Audax rides

I did all my qualifiers on a TT bike then used a road bike I'd ridden once beforehand.

Did the same thing weekend - new bike + new kit = chaff fest. Ouch.

Might try an SMP saddle again and see if I can tilt it to work with aerobras.

Yes, I wrote aerobras and found it amusing so I'm leaving it there.

Saw someone riding with a pointy nosecone barbag thingies on one ride. Also on last year's Green and Yellow Fields someone with TT bars had cover / hood over the ends a bit like on a motorcycle.

Can someone explain the meaning of "full value" in the Audax context? Is it something to do with having a cafe stop at each control?

I'm under the impression it refers to riders who take almost the full amount of time available, riding slower - and probably stopping at all the cafés! I always liked the term.

Makes use of the full time limit

https://twitter.com/AudaxUK/status/634030589910347776

It's not a choice for many (I scraped in on my first 200 with 10 or 15 minutes to spare!) but some do it on purpose. This ranges from just ambling around at a gentle pace or having long cafe stops often leaving until when the control has been official 'closed' for a while. But some Audax characters do enjoy winding up their local organisers by holding up in a pub close to the finish right up until the time limit.

I made the Fairies 300 into a 600 by riding 300km to the start of the event. It meant that me and my friend were slowest on the 300 by about 2 hours, luckily there were slower riders on the 200 so we didn't keep the organiser waiting around just for us.

(P.S. Don't ever worry about keeping organisers waiting around, they're happy that people ride their events. Any org that moans about it isn't imbued with the appropriate Audax spirits and may get a visit from the aforementioned characters...)

Taking the whole time limit to complete the ride.

Pogies? The covers to keep your hands warm?

Guess I was full value on the Buzzard then as I finished 14 minutes before the deadline. Worth it though to stop at a friends place to have a shower, bed and food.

Hereward the Wake on Friday. I've also signed up to Hereward the curry. This time I'll ride it fixed. I've also entered the Raglan Castle in a couple of weeks time which I'll be riding with a friend who hasn't ridden a 200 in a while so reckon that one will be full value too.

Anyone doing the Yorkshire Mixture this weekend?

I just read your post on YACF. I guess I didn't see you because you were off late.

I've had another day off the bike. Riding the saddle that hurt me during PBP plus a speedsuit that was probably too tight have left me wary of my bike related activities. I've also done something to make my ankle mad, which is really odd because I've never had any ankle issues before - maybe a symptom of using a framebag?

Sounds like you possibly should get rid of it. Mine was very annoying when I started using and it then just became possible to pedal normal later. But I can well imagine that it could impede your pedal stroke.

It's too useful though. Where would all my tools, sunscreen, chamois cream, food and stuff go? What I want to do is get one that I can drag inwards with some internal velcro tabs.

The guy from http://www.inuvik.es did both @CarlosBI and my framebag, but he's currently doing the Tour Divide with his wife and son.

There must be someone in the UK that knows how to sew layers of Xpac and velcro! Just give the correct measures, using a cardboard, and specify that it should not be wider than the frame tube, and with that velcro in the middle to secure both bag walls. Now that I've some experience with it, I would have asked for two of those internal velcros, to have 3 separate compartments, and those inward dragging points.

3 Attachments

Yeah, Restrap might be able to do it but timeframes are tight.

So then lift those hands from the keyboard, and dial their number!

• Sealed sewing
  
• Bright Inner fabric to see things easier
  
• Double zipper, to be able to open from both ends
  
• One (or better... two) inner velcro separators to make it tight for leg clearance
  
• Tricky velcro strap is located at the diagonal tube, between headtube and gear/brake cable ports, it should be 2cm wide as shown in my cardboard template bellow, you can see what I'm talking about in the second picture. Other important velcro straps are on both ends of zipper to give it a bit of tension so its easy to zip and unzip it.
  
  
  
  
• Covered cable entry on one side (mine was on left side, near headtube at the bottom, to feed a usb cable from the dinamo into the D1 outside, and then go inside to the power-bank in a sealed bag resting inside the framebag.
  
• Inner zipper pockets?
  
• Reflective stripes?
  
• UK Aussie flag?
  
  

Its also important to know wich headset feed bag that you are going to use, so the velcro straps of both framebag and feedbag doesn't interfere with their positions.. Either mail it to them so they can make sure that it works, or give it the exact measures...Or they just can make that too for you

After the reservation, create that cardboard template, and email it to them with everything you told them written on it and velcro strap positions and widths.

Sounds great, but complicated and I don't need more complications. Since I already know the Revelate fits, why don't I just buy another one and get my missus to sew in some velcro dividers? I can also trim off the velcro strap that goes where the top tube bag goes.

If it all goes tits up, I can post stuff home and then sell it off afterwards then go for a custom option.

Go for it then! :)

Chapeau. Is that the SR done too?

(Just need to do it again on fixed for the SFW...)

Speaking of Salsa, top bloke here; http://salsacycles.com/people/jay_petervary

ultra top http://lacemine29.blogspot.com.es/2015/10/an-open-letter-to-jay-petervary.html

@bertocq thats pretty cool. Will have to give them a shout. How much did that set you back?

Thanks. Yes, that's my SR done. I'm going to count this Friday's ride as a 200 even though it's 300 and then Flatlands 600 in September for my SFW. Heard that it has a lot of headwinds so am considering clip-on aero bars (which I've never used before) and also losing the rack / pannier with one of these bike packing saddle bags.

also losing the rack / pannier with one of these bike packing saddle bags.

A rackpack is a reasonable compromise. Still lots of space and quite accessible (unlike some of the bike packing saddle bags).

http://www.greenbank.org/audax/pbp_02.jpg

(that's mine stuffed with a couple of sets of extra clothes at the end of PBP.)

200: seatpack
300: seatpack or Carradice Barley (if I need to carry food to cover gaps between controls - e.g. The Elenith or The Dean)
400: Carradice Barley for summer warm 400s otherwise Rackpack
600 and more: Rackpack

However, everything does seem to be moving towards the bikepacking stuff, and it would mean losing 500g of weight of the rack too. There's no single simple answer...