I’m with stevious, looks like there are at least 2 fireroads or similar parallel and pretty close to what I’m assuming is a tricky MTB section (the skills course). Then 18mph is pretty slow for a 1 minute flat section, the guys at the top of the leaderboard should be ashamed!

In fact – being a nosy sod, looking at the leaders GPS track (click on his time for the segment which will take you to the gps track of his whole ride with the segment highlighted) he has indeed straight lined it on a fireroad or similar just to the coast side of the skills course! Your track is way more wiggly…

If you can be arsed you could do that for all the leaders and flag any that aren’t on the proper track, you might jump a few positions and your time will look less bad!

Surely only a 170mm skewer not axle, as the hub is clamped against the adapter, otherwise what would be the point?

From the SIngular Puffin FAQ posted above (which pretty much says exactly what I did):

The Puffin uses 170mm rear spacing, which means a Rohloff won’t fit easily. However the good people at Salsa Cycles make an adapter for their 170mm back ended Mukluk. That adapter fits with no interference with the frame at all, overall seems very solid. I don’t see any reason a Rohloff hub wouldn’t work – with the following requirements;

– QR version
– laced to a rim with offset spoke holes to get the 17.5mm offset and retain some spoke triangulation
– skewer suitable for a 170mm hub
– speedbone or similar brake adapter to deal with the hub torque.

An Alfine won’t fit in this adapter due to both the length and diameter of the axle.

The only other IGH possiblity is a 3 speed 170mm hub which is available from Sturmey Archer.

There’s a 170 to 135mm adapter by Salsa, I imagine it could be bodged with a monkey bone rohloff disc mount or similar?

http://www.universalcycles.com/shopping/product_details.php?id=38805&category=4246

Yeah, the fixed thing brought everyone from fixed mixte riding lasses to bike couriers, alley cat racers to old school fixed road hardmen, on top of the normal mix of cx racers (which runs from full lycra clad/UCI legal bikes through stuff like mine – SS, flared drops, wider tyres but on a normal cross frame – to MTBs etc). Lots of beer after – we hire a communal sauna for post ride warming up :-) Number 10 is a multiple Finnish championship winner (track, road, cross, MTB) who rides the series under the pseudonym ‘Bruce Wayne’ wearing a cape, mask and full body fringed bat outfit!

There didn’t used to be pretty much any CX races in Finland other than the national championships, so a bunch of couriers and bike shop guys started a series for mostly cross type bikes on mostly cross type terrain. It’s unofficial, so it’s way easier to mark out a track using forest singletrack and fireroads with some grassy/muddy bits than hiring/stealing a lawn, park or school playing field for a fully grass type traditional track. Rules are somewhat relaxed – tyres under 2″ and rigid forks/drop bars qualify for series points. And of course MTBs welcome but no points scoring. Mostly just for fun, and sometimes just to see what course a CX bike can actually be ridden round!

This year a complementary series has started up, with stricter rules – 35mm or less tyres – and more ‘normal’ CX courses, though still most of the races are towards the technical end of the normal CX spectrum and less grassy just as it’s easier finding courses. Most of them are not too different to the more technical regional races in the UK. More ‘normal’ and UCI legal cross bikes at this one, as lots of folk buy them as commuters or to ride gravel/fire roads.

As more of an MTBer than road or CX rider I find the courses a great mix of the technical and the ‘chucking up a lung’ all out speed sections – usually lots of short sharp hills that are borderline doable on single speed, short blasts connecting the mud/hills/singletrack etc. The one by the beach involving multiple dismounts and runs through the sand was fun!

Same for me, was around 2 mins down, all on the last lap, but luckily that was only 2 places as we’d put in a good gap when I was battling for 3rd and 4th before then.

Swedish Chef – Ooof! Is the racing so close that one fall will drop you way back, or was it just one of those days when everything went wrong?

I missed the previous weeks race which was all the organiser had hoped for and more by all accounts – a muddy death march with ripped off mechs and totally blocked wheels galore! Couldn’t make it but sounds like SS would have been perfect…

This weekends was the first familiar track this year, but I was a feeling a bit rough so took it relatively easy. Lots of rain here in Helsinki in the week before, plus in the am of the race, so standing water in quite a few places but the track itself – fireroad, singletrack, a few muddy run ups and one precipitous slither down a steep grassy and rocky bank – held up pretty well, better than last year. The rain held off and it was even a little sunny towards the end of the race.

