dufusdip – Thank you! We did a pretty comprehensive article in issue 89[/url] on bikepacking kit. That should help you. Really though half the fun is in making those mistakes – in the UK if you pick a mild night the only harm that’s going to befall you is a less than stellar night’s sleep, if your sleeping solution turns out to ‘need work’… We don’t have much in the way of life-threatening predators 🙂

Thanks for the feedback folks – we really appreciate it.

nemesis – Fret not, reviews of the plus-size bikes will follow online over the next few weeks. They didn’t go into the mag for several reasons – not least that two of them only arrived the week before print deadline, and we’d rather get them ridden properly before writing you a review!

Gavin – Stop hitting on my husband. Ta 🙂

We like this 🙂

http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/android-users-heres-something-you-might-like/

Have a look at Strava to see trails round Shearwater/Longleat. There is riding of the XC slog persuasion up on the downs behind Mere/Shaftesbury etc. but at this time of year I wouldn’t bother unless it is frozen solid/you’re on a ‘cross bike and don’t mind skipping the worst of the sticky stuff on the road. Woods around Alfred’s Tower/Stourhead good for a short blast, too, especially if you have time for a pie from the Stourhead farm shop afterwards.

Very good kit. We’ve had a couple of bits in to test (Rogue hoodie review here[/url]) and it’s all been durable and well designed. Sizing is ‘realistic’ too 😉 If you’re at the London show this weekend then the UK distributor is here with lots of stock.

rogerthecat: can you drop me an email, please? jenn@singletrackworld.com

zippykona: With truly ironic timing, there is a substantial feature in the next issue of the mag on Ride Sheffield and its success.

Get involved with PDMTB and help them to do the same.

Special front page story just for you lot[/url] 🙂

The search function in the Mag Archive (search box on top left of screen, not top right) should search the contents story of each issue, so searching for ‘workstand’ brings up that issue and any others in which workstands feature in the contents blurb.

I say ‘should’, needless to say it doesn’t always work that well, but glad to be of service this time 😉

Last workstand grouptest.[/url] A while ago, but workstands don’t seem to be a rapidly evolving science… 😉

Thank you for the kind wishes, folks. As Mark says I’ve been undergoing treatment for lung cancer. Thankfully as well as the cancer I’ve also got a serious case of stubbornness, so am doing pretty well, all things considered 🙂

bump for the teatime crowd…

Do any of them fit a bike bottle cage? Mrs Average would like to cycle to the station with hot tea.

Get the Kleen Kanteen on the previous page. Comes with a leakproof top, fits in a bottle cage for the ride to the station, switch to the sippy top when I get there. Contents normally still dangerously hot by the time I get to the office, 90 minutes later.

The Pont Scethin loop is in the next issue of Singletrack. We do it the ‘right’ way round, too 😉

Interesting. We’re investigating (and doing a lot of squinting, so sharing your pain 😉 ) – but unfortunately I can’t give you a definitive answer until the art ed. is back from her hols next week…

Best wishes from everyone at Singletrack, too.

Full instructions here:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/the-singletrack-ipad-app

Enjoy 🙂

Report on the front page, Nobeerinthefridge – didn’t fancy carrying a proper camera around with me…

http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ard-rock-enduro/%5B/url%5D

Big thanks to the marshall at the top of stage three who held my bike down so I could get on it!

Noted, thanks 🙂

Cheers Kevin.

Just updated the front page story with finisher times. Can anyone fill me in with news of the untracked riders, if any are still going?

Sad to miss it this time around but hoping to make an autumn tour and then be back to race next year.

Wildcat Gear’s Tiger and Mountain Lion are both reviewed in next issue’s Grinder. Sneak preview: they’re good 😉

This is because I seem to be the only person in the test team who actually believes that gloves should be washed more than once every six months. For the record – the Gore ones are fine at 40 degrees.

Sorry chaps – the map which is in the magazine should also be available as a PDF download from the Mag Archive, to aid you in getting ‘purposefully lost’. I’ll try and get that sorted out today for you.

druidh – that’s looking like a black squirrel to me, not a red one. Better-lit evidence required to appease me please 😉

Ace. Make sure you arrive in Pie Town in time for pie 🙂

Thanks for your thoughts, folks.

We wanted to include Specialized in this test, so asked several times if they would send us some tyres. They didn’t send any. That’s why none were tested.

As the responses above clearly illustrate, there is no one right tyre which does every job for every rider. It simply doesn’t exist, because we all want different things. Hence the test’s conclusion, which offered some suggested pairings for more specific purposes.

While you may not have encountered the need for particularly burly or suicidally slick rubber in your own personal travels, there are all sorts of riders out there doing all sorts of riding on their 29ers, on all sorts of terrain. Variety is the spice of life and all that. Long may it continue 🙂

http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/lost-a-yeti-doncaster-police-would-like-to-know/

Bump…

Results went up on the front page story earlier this afternoon. Our technical number cruncher is away on holiday this week but all the individual category CSV files are linked to the top threes – if anybody would like a spreadsheet with all the data in it, to perform their own number crunching, then send me an email and I’ll sort it out tomorrow.

Friends and family of Singletrack fielded two women’s teams – one novice, one try-hard. Between us we spanned the full breadth of race experience – I’ve probably raced more 24s than is healthy, while Lisa had never raced, or done a night ride, in her life. My team were pleased to win, but I’m prouder still of the other team, who could quite easily have stopped at two laps apiece to officially finish, or even just sacked it off after one, but instead kept plugging on all the way through the night to do themselves, and the event, proud.

