Echoing MikeWWW’s comments, I was at the UK Shools Games in Wharncliffe at the weekend and saw 36 Girls and 60+ Boys up to 16 racing in X Country, Dirt Crit, Uphill and Downhill events over the 3 days. The racing was very competitive and they seemed to be having a great time. I help/coach a 13 year old girl who came second in the 2 XC events in a field full of 16 year olds. Hopefully some of these riders will carry on to bigger things.

If I can add my two pennorth. I think the reason that the BBC et al fail to cover many such sports is the cost of outside broadcast. I was at a Rally Sprint event many years ago which was on a bleak hillside in mid Wales, the camera crews had been there for 3-4 days beforehand to set up scaffold platforms and would be there for 2 days afterwards to tear down, imagine the cost of paying a heavily unionised crew of about 25 people to be a couple of hundred miles away from London for a week to cover an event that had about 1 hours airtime. Ok current technology allows better results from far less cost but I think this has been a factor in the demise of televised Rallying, Motocross,Circuit Racing all types of Cycling,etc as the broadcasters can only afford to buy in coverage of a certain standard from sports which are more popular abroad such as the TdF.

Don’t want to pi55 on their chips but with all the talk of “competitors” and “timing” it looks like another event that is likely to fall foul of the racing on bridleway laws. However barmy the law is, riders need to be aware that if there is an accident and either personal or event insurance comes into play, these guys will have a field day.

You would be if running tubeless, I use mine all the time.

Beej might be interested in your felt. Can you mail me with price and where you are? E mail in profile ta

Is it my eyes or will the remote reservoir make a hell of a mess of the air can the first time it is compressed?

And depending on where you ride, it may be the case that self evacuation is the only option (no phone signal).

Good point, I’ve always found having a good dump puts the casualty at their ease

Re the Comminidad De Valencia mountainbike centres, don’t expect a trail centre a la Glentress, we rode at the one called Els Ports 3 weeks ago and it is purely waymarked natural trails and quite difficult ones as well. They have maps available from the centre or village where the trails coincide but getting them can be hit and miss if you plan to ride around the middle of the day as everything shuts.

Forgot to say, the best site for getting previously tried routes in Spain is wikiloc, I have downloaded many routes onto my Garmin and found them to be as advertised in terms of difficulty and quality. You may even be able to get some topo base mapping from misrutas.net which is transferrable onto a Garmin Oregon or Dakota via Google Earth.
And not forgetting the MTB Centres dotted around the area
This one’s near Alicante

I think you might struggle with the Costa Blanca area, the only ones I’ve found are Military maps and even Stanfords only stock a limited range. It’s no consolation but Cataluna’s ICC mapping is very good and totally available on line but too far North for you.

Thanks Matthew, looks like this lens doesn’t go light enough then, my Rudy Projects claim 10-78% light transfer.

Makes my 225.41 miles in 12 hours 2 years ago look pathetic although I didn’t have to be lifted off the bike at the end like Wilko did.

Don’t we have enough wind in this country without these farms making more?
IGMC

I got a job managing a sales team about 10 years ago, one of the reps looked exactly like Mr Potato Head, more or less the first unpleasant task I had to do was to sack him. He was useless though.

I run Maxxis tubeless on the Scandal and find that a 32/20 combo gives a good spread of gearing to climb most things laden and spin out at about 24mph, fine for the short sharp climbs of the PBW and the longer fire road grinds of mid Wales. It’s quite a liberating experience riding with all you need for a 3 day adventure. The Wildcat bag holds all my cooking stuff and food, the tent sits nicely behind the seatpost and sleeping bag and spare clothes in dry bags on the bars and rack. I’ve steered away from panniers to maintain agility and to stop hitting things on singletrack.

Had exactly the same thoughts earlier this year, I wanted a bike to do 3-4 day trips fully self sufficient and capable of fairly rough off roading. I have built an On One Scandal with horizontal slotted dropouts, an Alfine 11 hub, with Stans Tubeless Rims, 100mm Reba’s up front, with a rear rack, full mudguards, a frame bag from Wildcat and a home made mounting system for a 10l dry bag from Alpkit on the handlebars. It’s now done 140 miles along the Pennine Bridleway and the Welsh Ride Thing and apart from some initial bedding in issues with the hub, it’s not missed a beat. It handles well laden as the weight is spread about the bike and hasn’t cost a fortune, about £1,300 all in. Unfortuately the frame is no longer available but I think a new version is imminent, the whole setup is waterproof and robust, I’d post photos but haven’t got a hosting site organised yet.

