Recent Soggy Bottom XC races I’ve done at Newnham Park have been shorter lap distance with more laps, which is really good for repeat obstacle / feature riding rather than super long distance laps where you never really get the hang of the course. It allows the course builder to put a few techs bits in which riders end up doing 6-7 times rather than the course builder needing to double the amount of obstacles and then only do 3-4 laps. Win win for me.

XC is getting more technical (in general) now compared to the 10-15 years ago, which is great for seasoned riders and daredevils, but newbies and the less competent need alternate ridable routes around high-tech features to keep their flow going, so A & B lines are essential, and need to be markedly different – some are hard to tell apart!

will try the sun bake this weekend :)

It’s literally designed to glue on – it isn’t going to come off easily (or it would be useless at its own job!),

This makes me wonder how the squirt ‘ no sticky residue’ works

Sniper looks good, and I see even the XC version is 67,5 and decent reach. And no seatstay bridge for good mud clearance.

Had a go on a Trek Top Fuel and boy it feels weird with the front wheel that far out front! It didn’t feel comfortable for powering up hill, too cramped and wandery front wheel. Only a flat grass ride but so different to my Epic. Now wondering if 66.5 head angle is too slack – partly based on someone else^^ saying the new Epic was too slack for them. Need to try some different bikes to work out this head angle thing, as maybe only 1 or 2 degree change is going to have big implications.

Thanks for the feedback.
That pink bike xc/dc review is useful and the term ‘downcountry’ seems to have some bikes that fit my outlook.
I hadn’t really appreciated what the epic evo was – it looks good for me and points that the canyon lux isn’t really for me anymore, which is a shame because I like the look and some of the design features. Maybe their next generation will be slacker.
Just got to find a bike now for the right price and availability.
Cheers

I’m really liking road riding at the moment with so few cars, just have to watch out for walkers all over the road. Mtb is good too as it seems most people must drive their bike to the hills, so now once I get past walking and bimbling distance from town (about 3miles) it’s pretty quiet.

I reckon there’s gonna be quite a few disillusioned newbie cyclists when we get out of the lockdown. There seems to be loads of new cyclists and families bimbling around the lanes around my way (Somerset) which is great to see, but once all the knobber drivers get back on the roads and cut them up and give them a few near misses I think unfortunately they’ll retreat back to the sofa.

I also wondered if the near-miss knobber drivers were the people who can work from home, as I assume they’re not out on the roads and the essential workers are the ones that are left?

Cheers. I’ll have a look at the seconds market and left overs at various sites around me. I don’t need to do the whole building in one hit so off cuts and left overs will b fine. Is jab lite the same but without foil? I guess this will be fine. I’m a bit blinded by the general statements to fit Celotex.

Site hoarding seems a good idea too. Again, plenty of new build sites around here so I might have a chat with a few site managers.

ive got some breathable membrane to pin up to the inside on the back of the lap boards to help seal the building. Do I need to pack out the complete cavity before final boarding? Or as mentioned, will 50 or 70mm of insulation be ok with a 50 or 30mm gap be ok? Should the gap be on the outside next to the lap board or just behind the final inner board?

it is a big bike shed:) it was the previous owners workshop, hence the size. It seems to be filling up though with, ‘oh we could put the tumble drier in there, and the freezer. Oh and the dishwasher whilst waiting to sort the kitchen out, and the prams and buggy… ‘ Starting to need wall space so I can get to a clear space to work in!

I switched only the bearings (sticking with the OEM shells) straight out for ceramic versions and now have a long life BB and no need buy different cranks.

