Flats and stout / walking boots!
That metal cleat / pedal is what makes the feet cold very quickly.

When it continues to be foul weather, I take the mtn bike on the road.
With winter tyres, it's hard going as it feels slow & draggy (?) averaging 14mph but just keeping up a 150-ish bpm HR and going for 3hrs makes it reasonable training & you're out turning the pedals, ready for the dryer conditions.

I rode Pen' in October and said at the time that I'd not fancy those trails in the wet. Not a good choice of trail in the worst condidtions Wales can throw at you IMHO. Very exposed and I imagine wind-swept in places.

Something very similar was done at last year's inaugrial 12hr White's Enduro by On-One.

Don't recall the exact details and I'm sure it's on their new web site in one of the blogs, but they were planning just one of everything, but if I recall it did end up with mostly one of everything (inc' shoes?).

I think they might even have been swapping shorts at one point – or was that just an aim and not an actual reality?

I had an issue 2yrs ago and was told about some stretching I needed to do from a sports physio.

I was religious about it and it made no difference that I can tell although at the time you could see that it was having an effect, it was just that 12hrs later it seemed to not have made an impact on the muscles !

However, since then, I've come to the conclusion that stretching whilst cold is not useful; you need to have the muscles warmed through (waits to be shot down in flames).

Lonely Planet & The Rough Guide should help you.

LP have a web forum, The Thorn Tree which mich be worth a look.

June will be hot. Very hot, it is, after all the top of the North Africa / Sahara.
The higher you go, the cooler it becomes.
I forget the figures, but something like 1 degree every 300ft (I'm sure someone will be along shortly and correct me).
The High Atlas in the summer months is not a very inspiring place, truth be known, it's all rocks as far as the eye can see.
I'd stick to trekking up from Imlil / Arund, overnight at the French Climbing refugio, up Toubkal early in the morning and back to the bus station in Imlil for a large breakfast!

90 degrees?
He'd topple over is both feet pointed out at 90 degrees.
Mind you, you could always play Daffy Duck. 😉

Can you explian this a little more as I am unsure what "your legs apart sideways" means?

Is it that you're standing with your feet apart (at say shoulder width – 2ft sort of distance apart)? The angle – is that for the feet or the legs?

How bizarre!
Why would anyone come onto a web forum, think their contributions worthy of some effort on their part and yet do nothing but condem those replies – as above PFTF – and at the same time not offer up a single constructive sentence?
Bizarre bahviour and worthy of all possible scorn and derision.

I think it's a 160.

Diz.
No email yet.
I think I might be having some problems with the ntl account.
try tim at t-f-p dot com

Frankers: I've been locking out the Fox forks by about 80% of late to good effect. It's the trails around here as they're not technical. And trying to change gears as little as possible – in the anticiption of a rigid SS!

Try different pedals for your starter for 10 Bamber!

Wiki has some suggestions re: exercising it, so maybe a trip to a spports physio (£30?) will not only confirm / deny what Jedi said but he'll / she'll give you specific exercise to perform to sort this out.

Next patient please …

Unless you're planning on being on top of Toubkal in the High Atlas, I don't think you'll require specialist insurance, even then, I 've never met anyone on my trekking in the High Atlas who had anything other than the usual bog standard cover.

If you're starting from Imlil or Arund, it's a very steady, simlpe mule path up to the French Climbing Hostel. Take asprin and eat raw garlic to help with the altitude before you go and you'll have no problems. Never met anyone on the mountain who'd suffered from any altitude sickness up there.

You don't need guides or mules, just a decent pair of boots. It mighht still be deep snow on the final 2hrs up to the hostel and once there you can make a call about the summit walk as if it's very deep in snow, I'd not bother! YOu'll be able to chat with the guides at the hostel about this and employ one of them if you feel you need to.

Hope this helps. Email me if you need more info.

Have fun!

I'd try clipping in to Crank Bros (personally find SPD's not to my liking) as I experienced just this on the Montane Kielder 100 when I had an Egg beater fail and rode with a replacement flat pedal on just one side (an error in itself I think).

CRC are selling Candy pedals for £20.

Playing squash places extra loads on the front lower part of the patella as you lunge and stop quickly on a court, something I can't do any more, but it may be inflaming the area around it.

PS – just re-reading, do you mean physically inside the knee joint or on the inside of the knee, as in facing inwards but on the outside of the actual joint?

before it was

Giant VT2 which I bought as my 1st bike some 4.5yrs (?) ago.
Marins sure were popular. A pal still rides his (as above) as his only mtn bike.

Would you consider doing a 24hr on a 29er were one available form your sponsors?
I know Twinkly Dave loves his and he was a very early convert over to larger wheels.

I try & keep mine on the ground – maybe the wheel base is longer, or the trail or rake; either way it feels not at all "right" being airborne on my particular bike. But as Stu says, it's because I can't ride very well, & he knows me so well.
That last leap coming up the bank on the 3rd Merida Brass Monkey was about the only place it felt OK!

I have a pair of XTR's.
email me and you can have them for the best price you can find on-line, -25% if you want.

big wheels on big bikes look great, but big wheels on little bikes don't.