This was back to the ‘CX where it does not belong’ series, so plenty of rooty singletrack with opportunities to flat or go badly wrong. And a climb up a short DH run complete with small jumps! Maybe as I was taking it a little slowly I managed to not have too many problems and felt like the hardest sections were flowing pretty well.

The above drop off caught out plenty of people – off-camber, diagonal roots on the approach meant you ended up being forced mostly into a line heading for either the left or right of those roots on the downslope, not the line down the centre. See this photo set[/url] for some dismounts, alternative lines round the trees, a couple of wheelie drops and plenty of mid- and post-crash images at the same dropoff!

It was also the Finnish fixed CX championships, so plenty of unsuitable bikes ridden in good spirit. I even won a cycling cap for I think first singlespeed. Ended up 6th after a run of 5ths and one 2nd, but was overtaken by 2 folks in the last 1/4 lap and had nothing left to hold on so not too bad considering I was feeling rough. Quick tyre swap from ‘proper monstercross’ (46mm) to ‘just monstercross and only cos the UCI changed the rules a while back’ (35mm, still legal for all but the Finnish championship here) for the regular series this Sunday, hopefully feeling on better form…

You can even see from the Giant ad pic that the 29er ‘contact patch’ below the tyre is overhanging the actual contact considerably…

Yep, depending on the course it can be perfect or a bitch. Will find out tomorrow if the advantages of no gears to clog will outweigh the disadvantages of singlespeed on a totally flat, almost certainly totally muddy course. I usually do best when there are plenty of short sharp hills, but not too steep or techy that I run out of legs. 36:18 here.

By the way umop – what’s the difference between 34:17 and 36:18?! The former is a tiny bit lighter too :-)

Anyone know if the rocknroll adaptor fits 700c sized frames with canti mounts? I guess the torsion bar needs to be a little longer, is there enough adjustment on it for that?

Oldgit – proper cross misery pic that one!

Our weather luck changed last weekend here in Helsinki, rained for a few days before then tipped it down for 3 of the 4 hours before the race, followed by a light drizzle for the ride to the course and race itself. This was the ‘cross where it should not be’ series so was expecting an interesting course, arrived a bit late and told I didn’t have time for a lap as it was 20 + mins and they were already delaying the start so people who were practicing would make it back on time! A few trickled in looking pretty muddy and dead after one practice lap… Was muddy, rocky, rooty, somewhat downhill and technical for the first 3rd, flattish, rooty and very muddy for the second, and short sharp repeated fireroad hills for the final third. These killed you just in time to hang on for dear life on the next time laps dh section… Mostly on a rock base though so the mud was watery rather than claggy.

Had a good ride though, first race where I felt I could give it full gas when I wanted after little training before the season and a cold a week or two back. And managed to break my run of 5th places with a 4th overall and second CX (as the course favoured MTB or monstercross), so am now join leader of this series as the main contender double flatted…

The organiser of the more traditional series, next up this Sunday, has been rubbing his hands with glee at all the rain and planning the most evil, muddy field Belgian mudbath style route he can figure, he’s been wanting a mudfest for months now and I think he’ll have it on Sunday!

john_l – this coming weekend is, as well as a normal ‘less traditional’ round, it’s the fixie cross “national championships” (or fixed cx and beer drinking gathering) so there’ll be plenty of fixed, SS and other weirdness, and the promise of a course from hell :-)

And a couple of pics from a more traditional snowy round a few years back:

Come join us!

Running two leagues here in Helsinki this year, we’ve got a race almost every week from now until just before Xmas, ace! One is more traditional/euro with a fair bit of grass though still enough rocks and roots to need higher pressures, and the first round I made it to included a couple of ride/run across the sandy beach of the island we were on sections… The other is entitled ‘cross where it doesn’t belong’ and the organisers delight in throwing rocky, rooty trails at you, sometimes jumps, properly steep offroad climbs and descents etc, and tons of fun rooty singletrack, great fun. And will get interesting as we get to late November and December and the temps can drop to minus 15 and the snow may or may not come… Lots of SSCX and fixiecross, a few monster cross, even one fatcross in this less traditional series!

