Bless you legend – that worked straight away

It does indeed seem there is a Lord of the Squirrels…

“>”Then I met the “Alpha Squirrel”… While building a bridge next to a giant cedar, he would come to within a few feet of my running chainsaw to “bark” at me. At first, I found him to be cute and funny. After a few days, I was awed at his resolve: The trail would be named after him!</span>

“>“Lord of the Squirrels!”

“>We became best friends.”

I feel I must make a BC pilgrimage, again 🙂

Thanks matt

Good stuff Rob. You can go harder on the HR probably, I didn’t know my average HR as a %HRMax so I went back and had a look at a few races:

10 in the Summer 95%

10 in the Spring 93-94%

25 92%

50 88-89%

I am 50, so if you are younger than me, you can probably push on a bit more. I also find my avg HR in the bit of XC racing I’ve done is quite a bit higher than for a TT of the same duration, so if you do some MTB racing you can probably push on further still.

A lot of TTing is the head*, you will find you can go way deeper than you imagine when you start out. It helps to be very fresh mentally for a 10 as it is a real test of your mental strength to perform to your true potential. When I’ve done a real good one, I can smell blood, but it doesn’t happen too many times in a season.

*Which is why testers are so OCD about things like creaky bottom brackets, number pinning, anything that might cause doubt or a drop in concentration in a race

Thanks for the advice, having thought about it while watching Paris-Roubaix, I decided to put it on here as a complete bike in case there is a future Sagan or Pidcock looking for a cheap trail bike that is mahoosive fun. If that doesn’t work out, then I’ll strip it down and sell the bits 🙂

Hmm the Bandit would make an awesome little trail bike for a teenager. I might forego a few quid if I thought a youngster would ride it into the ground in the woods/hills

Even if helmet compulsion wouldn’t directly affect you or change your behaviour you should still oppose it. The impact of compulsion on cycling rates is pretty clear from the evidence, possibly because it helps portray everyday “utility” cycling as a dangerous activity. Reducing the numbers cycling is a terrible idea for public health, and probably unhelpful to us as cyclists.

Unfortunately my anecdotal experience is that by far my worst cycling injury came from everyday utility cycling, outcome would have been much worse without a helmet. I wasn’t going to wear a helmet that day, but thought I should because I was riding to a school where I was governor and didnt want to set a ‘bad’ example.

I’m not going to tell other people they MUST wear a helmet, but my personal experience is that they are of benefit. Normalisation of their use is preferable to legislation – although tbh arent we there?

(I totally agree that the debate detracts from the more important issue of encouraging cycling as a means of transport)

If you want to be seen then proper lights are much more effective than hi viz in the day, and reflective is better at night. I feel there is more of a case here, I live out in the sticks and cyclists eg riding under tree cover in sunken lanes in dark clothing are hard to see. But in a city, what is most effective is probably different – so what do you do?

But mass civil disobedience will make it a waste of time. Coppers are too bust out here scraping mid life crisis motorcyclists off the tarmac to worry about cyclists who are wearing red instead of chartreuse, or if a cyclist in black with a 100 lumen rear light is more vivsible than in an orange gabba.

the country is heading down shit creek without a paddle and government resources need to be directed on to more important things than matters of personal liberty

I’m not bothered about helmet compulsion but being made to wear hi viz – no **** way.

I have a daytime rear light and just can’t imagine the kind of copper who would pull you for it.

a bit of steeze

That huge gap into manual has become my new definition of steeze 🙂

I was puzzled by Bizet’s score at first but it seems the judges were scoring the more natural technical section more highly than the more bike park lower section and Bizet had to opt out of his main line at the top because it collapsed (?).

So it made sense ultimately – would Zink have won if he’d completed that second run? I felt his line was the most technically challenging and that seems to be where Rampaaaaage is going

these are a thing that should exist – morvelo are you listening, make some cargo bibs but longer

guilty

I’ve not really looked at WTB tyres before but that Ranger looks good – anyone got them on front ? Maybe in the high grip version?

The latest Flows are good to 2.8″ apparently – I love my bike and would quite happily stick with it and if I can eek some extra fun and gnarr from it by getting wider rims next time I need new wheels then that would be grand…

I’ve had 2.4 Ardents on 25mm rims – should I be dead?

I was wondering what I might get away with without new rims – I did read a thread on dirt wizards a while back

A perusal of t’interwebz suggests I have more chance of sealing my tyres with unicorn jizz than getting the minion 26+ tyres described in the article – unless anyone knows better?

Im after one of these – Castelli specifically say it is road only so I wont be taking it on the MTB.

The Castelli one has a way of accessing the back pockets on your jersey which the Gore does not, but the Gore packs into a zip pocket, which doesnt seem to be on the Castelli. BOTH of these features would be useful…

“I could work my arse off over winter and maybe find only 10 watts which I could probably find quite easily in a single AeroCoach session. “

This. 10W is a helmet change, you can try 5 helmets easily and still have another 7-10 runs left. Imagine the ballache of trying to do your own helmet testing (which hardly anyone can actually do as people just dont know enough about statistics and error margins), ordering helmets, sending them back, selling them, scrounging. It;s just a massive pita.

My CdA was already pretty good at 0.200 but Xav saved me another decent chunk and then I didn’t change my position for a whole season, which is the real win. You see people constantly fettling, buying new stuff, not knowing what has made them faster or slower. Knowing what your CdA is for sure and then not worrying about it means you can get on with enjoying the racing.

