Cowardice/injuries are still ongoing so I'm doing the 200 not 300 now. It'll still be there next year though.... I'm presuming there will be a decent gathering in the Wynnstay arms on Friday night?

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Sun Jul 07, 2024 2:03 pm Anyone able to share some more info on Strata Florida pls. I didn't manage to get there last year (not complaining at all) as my last shakedown ride caused me to go into long terms cramps for a good while.

Anywhere that we can read about how and why 'substandard it was'. Ta

There's quite a few vids on YouTube, Shaf. None of anyone cycling it mind, which does get you wondering why … 

https://youtu.be/l5TelUqmJys?feature=shared&t=136

RedX wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 8:06 am

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Sun Jul 07, 2024 2:03 pm Anyone able to share some more info on Strata Florida pls. I didn't manage to get there last year (not complaining at all) as my last shakedown ride caused me to go into long terms cramps for a good while.

Anywhere that we can read about how and why 'substandard it was'. Ta

This is a photo of the top section where it was relatively calm. At this point there were times I struggled to figure out what the track and what was the river! Further down it became faster flowing and when I crossed holding my bike upstream of me it almost knocked me over and sent me flying so I started holding it the other side, just be the top tube as it pretty much floating by this point!

IMG_4349 by Alex Redwood, on Flickr

What a nasty peice of work the gaffer of this establishment is. Oh dear. Hopefully it'll not be in this year's!

To be fair - it was only wet. And it'd rained for a while prior to the weekend so that part was wetter than normal. There was only 1 crossing that had me worried mainly due to the slippery rocks, but the vast majority of it was just a lot of water. Had clean shoes/socks/legs/shorts by the end though!

slarge wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 1:48 pm To be fair - it was only wet.

It was only wet.....it was a bloody river! And as such it should be left to water sports.
Lets not encourage the madness please

I found some sections were just below "sharp intake of breath or you'll sound like Demis Roussos!" level. I'm 1.8m tall for reference.

It wasn't that there were wet bits it was just that there weren't really any dry bits from roughly here http://streetmap.co.uk/map?X=277629&Y=262695&A=Y&Z=120 to here http://streetmap.co.uk/map?X=281019&Y=260227&A=Y&Z=120, something like 5km in distance.

Valerio wrote: not encourage the madness

You didn't get as far as Clause 5.3a in the Constitution when you signed up to the Forum then?

RIP wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 6:23 pm

Valerio wrote: not encourage the madness

You didn't get as far as Clause 5.3a in the Constitution when you signed up to the Forum then?

I blindly trusted some friend who told me "sign up to the forum, lots of wise people there"
Ive been conned

no refunds unfortunately

Maybe they meant wizened, not wise...

If anyone else is interested and wishes to add another dimension on the social experiment and their write up afterwards. I just ordered myself a continuous glucose monitor from Dexcom for free.

You don't have to be diabetic to check your blood glucose (in case you're wondering) and some (me included) in the NHS do worry about this situation flaring out of control. One of the renal/kidney/wee'wee' specialists I heard say years ago, "there's something about the sugar that clogs up all the narrow blood vessels" etc. Now when you look at Jason Fung (the doctor that looked into and gave us the 20:4 or whatever fasting diet) he also is a kidney specialist.

Not telling anyone to get one, but it would be an interesting test on how our various strategies impact the sugar in the blood, fat break down and glucose/carbon metabolism... Plus all that jazz.

Link/info here if you wish to try one for free. Remember, measure twice, cut once (when sticking the device to the skin). Connects to a phone app and it'll just monitor the levels in the background.

Valerio wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 8:29 pm

RIP wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 6:23 pm

Valerio wrote: not encourage the madness

You didn't get as far as Clause 5.3a in the Constitution when you signed up to the Forum then?

I blindly trusted some friend who told me "sign up to the forum, lots of wise people there"
Ive been conned

Well, we have erm, In Reverse. Lol. Rode through the storms one year and recorded the journey (just like a National Geographic vlog). Then another year he decided to ride the route backwards.

Then we have Dave who completed the Tour Divide journey and washed his bottom throughout, therefore reducing pressure sores and the risk of scratching. Finally we have Reg, I suppose - sorry Reg - and he has a Brompton; rides anywhere and everywhere; only really come out into a downpour; uses trains and doesn't drive.

That probably puts me in the 'unwise' camp TBH.

Still, if anyone would like free consultancy concerning any upcoming unwise decisions then I'm your man .

Sigh... I might be out.

I tweaked my shoulder this weekend (whilst sleeping, yay... feck old age). It might get better, but experience tells me it's usually about a week before it does, and if it doesn't then there's no way it'll hold up to 24 hours of abuse.



Edit - I'm still going to prep as normal (do nothing until the night before!). Just have to see how it goes.

Having started looking through the route, and especially the last third of the 300... my shoulder is feeling especially bad.

Yup, can't see it healing up.

Yes Richard but the question everyone is dying to know is ... do you have a functioning bike yet?

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Tue Oct 01, 2024 5:33 pm Yes Richard but the question everyone is dying to know is ... do you have a functioning bike yet?

Is it the night before the event? When the answer to that question is yes, so is the answer to yours!

Right now my bike is in a bike bag, untouched from when it barely survived getting through my last insane event. I know of at least five things that need doing to it.

Been looking through the route. Not sure how much I'm allowed to say, but I reckon getting supplies in the Northern section on the 300 is going to be a tough ask.

By my calcs you'll really have to be hammering it to get there before everything is closed.

In the absence of any extended HaB in the early stretch ( ) and minimising stopped time in the two towns I think the Spar at 150km ish is doable. The takeaway just off route closing at 2am is a nice target to have, might be ambitious though.

In Reverse wrote: ↑Wed Oct 02, 2024 3:47 pm In the absence of any extended HaB in the early stretch ( ) and minimising stopped time in the two towns I think the Spar at 150km ish is doable. The takeaway just off route closing at 2am is a nice target to have, might be ambitious though.

Yeah, I was thinking a bit further on from that Spar for my final stop, hopefully!

I saw that takeaway... I can't tell you how crushingly disappointing it would be to rock up and find it has closed early (this has happened to me before, and nearly broken me ).

Looks like the last decent food stop (COOP) for the 200k riders will be at the town 57 miles in. Decent stuff God Willing.

Just had a look over the 200 route... it looks unusually friendly, which tells me I'm missing something somewhere.

Richard G wrote: ↑Wed Oct 02, 2024 5:46 pm Just had a look over the 200 route... it looks unusually friendly, which tells me I'm missing something somewhere.

Don't be like that Rich. I think this is the year where he (who's name we shan't mention) has been around with the shears and trimmed down the tussock. Added a bit of pebbles here and a bit of water there, to equalise everything into enparralel smoothness.

In Reverse wrote: ↑Wed Oct 02, 2024 3:47 pm In the absence of any extended HaB in the early stretch ( ) and minimising stopped time in the two towns I think the Spar at 150km ish is doable. The takeaway just off route closing at 2am is a nice target to have, might be ambitious though.

Spar at k180 open until 11!

fatbikephil wrote: ↑Wed Oct 02, 2024 7:21 pm Spar at k180 open until 11!

tbh Phil my depart time is usualy closer to 10am than 7am so I'm tagetting the takeaway in that spot more.

Did you sort a bed for the Friday night?