UK Dyfi Enduro 60km offroad 9 May - any takers?

[redwelly]

Sorry for the late notice - I've only just been told that the booking
was already open for this, and will fill up within a few days. There
are only ~50 places left of 600.

The Howies Dyfi Enduro is a very hard offroad
'not-a-race-for-legal-reasons' ride at Machynlleth, West Wales:

http://www.summitcycles.co.uk/enduro_2007/

I spoke to the organisers at Summit Cycles today, and they were happy
to enter unicycles - but warned of how stupid-hard it may be. The
website claims "it's one of the most technical and challenging courses
you are likely to find in an enduro event". A 60km loop with 1500m
climbing, with lots of rocky technical singletrack for which they
recommend 2.3" tyres for bikes, and get lots of punctures. The guy I
spoke to mentioned some stuff at Coed-y-Brenin in terms of hardness,
but I'm not familiar with them. It seemed like it may even be 24x3
muni stuff - with drops mentioned.

There is also a level road section of ~5 miles, which has a Police
rolling roadblock which was their main concern about keeping up - bikes
cruise this at 15mph+ and they can't let it drag too much, but being
put in the sag-wagon could be possible. Bikes finish the ride in
between 3 and 6 hours, with the last 20 or so riders being mopped up by
support vehicle. Though unlike 24hr lap events, this is a single loop,
so fast riders won't be mixed up with the slow ones after the start.

So after the scary stuff, does anyone want to join me in giving this a
go? It could be really fun if you're a bit mental. Need to book
online within a day or two if so. Go on, I dare you.

Sam


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[joemc]

I could be up for this, I can't find your email, give me a shout on
"joe.mclean.z (at) gmail.com". or 07980921727. 38 miles of hard stuff
will probably take me 7 hours plus on a good day. I'd expect to ride it
on my (new) 29er. The 2005 'rough ride' that Steve R and I did was 40km
of damn steep, if not technically brutal terrain, so I'm aware of the
magnitude.
You're probably a bit (lot) faster than I am, so you'll have to be ok
with that.


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[phil]

Oooo you definitely should. Not me though; I have an excellent excuse in
that my brother and I are already doing it on b*kes. Sorry...

Not that it really matters if you enter by unicycle but they are
apparently trying to make the course (all but the road bit, anyway)
avoid all rights of way, so they might be able to record and publish
finish times this year...

Next question: Is anyone doing SITS this year? Go on, you know you want
to. It'll be sunny, warm and dry! :)


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[redwelly]

Joe - I've emailed you.

Phil - For some reason I suspected you might know it already! I think
I'll come up and camp - more fun than just popping up two stops on the
train on the day as I planned.

The photos of previous years on the internet don't look too brutal
(actaully, they look completely easy), but that's probably not a good
guide! Still, it may be 29er-able which would be more fun for the
distance than 24".

I've booked now. Any more for any more? :)

Sam


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[rob.northcott]

phil wrote:
> Next question: Is anyone doing SITS this year?


I'm planning on doing it again if we've got a team (well, that's at
least two of us so we can always be a pair!) - or are you biking it
again?
I think Tue's quite interested as well.

That enduro sounds cool - I won't be able to make it though (and anyway
I'm not really back to race fitness again yet).

Rob


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[joemc]

I registered today, and got rider no. 540, so there's 60 places still
available...


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[phil]

Where did you get that number from? Their website says "limited to 500
places"... I hope you're right though, as John and I are 525 and 526...

Phil


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[skilewis74]

phil wrote:
> Where did you get that number from? Their website says "limited to 500
> places"... I hope you're right though, as John and I are 525 and
> 526...
>
> Phil


:confused:
redwelly said 600, but their site says 500


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[redwelly]

I got "about 600" from the guy in Summit Cycles bike shop, who seems to
be a main organiser. He said that it was already booked for over 500
and told me there was space, so he must have more information than is
on the website. My number was 520. And it seems there's still space.
So no excuses :P

As this is only a Sunday event, if you arrive earlyish on Saturday we
could go to some of the local trails (at Mach, or Nant-yr-arian?) for a
bit on Sat. Phil/John - fancy bringing your unis along too?

Sam


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[phil]

redwelly wrote:
>
> As this is only a Sunday event, if you arrive earlyish on Saturday we
> could go to some of the local trails (at Mach, or Nant-yr-arian?) for a
> bit on Sat. Phil/John - fancy bringing your unis along too?