Do you mean the Delrin cups? Is is easy to remove just the bearings? I thought that might easily damage the shells/cups (as they are are Delrin/plastic).
Of course, I might keep the Sram crank and replace the Sram BB with a Hope one (PF46 for 30mm crank axle). To be honest, I’ve had the bike for 2 years and the original Sram pressfit BB has not started creaking yet (but I’m sure it will at some point and I’m trying to plan ahead for that).[/quote]
Yes, I kept the original plastic cups. I knocked the original bearings out with a large flat screwdriver from the opposite sides, which invariably means both cup and bearing come out. Once out of the frame, the bearing separates from the cup easily. Then I refit the shells, no grease, then refit the bearings, with a smidge of grease to ensure no corrosion of the outside of the races, with a homemade bearing driver (large bolt with giant washers the same size as the bearings which you slowly tighten up to squeeze new bearings back into the plastic cups in the frame symmetrically).
I’ve not run this particular one in much water yet, but its time will come and past experience has proved this to be reliable set up

Cheers all. Endura MTR range looks quite good, as does the Gore Alp X 2 in 1, though you’re right, they’re pricey but do get very good reviews.

You may be already set on switching to 24mm cranks, but in case not, i thought i’d put forward a defence of PF30: I have had a couple of carbon Epics with PF30 and initially found the BB short lived an a PITA and expensive to change, but with my latest carbon epic I switched only the bearings (sticking with the OEM shells) straight out for ceramic versions and now have a long life BB and no need buy different cranks.

Sixty six sausages sizzling in a saucepan

I love the mud. Love the challenge of working out how to keep moving and picking the right lines and trails.
I used to live in Bristol and loved Ashton Court and Leigh Woods in the winter when it was several inches deep – pretty much had the trails to yourself as most stayed away. I went back for the Octoberfest and the surfaced trails – don’t think I ever want to ride there again it was so unnatural and lacking in real dirt and mud. I find trail centres surfaces extremely slippery when damp and with no mud to slow the speeds I find it all a bit too sketchy. Loving the Southern edge of the Quantocks right now, away from some of the main Bridleways which were just about passable in Autumn let alone now. I ride a hard tail in the winter, narrower, spicier tyres and don’t over wash it after each ride. Ceramic bearings in the BB are essential.

I’ll quite often go for a pint of grapefruit and lemonade as it knocks the sweetness out of the lemonade, and as said before the lemonade gives the body. Or if it’s just a small drink maybe ginger beer. Also try drinking a pint of water at the start which will reduce your desire to drink loads more liquid then you’ll be happy with just a few drinks and won’t succumb to bloated on coke whilst trying to match the beer drinkers pace.

I have specialised bikes with PF30 and the SRAM ones don’t like wet, crappy conditions. My latest one I knocked out just the bearings, ie reusing the plastic insert, and replaced them with ceramic verions. My old bikes ceramic Hope HTII BB were amazing and lasted years so I’m hoping for similar results, but without buying a full Hope ceramic bearing – time will tell…

Specialised zee on my mtb bikes too. They’re side ish entry makes XC riding and drinking fairly simple and I’ve never lost a bottle. I use specialised wide neck bottles too, which are fairly soft and grip well in the cage, plus really easy to clean. I think the zee is available in either left or right hand depending which you prefer.

I’ve broken my right tibia twice and fibula once racing mx 18 and 11 years ago. First time, both tib and fib, clean break. Got fitted with an external fixator. Looked pretty scary but I was weight bearing the day after the op so muscle wastage was kept to a minimum and flexibility was good. Never had any issues with it other than the bone scar tissue on the pin sites used to cause skin rubbing on my mx boots.
Second time was a bit worse. Wrapped my leg sideways under the bike and crushed the top of the tibia. Was rebuilt with bone from my hip and plate and screws like yours. Took a long time to recover. Couldn’t cycle a bike for 9 months because I just couldn’t make my foot go round in circles and stay on the pedal. Used to wear a knee brace for any action sport for about 2 years. Eventually I got strong and confident enough to not use the support. Court sports are ruled out for me as the jarring and twisting effect on the knee causes it to swell. Rehab was a stationary bike, then turbo trainer at home then outdoors, which ultimately led me to ditch mx and start mountain biking properly.
The pins and plate in bone fractures rarely seem to be an issue, it’s the cartilage and tendon damage that needs managing carefully and possibly adjustment to your lifestyle to preserve them.

