This Is Not A Tour - new Audax events in memory of Mike Hall

[pistonbroke]

I spectated on the Devils Staircase when the Milk Race went up, it was the one and only time I've seen pros off the bike pushing, it was back in the days of 39/54 chainsets though. On a road bike, traction is more of an issue than gradient, the surface is,or was, crap.

[Wilkyboy]

I spectated on the Devils Staircase when the Milk Race went up, it was the one and only time I've seen pros off the bike pushing, it was back in the days of 39/54 chainsets though. On a road bike, traction is more of an issue than gradient, the surface is,or was, crap.

Isn't there a forestry track to the right of the Staircase from the foot to the summit, but a much gentler gradient? I remember Iddu taking that route on Yr Elenydd (audax) in 2013 and popping out just in front of us over the other side of the hill ... I tried to ride up it then on about 34 inches, but my Brompton wheels didn't quite have the traction and I didn't quite have the balance at such a low speed. Fun trying

[Taylor]

Yes, there’s a forest road right there.

[voodoo_simon]

Any more news on this?

Not on Facebook now, so feel out of the loop

[Bearbonesnorm]

I read something yesterday about route files but all you really need to know is that you'll get the route a couple of weeks before the ride ... otherwise, it's just deciding what tyres to fit

[Taylor]

Is there going to be a BB designated pub like the Star for Friday or Saturday?
I'm only doing one of the Sunday Hundreds but fancy a pub on Saturday night and kip in the back of the van. Remote car park would do.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Is there going to be a BB designated pub like the Star for Friday or Saturday?
I'm only doing one of the Sunday Hundreds but fancy a pub on Saturday night and kip in the back of the van. Remote car park would do.

I'll be on the 300 steady. I'll have a look at the route and see what / where might tie in with forward progress.

[slarge]

Am doing the 400 fast. Friday will be spent eating. There must be a pub near the start for a fortified beer or two?

[voodoo_simon]

Righto, sounds good.

Also on the 300KM slow, so will be hoping to do more than half on day one. Pub stop for tea sounds most excellent Stu

Right, off to persuade the boss (that’s my proper boss and not the wifey ) for a new bike and team jersey

[Javi]

I'm doing the 600km straight after HT500. Then I'll disintegrate.

[Asposium]

I'm doing the 400 slow

Meeting on the Friday night seems like a good plan.

Weekend after Le Jog, so I'll either be fast from the training, or fcuked.

As for tyres .....hmmm

[ZeroDarkBivi]

Right, off to persuade the boss (that’s my proper boss and not the wifey ) for a new bike and team jersey

BB 'Team Jersey', and accumulating more parts for the new bike... now have a frame, fork, wheels (4), crank, gears, brakes & pedals. which does leave rather a lot to still procure! Not even sure what wheel size to fit, never mind tyres...

The idea of a night-before meet-up does sound good.

[Bearbonesnorm]

There's plenty of possible options for a Fri night catch up.

[Asposium]

There's plenty of possible options for a Fri night catch up.

With camping options?
Though suppose can always find somewhere stealth to go.

[Bearbonesnorm]

With camping options?

I suppose I was thinking somewhere in town. I'll likely ride down to the start so will probably just find a suitable spot to lie down on the Fri night - no tents / tarps involved.

[Blackhound]

I have entered a Saturday 100km. Myself and Herself are down for the weekend and helping out a bit if required.
Certainly in town on the Friday night.

[JustinF]

Starting to get a kit frown, are people on the slow 300 riding through or bringing a bivy kit?

[Pete-G]

On the slow 300. All along my plan has been to have a kip somewhere in route. Plan to do at least the first half, preferably closer to 2/3rd distance before. So bivvy bag, mat and light sleeping bag. Not much more than that though.

[jameso]

Anyone know when route is due out? A couple of weeks time from now has been mentioned.. keen to look up the supply options and a sneaky bivi spot that might allow very minimal kit.
Read that the long route has 100 miles w/o much supply option so I don't want to mess that up.

[Bearbonesnorm]

I believe it's a fortnight before James.

[jameso]

OK, as you said up there. Ta. Fairly last min planning likely then, as ever : )
Garmin seems to regularly crap out and die at 300k+ these days so could be an adventure where the route becomes irrelevant anyway.

[techno]

On the slow 300. All along my plan has been to have a kip somewhere in route. Plan to do at least the first half, preferably closer to 2/3rd distance before. So bivvy bag, mat and light sleeping bag. Not much more than that though.

I'm also on the slow 300, and am gonna take minimal bivi kit & loads of food so don't have to plan my re-supply too accurately. Might have a brew kit if weather looking chilly.
This all may/will change soon and again immediately before I set off

[JustinF]

Re Garmin crash, common problem, turn off at 200k, turn on again, hit start, will continue the recording as one but not hit the memory hole.

[Asposium]

Re Garmin crash, common problem, turn off at 200k, turn on again, hit start, will continue the recording as one but not hit the memory hole.

which Garmin is that???

[Wilkyboy]

Re Garmin crash, common problem, turn off at 200k, turn on again, hit start, will continue the recording as one but not hit the memory hole.

which Garmin is that???

Many of the Edge series suffer from this — somewhere between 300 and 330km the unit will lock up. It's to do with the number of points that the device has saved of your current effort. The solution is to stop + save your recorded track every 200-300km and start a new one. Then stitch them back together when you get near a 'puter before uploading the one mega-track to Strava.

Note that this appears to be unit-specific — I had an 800 that happily recorded London-Edinburgh-London (1400km) in one go; I fried that unit on a dodgy USB charger and replaced it; the replacement crashed at just over 300km ... Every. Single. Time. I now own a 1000 and that's happy at the longer stuff — another LEL 1400 recorded no problem. But perhaps I'm again lucky with this unit.

FWIW, that's on the track-recording side of the device. On the routing side there's a different issue that also manifests at about 300km — this is the 10,000 point limit. What I mean is, if you load a GPX/TCX with moer than 10k points in it then when you get to point 10,001 on the route, the device will silently stop giving turn-by-turn directions. In the UK, 10,000 points is roughly 300km when using Google Maps as the routing base, so anything from RideWithGPS and that ilk. Splitting the route, or downsampling the number of points, resolves that particular issue.

Garmin the company is really quite poor at the longer stuff — each test necessarily takes a long time and is hard to do, so they don't bother, because most cyclists only ride a few hours and then get told by Strava they're sooo "epic" Then again, someone mentioned that the cycling version of Garmin Edge devices is based on their golfers' model, with modified software, and golfers aren't exactly known to walk 300km to hit their balls