The Masters Lounge

[Mike T]

Nobby's nuts? Never heard of him, but inov8's nuts for dropping the mudclaw and xtalon from their range. The new mudtalon has flat bottomed studs, which don't really meet the criteria for studs as studs are normally pointed. They'll no doubt have the same problem as roclites did, that being little to no grip on wet grass due to having no points to dig in with. I'm on walshes for everything now

I find the Mudtalons pretty good on steep wet grass, for example the race descent from Wansfell Pike.

[Wheeze]

Well, look lads, I'm sure all these shoes are great....but purleeese take them off before you come in the lounge, OK
Personally, I found Walshes would take almnost anything I could throw at them. Greasy rocks were a challenege but that goes for any shoe. I was lucky in that the Walsh last was well suited to my footshape.
Now then, now you now what Nobbys nuts are, salted, dry-roasted or chilli? I've got to clear them all before the bailiffs come. No returns you see.

[anthonykay]

Well, if the bar chat is about races with lots of tarmac, lets not forget Llanbedr Blaenafon with its punsishing middle section through the streets of Abergavenny, traffic dodging over the Usk bridge and then the slog up past the cemetery, under the A40 and into the wilds of Llanfoist. And then, to cap it all, those who survive the Blorenge have to navigate the housing estates of Blaenafon. Brutal! Nobbys Nuts anyone?

For some reason, the roads at Llanbedr-Blaenafon never used to worry me much. Going through Abergavenny I used to relax myself into a sort of trance which then enabled me to fly up the Blorenge. And, following at least one navigational mishap, I made sure that in subsequent races I had done a thorough recce of the route through Blaenafon before we all went off to Llanbedr for the race start.

[Travs]

In a previous life, i looked after a big engineering project at Blaenafon.

We'd make regular weekly trips to the site, and i'd delight my rather baffled work colleagues with tales of the various fell races in the vicinity. My colleagues were rather more excited at the prospect of visiting a particular burger/food wagon on the industrial estate, which was apparently highly regarded.

On the subject of Inov8's shoe range, i wore the Mudtalons at Breidden Hills on sunday, and grip-wise they are fine (in fact, superb). But as i mentioned on the Discord (got to throw in a bit of advertising!!), they don't particularly feel like a race shoe, and i wish they hadn't stopped making my preferred model of XTalons.

[mr brightside]

I find the Mudtalons pretty good on steep wet grass, for example the race descent from Wansfell Pike.

At what sort of speed? The downfall of the x-talon was that it couldn't handle wet grassy stuff at speed. My first Fairfield was very hairy on the way down due to me having gone for talons, they just don't bite in on a whenever/wherever basis like mudclaws and PBs.

[Travs]

I've never personally had an issue with x-talons.... i wore them on my last Fairfield Horseshoe and descended well (admittedly in pretty perfect conditions).... and i had a very good descent off Glyder Fawr in them earlier this year in the Welsh 1000 (on a descent which is pretty well known as a toughie)

Admittedly i had been using the Graphene X-Talons.... perhaps they are a little better?

[mr brightside]

A lot of companies now seem to be going with flat bottomed lugs, not the traditional pointed stud. The only reason i can think of for this is longevity; customers prefer an outsole that lasts longer. The x-talon was almost a great shoe, i always thought the flat bottomed studs let it down. Fortunately the old PB racer, a bofra favourite, is still as was, so i'm going to accumulate a few pairs and rotate them round in a use-resole-use again pattern. The only issue with this is that i can't get any 212s to have an LSR fell outsole grafted onto.

[anthonykay]

A lot of companies now seem to be going with flat bottomed lugs, not the traditional pointed stud. The only reason i can think of for this is longevity; customers prefer an outsole that lasts longer. The x-talon was almost a great shoe, i always thought the flat bottomed studs let it down. Fortunately the old PB racer, a bofra favourite, is still as was, so i'm going to accumulate a few pairs and rotate them round in a use-resole-use again pattern. The only issue with this is that i can't get any 212s to have an LSR fell outsole grafted onto.

Unfortunately my last pair of PB racers fell apart long before they needed resoling. I'm still hesitating as to whether to replace them with the same, or try something else. I will probably end up getting PB racers again, since I find them comfortable and they have good grip - and other people seem to have had equally bad experiences with Inov8 fell shoes.

[Wheeze]

I always saw fell shoes as 'sacrificial' items....short lived but highly effective. Not surprising when you think what we put them through. Longevity was not an issue. Of course, one would expect things to change with advances in materials science but it sounds like just the same issues affect upstarts like Inov-8!