Battle of the Beach 2016.

bendertherobot

Who's in?

imposter2.0

Yarp..

bendertherobot

Tidy. I've booked for the weekend, so battle in the dark as well. Looking forward to that. Hope it's fine. But, that said, would certainly make for an interesting dark ride if it's anything stormy!

meanredspider

Is it fun? Looks it. It's within a couple of hours of me so I'm half tempted if only because it's so unusual.

imposter2.0

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19770747#p19770747]meanredspider[/url] wrote:

It's within a couple of hours of me so I'm half tempted if only because it's so unusual.

You'd better enter quick then, last I heard was that the entry was already 80% full and they only opened it at midnight...

bendertherobot

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19770747#p19770747]meanredspider[/url] wrote:

Is it fun? Looks it. It's within a couple of hours of me so I'm half tempted if only because it's so unusual.

Yes. And it's a different type of fun depending on the weather. Last year was exceptional. Bright, sunny, very little wind. We flew the beach section. Dry on the trails. No mud at all. Clean bike at end.

Year before, headwind on beach, much harder. But the rest was ok. Puddle of doom needs a mention mind!

If it's wet and windy it's going to be very hard on the beach bit. Rest is fairly sheltered. Every lap has something. The soft running sand (about 100 metres), the hard sand (about 3k) and the rest of the lap is up and down single track, some off bike sections, and lots of sand dunes that require a bit of technique. It's by far my favourite cycling event.

bendertherobot

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19770759#p19770759]Imposter[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19770747#p19770747]meanredspider[/url] wrote:

It's within a couple of hours of me so I'm half tempted if only because it's so unusual.

You'd better enter quick then, last I heard was that the entry was already 80% full and they only opened it at midnight...

It took me 2 minutes to enter. And I lost out on being first registered by quite a few.

Last year took me 4 minutes. I was rider 120 or so.

meanredspider

Well I've entered. Will use the gravel bike if only because it'll only be that or the Foil I'll have down south. But looking at the video, there was nothing much that looked beyond its capability except, maybe, that short section of soft sand.

bendertherobot

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19770776#p19770776]meanredspider[/url] wrote:

Well I've entered. Will use the gravel bike if only because it'll only be that or the Foil I'll have down south. But looking at the video, there was nothing much that looked beyond its capability except, maybe, that short section of soft sand.

You'll be fine. There will be all sorts there. Fat, single, MTB and loads of gravel and CX.

And the Dutch will win it on beach racers.

cyclingsheep

Yep, entered and have dragged some mates along. Will take both mtb and CX bikes and decide on the day

onemanpeloton

Yep, me and my brother are in! Cx bikes, maybe with wider tyres!

MikeWW

I'm in MTB last year but may give the CX bike a go this time

bendertherobot

I'm considering a new gravel bike. One of the PX ones that takes 40c tyres. WTB nano type stuff really. Might be the sweet spot for this. Wonder what the dutch boys use?

meanredspider

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19773100#p19773100]bendertherobot[/url] wrote:

I'm considering a new gravel bike. One of the PX ones that takes 40c tyres. WTB nano type stuff really. Might be the sweet spot for this. Wonder what the dutch boys use?

Are you talking about tyres? I was surprised to see that they use Schwalbe Big One on the rear - which is pretty much slick (but big - to ride ON the sand).

bendertherobot

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19773316#p19773316]meanredspider[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19773100#p19773100]bendertherobot[/url] wrote:

I'm considering a new gravel bike. One of the PX ones that takes 40c tyres. WTB nano type stuff really. Might be the sweet spot for this. Wonder what the dutch boys use?

Are you talking about tyres? I was surprised to see that they use Schwalbe Big One on the rear - which is pretty much slick (but big - to ride ON the sand).

Yeah tyres. That's very interesting to hear. Have to say if you have good bike control a balloon type tyre is worth thinking about.

meanredspider

If you look up the Koga Beach Racer, they seem to fit Schwalbe Thunder Bert on the front (which has a more aggressive treaded edge) and Schwalbe Super Moto or Big One (both pretty slick) on the rear.

bendertherobot

Very interesting. I may have 40c clearance if I go ahead. Though that's not quite enough.

bendertherobot

Now sponsored by Assos.......

imposter2.0

free kit with every entry..??

