Didn’t Brant say that some FEA or other modelling suggested that the chainstays (or seat or both, can’t remember) counterintuitively tended to ‘want’ to flex horizontally rather than vertically under load? So if you were to flatten them in the opposite direction to what you’d think, i.e. pinched from the sides rather than the top and bottom, it would have the greater effect in increasing what we refer to as ‘vertical’ compliance? Not sure what this would do for ‘lateral’ stiffness or the tendency of the rear wheel to move relative to the headtube, but that might also have a counterintuitive effect!

The latest carbon frames seem to have really narrow but not flattened seatstays to increase ‘vertical compliance’, wonder if that allows this horizontal flexure to occur more easily? Empirically, I’ve been unable to feel much in the way of frame differences that couldn’t have been saddle, seatpost or tyre differences, apart from a Specialized Roubaix which seems genuinely a lot ‘softer’ than the steel frame and forks it replaced – and it has the same saddle, tyres, a fatter diameter seatpost bars and stem (all of which should increase stiffness), same rear wheel, tyre pressures etc. If I could find a carbon XC frame that did the same I’d be all over it – tempted to try the new Scotts and Cannondales that advertise low weights AND high ‘comfort’…

John Smiths (and boddingtons etc) tend to taste waaaaay better hand pulled from casks, especially when the pub is fairly close to the brewery… Everytime I go back home to North Yorkshire, I remember why I liked Smiths in the first place and how bad it tastes with co2, from cans etc.

Oh and no-one drinks beer in bangladesh as the vast majority of the population are muslim! Monasteries used to brew beer (usually a lot weaker than today) for its health giving properties (i.e. you don’t get ill from the water) and monks used to drink loads of it! Hence the reason places like Belgium still have a fair few monastery based breweries: “Brother Theodore, the octogenarian guiding figure behind the Chimay Trappist brewery, still takes a bottle of sustenance after morning prayer.”

oops that was ‘break’ a bike not ‘brake’!

do the forks need a service? You could get the shop or fork tuners to do it at the same time for probably no extra cost… I think I’m the opposite of some of the princess and pea types on here who can tell a 5mm difference in stem length or headset stack height and reckon it can make or brake a bike, I notice little difference in 20mm in fork length either in supsension terms or head angle slackening… On a Fisher ferrous 29er SS with fox 100mm for what its worth, rides very nicely and I probably wouldn’t have wanted less travel on the weekends 6hr rock and root fest of a race!

oopos forgot to say you might be able to do it anonymously, you will definitly not be called up to court or anything so there should be no way for anything to come back to you…

Send the details and the location to the Environment Agency! They have people dealing with flytippers, a lot of their won prosecutions come when people leave in their details – folks really at that dumb. Here's the website for you for NI:

http://www.ni-environment.gov.uk/waste-home/environmentalcrime.htm

Seriously mexico city is the worst for crime in the world? Spent a week and a half there working days and exploring eves n weekends, wandering lost looking for private apartment addresses to stay in, on the tube right across the city, random buses and bus stations v early am and late pm to go see aztec pyramids outside town. Super friendly and helpful people, no hassle whatsoever, great food n attitude to life, tubes were the most amazingly on time, clean, fast, ridiculously regular service of any city in the world Ive visted… Only negative was the traffic but then as I wasnt driving I just got the tube everywhere. Had honestly no idea it was anywhere near that bad. Wow. Chicago bus station at 3am on the same trip was 10 times worse!

Exploring a national park just outside Helsinki, minus 10, large, soft snow flakes falling, absolute silence everywhere. The contrast between the dark night and the light of the snow reflecting off my lights. Following a singletrack path stamped from walkers and XC skiers around the margin of a frozen lake. Shadows of trees slowly sliding by. Thinking about the conversation with my girlfriend, who'd only let me nightride and bivvy after I found there were 'only' 800 bears in Finland, most in the North East near the Russian border, and even less wolves, none near Helsinki for years (though she was still concerned I'd get stood on by an elk/moose!). I turn a corner to get a little closer to the lake, and it's there to my side, running towards me in the edge of the light beam, its shadow cast towards the lake showing the sharp ears, long muzzle, gliding stride of a wolf in the snow…

Ahem. It was the shadow from a branch that somehow seemed to move totally differently to the countless hundreds of other branches, trees, bushes I must have ridden past. Nearly ended up in (on) the lake I pedaled so hard away from it though!

Oh and then a pack of real coyotes in the middle of the desert in Arizona, and a ridiculous amount of bear scat on a trail also in Arizona when I hadn't realised there were even bears anywhere near where I was going to be… Made fixing a cactus spike multi-puncture at 3am in the middle of a gale at 9000 feet on the top of a ridge with bear poo all around a somewhat scary experience…

Ignore, singlespeed.nl to the rescue!