It's not an important issue at all.
One reason being that the designers don't simply put larger wheels into small bikes – they wouldn't normally fit for one!

No one's arguing otherwise, as I say, the 26er is the bike of choice some of the time, so we can let Stu work out some of his anger issues on the trail as his conclusions are inaccurate. If he was in any way accurate I'd not own a 26er!

What I was doing in the original post however, was giving a personal account from the cockpit of having ridden the 29er almost exclusively for the past 6 months and then riding a 26er for the first time yesterday and my thoughts on the transition, back-to-back. Nothing more. It is saddening that Stu added, for whatever reason, his spite, venom & inaccurate conclusions to the post, feeling his negative comments are in any way useful or constructive to my observations. All he does in 2 out of 3 comments is repeat himself.

So, back on track please, it is, afterall, a holiday!

Stu.
You've very negative.
Have you anything positive to say at all?

There is a general rule of thumb, one you evidently don't know about, and that's if you have nothing good to say about someone or something, then don't comment.

If not, why not pop back to BM, where you'll be amongst likeminded mostly negative men? You seem out of your depth here.

I have a pair (1.8) They're slower than RRalfs 2.25's.

Single speed. What's your beef?
You've deemd it appropriate to comment here three times, each one less constructive than the last.
Have you nothing better to do?

Tyres:
29er Bonty 2.0 mud front. Bonty ACX 2.2 Rear.
26er 2.3 Verticals (left over from a 2hrs Xmas snow playing where they gripped incredably well).

The 29er I find is not one for getting air. The 26er is great around somewhere like Penmachno or the bottom part of the Red route at Glentress where I get (and encourage) loads of (small) air all 'round the course. And something like on Snowdon, the 26er makes more sense.
There are times whern 26ers work very well.

For local day-to-day riding (locally) though, the 26er isn't nearly as involving nor as entertaining. I suspect the 29er is far quicker & more stable on the descents too – I'll only know more when the rest of the local posse come out riding & I put this theory to the test (they're not super-rocky or technical hereabouts).

Too wet?

I used the 2.2 Tubeless (inner tubes are soooo last decade!).
A cracking tyre, sadly no longer made.

In a track stand you can balance.
You pull on the bars. You push on the bars.
It's not conter steering.

Counter steering works only with some speed, and by pushing on the inside bar, the bike will natrually drop into the corner. The more you push, the more she drops into the corner.

Take any motorcycle advanced / race classes & it's something that comes up in the probably first module. It's fundamental to getting a bike turned as quickly as possible in any given corner.

I don't need someone from the grave to tell me this is balance when clearly it's not.

PS. What happened to the magazine article?

countersteer, commonly called balance,

Have you been drinking?
It would be useful if you knew what counter steering involved as it only works at speed.
At low speeds you tend to pull on the bars rather than push them away (counter steering).
Why this is now known as balance I am unsure.

Is your intimate knowledge of physics also translated into your indepth knowledge of gyroscopic forces? Or is it the wine talking?

Please explain.

International restaurant critique

condeming it to

I use the Seal Skinz Merino Wool ankle socks all year 'round. Perfect and never too hot.

I've worn HH SuperLifa wear tops non-stop for 6 days trekking on more than one occation without a problem. I might have smelt, but you can't smell your own BO, so what does it matter!

under his armpit

took the high-road

offset by antediluvian

Will know more after the Merida & make a judgement call on it then.
I quite like the whole idea of being present at the inaugrial championships – if it all goes south and the knee locks I can help others I guess.
Thanks for the feed back.

The few guys with whom I ride (and I hope they're not reading this as they're all of this parish) on Tues or Thurs evenings think I'm quick on the rocky decents!

Erhmmm. It's the bike & nothing to do with my personal trail skills, which are at best, average!

(checks nipples to see that they are indeed, nice and polished – the 29er effect!)

The leg size was more in jest!
Although I am favouring the L side and don't press so hard on the R (injured) side.

Old: you're 50 now, so a promise is a promise…..
(I might have a solo place for you & will know more after the Merida)

PS – thanks for the offer. Off out in 40 minutes for a mud bath.

Ah!
Good thinking (I'm self employed so this would not have occurred to me!).

At least you can stop drinking. My knee is not going to sort its self out over one night! Plus I'm very consciouos of it now as a potential weak point so I'm finding myself favouring the left side.

So much so that the muscles are now so withered on the R but conversely so large on the L that I'm left walking around in large circles!

I've got the night followed by the day 50km Meridas coming up in 2 week's time.
That will give me some idea just how the swelling under the knee cap is affecting me.

As for training: It was going well, 4 rides a week, up to 4hrs on the mtn bike with mud tyres on the road being one such ride a week the others being 2-3hr XC rides, but lately (week before the Black Park event) these have all but evaporated. Trying to increase it from 2 x 2hr rides to 3 rides a week from this week of 2.5-3hrs each, but that depends on how the knee holds out.

Being a 29er owner, I have my butler wash my bike, and besides, she likes the extra 3 inches. 😉

Just how big are these lungs of yours?
Some years ago I was measured and they were 102% of the national average.
Never going pro then I guess! 😉