JoostG

The Dutch beach racers will use indeed Schwalbe Big Apples or Vredestein B-Each tyres. Unfortunately too big for our CX bikes and gravel bikes. For some beach experiments in a couple of weeks time I bought a Schwalbe Little Ben (40mm) as rear.

meanredspider

Seems quite an odd event for Assos to sponsor - don't think of a beach race as being their territory (though in not sure why).

I'm not sure I'm going to get any special tyres for the event - just run my 35c Xplors at low pressure.

bendertherobot

meanredspider wrote:

Seems quite an odd event for Assos to sponsor - don't think of a beach race as being their territory (though in not sure why).

I'm not sure I'm going to get any special tyres for the event - just run my 35c Xplors at low pressure.

N
I think they're rebuilding the brand in the UK. Plus raising the profile of the rally range. Bear in mind for a couple of grand sponsorship they reach a tidy range of people and it's way cheaper than print

meanredspider

I can see that sponsoring it makes sense (from the company whose tag line is "Sponsor Yourself") - it's just an odd choice versus some other events which have huge participation and wider coverage. But maybe, as you suggest, this is just the first of many.

Any preparation I was going to make for this event is now going to be seriously compromised by a 2-week business trip to south east Asia: Malaysia, Singapore, HK, Guangzhou, Taipei and back to Singapore - coming back only 2 weeks before this event tired and horribly jet-lagged. Never mind - I was never going to be competitive.

Wiel83

Is the entry still open and can you do it on a normal CX bike?

imposter2.0

Entry is now full, but there will be loads there on normal CX bikes...

Moonbiker

I was thinking of doing my own unoffical "battle of the beach" locally maybe i'll make a looped strava segment


Its an ideal local for some kind of similar event to be organized.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=newborough+forest&biw=1344&bih=708&tbm=isch&imgil=uvshuf6NIcpFBM%253A%253BNK-zslhRxiMYbM%253Bhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fnewboroughanglesey.wordpress.com%25252Ftag%25252Ftides%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=uvshuf6NIcpFBM%253A%252CNK-zslhRxiMYbM%252C_&dpr=1.25&ved=0ahUKEwjh_7uA2t7KAhWEez4KHd4uDsMQyjcIOQ&ei=rJOzVuH5DoT3-QHe3biYDA&usg=__bAYWXRFBsUZcN4W2ighjzhzpR-w%3D#imgrc=uvshuf6NIcpFBM%3A&usg=__bAYWXRFBsUZcN4W2ighjzhzpR-w%3D

Huge areas of forest with a network of gravel tracks and a nice long beach in front. There probably isn't that many other locations as suited in the UK.

imposter2.0

Congrats - you are hereby appointed as organiser of the Llanddwyn Beach Race 2017

meanredspider

meanredspider wrote:

I'm not sure I'm going to get any special tyres for the event - just run my 35c Xplors at low pressure.

Well, I would have if the bead hadn't failed on one of them during the week. Evens have replaced the tyre with 2x 38c Challenge Gravel Grinder Race tyres and 3x Bontrager tubes which seems very fair (they don't stock Clement tyres in any case). These look like they'll be good for sand.

Moonbiker

So what type bike is best suited fat bike HT or cx?

Im thinking cx apart from the soft sand sections?

bendertherobot

Moonbiker wrote:

So what type bike is best suited fat bike HT or cx?

Im thinking cx apart from the soft sand sections?

Depends. If it's calm a cx bike will be faster overall (or a gravel bike) because it can gain a load on the beach and lose little on the trails. If it's windy then everyone on the beach will be the same speed and fat tyres will own the sand sections

meanredspider

Well the Dutch beach racers seem to prefer an aggressive low geometry because of the wind. In a headwind, I'd rather be on a "road bike/CX" shaped bike to allow me to get my head down.