One flag per country visited as seen on a Korean ladies touring bike, v cute! Though not much use if you are only going to Holland obviously…

Did similar but right in the middle of the chest many years ago, without bar end plugs, thankfully some v v heavy Azonic risers where the wall thickness was almost greater than the hole in the middle, if it had been an XC bar I'd have cored a nice section of ribs I reckon…

That's Fremington sorry!

Oh and I'm totally guessing but the Dales Bike Centre in Femington might be about half way there – more bunkhouse than BnB but amazing cake on a 24hr access honesty system!

Whistling Jacks BnB was amazing when we did it this May – about 5 mins biking from the C2C start and only a few more from the centre of St Bees. Great food, good chat with the owners, plenty of snacks booze etc for free if you want… And MASSIVE rooms and bathrooms! We also cheated and used a van company – we'd done it 16 years ago without and broke all manner of panniers, racks, rucksacs, and bikes! If you are all pretty fit and have well prepped bikes you could make it to Ambleside in that time frame, but if you have any mechanicals, lack of fitness, bad weather, tiredness etc its going to get tougher… there is a fair amount of pushing on the first day (or couple of days if you do it over a longer time), your average speed can drop pretty slow.

Have fun!

BWD – do they have to be mutually exclusive? Can you not gratify your ego by finishing a challenge you were uncertain about being able to make, or as you say by beating a record but not bragging about it? I think it's down to the individuals psyche, some folks are naturally self deprecating/modest, others like to brag…

some epic ones there!

Don't do anything on the bike that would save seconds over stopping and doing it properly, as a) it will take longer as you faff around with one hand and b) you will more than likely crash anyway, adding from a few minutes to months without riding to the job. This includes adjusting rucksack straps, putting on/taking off waterproofs, adjusting brakes/gears, and many others…

In a similar manner to the metro one above, don't try to index your gears riding up and down the road looking at the rear cassette or you will crash into the back of a volvo that wasn't there 2 mins earlier on the first time up and down the road, bust your bar, bar ends, saddle and seatpost (yet somehow not the forks/wheel), and have to pay a couple of hundred quid for repairing the rear light cluster which was a one piece item up the left side, across the top and down the right side, even thougg it looked like you'd only smashed one indicator…

Something useful for folks thinking of doing this kind of thing on whatever route they're interested in might be to go and look at the 'ethics' type posts on http://www.bikepacking.net

Among the kind of issues raised are the difference between an MTB race mentality (even if its 24 hr races) and this kind of thing. One of the main rules for the equivalent events in the states is that you have to follow every inch of the track, and if you detour off you have to go back to the point you left the route and start again onwards from there. As many attempts on different routes are done on an 'honour' system, this is obviously impossible to police. While, as RobDeanHove points out, you would hope cheating doesn't cross peoples minds, deliberate or inadvertent missing of parts of the route does happen. Some folks have disqualified themselves from record times, completions of multi day and week routes, or 'wins' in mass start time trials on these kind of routes, sometimes months later when they look at gps records maps etc and realise they went off route. Equally, people even with GPS or Spot signals showing they went off route, or eyewitness accounts of them being in the wrong place, have argued vehemently that they were only a little lost or denied completely they were off route, showing that some folks don't stick to the 'gentlemans agreement' type rules.

It sounds petty but the 'returning to the point you left the route' type 'rules' are pretty much needed to make this kind of thing work. It's easy to say that of course you would always follow them, but when you're at the bottom of the wrong hill at 3 am in a thunderstorm and there is a 5 mile uphill back to the point you left the course or a couple of hundred yards to rejoin further on its not always the easiest thing to do the right thing…

The one I'm most interested in is seeing someone head oop north and have a crack at the Coast to Coast in under 24hrs. Rich Rothwell had a great go last year – see here for report. He had crappy weather and I'm sure would have been much closer at cracking the 24hr time if it had been nicer. Have done it a few times as multiday rides, and would love to attempt a 24, but would also want to finish and knowing that you have to take all your kit alpine style makes things that little harder – if you plan on food etc for say 30 hours then you're going to be going slower than if you packed for 24 hrs, which means you might take 33 hours, which means you need more food etc etc!

Good luck to anyone attempting something along these lines!

The middle of those 3 last pics looks really nice and if I were doing what you are would be how i'd go about doing it. Is it a replica though, the 'mid top tube to bb tube' is way fatter and the shock arrangement at the bottom looks a little different. Anyway it's all nice late 90s stuff and matches the bike in both colour and 'style' i.e. lightweight but reasonably durable and not too out there for the sake of being out there or flashy. It all looks in keeping with the frame. You could easily do that with modern stuff that still looks reasonably retro – king stuff, sid forks with no stickers, ti riser bars, middleburn, formula r1 brakes etc, or search out the 'in character' late 90s stuff if you want it to be period appropriate.