Ed Clancy is in our cycling club and I’m getting my track acreditation next month so I should be at least top 10. 😀

That Charlie The Bikemonger will do anything for publicity 🙂

Might be a bit tricky getting one with your photo on it, I guess they will only honour this deal if it’s the same person buying the winter and summer passes.

Schleck’s got someone else’s helmet on

The WRT was my maiden voyage in the Solo in heavy rain and it stood up very well, less chlaustrophobic than a bivvi but not as comfortable as a bothy. Great value for £25-£30.

Are you on the run Kevj? 8)

@ Slugwash.
Yes it was a Gelert Solo and all the tent componenets were in the bag, it fits exactly in the gap between the saddle and seatstay on my Scandal and straps round the seatpost. No issues with it coming loose but I beefed the bag up with some 3 inch wide webbing.

Thanks for the feedback, I’m inclined to go for the larger now as I already have a small Dalkine pack, the 14 which seems to tick all the boxes. Sorry about that rickon.

Does it look like this one? What colour is it please?

Funny how everyone I spoke to about my crunching and skipping gears told me I was the only one, maybe we should start a support group or do a joint buy on a litre can of this dearer than caviar oil.

Staying with Stratobiker is definitely to be recommended if you fancy having your legs ripped off on his home trails around Limoges. 🙂

Thanks Cougar, I think that will work now.

Just gave that a try, opened it in My Pictures, went to Save As but the box that usually lets you try different file types is greyed out and only contains “Portable Network Graphics” now I know what PNG means!

Re Samuri’s experience, is this an indication of the forthcoming takeover by On One of Felt 🙂

I don’t think anyone has done the new 300mile option (?)

I think something’s brewing as Steve Heading contacted me for the GPX log of the Northern bit a few weeks ago.

Pardon my ignorance but what is a PBW double? Is it Middleton Top to Kirkby Stephen and back or up to the Mary Towneley loop, round the loop and back to Middleton. The PBW is complete up to KS as I rode it in May but it adds another 75 miles to the route so a double would be around 300 miles.

I think you are making a huge leap of imagination if you think that the letter tacitly approves bikes on footpaths. It sounds to me that the MP is actually looking to usurp bikes rights to exclusive use of cycle paths thus reducing our powers and turning routes that we could previously ride quickly and safely into a horse slalom. Don’t forget the power the horse lobby has over MP’s, it would be more tactically astute to lobby with them to get more footpaths upgraded to Bridleways or above as a sort of Trojan Horse, pardon the pun, to get our access increased.

Where’s Wally?

My advice, having been there twice, is to set off now. In 2001 (Lance vs Fat Jan and “the look”) the cloggies were there 4 days before, there wasn’t a foot of space at the side of the road for the whole climb. Fantastic atmosphere though. One trick is to take the cablecar up from Oz Station and walk down from the top.

AFAIK it’s the longest continuous climb in England i.e going constantly uphill. There’s a hillclimb timetrial there in September, I did it a few years ago, never again!
Oops too slow (in more ways than one)

A 16 year old from Dark Peak completed it 2 weeks ago, he looked shattered at the finish. Key is to have good support and change of clothes as it will be wet.

Best one I heard on this theme, a mate was out in the Dales on his road bike, he’s a rotund gentleman of a difficult age, certainly no racing whippet. He slowly caught up a small group of similarly aged riders and asked them in a friendly way where they were heading, the reply was “what the f*** has it got to do with you?” Being a tw@ is seemingly no respector of age!

I lived in Milford from 1972-85 and my paper round included many of the secluded houses around Brocton up the tracks towards the German Cutting so I think pedalling around here probably counts. Used to regularly get around the Sherbrook valley etc. Then I got into motorcycle trials, used to go all over until the big fires in ’76 when the restrictions started.

Shimano MT60’s have a grippy sole and are 25% off in Lex’s Cycles, as with all Shimano shoes they are about 1 size smaller than advertised.