ve been having issues with my Zee’s, mine were leaking at the olive on the lever, seems to be ok now but i’ve not ridden since sorting this and bleeding.

I did have a rear one replaced under warranty because one of the pistons split in half.

They’re immense when they work tho, fingers crossed it will be all the time now.

Swapped this morning to MTB SPDs as my shimano road shoes can take both cleats.

Head and shoulders better than road SPD’s imo. Much easy to clip in and out. I wont be going back even if i do a big road ride, pedalling I cant tell the difference.

I’ve found effective top tube plus stem length pretty close for both my road bike and mtb. Because being forward on the hoods feels only a little more leaning forward than on my wide mtb bars.

For example my top tube on my mtb is 610mm and I run a 40mm stem. Giving 650mm.

I like a 580mm and 80mm stem on my road bike. (It’s mainly for commuting tho).

Any idea what the weights are between the bikes? Or what any of them are.

Thinking about it again with the lower gearing/smaller wheel the wheel isn’t spinning that fast so should be less wear on a 26″slick tyre.

There’s no tension adjustment for wheel contact unfortunately. Just eyelets to move the roller closer or further away from the pivot for different wheel sizes.

Good point on the tyre choice, with it being a gel roller a normal tyre might be ok. I’m going to degrease the roller/tyre in case there’s something on there.

Need some advice. I’m having some issues with the tyre slipping and now destroying the rubber on the tyre.

My kit is:

26″ hard tail running 1×10 36t and 11-36 cassette.
Tacx turbo tyre
Elite Volare Mag Force Elastogel

I have to run it on setting 4 (out of 5) to stop me from running out of gears.

Looked this morning and ive made a hell of a mess behind the turbo of blue rubber lol. It might have been the Joe Devel of sprints of 50% ftp to 150%.

Any suggestions? I have another slick road tyre i can try. The roller looks to be in the correct position to give the correct load for a 26″ tyre. So i’m not sure what else to do.

Is everyone using a road bike for this or a mtb with more/higher gears?

I’ve been looking at them both too as my mileage is similar to yours.

Looks like you could shed a lot of weight on the Point AR just on the tyres, those Vee Tyres on the point AR are nearly 600g each. I bet you could save half a kilo just with some decent tyres for road use.

Bump for any other options.

Liking the look of both those, Mango especially. Thanks both. 🙂

Clearly don’t live in South Wales. 100mm of rain a month on average. 70 in May to 140 in December.

Out of the last 20 commutes I’ve been soaked 4 times.

Once I had to call in my LBS to buy a water bottle to put my phone in to stop it from getting ruined.

I’m back on it as of last night. Hate that 8 minute test being more DH orientated going for 8 minutes hard is tough. You can see that when i done 400w for the 2 30 second intervals but struggle to do 200 for 8 minutes.

I’ve swapped bikes from a road bike to my 1×10 hard tail which feels like i’m in-between gears i think due to the bigger jumps in gear ratios. I had to increase the resistance over last time too.

I know i shouldn’t look at FTP between setups but its hard not too. lol.

I also didn’t realise the FTP was set at 300 so my initial warm up was hard work!

All good fun tho.

https://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/2808814

Anyone seen any decent chains/locks in the sales?

Yeah thats it.

This is the descent…

https://www.strava.com/segments/6893099

Molgrips. That funny bit between mile marker 75 and 76 isn’t there anymore where it goes through the trees unmarked. Just turn right at the quarry and go the shorter way to mile marker 76 keeping left on route 47.

Also, as you’ve mapped, it keep right of the Lluest Wen dam. Route 47 takes you across the dam and up an unrideable climb. When you cross the Rhigos mountain road your in the windfarm site so if anyone asks you’re heading towards Cwmparc away from the turbines. They’re normally pretty good tho as long as you keep an eye out for them.

I also prefer the descent down to Castle Nos Resevoir from maerdy road then follow the road up to Lluest Wen. Keeps it a bit more ingesting plus it’s an actual road from the bottom Resevoir to the top with no cars on.

Hell of a ride tho.

Here’s a route for you…

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/11591611

Or a bigger ride with some local knowledge…

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/11383778

I wouldn’t want to do them on a rigid but thats me, its certainly doable.

Mynnydd Meandy, or Old Bill Descent is pretty good, some rough going but its pretty fast in sections.

If you’re looking at an OS, go east from that BW above and look at the path Twyn Crugyrafan that goes down around the edge of the basin and down into Cwmparc, thats a pretty impressive alpine type descent. Plus the one just north of that, Cwm Saerbren/Treherbert Basin, brutal bike/body wrecker but well worth doing.

The other bridelway into Blaencwm is awesome too, try and get past all the rocks without dabbing.

Theyre all on Strava too if you want links.

If anyone wants any guiding around the Rhondda let me know. I know all the descents that Afan Off Piste use on their uplifts.

My favourites in South Wales:

Machen top to bottom.
Ganol or Muddybum Castle Coch
Pentre Zig Zags (as mentioned above), although I rode it Sunday and its not in the best condition. 2 trees down and some water erosion.
The main one at Smilog or Truck Trash.
Most of the stuff at Wyllie.

Looks like I sorted it.

When I laced the NDS I started with the wrong hole so it was pretty much loading up the DS too much causing the tensioning to be incorrect.

The instructions I used was to follow the spoke key down to the hub then go across the centre of the hub and that hole should be the first spoke on the NDS. As this fell between holes i picked the wrong one.

260mm all round looks to be all good too.

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated!!!

The 258mm spokes would make 4mm of thread show which means that only a small amount of thread would be engaged. I also found it difficult to even get the ones with the 2mm of thread showing on the inside started when nipping up with a flat head screw driver.

Wouldn’t it be better to have the spoke sticking out of the nipple a little so all thread is engaged than to risk having it stop short and break at the nipple?

I’ll have a good look at the lacing and maybe get some photos up later.

Thanks for the help, all a learning process for me.

They’re not exactly super loose with the 2mm of thread showing.

I think if I went for the 258mm length on the DS would mean they would be too short on those ones with the 2mm of thread showing on the inside.

I might tension up and see how they look. I was just expecting to see the same amount of thread so i could wind them all to the same starting point.

Thanks for the help and suggestions, much appreciated.

yes I done that to start with, I started with 2mm of thread showing on the inside of the rim.

I notice that every third spoke was really loose so i tightened those so they felt similar, which ended up about 2mm of thread showing on the outside of the rim.

Im happy with 32t and 11-36, could go to a 34t so i’m going for a 36t an 11-42t. I would like to run a 38t to keep the climbing gear ratio the same but i don’t think i can fit a 38t chainring on my Orange Alpine.

If i was staying local i’d probably stay at Nant Ddu Lodge.

Swap to PF30, then you can complain.

And you was more worried about their safety?

Probably on their way over to Penarth to get their christmas presents from someone else.

Distance 1,560.4 mi
Time 150h 38m
Elev Gain 161,211 ft
Rides 119

Not enough. lol. Planning on riding a lot over Christmas so that should rise a bit too.

About 2/3 on the MTB amd 1/3 on commutes.

I couldnt get on with renthals due to size, i now use ODI Rogues and love them.