One thing I think is that the 950 XTR (matte gray) goes really well with ti and would be period appropriate, recent xt and xtr are slightly flashier and look out of place on the first of those 3. The proportions are also right on the middle pic and wrong on yours as it is in the pic and the first of those three – it should be a slightly saddle up bars down build but not too XC arse in the air. saddle level with bars looks wrong in the pic of yours and saddle lower than bars looks really wrong on the first of those 3 pics.

But its your bike – pls post pics when you're done!

Or, what he just said!

trout – post a pic of one of your lights beamshots in those woods so people can see what you mean – at the moment it's a little ambiguous (they've used your beamshot but NOT your beamshot of the DX light)…

1961 – it's bizarre cos raleigh usa do make some nice bikes in the genesis mold (29ers, steel frames etc).

is that really an aero seatpost on there? eeek!

Big volume – I like my 29er Panaracer Rampage 2.35. Decent tread, fairly grippy rubber, large volume etc.Looks v similar to a kenda nevegal actually. I'd probably go with something a little narrower/faster rolling/lighter for racing, especially in the back, but am fairly skinny…

230 in 24 hours offroad at the CLIC 24 a few years back. Loved every second, one of my best rides ever. Misty sunrise over the Mendips, views to the sea and Wales, bluebells, dusty rocky singletrack, didn't want to finish. Felt fine while still on the bike, could easily have done 240 or 250 in the race if not for faffing with fitting borrowed lights and having no support for 1/2 the event, and could have carried on for a while longer after the 24 (I finished with just less than my fastest lap left before the end, and your last lap doesn't count if you're in after 12 noon). Getting off the bike and packing kit away wasn't too pleasant though!

Isn't the problem that the stancions have to be bought as a pair with crown and steerer, so the vast part of the 240 quid is made of that? How would doing a home service on the seals and oil solve that? Of course subsequent services become cheaper done at home… I'm in the same predicament pretty much exactly!

thanks all!±

Did no-one else have nutters in their school? The kind of kid who didnt give a toss what they did or what the consequences were? I got into a few tussles with bullies but usually lost because I knew that if I twatted them one they'd just go mental and start attacking you with chairs etc… One of them is doing time for murder, another hit my friend on the front of the face with an iron bar – busted face, multiple fractures etc. I honestly don't know what can be done, as a kid, with that kind of kid until they do do something 'beyond the pale' so to speak. Essentially they have much less to lose, compared with someone who wants to do well at school, has a supportive family etc… In my experience they were used to being hit enough that even if someone did retaliate properly, they'd always have to be watching their back when the bully was around for a totally unprovoked but vicious attack. Pretty grim, and I was in a very decent school.

Junk – short answer – no. They've got simple to very complicated electronics converting dynohub power (variable voltage with speed, rapid peaks and troughs – it might even be AC I forget) to what the LEDs need. A battery on the other hand is DC constant voltage. Hubs – 30 quid for cheapy non disc SHimano to 100s for nice German made SON disc hubs. The top end SHimano are pretty nice now though (I have an alfine disc dynohub and a non disc nexus/ultegra level DH-3n80 but I think there is a disc hub at the same level as the latter now too, better efficiency than the alfine). Resistance – I find the e3 just about noticeable so i expect you would notice the triple – the e3 supposedly loses about 1km/h at 30km/h if you keep a constant power… but much less at low speeds and hardly any when off.

I've used the old version of the Supernova E3 (the non PRO version), a cheap shimano halogen, and the old version of the solidlights (borrowed). I've only used the e3 on roads so far but it is the brightest of the three (NOTE – both the E3 and solidlights were old now superceded version) but I'm not certain how good the e3 is offroad. I used the solidlights for a couple of 24 solos but only really for a 'going uphill slowly saving battery juice' or backup light if the batts died on halogens/HID.

I suspect the new e3 will be better than mine (sob) but costs £165 or so in the UK whereas I got mine for £70. The new solidlights gets great reviews on road, should be pretty good offroad (but might need a helmet light to supplement for slow twisty bits) and is almost certainly the best your going to get for your money as an upgrade (was it £70?). For full offroad at speed you probably 'need' a triple (I know you can get away with less as I've done a 450 mile offroad ride including lots of night riding on a crappy petzel and 1w lumiled after the halogen dynolamp bulb blew) – something like the supernova e3 triple but thats £235. Or do what I'm in the process of, build your own triple :-)

cookea – physiology is a wonderful thing, I reckon some folks could get by on half that amount of water – the variation in amount carried/used on the few desert days of the GDR os quite incredible. Still very difficult. I think the Alpine style – everything needed but water – is the way to go for this kinda thing. For a fun route try the UK 'proper' offroad C2C – see here for an incredible attempt at a sub 24 hour ride by Rich rothwell:

http://www.the7ds.com/seven-deadly-spins/english-coast-to-coast-7ds5-141

(He 'only' managed 28 and a half hours so the challenge is still on!)

