Also, if driving on your own, get one of the telepeage tags, money well spent.

INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best run of the day by far. Still can’t quite fathom how the wheel survived.

I too had taken a bit of a dislike for poor old Gwin, but that run combined with the fact he seemed genuinely happy for Ratboy is changing my mind.

Still feel a little robbed by the timing error on Rats run though…

What a race 🙂

Other than in the woods, a mud fest isn’t really possible at Ft.Bill

Tis true, especially with the extra gravel they were choppering up last week. Woods will be super sketchy, and pretty hard work, but everything else will be as normal, just with possibility of poor vis through the goggles.

Heading to the Fort tonight, up the hill Fri and Sat. Weather looks pretty good Fri, and the Sat forecast is looking better.

See you on the hill, have a great weekend!

Best pack the wellies!

MET office

At least the wind will keep the midgies at bay 🙂

Maybe a mud fest will let Hart show us those big ass bXlls again!

So I’ve just taken delivery of a nice heavy Halo SAS wheel, first impressions are good, and it was delivered in 24hrs and a bargain 🙂

Also in the package was a nice green Pimplite rim to be built up (cheers gonzy), not as heavy duty as the SAS rim but still feels good in hand.

So the Halo for Fort William and the Pimplite for everything else when it’s ready.

Once the Halo gives up i’ll be going for one of the heavy Mavics, probably the 823.

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

Yep, Monday off is a must to get the full experience, ideally tue too 😉

Amazing atmosphere last year, entire crowd willing on every rider which was nice to see.

I didn’t make it to town though, we were staying just outside town and had already had enough beer for one day 🙂

Remember to bring any old bits of bike to use for encouragement purposes!

I’ve got my stantions and knackered rims packed already!

If it’s even half as good as last year it’ll be worth every one of those 700miles!

Closest to event park and ride will be these guys, but that means a decent walk into town if you’re heading in. Not sure how busy it’ll be though…

Also see the WC website accom links here[/url]

Being Scotland, you can wild camp somewhere quiet as long as you look after the place and tidy up after yourselves, but then you’ll need to drive into town to catch the bus, not much parking on event day!

Agree with the ladies positions, and Gee for a podium, not sure on Ratboy though… Would like to see Hart post an error free run and see what he can do.

As always I want to see old man Peatty teach the young ‘uns a thing or two 🙂

limkilde – Member

Syncros ds32
Roseversand.de have Them at a super bargain price

I can’t see the Syncros, am I being a bit special?

Looking at building up a heavy duty rear wheel, and putting together a ‘regular’ DH set, so I don’t have to abandon a days riding next time I kill a wheel.

Anyone have any experience of the Havoc DH wheelset? I can get a set super cheap in the US 🙂 But are they any good?!

duir – Member

Fort William kills most rims if you ride it as it’s meant to be ridden

Yeah, it’s pretty harsh, and pretty fast. Good fun til you break something though!

I should be covered by the permitted building regs, due to the small size and that i’m replacing an existing building. But, yep, def worth double checking.

The bricky looks pretty handy, sure it’ll pay for itself in timesaving. I’m in Aberdeen, so likely no where near you CXT? They’re on offer on the website now at £30 so not too bad if it saves a few hours faffing around.

I best get ordering some materials!
Thanks

Swaying towards the 823s in the hope of saving the faff of rebuilds.

To be more specific, riding the Alps and local DH trails I only suffer from the odd dent which i’m not too fussed about. Local stuff pretty rough and rocky.

My trail bike is fine, with lighter rims, also running the loacl DH course on it (but at slower speeds).

But the last two trips to the Fort track have killed a rear each, one totally destroyed, cracked (in several places), bent and severely dented (in one day), one with broken spokes, dents and a large crease by the valve (in 2 days). Was being especially careful yesterday to check spoke tensions after each run, but to no avail.

Was hoping to repair yesterdays effort but LBS reckoned it would be a bit sketchy!

My problems are likely due to a combination of love of speed and lack of skill 😛

823s sound promising

cracked a dh frame. front wheel still straight…

🙂

They even state “bombproof” in the spiel!