I always use spds, shimano. Just set the tension to low to start with and build your strength and confidence and gradually tighten them up to the level you want. Don’t rush it.
Cycling is an excellent rehab method as it’s basically very low weight bearing

Minehead’s a great location for either. It is at the steep end of exmoor and everywhere is up from there. Dunkery Beacon being the highest point on exmoor so a good target if you like climbing. I’d stay away from the A39 as much as possible as it is relatively busy with dawdling tourists who aren’t sure where to go past, especially on the Bridgewater to Minehead section. Once you cross it from Minehead most of the roads are going to be pretty quiet.
Have fun, it’s sure to make you want to go back and try whichever bike you didn’t use.

Pretty ridable everywhere for the most part if you stick to the central ridge line and the surrounding combes because its sandstone based with a thin peaty layer. Can be very wet with water running down the combe trails. Great wood will be a bit muddier but it’s downhill so you’ve got gravity’s help and fireroads to go back up. Further south than lydeard hill, and over the south east side the bridleways will be impassable – some were unridable last October! Horses churn it up really bad.

I had a metal specialised one for years, the piston eventually wore out but it had done it’s fair share. I couldn’t seem to get a replacement valve as the newer ones are all fatter now.
Replaced it with a park tools ptf5, absolute rubbish. The metal barrel screws into a plastic base which dos not create an airtight joint, unless you stand on the dial and lean it a certain angle. The folding foot pegs fall off when you look at them, the dial ‘glass’ fractured from twisting stress, the shrader valve head won’t disconnect from the bike until you’ve lost half your air. And trying to get a road bike tyre to more than 80 is a struggle.
Definetly want a metal based and metal barrel next time.

I use a weeride for my 15kg 3yo and the bike handles well. Tight turning means they need to keep their knees in but generally it works well, and as said above great for conversing and interacting. She fell asleep on it a few times when she was around 18 months. Also pull a Bellini trailer for most nursery runs with two kids, 3yo and 1yo, and that is brilliant. Water tightish, out of the wind, back luggage space for all the stuff that seems to be required, folds up with one hand. Ref the wife’s too dangerousometer, the general consensus and my experience is they are safer in traffic than a bike seat. Cars give you a ton of space as they can easily see a child trailer whereas with the weeride I get skimmed past like normal, as the child’s silhouette is obscured by your own. Having said that I did recently have a ‘nice lady’ in her Beemer decide I wasn’t pulling out into a busy stream of traffic quick enough and decide to give the trailer a little nudge, needless to say I wasn’t best pleased.

I used to find htii bearings only lasted 6 to 9 months on the Quantocks, so tried a hope ceramic in 2008 and it’s been there ever since, brilliant piece of kit. I just can ‘to be doing with wonky cranks, chain rub all the time for the time it takes me to think, really, another bb already.

In my experience, alloy nipples are not worth the weight saving. They are a pita. They will seize on after 6 months and round off when you look at them to adjust any tension.

XTR M980 pedals. The axles keep snapping – they’re so thin at the end it’s hardly surprising. I would class my self as a fairly light rider but still managed to break 3 of the 4 (2 sets) within 12 months. Both sets were warranty replaced but the second set I replaced with XT.

