January Update: Snow Rides and Bike Fits

January has flown by! after the disappointment of Brass Monkeys I tried not let it distract me from the more important races.

Luckily it snowed which was a welcome change to my usual trails, single speeds are good fun in the snow. Check some of my rides here

Next up I went for a bike fit at Fit2Ride near Wareham in Dorset. I've wanted a pro bike fit for a while, so when I got proper road shoes for xmas I decided that it was good time to go. I thought I had it my road bike set up quite well, turns out my saddle was too low, and I was far to far behind the crank spindle. With my fit dialled I was making 10-12watts  more power with a lower heart rate for a given cadence. Luckily my pedal stroke was already very smooth, and my handlebar drop was described as pro level, I guess having no excess baggage make it easier to have low bars. The same aspects where applied to my 29er, which now feels much faster. 

I really recommend a fitting, people think they can "feel" their bike setup, but something so important should be left to the pro's.

Magicshine MJ872 1600 lumen: A Review

I've been a big fan of night rides for the last few year, there are lots of good reasons to ride at night; it improves your technical skills, keeps you fit during the winter, makes riding all year and all conditions possible, helps with those summer 24hr team races when the sun goes down and it's FUN! A good set of lights gives you access to all this fun!

When I bought my first light almost 6 years ago it was £60 and it wasn't really bright enough for riding off road at any pace, the battery life was poor, it was heavy and gave no indication of remaining battery life. Fast forward to present day and there is a huge choice. I’ve owned several Exposure lights, they have very good build quality and nice features, but these come at a premium, the cost. An Exposure light suitable as a main light starts at £200 which is a lot of money for a casual rider who wants to dabble in night riding.

Enter Magicshine, originally they could be bought direct from China, but now its much easier to get hold of them, with several UK distributors selling at the same prices.

I tested the £90 Magicshine MJ872, with a claimed maximum output of 1600 lumen it's almost as bright as my £450 Exposure Six Pack.

Magicshine MJ872

I'd never seen the light before testing it, but I had it installed on my bike within 5minutes, the light head mounted on my bars with the simple, but secure O-ring mount, making angle adjustment simple and tool-free, the battery pack tucked away under my top tube. It was a nice change to have the low profile light head on the bars instead of my large Six Pack.

The light was very simple to use, the brightness button was easy to operate even with thick winter gloves, and once I understood the button had a brightness up & down function as part of the same button it was easy to adjust the brightness. It had 4 brightness settings, the button indicates the remaining charge by changing colour, the same as an Exposure light.

I used it in conjunction with a Helmet light as I like to look around whilst riding and it helps illuminate twisty single track, and I understand this light can be helmet mounted with the correct mounts and leads, which can be purchased cheaply. The beam pattern was a large flood of light, which is what I am used to, so it felt familiar.

In conclusion the light was brilliant for the money its costs and for the rider experimenting with night riding and the casual night rider it is perfectly suited and a great investment, for me personally I still think my Exposure lights have the edge, due to their slightly lighter weight and longer battery life which is essential for races like Dusk 'til Dawn where it was dark for 9 hours, even with my Exposure lights it was hard to race all night, but they lasted 8 hours and helped me to second overall.

Brighton MTB night ride

Gorrick Brass Monkey's Rd.3: Lessons must be learnt

I had been looking forward to the last round of the Brass Monkey’s series,I was 7th overall and felt I was in good shape after a good xmas training week, and I liked the venue.

My biggest concern before the race was the weather, I feel the cold quite easily, so made sure I dressed in warm, but not too warm clothing. I went through my typical race prep, and lined up for the start, we held a minutes silence over the tragic death of Burry Stander, South African Marathon racer, and a personal hero of mine.

For once I got a relatively good start, made good progress passing through the faster starters once the terrain ramped up. Working through the singletrack I caught and passed a rider I thought would be a front runner, this gave me confidence and i settled into my pace, but then disaster struck!

I landed on the back of my saddle, and the saddle clamp gave way. Game over, i got back to the pits and tried to tighten it but it was shot, I finished the lap, disappointed but that is racing sometimes, and mistakes are made. I spent the rest of the race cheering on my competitors, whilst trying to keep warm!