Thats still not the same thing WCA – that's pretty much what I did on the one I won! I think it's possible but agree that you'd have more fun attempting this on a trail ride like the south downs way, Wheelwright coast to coast or similar.. Or doing one of those Alpine style just stopping for water. But the Mike Curiak attempted the Iditasport Impossible (1000+ miles in Winter in Alaska) with everything required other than water which he melted from snow. A months worth of provisions, kit, gas etc. He didn't even allow himself to take the heat from the few huts along the first part of the ride, staying outside to eat. THAT's making things hard for yourself…

Oh and I just spotted that this years (rain postponed) ultracentric event has a 72 hour option! The mind boggles at the quality of hallucinations you'd be having by then…

I've done solo 24s with no crew, carrying food and drink for 6 hour sections so you only have to stop 3 times. Suits me better than blast for one lap, stop, collect new bottle, eat, blast for one lap etc. Slow and steady! Though the one I won I did have some help for about half of it, went for shorter stints (2-3h) without refueling/stopping, and took a few short rests (one trying to fit borrowed lights for the first time midrace, and one when I had a 3am slump and needed to inhale pringles and cola).

Oh and agree – food would be doable, water you'd struggle with. I reckon you could manage 12 liters in 2×6 liter bladders on your back (I take 1×6 plus 20 liters of kit on bikepacking expeditions) – 18 would probably be too heavy when riding for 24 hours. You'd have to find space for another 6-12l on the bike – which would likely be 2 regular bottle cage positions, one under the down tube, one on each fork leg, possibly the seatpost, each of those a large 1l bottle, and maybe a frame bag with a bladder as well – kinda 'GDR across the desert parts' style. Doable? Just? Fun? YMMV :-)

48 hour solo anyone? twice as much fun for your money :-) (though there were 'issues' over the prize money in 2008)

http://www.ultracentric.net/mountainbike.html

from what you have the lock ons go up in terms of thickness and comfort – yeti hardcore – rogue – oury. The yetis aren't much thicker than the ruffian (unless you mount the logo in exactly the right place!) whereas the oury grip is fatter than the lock on collars! I have the latter on a fully rigid singlespeed where they soak up a lot of stuff but find for long rides the grips themselves make my hand a bit tired the are so fat – rogue works as a nice compromise of comfort and thickness. Your mileage (and hand size) may vary :-)

And not that I'm defending myself against character assassination by Coleman or 'owt :-) I also got 5th at the student BUSA cycloX champs that year on the same SS bike. It's doable you just have to spin like a loon at points and make the most of the muddy/techy/hilly bits to regain places…

OK – pics up not sure if this will work:

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Click pic for the full photostory special!

I voluntarily started on the second row (white jersey blue helmet) as I thought the fast boys would pass me anyway on the spinny farm track. I passed at least 2 of the 3 other guys on my row of 4, no-one from behind passed me, I don't think I passed anyone from the front row, so I made it 5th or possibly 6th. And then the handicap thing (first lap time?) demoted me back as I didn't know how it worked (slow first lap then cane it does the trick!).

Leigh if you have the results that'd be cool.

Yikes didn't realise this was so controversial! Looking at my pics I think the date was 28th Dec 2005 (which is way longer ago than I thought, but this thread has reawakened my cross racing interest and encouraged me to look up the local league here in Helsinki). Presumably the results only show the handicapped positions though? If I can remember how to post pics I'll do the same…

Coleman – ? Was just trying to make the point it was fun, not intimidating, cross bike not needed and an MTB actually an advantage in some places, SS likewise but with obvious minuses on the flatter faster bits… The tea and cakes afterwards was in a cow shed too :-)

V funny pic samuri!

Last one I did was a 'first after Xmas, non league points scoring weird handicap thing) for the Lincolnshire league (somewhere there anyway). I was asked what cat I normally raced, Sport XC MTB, so I was somehow gridded on the front line despite having a singlespeed MTB? Course was fun, some farm track, rutted grass, singletrack, steep grassy climbs up to and descents off a reservoir edge, rolling sheep fields, ditches, etc. Weather was incredible – rain, sun, sleet, sun, clouds, hail, dramatic light, snow, so by the end there was about an inch of snow everywhere!

The result was somehow determined by your first lap time as a handicap, I somehow ended in a about 5th place but my fast first lap meant I was handicapped back to about 15th? No idea how it was worked out, but as everyone says it was an hour of flat out hurt, in a good way… Best bits were sliding past crossers doing two wheel drifts on the corners in the snow, and clearing the steep grassy run up sections every time (didn't see anyone else manage it after about the 4th lap) and usually regaining one or two places I lost through spinning out on the farm tracks.. Slightly mad, but just fun really :-)