Mountain Mayhem bike....

miss notax

Hello

Off to the MM this weekend and, inbetween praying for sunshine, I am contemplating whether to use my Orange 5 or my Santa Cruz Juliana. Never done the event before so I have no idea what the route will be like. My 5 is my usual trail bike and can tackle anything but isn't the lightest bike in the world and has quite a lot (140mm) of travel, whereas the Juliana is lighter with a more racey set-up, great for climbs for technical descents can be a little more hair-raising

So, do I need to be thinking more about the climbs (Juliana) or the descents (5)??!!

Any thoughts would be very welcome!

njee20

Take both, if one breaks the other's not much use at home!

It's hilly (>1000ft climbing per lap), but not remotely technical. The 5 would be wasted I'd say.

Saying that... take the bike with better mud clearance, it's absolute hell in the wet, and I think even blistering sunshine (which isn't forecast) will do little to improve things!

miss notax

Cheers njee20

If it's not techy then i'll take the SC I think - climbs nicely and I can't imagine that the clearance is any worse than the 5 (she's new and i've been a precious about her so far :oops: )!! Narrower tyres will also be the way forward I suspect....!!

Are you there?

JasonRwmb

If it is muddy (I think it might be!) then good mud clearance is a real help. Skinny mud tyres are good too. Luckily, as long as it doesn't rain, the course does dry out pretty quickly. As Nick says there is nothing difficult on the course, although there can be a few slippy off camber bits.

I am not racing this year as Lou is racing in a ladies team. So I will be washing bikes, changing tyres and looking after the kids. Probably hanging round the Four4th Lights tent in the arena.

miss notax

Thanks

All I need to do now is find my tent.....

njee20

Yes I'll be there! The 1.5" mud tyres have been dug out of the bottom of the shed.

Forecast looks grim.

Can't wait :roll:

miss notax

Oh dear... When I signed up for this I was secretly hoping for wall-to-wall sunshine - bugger! :roll: !!

Should be a good laugh though, i'm looking forward to it. Notax can't make it as he's rallying on Sunday - will try not to think of him toasty warm and dry at home (in a comfy bed!) :?

njee20

Yes when I got roped in I'd hoped it would be nice. Not done a really wet one since SiTS 06, I'm probably forgetting how rubbish it is!

I'm racing with the Salsa team, so I'll be hanging around their EZ-up if you want to come and say hello!

miss notax

Cool - will come and say Hi

It'll be interesting...!!

miss notax

Well - that was an experience :shock:

'Muddy' doesn't come anywhere close to describing the conditions.... We only managed a rather meagre 7 laps as a team, not much but anyone who did any kind of a lap did flipping well to just get around! Total respect for the solo guys - I honestly don't know how they did it.

Definitely doing it next year though 8)

njee20

Yes it was unpleasant wasn't it!? We did 5 laps, so you outlasted us! Just wasn't fun, so we gave up! Not agreeing to do it next year until I've seen the forecast!

pilch

Bogging... we were camped next to the Sumo guys, so it was quite entertaining, full respect to them for riding around that purgatory in Sumo suits... plus we had our own open air swimming pool right next to us, came in handy after a while.... just do a lap then chuck your bike in the pond and jump in after it

miss notax

A better plan than waiting for the jet wash - I was queueing for about an hour and a half after my lap, freezing cold and shivering, until one of my team-mates kindly took my bike off me and sent me back to the tent to warm up and get some food!

My poor little Santa Cruz took a battering too - all the mud (along with all the stones etc in it) has stripped the paint off the chainstays by the rear wheel :shock: Nice polished finish as a result, quite a battle-scar I suppose :?

And a few shouts of 'nice bike' cheered me up immensely!!

GiantMike

Wow. What an awesome 24 hours! I managed 4 laps and only disliked the last one because I had major bike problems and it was no longer fun. Loved the night sections, even in the downpour around 4am.

My team of 4 was lucky to have a pit team to jet wash the bikes, make hot drinks and fill us up with cakes. I only managed 1 hour of sleep but I'd planned for a lot more.

Probably do it again next year, and we'll all be complaining about heatstroke, pollen and dust.

I taped most of my bike to keep the gritty mud away from the paint.

homers_double

GiantMike wrote:

I taped most of my bike to keep the gritty mud away from the paint.

That is a good idea and one I'll be using next year!

I'm not one for pansying the anno on my bike but some 24s do take a massive toll on it.

miss notax

I wish I had done that!

Fresh60mmForks

Are these events/races ELECTRONICALLY times with scouts coming to watch for good talent?

warpcow

I've never heard of anyone being 'scouted' as such in mtbing. You race, get some good results, and then approach some companies for sponsorship (if you're lucky they might notice you). There was a good article about it all in Singletrack last year. The gist was that it all hangs on you: get results and actively search for sponsors. They had anice big list of how not to apply for sponsorship too. Might be worth a look.

njee20

Stop worrying about such things Fresh, go and do a race. There is very little sponsorship, probably 1% of teams at Mayhem are sponsored. There are no talent scouts, they don't exist in mountain biking. Your results do the talking, it's not like football where the pool is so vast they need people to scope out talent. If you win a national race, you're clearly good, and you may be rewarded.

Psticks

Respect to all you guys who managed to complete any distance at all, let alone complete laps. The conditions were mind boggling and the downpours in the night horrendous. I was pit crew but have decided to have go next year. A 51 year old newbie! lol! . I'll be the slow walker in front of you.

njee20

Have you only just recovered 3 months on!?

miss notax

njee20 wrote:

Have you only just recovered 3 months on!?

Not sure my bike has recovered yet