I'm now beginning to regret saying yes....Mountain Mayhem

stumpyjon

Got roped into a team for Mountain Mayhem as a stand in......and then someone dropped out :shock: .

Anyway I've never done anything on this scale before. Anyone got any advice?

What's the course like, hardtail or full suss. I'm tending towards taking the full suss as despite the weight it's a much more comfy ride especially when knackered.

How competitive are the riders, I've not trained as much as I'd have liked although by my standards I'm pretty fit at the moment.

Advice and supportive comments much appreciated.

pirwin1

I'm doing it for the first time too!

From what I've heard from people in my club who did it last year, take mud tyres. If the weather stays like this it'll be fine but apparently last year it rained pretty hard in the night and the course was extremely muddy. One of my friends told me his lap time in the dry was 50mins, his lap time during the rain was 2hrs 15mins :shock:

As for competetiveness, I think there's the whole range. From really serious to just for a laugh. I certainly know a couple of the teams from our club this year aren't going to be very fast!

I've not done as much training as I would've liked either due to exams, haven't ridden for a week and have a week and a half to go

Thewaylander

Good luck on it mate, a team 24hour event is something i would love to try.. though my fitness is dead low at he moment.

Get back to us what it was like, gonna try and pursuade a bunch of mates for next year!

pirwin1

I'll definitely report back on what it's like. Should be good.

I'm also doing twentyfour12 in July in the 24hr pairs. Will get much more training in for that though because I'm on summer holiday in a week . My team mate currently has a broken wrist though :roll:

stumpyjon

pirwin1 wrote:

From really serious to just for a laugh. I certainly know a couple of the teams from our club this year aren't going to be very fast!

That makes me feel better. I only have two objectives, one is not to let the team down (although I think I've been training harder than some of the others) and two, for the team not to come last :shock: .

Point taken about the mud tyres, after being mid field in a couple of events last year when a hundred riders had churned up the course mud tyre would have been a benefit, definitely taking one for the rear at least.

starsky007

Im glad its not just me thats never done it before, ive never entered a mtb race or any thing like it and im doing it solo so should be fun.
been out as much as possible in the last few weeks but not got any idea what im up against, ie, trails, muddy tracks or fire roads. ive been training on all so hope im ready.

warrerj

starsky007 wrote:

Im glad its not just me thats never done it before, ive never entered a mtb race or any thing like it and im doing it solo so should be fun.
been out as much as possible in the last few weeks but not got any idea what im up against, ie, trails, muddy tracks or fire roads. ive been training on all so hope im ready.

Are you mad ??? :shock: :shock:

It's our first time in any sort of race event so we entered a team of 10 to see how it goes and make it a social weekend. Solo on in your first event talk about jumping in the deep end !!!

starsky007

yep, got to start some where. people keep asking me if im ok, when i say im doing it solo.
i dont mind, i will try any thing once. next race is sleepless in the saddle at catton park in august. then who knows,,,, transrockies next year?.

Northwind

pirwin1 wrote:

From what I've heard from people in my club who did it last year, take mud tyres. If the weather stays like this it'll be fine but apparently last year it rained pretty hard in the night and the course was extremely muddy. One of my friends told me his lap time in the dry was 50mins, his lap time during the rain was 2hrs 15mins :shock:

A mate of mine had the same at 10 under the ben, he calls it his Lap Of Hell, and you can really hear the capitals

It is just riding your bike. You do it all the time. Freak out and treat it as something totally different and you'll have a nightmare.

stumpyjon

I'm feeling a bit better about it now, there seems to be loads of people doing it for the first time, normal riders, not Gods. Going out for a ride with a couple of my team mates on Sunday so we'll see how that goes, haven't met them before :shock: .

Been a good excuse to buy some stuff anyway, just ordered yet more shorts, couple of tyres and some other spares arrived on Thursday.

I'm definitely going to treat it as an experience rather than a race, and I'm more into enduro riding than out and out racing so it should be more up my street. Just hope it doesn't rain too much, not worried about the mud & riding, it's that I've got a cheapo Tesco tent £ 20 and I'm not betting on it being very weather resistant :roll: .

Anyone got any advice on the HT vs FS question, still leaning towards the full suss, may take both bikes though so we've got a team spare.