I'd be up for doing something on Saturday; it will however depend on
whether John can lug both bike and muni with him from Nottingham...

Phil


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[johnhimsworth]

I could probably manage to get a muni down there. The enduro is only 40
miles, it would be a shame to come all that way and only manage a brief
pootle around.


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[steve.colligan]

Two more riders.

Steve Colligan 555 (26 x 3" muni)
Steve Robertson 556 (a two wheeled thingy)

We'll be camping over the whole bank holiday weekend. Possibly not in
the field at the side of the leisure centre though. Might look for
somewhere a little more scenic.

Sounds like the perfect training for Mountain Mayhem, so how about it
guys?

Thanks for posting Sam. There's still places left!!

Sleepless?? I'd love to do it again, but.......... it's possible it
could coincide with a distance ride I'm looking into doing on the
Coker. Capital to Capital (London to Paris).

Steve :D


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[redwelly]

steve.colligan wrote:
> Two more riders.



Excellent :cool:

Roll up, roll up - plenty of room left.

26"x3" sounds like the way to go. I'll probably be on 29"x2.1" and
hope it/I don't get too trashed.

I had forgotten it was May Bank Holiday weekend! That means even more
time for riding! This is looking to be fun.

Sam


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[phil]

johnhimsworth wrote:
> I could probably manage to get a muni down there. The enduro is only 40
> miles, it would be a shame to come all that way and only manage a brief
> pootle around.



Oooooo then we can do Nant-yr-Arian on the Saturday, oooo can we can we
can we...

1500 metres upwards doesn't seem brief, but thinking about it I've done
more than that today and it's only 6 o'clock!

:)


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[steve.colligan]

phil wrote:
> Oooooo then we can do Nant-yr-Arian on the Saturday, oooo can we can we
> can we...
>
> 1500 metres upwards doesn't seem brief, but thinking about it I've done
> more than that today and it's only 6 o'clock!
>
> :)



Why don't you guys do something a tad more challenging than pootling
around on two wheels. The real challenge is riding these Enduro events
on the one wheel, not two. :p


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[rob.northcott]

Cool. Are we allowed to know how the unicyclists got on? I suspected
the lack of posts probably mean that it's top secret (because of plans
to publish in uni mag?)

I'll see Tue next weekend anyway, so I'll find out then, unless he's
sworn to secrecy as well ;)

Rob


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[phil]

The unicyclists did surprisingly well, actually... they started ahead of
us bike types, and I was amazed at how far we'd gone before we caught
Sam and Tue; it was a good 10k or more, most of that on a fairly flat
road, before we saw them.

Then at the food stop about 20 miles in I was joking to John about
seeing Sam zoom past, then I turned round and he was standing there! On
the fireroad climbs, of which there were an awful lot, he was flying
past everyone.

Phil


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[redwelly]

rob.northcott wrote:
> I suspected the lack of posts probably mean that it's top secret Rob



I think it's more due to laziness :)

Woo, yes, it was an awesome day. The 29er/150s was an ideal tool for
me, and made going up endless fireroad climbs quite fun (for a while
anyway). The bikes were just not trying hard enough. There's nothing
like a 250m solid climb at the start to pass some bikes and get you
going! We all got to join the Mile High Club - 1600 meters of climbing
in one day :)

There was a good atmosphere all round, and the downhill sections had
loads of brilliant gnarly singletrack and rocky stuff. Towards the end
there were a couple of steeper hills which I walked up, the obligatory
spot of cramp, and things were getting much slower. But the rain held
off and it was not too hot.

I asked for results, and Summit Cycles said they would be posting them
online last week - may neeed to ask again. They should appear at some
point. Phil's GPS shows time of 4h 13m - I think John was around then
too? I finished with Steve Robertson (with training wheel, caught me
at the '1km to go' mark) at about 4h 55m, and Tue about 10 - 15 mins
later. I think Steve and Joe McLean were around 6h? I think there
were a good number of bikes behind everyone.

Everyone seemed to conclude that it's an ideal thing for unis - lots of
climbing to overtake bikes on, and fun downhill, with the fastest bikes
staying out of the way in front. And the stunning Welsh views
thoughout. Lots more unicycle entries next year I hope!

Sam


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[rob.northcott]

Thanks Sam. It's good that you all finished and didn't get scooped up
by the broom wagon. What happened on that road bit where they were
talking about having to keep up some minimum speed to get through while
the road was closed? (something like 15mph wasn't it?)

I'll have to make sure I can make it next year (is it an annual
thing?)
When is somebody going to invent a teleport? Or an automatic toddler
minder.

