Selkirk MTB Marathon
myopic
Posts: 692
Going to tackle this after thinking about it last year and failing to do anything about it. Anyone here done it before?
Couple of things I was wondering about:
Will a detailed route be published before the day?
Other than the forest roads, what sort of surfaces is it? I'm guessing stony for most (all?) of it, or are there a lot of grassy, muddy sections? Reason I ask is I'm riding with 2.35 HighRollers at the mo, 45aSuper Tacky up front (I ride a lot of roots and rocks!) and 60a out back and I find these are slow heavy tyres which could make this ride a lot more difficult. If I don't need the grip I'll swap them over for something lighter and faster rolling. That said, I did a ride on the hills behind Cardrona that took in parts of the Southern Upland Way in the rain earlier this week. It was generally OK in the HighRollers, though with losing traction on some of the climbs I think I would have struggled with lighter treads like Kenda SB8s. Obviously will depend on weather on the day, but interested in opinions!
What's on offer at the feeding stations? I'll be taking my own supplies with me, just curious to know what is likely to be available.
Thanks in advance for any help and advice
Couple of things I was wondering about:
Will a detailed route be published before the day?
Other than the forest roads, what sort of surfaces is it? I'm guessing stony for most (all?) of it, or are there a lot of grassy, muddy sections? Reason I ask is I'm riding with 2.35 HighRollers at the mo, 45aSuper Tacky up front (I ride a lot of roots and rocks!) and 60a out back and I find these are slow heavy tyres which could make this ride a lot more difficult. If I don't need the grip I'll swap them over for something lighter and faster rolling. That said, I did a ride on the hills behind Cardrona that took in parts of the Southern Upland Way in the rain earlier this week. It was generally OK in the HighRollers, though with losing traction on some of the climbs I think I would have struggled with lighter treads like Kenda SB8s. Obviously will depend on weather on the day, but interested in opinions!
What's on offer at the feeding stations? I'll be taking my own supplies with me, just curious to know what is likely to be available.
Thanks in advance for any help and advice
You don't need eyes to see, you need vision
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Comments
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Hi there. Check out the other thread on this in the Cross Country section. I've also been looking for some advice, which covers some of the points you raised.
What distance are you doing? If one of the longer one's, I think you probably don't want too much rolling resistance on tyres. I'm doing the 85km, and think will go for a Schwalbe Rocket Ron on the front with a Racing Ralph on the back.
Don't think you can get a route map beforehand unfortunately but, if you haven't seen them, there are profiles for the routes on the Selkirk section of the website. The long one has 3000m elevation - my "hilly" training ride here is about 250m...Scott Scale 20 (for xc racing)
Gary Fisher HKEK (for commuting)0 -
Thanks boneyjoe. Your thread is getting a better response than mine! Thanks for pointing me in that direction. (Link for anyone interested: http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12690882 )
I saw the profiles and have been a bit anxious about that - lots of climbing :evil: (and descending! ). I'm doing the ful length one too. I did a training ride in the area last week with 1000m of climbing which was tough but would have been easier with better planning (don't ask 
.....). Got another good ride in on Sat with about the same climbing but much easier this time which was good for confidence.
Think I'm going to go for 2.1 Nevegals DTC all round. Looking forward to it!You don't need eyes to see, you need vision0