Wait until the dog is fully grown, at least 18 months, or you’re it’s/you’re gonna have all sorts of joint problems to deal with. We’ve got a red setter which could gamble along for about 10 miles in it’s hay day but that was fairly short lived. By the time it was 5 or 6yo, 6 miles was too far. It used to get stiff after, and even bonked a couple of times which is not a great situation and made us change tactics – walk the dog on dog walks and go for a decent ride on bike rides. That way you can use footpaths and bridle ways as intended and explore different places rather than being confined to bridle ways.
We did a lot of training with ours, and labs are pretty quick to learn so you should be okay there. A few buzzes of the front tyre soon teaches them to stay out of the way of the front wheel.
Remember a lot of people are not keen on dogs, particularly ones they consider are not under close control. It can be shot without question for chasing livestock.
I’m not a fan of dogs at trail centres, it’s pointless and disrespectful but have no problem with common access trails etc.
Pads should be ok if the dog does daily hard surface walking, ours have never had a problem. A friends lab was regularly car’d to grass walk areas and when it went cycling it used to rip it’s pads up in its enthusiasm. It, as labs do, loved water and so kept making its pads soft by being wet which definetly didn’t help.
A dogs for life so take care of it.

From the door for me too. Every minute faffing putting kit in the van and driving is a minute of ridding gone. It’s 7 miles to the hills but warms me up nicely and gets time and miles on the legs. I’ve also livened it up loads now by finding bridle ways and lanes all over the place to get to where I want – they’re also quieter too.
At most for leisure rides I drive 45 mins to exmoor, or up to 3hrs for xc racing or marathon events – but that’s only when I’ve got a day pass.

And why is it that pedestrian groups always split in the middle and leave not quite enough room through the centre?

Good stuff on this thread now – wasn’t expecting so many replies. Based on stw mag content I thought that most riders were middle aged, won’t be known to be training and are just out being gnarly on a 160 fs. Seems there’s quite a few putting in a structure to their riding to form training for either racing or just plain riding fast.

Recovery is definetly an equally important element to my training now but I think I poorly manage it. I find my riding time is limited now with young kids, so my riding tends to be flat out until I get back to the door trying to maximise my time at speed. I do find energy drinks with protein, like accelerade, beneficial to my recovery. It’s expensive to use energy drinks all the time so have been trying squash instead, hoping that when things get heated it’ll be the turbo boost, but it hasn’t worked as slow training equals slow racing.

Interested that there’s been little mention of weights/gym work. I’d rather be on my bike than in the gym with mirror boys and the chat club and so try big gear seated stuff and rigid SS for leg and upper body work outs. I do appreciate that core strength and suppleness are key to good posture to prevent fatigue and reduce sprains when crashing.

The variations in training intensity, duration etc seems the same as any age group ie tailor it to your goals. As has been mentioned, seems the 3 week rota is worthy, being aware of not feeling it so not busting yourself because the schedule says so, but equally make the most of opportunities when they arise and being regular ish whatever the weather.

Cheers tim, I’ll take a look at Joe’s blog

Reckon I’ll carry on as I am and just accept it takes hard effort and competitive desire always takes some of the pain away. 2 out of 3 weeks works better for me too, gym for me is pretty much the rowing machine once a week in the winter and spring, occasionally add some leg work focused on leg push action, turbo in the winter, spring, long ride at weekends. Need to focus on better mix of protein in diet and sleep instead of surfing forums!
Thanks for all the feedback

Did you visit Taunton yet?
A good B&B I always send visitors to is http://www.staplegrovelodge.co.uk on the edge of taunton.
For mtb look on the quantock quake fb site for their 2014 route, it was great – following the map will be more successful than the course markers if they were still there!
For road, turn right out of the B&B drive and head to Bampton, turn right just as you enter the town and keep going all the way back to the taunton to minehead road (A358) at the railway bridge, turn right back to taunton. An ‘undulating’ 45 miles.

I’m pretty sure most xtr stuff has a 3 year warranty, and so if it is a model only released within the last 3 years it should be warrantable because it clearly didn’t exist to use before then. I’ve just had a similar issue with some xtr pedals but managed to get my lbs to send them back to the importer to have a look at them to see if they believe it was a warranty case – apparently it is so I’m due a replacement :)
I think most shimano kit has a sticker or printed 2 digit code that indicates year of manufacture – you’ll need to look up the codes.