I asked the LBS about the Deemax actually and he wasn’t a fan due to difficulty sourcing spares. Rumour has it the 729 rims are the old deemaxs…

I’m not fussed about UST on my DH bike, any idea how the 729 compares to the 823s?

Oh, 26″ only!

Where you based?

I have a recently trued (2 rides) singletrack on a knackered hub sat in the garage. Tenner and it’s yours. Aberdeen.

Footflaps is a ‘tad’ more ambitious than what I had in mind 😀

Your workshop looks better put together than my house…

More along the lines of, no windows, one door, single pitch roof!

Foundations are in and solid, over engineered if anything (I got a bit carried away with the excavation!).

Good info wrightyson, was considering putting the door roughly centre of the 5m, with a pier either side.

cxthomson, I keep seeing those bricky things when i’m googling ‘how to lay bricks’ vids! Wasn’t sure if it was just an info-mercial, late night tv thing, or if it was actually any use! Does look handy though. Worth the cash?

Thanks for the input so far.

Cunning!

“MAY”

£10 off £99, just launched on the CRC site, good til 27th 🙂

“MAY”

£10 off £99, just launched on the CRC site, good til 27th 🙂

Just don’t buy anything I want!

Thanks for the input, tubless ready would also work, already have the stans goo actually.

Is it worth putting the ‘goo’ in UST tyres anyway?

Thanks for the input, especially freeridenick, I see the 2,3 are new, must be how I missed it as i’ve been searching for the 2.35in!

Ta

Also, my DH bike completed every lap with me it the back of the car 8)

As a side note, if you want to go and party, but don’t fancy the risk of driving, you can cycle around the entire track and get some great views of harder to access sections.

Nurburgring is one of the best things i’ve ever done, and I travel a LOT.

I drove all round europe last summer in my Skyline, Alps (Swiss and French), Belgium F1, Monaco, French and Italian riviera,etc etc, all great fun, but all topped by the ring!

In a word, EPIC 😀

If you like cars, you have to go! (although perhaps not on a stag…)

I spent 4 days there, every session was closed at least once to clear up accidents. First days there I saw a GB biker plant the armco head on, had to go and flag down traffic… Last session I was behind a biker as he dropped it, luckily he just skidded down the road, again, I was flagging down traffic on track…

There’s no way i’d ever consider doing it on a bike, EVER.

That said, if you can keep your head, drive within your limits, AND WATCH YOUR MIRRORS (just because you’re doing 120mph doesn’t mean a 911 wont fly past you), you’ll love it.

Also, tourist days are good fun to watch, if a little worrying!
When the track is closed to the public, it is usually booked by industry, great place to see the camo’d up new models having their neck wrung, think bentley going sideways at 100mph…

I also spotted the new McLaren out on track testing before, camo new Lexus and camo new M3 out playing.

The car park is also great to wander round if you’re not driving, stuffed full of track prepped exotiques.

Have fun, stay safe, go home happy and in one piece 🙂

Similar post to mine, so you may get some ideas here later in the day:
Any new MTB films?

I’m more interested in freeride/DH than XC, but for the cinematography you can’t beat Where The Trail Ends IMO, also love Strength In Numbers.

Cheers

W

To be fair, I love a bit of Cappuccino, who doesn’t?!

Film looks good too, doubt it’ll get as far North as me, but DVD is out in the Spring.

Thanks

I want it all!

Great riding, great scenery, great cinematography.

No interested in dirt jump segments though, whilst insanely impressive, not my thing.

Will have a look at those mentioned above, thanks for the input 🙂

Engineered wood here, old victorian house so real wood is not an option as it isn’t stable enough with moisture/temp changes we have from summer to winter.

Not in any way inferior to real wood if you buy some decent stuff, and ours was actually more expensive than real oak boards.

As above, get one with click fit or similar which doesn’t need glue and it’s as easy as laminate to fit, will require a circ saw and mitre saw though (will save hours of labour!).

Inlaws have real oak down, looked great for the 1st year, then they fitted a wood burner in the room and the floor really doesn’t like it, lots of gaps opening and floor now starting to warp too…

One important thing to keep in mind is the height difference, engineered and real wood are pretty thick in comparisson to laminate, and ensure you remember to add the height (and cost) of decent underlay.