Today (me above) was the first frosty race though still sunny, others have been in pretty hot sunshine for October, no rain yet :-) This disappointed the organiser who’d planned on a muddy quagmire by running through some bogs, only to have them frozen overnight, yay! Oh and I’m doing the same as Oldgit – 5th, 5th, and today thought I was 4th despite a cold all week and taking it easy the last few laps, but no, 5th again!

Is it just me that was expecting something like alcoholics anonymous but for train spotters for this thread, going by the title?

I imagine it must be tricky trying to gauge riding ability to make sure guests are challenged but not hospitalised, but I also imagine that the majority of folk filling out a form like that exaggerate their level – perhaps they have a system of just knocking 2 levels off from folks responses and starting from there on the first day!

Ah sorry, this is for stealing other peoples Strava GPX files so I can find where the segments are in new places, or for longer rides or segments that need navigating!

@notmyrealname – didn’t they turn off all the other ways of downloading GPX at the beginning of this month? Meaning you have go premium now to get the route files?

(Some change to the API, and contacting other services to warn them off trying to keep it running, apparently). If anyone knows how to still do this please let us know!

Allthepies, awesome, that looks like just what I’m after and not a bad price too. Have you got/used that model?

Is there anything like these, especially Cranberries first ‘Neatmo’ one, that instead of linking to iphones and the cloud, simply record data and send to a home computer? I’d like to record and track very local weater patterns like this automatically, but am not convinced in terms of data accessibility and long term security (i.e. if the company goes bust, they change to a new spec of machine or format or update the software etc) that using apps and the cloud is the best way to go…

And another same here, bike in ambulance then kept round the back of the hospital by the bins (and they did a good job hiding it too, my mate coming to pick it up had to check twice where it was supposed to be!).

Glad to hear that you’re recovering well, and the ‘thanks’ thing in the paper is a lovely touch.

Clubber – what is the tyre clearance like on that (frame and forks)? Any chance of being able to fit monstercross sized tyres like the Bontrager Jones XR 29er 1.8 I’ve managed to fit into my current generic northern framebuilders ally cross frame (with still a moderate amount of mud clearance for wet but not claggy mud)?

If not, anyone know of any of the Chinese carbon disc cross frames that would have decent clearances?

Ta!

njee – try here for some proper geeking out :-)

http://www.cyclingpowerlab.com/PowerComponents.aspx

I make it 0.6w increase in power needed for a 60 min, 10km climb on tarmac at 20kph with the extra 200g with rider power constant around 240Wish (obviously changing with weight change as all other factors are the same, you could look for increase in seconds also if you really really wanted). Obviously massively abstracted from the real world, especially MTB. Other rider weight, power, and a million other variables are available…

Um powermeters suggest average folks put out 200-300W on a climb, so about 2orders of magnitude greater than the suggested 4W… Did you mean W/kg, which already accounts for body (but not bike) weight?

Oldgit – how much did you have to mill from the lever clamp to fit (what is the difference in diameter between MTB and road brake clamps, I know the road ones tighten down, or between the bars at that point?)? Was looking at doing similar on my cross bike as have spare hydraulics, and the lever position between some disc levers and road levers actually looks fairly similar… Yours look as though they were sticking out a little, could you fix that by adjusting the reach? How were they to ride in terms of hand position etc?

Then again, maybe part of that goal is to see if I can manage the 24 hr solo thing with the resources I have.

Fair enough, that’s kind of a plan too! I remember telling people after my first I felt it was about 1/3rd fitness, 1/3rd motivation, 1/3rd preparation (food, drink, lights, spares, clothes, getting to the venue and a decent place for pitting, setting up pit etc) – if any of them are lacking it’s difficult to make up for, even being v strong at any 2 doesn’t help that much… So make sure you balance them all nicely – if you’re peed off with training you’re not going to be motivated, if you’re motivated and well trained but haven’t time to sort kit etc out it’ll probably all come crashing down when you need to change brake pads at 4am, etc etc…

Most importantly – have fun :-)

If you’re thinking about training plans etc I’d recommend taking a look at Lynda Wallenfels website – she’s a USA based coach training national level cyclists, and an awesome enduro rider in her own right – winning national level 24s, and beating the boys in some of the even longer (3-4 day, 300 plus mile unsupported) races. She has a load of 12 week plans that can be stacked to make up a year, including ’24 hr finisher’ and ’24hr personal record plans’. Especially she’s great with knowing how to build and then taper for a race to be fresh for it, and pacing through races.