Hopefully Tue will still be nice and tired for next weekend (we're
doing a 60k off-road Audax in Cornwall) - I may have some hope of
keeping up then :p
Should be much less techy than the Dyfi though.

Rob


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[redwelly]

rob.northcott wrote:
> What happened on that road bit where they were talking about having to
> keep up some minimum speed to get through while the road was closed?
> (something like 15mph wasn't it?)
> Rob



That was the start - from the centre of Machynlleth up to Corris. It
wasn't as bad as it sounds, as the congestion of bikes from the start
made it quite slow, and those starting at the back were several minutes
later at getting going. The road was thick with bikes gradually
passing us, but I think 15mph would be exaggerating.

The three of us on unis started at the front. I was trying to spin
fairly fast and still most of the bikes had passed me by the time we
got off the road. I think Steve had a harder time on his 26", and said
he ended up with just the rolling road block for company, but they
didn't stop him riding.

A 29" Shlumpf may have been nice, mainly for this bit, but it was OK
without.

Yes, this has been an annual event for six year now, so we expect it to
happen again next spring.

Sam


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[phil]

My GPS says we kept a fairly even 12/13mph pace along the first road
section. I presume the speed was faster near the front, but even so
it's not a million miles from 29er speed.

Phil


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[phil]

Trawling the web for photos has resulted in this lot...

'Official photos - lots of unicycles, cheerleaders and the band'
(http://tinyurl.com/2oubpx)
'Tue' (http://tinyurl.com/2apgmh)
'Me, 525' (http://www.adhoconline.net/images/252.jpg)
'John, 526, behind the crazy superman guy'
(http://www.adhoconline.net/images/249.jpg)

Phil


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[redwelly]

Thanks for finding those Phil. I particularly like 'this one'
(http://tinyurl.com/2p8ehq) (note the raised wheels at the back).

Sam


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[steve.colligan]

*Awesome* seems to be the way we've all described this ride - and
rightly so. The fire roads were perfect for us to tick off the
two-wheeled ones one by one. I stopped counting after I had overtaken
50 of them within the first 1 1/2 hours. I suppose some of them were
the same riders though, as they tend to go a little faster on the down
bits.

The best part for myself was the 'awesome' technical downhill sections,
of which there were so many. The faster riders were well ahead of
myself so I wasn't so pressurised while negotiating the steep, rocky
sections.

I chose to ride my 26 x 3 muni with long (170) cranks as I wanted to
have some serious fun on the downhill bits. I didn't really have any
problems on the long ascents either, just a little slower than I would
have been if I'd rode my 29er.

My real downer was the road section at the start. Sam, Tue & myself
started at the front of the bike pack. After 15 mins the last bike
passed me, leaving me feeling extremely guilty holding up the traffic
for a further 15 mins before I turned off the main road. My poor legs
didn't really want to go any faster than they were going on those long
cranks. I soon forgot about feeling guilty when I caught up that first
bike on that first very, very, very long uphill section. Then the
second, third, fourth, .......... You'd think some of these bikers had
never ridden uphill before. I suppose I was overtaking the slower ones,
but neverless a bike is a bike and it felt so good, especially as I
came from the back.

I would certainly recommend this ride to others. It was quite a
strenuous ride so the riders would certainly need to be fit and would
definitely need to be competent at technical downhill. I'll be there
next year (same date - first bank holiday in May).

I came in at the end with Joe McLean (complete with training wheel) at
the 5 hours 40 mins mark. I had stopped far too long for a break 1/2
way round though.

26 x 3 ?? I was still pleased I opted for the bigger tyre, as I had so
much fun going downhill on it.

Steve


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[johnhimsworth]

Results are out: http://www.summitcycles.co.uk/enduro_2007/index.htm
(sorry, not results, that might make it a race. A numbered list of
times that riders checked off the course then.)

There's a photo gallery too, with a far better proportion of
unicyclists and cheerleaders to bikers than most galleries.


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[skilewis74]

Congradulations on finishing such a great ride:cool:

I when you said cheerleeders I thought you meant people on the
sidelines cheering you on:cool:

Some of them are real hotties:rolleyes:
http://tinyurl.com/2bq3t3


Were these the extent of the technical riding?
http://flippet.fotopic.net/p41226819.html
http://flippet.fotopic.net/p41226823.html
...or did it get more so, w/ drops?

Sam, did you make it up that section in the second link? Roll or hop?


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