Back on Track bikes maybe?

Joglesby – Member
"the bloke playing guitar on the last steep climb"

glad to see my music went appreciated, thanks!:D

Your cover of Tenacious D's 'Tribute' cheered me up no end, nice one! 🙂

It also then got stuck in my head for the remainder of the race, for which I'm not so grateful 😛

white rims, black hubs (black spokes, red nipples, bad brake hose routing, I know the decking needs sorting etc etc)

Water, or watered down down fruit juice if it's a big ride. Very occasionally I'll use Nuun, but over the course of a long ride I find "energy drinks" less and less palatable.

Right, I've entered, but as wondering if there was a "platinum package" you could provide – y'know, personalised portaloo, priority service at the bar by the wench with the biggest jugs etc 😀

I'll be there, pretending to be all laid back on the Friday night by drinking beer…but then get all het up during the race and barge past everyone shouting "elite rider coming through" before missing all the corners, crashing and blaming the bike 😆

Hopefully this means everyone who has stated they're just there to do a few laps can take pity on me give me a push as I slowly creak past them please?!

I put it to you, that you are incapable of "slowly creaking past" anything and will be flat out for a long time 😉

7 hours 31 mins[/url]

but I'm not sure Ian's really human…

Leaving Hope – nine inch nails

The whole of OK Computer

ye gods those choices make me sounds really miserable!

Do the innertube – gaffer tape bit then back it up with a couple of big zip ties, done up frame crushingly tight and you'll be reet.

Worked for me for the best part of a year on my old bike.

The results are up now, for those who love statistical delving

Gisburn 12 hr race on Saturday (in a pair), 6hrs in the local(ish) hills on the road bike on Sunday morning, then pretty much nowt until Mountain Mayhem.

so he actually is more deserving of credit than trail rat

trail rat is basically a pair of leg muscles underneath a pair of lungs, so he deserves no credit at all. In fact he could probably have ridden that much on the power of one tic-tac. 😉

(and yes, the fitter you are, the less calories you burn for a set amount of work…but day to day changes in your metabolism/weight/muscle tiredness/etc will alter how many you burn, so it's all guesswork past a vague 'do more, burn more' statement)

Took me and a "not amazingly fit" mate 5 hours, including a lot of food stops and getting bothered by walkers on the track round Ullswater (which I think is the best bit…apart from the views higher up!)

Garmin geek tech data

A beautifully crafted ti (or maybe steel) commute bike?

Good grief man I hope your ride to work is over the Corrieyairack Pass 😀

There's this one, which looks really nice

you can see 'mine' again if you really want to…

Not quite "long term" yet, but I've has some for just over a month, done a good few 100+ mile rides on them and a couple of races and no issues to report yet.

Bearings still silky smooth, no freehub issues or anything like that and they've taken quite a beating on a rigid 29er.

Admitedly it's ben pretty dry recently so I don't know what they would have been like if all the rides were horrible gritty, wet affairs, but what mud/puddles/rain there has been has been shrugged off so far!

Brownbacks[/url]
Hit the North[/url]
That Manchester evening race series[/url]

not a bad little list going on there!

600mm on the xc race bike, don't feel like it needs any more than that – I'm nice and comfy for hours and hours on it at that width (and yes, I've tried wider)

the full suss play bike has 720mm on it at the mo' mostly because it needs manhandling round a bit more

Highs – there's so many!
– pinning it down the last descent with trail_rat during Relentless24 last year, about 18hrs in and still loving every inch of the course, still romping up the hills and thundering back down them, chatting away
– having abuse hurled at me by my pit helper during mountain mayhem in the middle of the night, so loud several people on the opposite side of the race arena jumped!
– the crunchy 3am cheeseburger at SITS a couple of years back, that brought me back to life
– just flowing on the course at CLIC24, no aches, no pains, just totally relaxed…and fast 🙂

The Lows – well, dry retching as I rode up through the singletrack at the UK24 solo champs the other week, knowing that my stomach wasn't going to recover enough to let me race like I knew I could was…crap.
Really crap.
(Not crap enough to make me not want to do it over and over again, mind you!)