ENDURANCE mtb training plans

I’m just starting a 100 mile personal record plan – having to change/modify a fair bit cos of work and family/holiday stuff but reckon if I or anyone can keep to say 80% of what is on the plan the race day should go very well. I won the first 24 I did and got the lap record for the course, mostly unsupported (make up camelbaks of drink to carry you through in 8 hour stints, swap every 2/3 laps, take enough food for that time on the bike etc) with absolutely no structured plan and a decent winter but poor spring training (3 week business trip to china, flu on the way back and for the next week or two, week out when a crash put a stick into the side of my face etc) and reckon I’d have smoked it having done one of these plans!

Agree that the first thing to decide is what you want out of it, but also that if you can keep riding for the whole of the 24 hrs even at what seems like a slow or moderate pace you have a very good chance of getting a podium result!

Right, so what do you do when you are relatively self-aware, and know that one of your weaknesses is indeed that you are a perfectionist, and sometimes need to step back from the details in order to complete a project, or work with bosses/colleagues who can gently nudge you to do that? As far as I can see on here, most folks interviewing would just go ‘oh, rubbish stock answer, has no personality, next!’!

Snakes are ace! Kept a few harmless ones as a kid. Brother was bitten, not venomous but we couldn’t get it to let go of his finger!

Also saw 3 rattlers and a few gila monsters (venomous lizard) while riding the Arizona Trail 750 race a few years back… First two rattlers were just off the track in the shadow of a tree, that, oh the irony, I stopped next to fix a snakebite puncture. Head down unscrewing valve cap, really loud rattle from about 2 metres away, jumped straight up then fell over back onto the track scrabbling to move away… Stood with bike between it and me once I’d spotted it, only to hear another rattle from one side – they’re stalking me 8O

3rd one was coasting down a hill at speed, GPS said turn right in 1/4 mile, then noticed sign for the trail i was following at bottom of hill, hauled on brakes and came to a stop. Started to get map out when, again, loud rattle, this time 4 or 5 metres away, fat rattle snake lying across the path, warming in the morning sun, would have ridden straight where it was if I hadn’t spotted the trail sign…

[/url]
Rattler.JPG[/url] by ssproflex[/url], on Flickr

And then nearly ran a Gila monster over, out of the saddle up a v steep hill, didn’t see until very last second and almost fell off swerving it. Also didn’t realise it was venomous until afterwards, stupid really as the orange and black markings were a pretty big give away! Saw at least 2 of these.

[/url]
Gila1.JPG[/url] by ssproflex[/url], on Flickr

[/url]
CIMG3327.JPG[/url] by ssproflex[/url], on Flickr

Oh, and seen a few adders, and handled one in Dalby years ago – was on the road first thing in the am after an early frost, hardly moving, picked it up and put it down at the side of the road…

Just bought, impressively it’s at No1 in Cycling and Travel, and 120 in all kindle paid for sales!

Neil – is your book available on the iBook store? I’m living in Finland at the moment, your description of the desolate, forest and bog-covered north and the desolate, forest and bog-covered south is very apt, just went bog trotting/forest getting lost this weekend near the place I’ve just moved to…

Perfect – just what I was after! Many thanks Rich!

No vouchers then? (sorry!)

Darn, I wanna be special. So are we saying I spend too much/too often with them?! Even when I’ve not used them for a while I don’t get anything. Boo hoo!

Doesn’t seem to be anything on the home page at the moment, just a bunch of adverts…

So how long do you *not* have to spend with them for?

tangent (jon?) – is that the bonty ti you showed me when noteeth and I popped over to yours one day many years ago? (might have the wrong person completely!)

