Tracker 27th/28th

Further to James' post about trackers this weekend here's the link to what I've got one for.

http://maps.opentracking.co.uk/15yorkshire300.cfm

It's a 300Km ride with 6700m of ascent/descent.

A little background. It's an ITT (Individual Time Trial) which is basically a fancy way of saying do a long mountain bike ride on your own. The general rules are you can use any facility that is open to others; no mandatory kit nor restricted kit (except for motors!); no pre-booking of facilities. You can go off route to get restocked or whatever but must rejoin the route at the same place. What all this means for example is that if you get to a B&B and want a warm dry bed for the night then it's fine but you can't ring ahead and book it.

A bit more info here from the guy that's organised it - http://riderscyclecentre.com/?page_id=2568

It's the first one of these that I've done so other than a lot of hard work I don't know what to expect.

Just noticed - the route has changed slightly so instead of following the Pennine bridleway then down Arten Gill to Stonehouses the route now simply follows the road down past Newby Head.

Bob, I like the look of this.
Just in the process of assembling a rigid 29er as an on/off road adventure bike - could be just the ticket for this route?
Let me know how it goes and I'll bear it in mind for 2016.

Ian.

There's nothing too technical on the route - well apart from one short section above Gunnerside Gill - so a rigid would be fine. There's going to be a 200Km version later this year apparently

I posted this on UKC

Well that was one of the hardest things I've ever done! A war of attrition on the body. Provisional final time of 34:55. Note that this includes food stops and bivvying - the clock runs all the time. 8AM start

Saturday AM was really warm, got to Fremington in Swaledale in 7hrs20. Heading up Great Pinseat I got a cramp attack that was so bad I had to walk the flats, the wind was also increasing in strength at this time. Got a meal in Gunnerside then rode over Buttertubs and up Cam Road to bivvy at the top of the descent to Newby Head at about 2345. Up at 4am having had maybe 3hrs sleep and away by 0435, rain started about an hour later and the wind got even stronger. Breakfast at Feizor. Sun eventually made an appearance when I was at Malham. By this time I was walking just about anything that resembled a hill. Finished just before 1900.

Despite stuffing my face at any opportunity (the full breakfast at Feizor is something else again) I lost 4Kg.

If you are on Strava - here's the activity: https://app.strava.com/activities/335029417

Beer and food (lots of) are in order methinks.

Good effort Bob. Would be interested in some of the finer details .... how much bivvi kit did you carry; b/bag & sleeping bag? .... etc.

Ian.

I had an Alpkit Rig 3.5 tarp(https://www.alpkit.com/products/rig-3-5 ); a Klymit x-frame mat: (http://www.klymit.com/index.php/inertia-x-frame.html ) and a PHD minim 200 sleeping bag (can't find a link to this). Total weight of this is just over 1Kg. This all goes in to a medium size Exped dry bag which itself is attached to the bike via a handlebar mount from Wildcat (http://www.wildcatgear.co.uk/shop/ha...mountain-lion/) - all my bike bags are from Wildcat BTW. Spare clothing was in a dry bag in a seatpost mounted harness again(http://www.wildcatgear.co.uk/shop/se...at-gear-tiger/). First aid kit, food and various odds and sods went in to a frame bag.

It didn't affect the bike handling much at all, keeping the heavy stuff inside the frame helps, the only time I really noticed it was towards the end when opening and closing gates and having to lift the bike up off the deck.

I used pretty much everything I took except for one spare cycling top, perhaps just as importantly I didn't miss taking anything that I really needed. Had everything weather wise from bright warm sunshine to driving wind and rain - the usual British summer in fact.

Good stuff Bob. Great result

Well done Bob - cracking

Ah, so you're not a rack & panniers fan, Bob?
With the frame bag, how do you accommodate bidons / bottle cages?

Ian.

The problem with rack and panniers is that they make the bike awkward if you have to lift or carry it. There were only two locked gates on the route at the weekend and very little hike-a-bike so it wouldn't have been a big deal but in general for this type of event everyone uses a combination of the handlebar/frame/seat bags. I've rack and panniers for road touring. Having smaller bags encourages you to think about what to take.

With my frame bag and frame I can't fit a water cage in there but again for this event it didn't matter as I was using a camelbak. I went for the Camelbak as I knew there were big distances and time between replenishing points especially since we'd had dry weather for a while and there'd be nothing on the tops. Some frames have the bottle mounts set lower so it might not be a problem, also most of the framebag manufacturers do a custom option - you send in the outline of your frame on a large piece of card so it can be made to wrap around water bottles or even shocks if you are riding a full suspension bike.