I tried early morning rides for a bit, pre kids. Everything ready the night before, 6.15am alarm, few swigs of tea, few spoonfuls of oat porridge or granola. I wanted to ride hard for up to 1.5hrs and any more and my stomach can’t handle it. Back home for 8, shower and finish breakfast before work. Struggled to get moving, but had a target of being a fitter racer and knew I would begrudge missing an opportunity if I didn’t go.
Now, with kids, early mornings seem impossible – need to be supporting the wife by sorting kids, dogs etc until I go to work so, now it’s late night riding once they’ve all gone to bed at 9pm.

I think it helps to be flexible with your days and distances – if it’s gonna be pissing down tomorrow and looking good for the day after, set yourself up for the good weather. I don’t see any point in making it more difficult, it’s supposed to be for enjoyment. And if you’ve got some different length routes you can switch to the one that’s going to get you back home on time if you’re running late or manage to get out earlier.

Empty roads and sunrises do bring a great deal of smugness when sat at work amongst weary car commuters.

Having just started cycling with my daughter in a bike trailer or on crossbar seat, I’m amazed by the amount of space traffic gives me. There is a definite shift of attitude from drivers to protecting a child versus solo adult cyclist who can just get the …. out of their way. Weird how adult cyclists are ‘obviously’ protected by some sort of force field worthy of testing.

CaptJon – Member
Warm down properly.

I have to admit my warm down is generally confined to braking on the drive in an attempt to get the most amount of each ride. Though it is actually not working because then it takes me days/nearly a week to recover before the next ride.
Last ride, though a bit shorter, included a couple of miles of stretching and calmer pedalling, which did feel better.

What does anyone else do to warm down?

The outer cap is what the 10mm bolt pushes against to self extract the crank from the splined shaft. I found it’s best if, before you undo the bolt, to try and squirt some grease or lubricant into the tiny gap around the inner ring of the cap so that the head of the bolt can slide against the inside of the cap. When undoing the, bolt it should release at first and for maybe half a turn then go tight when it touches the cap, which is when you may need an extension bar.
IME I’ve found that with a 12cm long Allen key there is enough torque to do it up by hand and stay tight without becoming prohibitively tight and ok to get undone without an extension bar.

I run a hiace LWB 2.4td 53 plate. Had it about 7 years and it’s cost me about 4 sets of wipers! Though I only do about 5k a year in it.
Ex electricians so had 100k on its first 4 years but came ply lined and not loaded with bricks. Paint is virtually spotless. Does about 30-35mpg at 70 on the motorway. LWB is 3m long inside so fits our windsurf kit, the swb wasn’t long enough inside for us. Feels quite narrow when driving, Iike a car but the length means manoeuvring around tesco car park needs to be a bit more considered. Rwd is rubbish on anything slightly slippery – it feels like it needs a ton of sand in the back to get some traction.
I need to add side windows and a rear seats now for family use – anyone know if I can just drill holes through the ply floor and bolt through to spreader plates on the underside of the van for the seat fixing?

Cheers Marmoset,
I think may be it’s the original and it’s been flared on fitting. Hacksaw it is then.

Have to say my ceramic hope bearings are better than I ever imagined. After grinding out too many HTIIs, that then seize up after every ride unless they’re stripped down and regreased and dealing with s**t chain alignment from worn bearings – ceramic is fit and forget for year after year. Worth every penny.

Also what’s the youngest age that people find them usable at?

When I tried my daughter at around 9 months, she was not very keen on the experience as she didn’t want to be held in place by the straps and wasn’t using her hands to hold on.
I had a trailer for nursery runs so stuck with that for a while. Once she was walking herself, and scooting on a trike i tried again. She was able to use her core much better to stay in place and hold on when she wanted and loved it.
My only comment for age is, they’re ready when they’re ready.

Keela Scuffer trousers; plenty warm and dry enough!

househusband, are these actually waterproof? Like the look of the stretchy material and not too baggy cut