ExeterSimon

I'm taking two bikes StumpyJon.

The Stumpy FSR set up for dry conditions and the Whyte 905 set up for wet conditions.

Hoping it doesn't rain but wouldn't mind seeing what the Whyte can do in those conditions. May change my mind and summer up the 905....decisions decisions.

stumpyjon

I've decided to just take everything, both bikes, numerous tyres and a big tool box, probably won't need any of it but if I don't take it all.................

ExeterSimon

Yep...better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

stumpyjon

Just been for a ride with my team, there was a range of experience, fitness and bikes. Managed to drag them around 20 miles of Calderdales best with a pub stop (ideal training).

May have to upgrade one of the bikes before next weekend though, one of the lads has a fully rigid Raleigh something or other with plastic canti brakes and a 5 speed rear cassette :shock: That said he did a pretty good job of keeping up today, especially as there were one or two techy bits. Think I'll be putting some knobbly tyres on my commuter bike, still fully rigid but it at least has an 8 speed cassette and V brakes that work, he should fly round.

seataltea

stumpyjon wrote:

I've decided to just take everything, both bikes, numerous tyres and a big tool box, probably won't need any of it but if I don't take it all.................

Take everything, I've had chains, mechs, hangers and levers break, never a puncture funnily, only failed to finish once. Last Sundays race (in Calderdale) some smart alec spectator suggested I get a better bike, thing is he was right and a new one is a couple of weeks away.

I'm a rank amateur on a cheap bike with cheap kit but I still come ahead of some of the ££££ bikes and then I ride to work in the same kit the next day.

For what it's worth I think tyre choice is most important..........and a better bike.

ExeterSimon

Can anyone recommend a good mud tyre that they've actually used at MM?

JasonRwmb

The skinnier the better really. I have used Continental Edge tyres in the past, they have seemed to work pretty well, although they are a bit draggy if it is dry. They are fairly cheap on Wiggle. I have switched to UST now, so I have kitted out my single speed with Michelin Mud XCR, which seemed to work well at Catton Park, which has a similar mud/clay.

stumpyjon

I'm taking Panaracer Trailrakers, quite thin, big knobbles, loads of clearance between the knobbles, haven't let me down locally.

ExeterSimon

Good luck fellow MMers.

Looks like the weather is going to be just fine.

See you all at the finishing line.

stumpyjon

Can't believe it's finally here. Just about finished getting everything ready, I think I've got enough stuff for a week. Going tomorrow morning so should be there pretty early I hope.

Good luck

stumpyjon

Well I didn't regret it after all. It was hard, but I'll do it again if I can get a team together next year. Three things I'll do differently though:

1. take the stumpy, why on earth did I take the hardtail .
2. take a bigger tent, mine was so small I couldn't lie out properly, didn't leak in the rain though so no bad for £ 20 from Tescos.
3. Do some proper training with a training plan rather than just try and get out and ride.

Thw weather was pretty good, rain Friday night before the race and we had about 2 hrs on Saturday but luckily that was between my laps. The mud still made things interresting, I've never ridden such greasy mud, closest thing I've ridden before was sheet ice :shock: . I actually stopped to check my rear wheel was tight on the first lap it was sliding that much. The Somme woods were fun as well, managed to ride most of it mpst of the tiem, the slick roots adding to the interest (don't get many roots around me on the moors). They had to make two course changes, they bypassed a steep hill towards the end as people kept crashing (although it was that bad IMHO, I actually rode down if for fun on my last lap) and the bit in the woods with the stream running down it, 3 people crashed within a minute on it on one of laps (night lap I think although it all blurred together a bit).

I thought the organisation was excellent though, toilets were kept clean and stocked and the showers were excellent. Overall a tough but great weekend, roll on next year.

pirwin1

It was a great weekend! I'll definitely be there next year as well I think.

When they put in the diversion around that steep dusty hill in I was a little bit annoyed. It was a really fun section and wasn't even that hard. Although they gave you the option of going the original route or the new easy route, there was no point in doing the original (fun) route because it was longer than the easy route! In my opinion they should've made the easy option significantly longer than the original route to penalize you for the fact you were taking the "chicken run".