Racing isn’t meant to be easy. If you choose to race in the UK then you choose to deal with the weather conditions it throws at you. I’ve never raced a course in the UK that doesn’t become more challenging when it’s wet; ‘weatherproof’ courses (Strathpuffer, Newcastleton, Swinley) bring their own challenges – like a set of brakepads per lap…

This year’s weather has made racing more of a challenge than ever but with preparation, realism and a dose of M/WTFU in your bottle, it’s still fun. The number of smiling faces I saw over the weekend confirm that.

Sermon over 😉

All comments noted. Thanks 🙂

epub and kindle versions est arrivee 🙂

Me too, my head would probably have exploded 😉

Thanks for the comments, guys – if it’s any consolation I would quite like to be back there now too 🙂

Thanks for the positive feedback about the Torridon feature, folks. It really was an amazing place, and I’m angling to get back for a proper holiday as soon as I can. Thanks for pointing out that the URL we printed for the village website is wrong, it should be applecross.uk.com. Many apologies both to residents, visitors and Eskgrove Homes, who are probably wondering why they now have some rather odd referral traffic!

On delivery of subs copies:

The magazine went to the printers as planned. Once it leaves the printers, it’s in the hands of Royal Mail. As Jamie says above, Royal Mail are currently switching all their press services from Pressstream (which no longer exists) to Publishing Mail (if you’d like to be bored to tears you can read about it here).

As you can see from the responses on this thread, delivery has turned out to be slower to some regions than others while Royal Mail switch their clients (including us) over to the new system. All magazines are currently in despatch, though, having left both Singletrack & Warners as planned, and we expect them to land on subscriber’s doormats within a few days.

We ask you to wait ten days from the scheduled publication date before contacting us as, with all post, a small percentage of the thousands of magazines we send via Royal Mail are simply delayed, but an even smaller percentage never arrive at all. So, as Jamie says, if your copy of issue 74 has not arrived by 22nd June, get in touch[/url].

I’m going to close this thread now but leave it sticky, so that anyone wondering why they haven’t got their copy yet can find out why, and what to do about it. Don’t forget that subscribers have access to the digital editions too, though the fact that some of you still want to wait for the print has made me very happy indeed. Thank you 🙂

Speshpaul, I think we’ve answered all your questions clearly but if you’d like any further information then please email me directly.

The Iceland words were supplied in English, written by a native French speaker (and it should be noted that we’ve received plenty of copy written by native English speakers which made *much* less sense…). We put hours into tidying them up, but it’s a fine line between grammatical correctness and killing an author’s tone/personality stone dead. We don’t translate Ferrentino’s work to British English from American, or Matt’s from Matt-speak; that’s one of the things which differentiates our content from other magazines, and it’s something that we’re proud of.

The Euro-style “for shure!” should always be accompanied by the hand thing, though. Maybe we need some new page furniture…

We’ve been enjoying this thread in the office this morning, keep the criticism (constructive or otherwise) coming please.

chiefgrooveguru – If you’re referring to the picture on page 62, the ‘nice techy rocks’ are actually a bastard hard climb. We’ll let you know next time we’re down there, you’d be most welcome to come along and show us how it’s done… 😉

Stoner, what you want does exist in the Trail Guide.[/url]

The map pins include both trail centres and our route guide locations. If you click through the links on the route guide pins, you’ll get the page for that route guide, with links to pdf copies of the OS map extracts for the routes. So, no need to delve through the Mag Archive.

Disclaimer: unfortunately, the map itself is at least a year out of date and, much as I’d like to have time to go through all of the route guide links right now to check they all work, sadly I don’t…

We’re currently discussing the best way to manage the route guide archive in the future; please bear with us!

In the meantime if there are specific route guides we’ve done since then which you’d like to know about, then email Chipps and he can tell you which issue they’re in. According to my stickers-on-paper map, we’ve done Welsh route guides in issues 1, 9, 12, 13, 23, 25, 34, 41, 47, 53, 57, 63, and 65…

Had those hope pads been bedded in?

Of course they had.

Box fresh Hope sintered pads lasted less than a lap on a friend's bike.

The faster you go, the more you need to brake. Race (or ride) fast, and you'll brake more. Not the most complicated of conundrums, really…

Hope sintered pads after four laps at the Gorrick Enduro:

I'd also expect hundreds of miles out of these in dry, clean conditions – but not in gritty slop. Much thought has been given to what would work in gritty slop, though – the best we could come up with was two pairs of pad backs sandwiched together, sold with a g-clamp for squashing the lever to the bar when your hands give out and a free pair of earplugs for the rider. Any advances? Could get expensive.. 😉

Maybe it would be good to invite some women from a (probably European!) country where a lot of women do cycle over to the UK to see if they can shed some light on what the differences are?

The Darlington Cycling Campaign[/url] did exactly that, with great success. They make the distinction between cycling as a means of transport and as a leisure pursuit, though, which the BCF's survey doesn't do. Mountain biking is perceived as an adrenaline sport and consequently there's a whole extra level of biological and psychological differences which affect the female attitude to it.

Frame geo for the men's and women's EX8 is readily available on Trek's website.

2010 Fuel EX 8 WSD 15.5" ett 55.3cm[/URL]
2010 Fuel EX 8 15.5" ett 57.0cm[/URL]