From the experience I will take that I can’t assume things that perform well during training will perform as well during racing, speeds are higher, forces are different. Racing goes on, I have no major targets until the National Marathon Championships in April, from now until then I will concentrate on quality training, with one week of warm weather training in Gran Canaria at the end of february, which is something i’ve never done before.

Rapha Festive 500

I'm fairly new to Strava, I had been against the idea for silly reasons, but in actual fact it provides useful data and lets you have a look at what other people get upto, especially in races.

Over the Festive period, 24th-31st of December to be exact Rapha & Strava host the Festive 500, basically ride 500km in 8 days, or 38.5miles everyday, simple.

I started half heartedly on xmas eve with an incredibly wet XC ride ride in the Quantocks in Somerset. Damn! only 3hours of riding, 21miles.

I'd never ridden on xmas day, so whilst my family were at church I went out for a road ride, felt rough and couldn't stay out too long, 22miles, bugger!

Boxing day, after xmas day cycling chat with friends the challenge was on, festive road club ride, 50miles, still behind schedule.

Thursday, day out with the family at Longleat safari park, fun times ice skating, get home lights on, go out for a road ride, 28miles, windy and tired.

Friday, better weather and I had no plans, rode the opening section of a local sportive, very windy again but no rain, 57miles, getting there.

Saturday, torrential rain and flooding, no matter, miles to ride, unfortunately I broke my front mech and got soaked, losing interest now, 23miles done, 108 to go.

Sunday, I'd worked out what miles I needed and planned to get up early and ride before my road club ride, woke up to rain and gales, went back to bed. Got up and rode 62miles with the club, felt good despite the wind, got home and had lunch, checked the weather for monday and it looked awful, decision made, stocked up on food and headed back out, 46 miles needed, 47.8miles achieved, 110.5miles in a day, after a long week. 502.5km complete with a day to spare!

So 2012 is over, it has been a good year, I'm a UK and European champion which is pretty  cool, i've learnt a lot but still have much more to learn!

Gorrick Brass Monkey's rd.2

It feels only a short time ago that it was a cold round 1 of the 2012 Brass Monkey's 4hr Xc Enduro Champs, 3 short weeks later it was round 2. The venue was Deepcut Barracks in Surrey, a venue I know well after racing there twice last year.

After meet and greets with my fellow racers it was time to line up for the start. A wide starting line with a 200m sprint to a sharp right turn then into the woods, ever since crashing at the Gorrick 100 fast starts have not gone well, I hit the woods inside the top 30, but knowing the course I knew I could make up places quickly. 

The first lap went well, the course was tough,with few places to recover it was going to be a tough race,the single track sections were fun, and generally in a good condition for the time of year. I settled into the race and rode the second lap by myself. By the end of the second lap I had caught and passed a  few riders. 

The 2hour race started, but luckily due to the longer lap times they had started far enough in front to spread them out, which caused less bottlenecks and effort to pass slower riders. The third, forth and fifth laps were great racing, duelling with "Mr Consistent" Richard Penning for overall race position,  it proved to me that maybe gears will be good for my future racing!

On the last lap I passed through the pits without stopping, keeping my head down I pushed on hoping to catch a few other racers, to my surprise I managed to catch and pass Simon Lingard. After this I was glad to see the finish!

Another good race from the Gorrick crew and i'm really happy with a 6th place, the new gym sessions are making a big difference, and i'm looking forward to the xmas break and the final round.

Brass Monkey's Rd.1- 2012

So.... back to racing, luckily after last years Brass Monkey's 4hour endurance series I know what to expect, fast, close racing on great courses!

The weather had been atrocious in the run up to the first round, but knowing the venue, and how the event organisers are careful with course selection I took a gamble on running summer tyres.

After saying a quick hello to my racing buddies I went off to get ready, and to warm up. The start had been moved from last year so I arrived a little late, I managed to get close to the front but my start was terrible! stuck behind a line of slow riders I had to bide my time until the fire road section.

I cleared the slower riders and chased after the fast boys, the rest of the lap was great fun, I recognised most of the course and the mud was minimal, with only two major hills, luckily the new bike is as fast up hills as my single speed!