One thing I will do differently next year is take more food. I ate shed loads! I thought I had taken loads of food but it was not enough.

MilitantGraham

Had a great time.
I've done a few 12s now, but this was my first 24.
9 laps for 103rd out of 150 solo men.

By the way, that was me in the pink shorts.

stumpyjon

Respect MG, I only did 4 laps and that was hard enough (team of 4). No idea where we came (probably at the bottom), waiting for the results to go up.

By the way, that was me in the pink shorts.

at least it wasn't a green mankini and boxer shorts (you had to be there but if I find photos I'll link :? ).

ExeterSimon

Well done chaps...was indeed a great weekend.

The mankini guy was someone on his stag...my mate was in his team. Poor bugger was forced to do the run.....

The course was awesome..and that dusty near vertical drop ;-) was pointless once they opened the quicker fully downhill easy route.

The woods were grim and as SJ said some weird mud going on.

I managed 5 laps with a total of 22 done by Team D.O.N.G.

Funnily enough I'm glad I did it all on the Whyte..although Stumpy did come along to earn me a free Spesh t-shirt.

Anyone know when the results get published?

stumpyjon

Watching the SingletrackWorld website as I write this, due out today or tomorrow I believe. Should be loads of photos up soon as well.

http://robcrayton.co.uk/osmm09.htm

Eskimo427

I've just returned home from MM with 9 laps under my belt and placed in 105 position so well done MG - next year I'll beat you

I was there from Friday afternoon so I was able to ride the course before the race. The course I felt was ok but having taken part in Relentless 24 and 10 Under the Ben I felt it didn't flow that well and was a little choppy.

Having said that I'm pleased I did the 1100 mile round journey and will be signing up for next years as will the 3 mates I did it with who were also solo's.

ExeterSimon

Special mention to the solo rider on the full rigid Orange P7 I crawled up the Kenda Climb with.

And the unicyclists. Legends.

JasonRwmb

We managed 24 laps in a mixed team.

Turned up Friday and did a lap of the course, at the time I wasn't very impressed with the course, there seemed to be more climbing than previous years, yet less fun downhill bits. With hindsight I guess part of the reason for this was to make the course hold up better if the weather was dodgy. As it turned out the small amount of rain that fell just made the course change slightly and keep all the riders on their toes. On my first lap I did the 'hard' section (managed to go through the really smelly mud at the bottom!), but after that I heard that the 'easy' section was faster so did that instead - as it turns out the downhill on that was good fun anyway. At the time I thought the easy section should have been extended to add a minute or two to the lap time.

I only had one dodgy moment during a night lap, that was on the slippy slope down to the lake. Some how I ended up in a rut and the next thing I knew my back wheel was overtaking me. I managed to get to the bottom in one piece, but it was more luck than skill.

I thought the lack of results was very poor. When I saw the big screen at the end of the start straight I sort of assumed this would give live updates as riders crossed the line, but it just seemed to show adverts. We finished somewhere in the top 30, but outside the top 10. We still have no idea where we finished, or how close to the teams around us we where - while we know we were never going to win we still like the competitive side of the event. I was at Bristol Bikefest two weeks before, and for a much smaller event had the ongoing results pretty much always available on an LCD screen.

I thought the extra catering in the campsite was a great idea.

Managed to win a long sleeve Kenda top in there prize draw, which was good. Just glad I didn't wear while riding the Kenda climb.

Graham, well done on your result. I did see you a couple of times on the course, I think I tried to offer some words of encouragement as I passed you towards the end.

warrerj

Well done guys.

total respect to the unicycle people. 2 wheels was difficult enough on times !!

This year was my first time riding but I did visit last year and took a load of bikes out on demo. I think the layout of the site was better last year but still very well organised.

The course was good but the grasy sections were much bunpier that I thought they would be. The mud must have been flown in from an extra sticky mud place. I've never ridden anything so sticky!!

Things i'd do different for next year :

1. Do some training !! (any would be better than this year)
2. Book monday off work !!

BTW - what were you guys lap times ? Mine were just over the hour on avg.

Eskimo427

my first lap which included the run was 1:16, some how I think the rest would have been a little longer - and got longer as time went on.