Aerodynamics >> training .

Of course both is better, but being aero means I can ride my MTB instead of training

I like Mrs Yak’s style – how long before you realised it was her?

Thank you thisisnotaspoon

I’ve just looked up the towball limit for the Disco Sport and its 100kg so I can see why I haven’t noticed the front feeling light with 14-20kg of bikes on

Apologies for the pedantry interlude but…
Road bike 1 6.5kg
Road bike 2 8kg
FS 12.5kg
Hardtail 11kg

38kg and I only needed to sell a kidney for road bike 1

I can see that 4 enduro bikes will be 50-60kg but I’m still not sure why it creates a problem for something that can tow up to 3.5 metric tonnes?

Why if I can tow a trailer with 2 horses in ( prob 2500kg) on my tow bar do 4 bikes cause a problem?

Obv the trailer has axles and is braked but I can’t see how 40kg of bikes creates more of a moment than a small per cent of 2500kg?

Hmm

Awkward

Suggestions for new handle by IM please 🙂

TiRed – yes 28s might sort it out but anything > 23 is too big for the frame and it’s got a fair bit of life in it.

Anyone tried the CRC tubeless wheels that £130ish?

What else is a decent tubeless wheelset at 120-150?

Reliability and servicing more important than lightweight 🙂

Dewey 1:37 – incredible

Stages numbers always seem low to me. But as long as it’s consistent it doesnt really matter, unless it makes you think you are more aero than other people when you just have a low reading PM. If this means you dont spend time on aerodynamics when you should be, that’s a problem.

I dont know anyone I consider serious who’s using a Power Pod (just saying) but as long as it’s consistent, it doesnt really matter. Except if it misleads you about aerodynamics as above. Personally, I can’t see how it will work when you are using tribars, and DC rainmakers test was on road bike – he couldnt get a decent riding on his tt bike.

Another vote for Spokesman

Just for info 3cm was clarified with a view to enforcing but ctt have now realised what everyone knew – its unenforceable.

So fill your boots ( while staying safe of course ) – big aero gains by finding your best elbow position – which could be < or > 3cm depending on your physiology

Flat back is a distraction, don’t worry about it, narrow shoulders far more important

Cheers weeksy

Somehow I missed a turn t Whistler and ended up on the Canadian DH track, managed a couple of small gaps and some roll-ins before coming to enormous granite boulder drop, which had tyre tracks in, and shitting myself and pushing back up 😳

Tyres: Ive just put a Nobby Nic (F) and Thunder Burt (R) on and am amazed at the free speed I feel Ive gained while not losing much grip, compared to my other sets of tyres; HR2/Ardent, Ground Control x 2, Aspen x 2, which seem to do one or t’other.

I’m thinking of doing the Scott Marathon at Wantage – is the Thunder Burt up to something like that? Its the Snakeskin Pacestar version 2.1″, I’m running tubeless.

How dare horse riders use so-called bridleways!!

You can’t make this shit up

I found riding my road bike with bruised ribs was fine with a few cocodamol and as long as I avoided steep hills.

What event did you say you were doing again?

You must be a lot more flexible than I am Pretty much impossible for me to get a number into the pocket while wearing the suit. I even find it pretty tricky to get the number in properly when not wearing the suit!

mrblobby

(Swiss Toni voice) You dont need to twist to put it in , just put it the right way round, fold it a little, then slot it in, then unfold it and then there is a bit of faff getting it neat in the corners. new stiff ones are easy to slot, old floppy ones get in the corners better.

If you’re finding it hard to get in, maybe think about making the slot wider?

the need to be flexible is a distraction – you just need to be not cack-handed 🙂

Anyone thinking of getting a speedpocket, it really isn’t hard to unzip your suit and put a number in, it’s easier than getting a number pinned on in a satisfactory way for sure

Empty the tank is a better term than sprint. I might manage 400W compared to 900 in my old fart effort at a proper sprint

It’s a continual progression of greater than FTP effort – sporting courses make this much harder to manage. Reviewing your HR trace after the event can help you see how well you achieved it

What bar tape are you using, I’ve not worn padded gloves since I started using Lizard Skins tape (I am sure there will be other equally comfy tapes) – like you I dont really like wearing gloves if I can avoid it.

But he’s got a power meter so must be pretty serious about something so I would expect some pacing ability?

Definitely worth turning it up a bit on drags or into the wind and knocking it off a bit on fast bits, experience will tell you how much, its not smash it then recover, like XC or road racing

10s are hard mentally as it is a sustained > FTP effort, as already said, this requires quite a lot of concentration, and a difficult day at work or mental stress will suck the ability to do a good one out of you. As will smashing the first few minutes when it feels like you could do 30W > FTP all the way round 😉

Whistler, BC is literally awesome, the best family holidays we have done, worth being broke and living in a shit house for 🙂

Personally I think TiRed’s pacing strategy is too variable.

EDIT: and mathematically is 102.5%FTP which is a bit shit for a 10 – should be more like 107% if you do a good one (ie smell blood at the end)

If you know your best 20 minute power, ride to that, then turn it up for the last two miles, go flat out with a minute to go, and sprint the last 15s.

You also got a free sprint of 15s or so at the start, but try really hard not to overdo it, a ten is a sustained > FTP effort and requires considerable concentration and mental freshness.

andy – some serious Watts there, get yourself on a fast course and the PB will be destroyed – my 10 PB is 20:55 off 264W so you should smash that as your position looks reasonably sorted now