On to the second lap I caught and past a Wiggle Bike Shop rider and I could see endurance supremo Ant White and speedy Simon Lingard in the distance, I felt I could catch them,until a tree jumped out on me. Bugger! get back up, checked bike, looks ok, check me, sore Knee, get back on the bike and ride on, ouch, still have a sore knee. Limped round the rest of the lap.

I was feeling better by the end of the lap, and carried on. I had dropped to 20th so had my work cut out. Over the next few laps, I clawed back 10 places despite having to clear what seemed like a thousand 2hour racer's, I sometimes find passing lots of riders difficult, it can be best to be patient and wait for the wider sections, but this takes time, I found short bursts of speed along the edges of the course helped pass in the narrower sections but I can only do this for a short time! I will know for the next round to be back around the lap before 12 o'clock!

I was happy with 10th, the course had slowed towards the end but it was still good fun, the new bike was great and I seemed to have the legs to race with the fast boys, I need to refresh my off-road skills before the next round in 3 weeks!

Chinese 29er review- Carbonal Gaea 29er

I’m obsessed with bikes, but i’m quite tight with money. As much as i’d love a Scott Scale or a Santa Cruz Highball the high frame costs are out of my reach

I’d seen a forum thread on MTBR which featured chinese carbon 29er frames, it was almost 100 pages long and mainly positive views, a few horror stories, but as with many things to do with cycling I take these with a pinch of salt. Still undecided on which frame to pick I emailed a few contacts who I knew had a chinese frame, they both came back saying that the Carbonal Gaea was a safe bet, it also had the best suited geometry to my needs, as I had noticed many had incredibly short top tube lengths compared to the seat tube, the head and seat tube angle were also similar to my Niner frame.

A few promptly replied to emails from the seller at Carbonal and I had ordered a 19” UD matt finish frame, with integrated headset and shipping, for the some of £320. 1 week later it arrived, packaged well, but with very little documentation.

The build was simple enough, I’ve built a few bikes so i’m quite confident doing it myself. The internal gear cable routing caused a few headaches but my choice of Alligator I-link cables was to blame for that. Setting the rear mech was also tricky, the original mech hanger was not of the best quality, so it promptly snapped after a small amount of fettling, using the correct tool I hasten to add! replaced with a UK sourced alternative the gears work spot on, I used a 1 x 9 setup as I am used to one gear, so nine is a luxury. I imagine a 2 x 10, 3 x 10 or 1 x 11 would work just as well with the correct front mech.

I was not familiar with the tapered headset type, but the two bearings fit into a race, which is a structural part of the frame, I used an FSA 1.5” to 1 ⅛” adapter so i could run my existing 1 ⅛” RockShox Sid XX fork, no problems encountered.

The remainder of the build was simple: the brake routing is neat and simple: i’m using a mixture of Hope and Superstat hubs on Notubes Stans Crest rims, I particularly wanted a hub with 10mm quick release skewer compatibility to improve rear end stiffness and as Hope’s are too heavy and DT Swiss too expensive I went for Superstar, I know sealing isn’t great but the bearings look easy to replace.

Overall the quality seems good,I have noticed due to the incredibly short headtube is that the brake levers and gear shifter clash with the top tube, this can be remedied by having a stem which points up instead of down and more spacer, but as I prefer a low front end I will gamble on protecting the top tube and having low torque on parts which clash, incase they need to move. Initially I have had trouble with the seatpost slipping, i’ve heard this can be a problem, i’m working on a few remedies, carbon paste and well placed zip ties have helped, but it still slipped 2mm in 4 hours so it requires more thought.

So in conclusion initial thoughts are good, with a tough but simple built the complete bike with pedals etc is 21.8lbs. Its first proper outing was at the first round of the Brass Monkeys 4hour race series, I had a silly crash which saw me chase back to 10th overall but the bike felt good, fast on the hills and handled well in the slippy conditions. I plan to get the matching rigid fork to save my suspension forks over the winter, and matching carbon wheels to increase stiffness still further and reduce weight.

Update:

I decided to buy the matching rigid fork, initially put off buy the longer a-c height than my Niner rigid fork. First ride seems good, it is less refined than i'm used to, very stiff, with no "give" compared to the other forks i've tried, but for a winter fork for local riding I am happy so far.