Good luck

Oh, and end of season is super cheap with the lift pass.
Although I was only riding a week, I bought an end of season pass, which covers the last month or so the park is open. Even with me only riding 7 days it still worked out cheaper that the triple play, if you could stay longer it’d be a bargain.

Just in case anyone stumbles across this while searching for next season, here’s a wee update:

I decided to hire a bike rather than fly mine and have to deal with it for 3 weeks with only 1wk of that riding, which was a great choice.

Demo’d a bike from GBB via the Whistler booking system, rode a Gambler on Day 1 and a V10 carbon for the other 6 days. Cost around £300 more than flying my bike out (assuming I made the 23kg limit…), saved huge hassle, included crash insurance and I got to ride a top of the range bike all week.

They swapped the brakes before I arrived, looked things over each eveing, bled the brakes mid week over lunch when I requested it and I could ditch the bike every lunchtime and evening without having to worry about it getting nicked. Highly recommended!

Re the end of season weather, I have everything from glorious sunshine, to pissing rain and lots of snow at the top of Garb zone. But I packed for Scottish riding and all was well.

A great trip, if you get the chance to hit Whistler, do it!

There really are trails for everyone, just be wary if you hit the expert blacks/pro lines, there are some big features you wouldn’t see across here!

Riding alongside bears was also great fun 😀

We did Ft Bill World Cup this year for the first time, and it was EPIC!

I’m sure it was nothing to do with the amazing weather (actually a little too sunny for my Scottish self), or the amazing results with Rachel finally nailing it, Manon in 2nd and Gee rocking the guys.

Only blemish was the fact they ran out of beer on Sunday!

Also have to mention the great atmosphere, every rider from every nation recceived huge support from the crowd, especially the folks lighting up the split times and those whose limped in with mechanicals/after crashes.

DO IT!!!

I have Cooper Weathermasters, fine in the dry, but they do understeer more than the summer tyres in the wet, not enough to be worried though.
Oh, and they’re AMAZING in the snow, well worth the switch.

Also, they’re fat 18’s.

Re running them in, go find an empty bit of road somewhere quiet/car park, hit the throttle and dump the clutch, enjoy the smell of burning rubber for a sec or two, and enjoy new found ‘run in’ feeling (on your drive wheels anyway)

What he said.

Had numerous cars with the same issue, ripped shield from all of them and haven’t set anything on fire yet!

Thanks all.

I’d heard that the rentals are actually pretty good, although they’ll have had a lot of miles on them by the time I arrive…

Had been looking at the HI hostel as the front runner 🙁 Doesn’t have to be super cheap accomodation, had just looked at hostels as i’m there to ride rather than flounce around a fancy hotel! Also a great way to meet randoms as i’ll be travelling solo.

Looking to head up from 4th-11th/12th Oct. Praying for some autumnal sunshine!!!

Is it worth having a hire car or will I not need it/hate having to find parking?

Cheers

Much of the same here, ordered from them twice now. First time the item was out of stock, no notice from Winstanleys until I started asking questions 2 weeks later. Refunded ok once I’d asked for it, but really shouldn’t have to.

That was several years ago, just ordered again before xmas, slow to send out first item (but it was xmas so ok), second never appeared, I checked with them, out of stock, ordered another colour and was dispatched pretty quickly. Eagerly await it’s arrival. I was only tempted as the item was much cheaper here than elsewhere.

So if you’re in no hurry and don’t mind chasing up orders I guess they’re ok, but i’d only bother again for massive discount, life’s too short for the hassle to be honest!

Top tips, if you can spare the extra cash, buy a bike bag.
Available for £60 – £300!

MUCH easier to trek through the airport/town with a bag with wheels.

If not hit up your LBS and grab an old cardboard bike box for free.

If you can afford the weight, grab a box and stick it inside your bag for max protection.

The rest is easy, wrap everything and make sure nothing can rattle in the box wrecking your nice paintwork. Remove calipers, discs, rear mech.

Easy money!