DavieB

Should be there....even with a few days dry weather this will be a mud-fest.

Stuck my name down for this.....life will find a way.

Roubaix...with beers and frites on Sunday.

Aye I couldn't quite work out how you could not have crossed the line as I met you about 20m past it when I finished it......the comms guy had a wee glint in his eye when he said the reason for DQ and I must admit I had a laugh myself.

Paul, Alan - from coaches corner shoulder the bike. Geo - ditch the socks. Mul - a picture speaks a thousand words - concentration, focus, poise..... Borland - photographer must have changed to a fish eye lens or skin suit cut is wrong.......flaming Pactimo. Nice bike!

I was riding a "selectomatic" at Irvine. I was considering going for more gears at the low end but reckon I will stick with 38 x 30.

A wee birds told me I was the only V40 to finish and that riding Cycling Weakly's bike of the year. Cheers Paul it was certainly an experience and saved a DNS. Reckon would have been OK with just front brake on my own bike as you probably only dabbed the brakes a couple of times a lap.

With coach Paul L rocking a 42 x 42 and me stuck with 38 x 30 what is everybody else riding?

Alan, I speak from experience Grifo's are no use in off-camber, muddy conditions I was all over the shop on Sunday and had to run the long section as only spinning out - more a good all rounder of a tyre than one for muddy conditions. I will be on Vittoria Limus on Sunday.

Hi Chung, Aye I have been on a few of those web-sites you linked to and it makes grim reading of all the efforts to solve an engineering problem which didn't really exist, the cynic in me suspects commercial aspects are driving this along. As a fellow luddite I have long held the belief that if threaded BB is available this should be one of the qualifying factors on shelling out for a new frame. This belief no longer holds for carbon frames however as there appears to be a rampant issue with galvanic corrosion which has rendered a 4 year old Canyon unusable. Canyon's legendary customer service is as reliable as the bonded threaded BB shell and I am losing the fight regards whether they will uphold a warranty claim. For PF30 like my cross bike all I did was knock out the PF and fit a Praxis convertor however the BB86 appears to be resistant to this work around and so needs to be used as fitted. As for possible purchase road frame of neither carbon, aluminium or titanium construction. It is a steel but of the stainless variety. Very tentative at present.

Cheers Paul...good info.

Cheers Jan, It's clearer now what these are and they will accept 24mm crank axles like Ultegra. Does not appear to be any converter available but certainly look straightforward in terms of DIY press fit. It's the press fit aspect I would rather avoid tbh. Frame not yet discounted.

It's the granny you leave on!

No fix needed Billy considering purchase of frame with BB86 PF incorporated, will do proper Goggle search but thought I would ask if anybody has any experience with or knows for sure I can run (with proprietary convertor) my bog standard Ultegra cranks on it.

LH shifter broken but assume brake lever still functional? Why not run with single chain-ring - with no clutched rear mech you would need a chain retainer or bash guard fitted but other than that you should be OK for cheap & practical solution.

Anybody running with BB86 PF who can confirm if there is conversion to allow running standard Shimano crank-set in them? Checked Praxis web-site and it refers to M30 cranks (?) and there does not appear to be a conversion kit available via them. (M30 cranks anyone?) Any other views on the effectiveness / potential compatibility issues of this system. P.S. the potential frame purchase is not carbon so no idea why threaded BB is not incorporated.

Aye the first lap was a bit of a farce the usual wee ramp up to the tree was much less of a bottle neck than the slalom thru the trees. Wish I had gone for the mud tyres as cycling is generally a bit easier when you are not writhing about on the ground. A decent off saw me slide about 15 feet past the bike, probably quite an impact as my head and neck is now in more pain than knee. On the bright side the impact did seem to repair right hand brake lever which from previous off was projecting horizontally out from the hood, I can't quite figure this one out as it seems still fully operational... No excuses (apart from the ones about the tyres, the gear ratios, the.....) as was grubbed by the end and just focused on keeping Paul in sight the last couple of laps. Onto Irvine......

SRAM double tap is what you need ......X1.

The 650b tyre (clearance?) seems to be a feature on these bikes. Only tuppence worth I would say is go for hydraulic disks they are night and day compared to even the best (TRP Spyre) cable pull brakes. Alos a lot of these "gravel" bikes being marketed with 1x drivetrains I would have thought for an all round bike which is going to spend time on the road you would want a double. Not a huge fan of their customer service and practice of hawking redundant brand names as if they are still dripping in Italian/British heritage but Planet X is probably worth a look - any bike called the Space Chicken has to have something going for it.

The 2nd year is always easier....if Carlsberg did 3 peaks race reports..classic. Well done.

Simons Fell awaits... Good luck and avoid any peat bog face plants.

Better results than I ever got with the sealant, the only puncture I ever suffered on tubeless, a relatively small nick and the slime just oozed out. I pre slimed my cross tubs with latex applied to seal the side walls (pro trick but wouldn't bother) and the slime seems to be rotting the tyre from inside out. Now hate the stuff. If for 3 Peaks run with tubes at high pressure it is not 'cross terrain and anything shy of 70psi will only slow you down. I messed about with tubeless for cross bike but could never really get any confidence on low pressures to attack corners or bumps, certainly not as low as regularly bottoming out which is fine on tubs. Good luck for the Peaks!

Also interested ....

Cheers Richard looks like no replays on-line permitted either? I take it BES is British Eurosport so a viewing on Monday night may be possible......

You can get a black screen informing you that the host broadcaster has not allowed up-feed in your country - almost as much entertainment as watching the Sky train. If anybody can get it to work post link. Cheers....