Puncheur advice

shakey88

Hi,i'm looking forward to my very first sportive,the puncheur,on March 1st and judging by the profile it's mainly rolling terrain with one big climb at the end up to ditchling beacon.
With this in mind i was wondering if it's a good time to try out my singlespeed road bike and is the route suitable for this?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

danseur

Singlespeed up Ditchling Beacon at the end of a reasonable ride would be a bit sporting.

No doubt someone will be along in a moment telling us how they've done it on 53/11...

shakey88

I just got a standard 42/16 or at least i will when the bike arrives in the post.
Never ridden a sportive or a singlespeed i my life but i do love a challenge!
Anyone else got any tips for a newbie?

ugo.santalucia

Once I had a MTB day out in the Peak, around Bakewell-Chatsworth area. The MTB was a single speed... I loved it, no hassle of getting stuck in one gear when you'd really like to be in another gear...
I think on a single speed you can go pretty much anywhere, then if the climb is too big you can always wave a bit on the road or get down and walk it. How long can this Ditchling Beacon be? A mile or so, I suppose

Greenbank

First off, it's "puncture".

Ditchling is a 170m height gain (from Ditchling village) up to 226m. From the village to the top it's 2.7km but the first 1.25km is a gentle slope.

The bulk of the climb is 1.4km long and climbs 144m, so it's an average of 10% but there are 3 false summits with small descents.

Look at the elevation plot of this: www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=3446

Easily doable on single-speed or fixed.

For a real single-speed or fixed challenge try the road from Beulah to Tregaron via Abergwesyn.

www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=3447

shakey88

Cool i am definatley gonna give it a go on the singlespeed.
Any one recommend a decent bike? I'm leaning towards the Langster