It is a genuinely brilliant event – laid back and a great laugh

and the new course with it's freshly made swoopy, bermy loveliness is worth racing/riding/heckling on 🙂

Yaaaaaaaay!
Bring it on 🙂

It'll be awesome

Not done the singlespeed one, but the rest of them are standard fare really 🙂

It's going to be dry, sunny (with some white, fluffy clouds to tart the sky up a bit), warm (but not hot), with a gentle breeze.

It just is, right?
It just is.

🙂

Quite possibly 🙂

Looking forward (should I be able to make it) to checking out some of the new bits

You can guarantee that if I turn up next year then it will be lashing down all weekend – none of this warm sun malarky! ;o)

Good!
I demand you do it now!
That was waaay too hot – I got complaints off my pit helper that there was no way to keep his beer cool 😆

It was a great idea to use the trails at Newcastleton – they're perfect for that sort of race and made it a lot of fun.

The atmosphere in the 'arena' (it was a little small to be a real arena, but you know what I mean) was great all weekend, as it was out on the course. I had a great laugh even after dropping out…once I'd finished feeling sorry for myself.

I was a bit shocked to see the timings being done by a bloke and a clipboard – I'd expected, what with these being the National Championships, to have decent electronic timing/live updates…but it seemed to work well enough (though having to call your number out each lap at night wasn't exactly briliant).

And just who organised that weather? 😀

My hideously expensive race bike's computer came from Lidl (and is on it's 3rd battery…) and the grips came from Halfords

Oh, and the XTR mech's got a pair of 105 (roadie) jockey wheels on it, bought for £2.99 from CRC 🙂

It's not bad for an all-round wheelset…not really xc race weight (bonty race x lites, stans ZTR wheelsets etc are a couple of hundred grams lighter and there's crazy expensive carbon wheelsets out there a fair whack lighter again)

…but you certainly won't be blaming the wheels if you don't get to the top of a climb 😉

You'll be reet!

Best thing to remember: It's only riding a bike!

Eat when you can, drink when you can, push on when you think you can't (I get the sneaking suspicion there'll be a good atmosphere out on the course, so give encouragement when you can and appreciate it when others encourage you)…just ride your bike 🙂

Good luck, see you there

Hands up if you've ever bought zip ties in a certain colour to match your bike…

raises hand 😳

(currently only 5 on the race bike)

I favour the "ride fast for 10hrs, die, go to bed clutching a cheeseburger" style of 24hr racing. I'm good at that. 😀

Ragley TD-1 with nukeproof forks (and many hours worth of dirt) on:

That'll make a lovely wheelset – light at the rim where it counts. Probably somewhere around 1650g, which is plenty light enough for a 29er wheelset for racing

How much riding in that 6 months?

Once a week for 15-20 miles = naff, 5 times a week for big distances in wintery conditions = not so bad…

Yes, it comes with sliding geared dropouts

You should repaint it in A-Team van colours, then it would be awesome.

Mebbe get a spoiler on the roof too

'Tis a lovely shed.

Not a very manly colour though 😉

so non corrected for suspension = super titchy or because it's corrected = relaxed?

Quick, in a race-y sort of way. Nice, involving…and other such cliches 😉

Forgive my ignorance of geometry but is there a great difference between this and a fat tyred cross bike? I'm intrigued.

Cross bikes often feel like modified, more capable road bikes. This feels nothing like that…best way I can describe it is that where, on a cross bike you might approach something rocky (think 3 Peaks style descents) and go "whoa, better keep it under control here" with this you'll be thinking what you would on any decent mtb, ie "yay, lets try and fly though this".

That probably makes no sense. Oh well!

Looks properly lovely!

I'm guessing it weighs pretty much nowt!? 🙂

Racing/fun/spend hours polishing bike 🙂