Hi Chris! Weather in San FranBristol sounds a bit warmer than Helsinki – garage in our newly bought place just flooded when the winter snow started to melt at the beginning of the week!

Take some small binoculars, and whenever you’re on a boat/ferry/high cliffs, look for dolphins/porpoise/whales. We saw something every single boat trip to/around/from Orkney – mostly dolphins, some small whales, some larger whales but too far to identify, and from the cliffs on the walk to the Old Man, a pod of 50 plus porpoises, some jumping which is unusual, which we followed for about 2 hours as we walked along the cliff tops.

Pretty much any of the archaeological sites are cool if you’re into that.

We were in a camper van with bikes on the back, only used the bikes for easy rides so no real idea about trails I’m afraid.

Have fun!

That Canyon is great value for a new bike, there are some good deals on 1 or 2 year old models on Pauls (Giant, Scott, Cannondale), some of the On one or Planet X carbon frames are nice (i.e. PX Dirty Harry) if you don’t like the Whippet or 456… Cannondale flash gets good reviews for comfort, scott scale for weight and stiffness, On-one for value, that Canyon is good value too… Plenty out there around 2000!

Fuzzhead – sweet, thanks! Guess I can get a poplock later if I feel the need, never use it on my other forks though… These seem like great value for exactly what I need – I was looking for Sektors but pretty much no-one has the combination of 1 1/8 steerer and 20mm Maxle, certainly not anywhere near that price. They are obviously a lot heavier though! Ah well…

I think that just means the shop doesn’t have them but the warehouse has 3 green dots of availability. Just ordered and they took my money anyway! I’m not bothered about a lockout – do you know if the lever is needed to run the forks, or just an accessory to do the lockout?

Did this last September, hired an original spec mid 70s VW Westfalia and did about 2000 miles over a fortnight from Newcastle-various Orkney Isles and back (via castles, the cairngorms, biking places, museums, whiskey distilleries, dolphin, porpoise and whale watching, beaches, archaeology and palaeontology sites, hill walking, great eating and drinking etc). Brilliant fun, we overpacked and the bike rack we got with it wasn’t the type that lets you open the back with bikes in place, that would have made things easier but it was great anyway. “Wild” camped a bit less than I might have liked, due to midges, bad weather, and lack of toilets for my lass. Still stayed in some great places. Fuel consumption not great, if we had our own it would have to be a modern one or one with a new engine. It was a trip we’d wanted to do for years though, so not the worst of our worries. Nearly got blown over one night when those late Sept storms hit Scotland, that was a sleepless night! We both liked it so much we’re now looking at getting one…

If you read the BBC report fully, and especially play the little video, it seems as though it’s not a bike expedition at all. It’s going to be skis, some kite skiing when the wind is in the right direction and not too weak or strong, and according to her own words she hopes to be able to use the bike a little bit. The practicing they’ve done out there in the last few days suggest it’s only going to be a really little bit. Fair play to her though – the team seem to be suggesting ditching the bike completely, she is keen to at least give it a go.

As far as I know, Mike Curiak is not particularly keen on trying this. A few others have investigated in a semi-serious manner – I think Aidan above may even have been one of these. Expense and logistics are usually the main problems, as some of these folks have made the full iditarod distance so certainly have the experience.

Interesting to see how much she is able to use the bike, and what she feels about it after she’s done.

John drummer beat me to it, most of the qs were daft but q1 was really daft!

Ooops, 18/24, right on the passmark, but I’ve already left. Confused now, should I come back?

(As with others, quite a few guesses, and the one about which groups were the most represented immigrants in the 1980s I think was odd, as it listed a random combination of 4/5 countries, I suppose if on of those was wrong the whole lot was wrong, should have been multiple choice).

TSY – think they only do large or small, we’re after small (she’s 5’6) – which are yours? :-)

Everyone else, thanks again for all the info, looks like there are plenty of possibilities!

Thanks! The Poc ones look ace but are rather spendy! The 661 ones it’s difficult to tell from the pics as they only seem to show the front – are yours like this?

http://www.discountcyclesdirect.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=9855{2}274

Is there a gap between the left and right ‘wings’ when you put them on, as lots I’ve seen do that but few reach all the way around… (Or do you have v skinny legs so the two halves close? :-))