This years mountain mayhem is now open for entries, 24th and 25th June at Eastnor, the same venue as the last 2 years.
For those who don’t know, it’s the biggest and most popular 24hr MTB event in the UK calendar
It cant be as muddy again this year, can it
Shout up if you’re interested…
Yes I would like to do it again.
Keith
Not for me this year. I seem to have accidentally booked a holiday that week.
John
I’ll do it. I’ll need to do a whole lot of training first. Haven’t ridden a serious distance for months…
Paul
“UP!” 
Count me in.
I rode past a bit of the track on Sunday where it touched the edge of the estate; it was a quagmire of the highest order, so we went to explore some drier cheeky trails instead. Recent experience of the Malverns suggests that it gets muddier and boggier the further south you go, and the Mountain Mayhem is right at the far southern end…
Phil
I’ll also be there, complete with family. 
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a mud free ride this year (if only) 
.
I’ve not spoken to Roger about SSMM yet, but as soon as I do I’ll post here.
Steve
Here we go again - Red Bull time!! (SSMM)
I’ve just had a word with Roger (Unicycle.com) and he’ll be sponsoring 3 teams, as last year. That’s 3 teams of 4 riders, unless we have a female in the team. In that case we can have a team of 5. Roger will be helping out again with the £190 entry fee per team. I forget how much we ended up paying ourselves last year, but it was approx £25-30.
If you’re interested in doing this truly awesome 24hr event (one of the biggest in Europe I believe) then add your names to this thread.
I must emphasize that this is a HARD race, but a great weekend with tons of socializing to be done as well as riding. Each year there’s about 1700 riders, including up to 14 unicyclists taking part. For insurance reasons, all riders have to be 18 years old, or over, at the date of the event (24th June 2006). There’s a good chance you’ll have to ride in the dark. Most of the route is off-road, with 550 metres of ascent on the 10 mile lap. It’s not a technical ride. The race is done as a relay - complete your 10 mile lap and hand over to one of your team mates. Just keep this going for 24 hrs (2pm Saturday to 2pm Sunday) and the team with the most laps wins. I might just add that the unicycle teams don’t actually win, but we do beat lots of woosey b*ke teams. An average time for one lap on a unicycle would be 2 to 2.5 hours during the daytime and 2.5 to 3 hours at night, although we have had longer. The conditions over the last 2 years have been very muddy which made it even harder.
If you can’t decide, then have read of some of last years reports. It might help you make your mind up. Incidentally, our top team beat 130 b*ike teams last year!! Awesome!
http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/search.php?searchid=50190&pp=25&page=2
Confirmed riders so far are as follows:
Joe McLean
Keith Griffiths
Paul Royle
Phil Himsworth
Steve Colligan
Keep those names coming.
I’ll have to sit this one out, as all my spare time is taken up with publishing, I won’t have time to train 
The sacrifice will be worth it in the long term!
Mike
come on on steve we know that its possible to go faster that that.
POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE! is what its all about.
just keep those legs spinning (and running when necessary) and get psyched when passing bi*es. LOL
well count me in (it would be rude not to )
I’m in, I’ve not done it before but I’ve got time to train and the equipment this year, and I’ve always wanted to do it. It also falls on the weekend after I break up from uni, now thats fate.
Loose.
Last year the slowest was just under 4 1/4 hours with 3 beer stops (and probably a nap as well) and the fastest was 1 hour 22 minutes by a lunatic.
Which reminds me Des, are you still thinking of doing Sleepless In The Saddle too? 12/13th August and it’s meant to be a much more laid-back event than SSMM…
Mike
Guys, guys, guys! I’m talking of “averages”. Even 2 of my laps were under the 2 hour mark.
Pleased to hear you’ll be there Des. Didn’t mention it above, but Roger, of course will be taking part again.
Nice to see we’ve got new blood this year - good on ya Loosemoose.
Steve
p.s. don’t forget the hockey in Manchester next week.
I’ve looked at doing sleepless. The only thing I would say, is that from people I’ve asked about it, it seems it’s much more of a mountain biker event than SSMM. What that means is in some ways it’s more laid back, but that there are far fewer people doing it on kick-bikes, people doing it for charity as their first time mountain biking etc.
Because of this, there’s a massive difference in how good you have to be, to avoid pissing people off. It’s fine riding a unicycle in SSMM, with it’s insanely crowded course, and loads of very poor just for fun bike riders on the course. In most other events, it’s only really fair to enter them if you’re not going to get in the way. Even at SSMM, some people moan about unicyclists falling off a lot, and there have been suggestions that some of the people entering didn’t really have the skill level to do it.
Obviously I don’t have a clue if you’re a good rider or not, but basically, all I’m saying, is that you should be way way certain you’re a good rider before entering serious mountain bike events. The SSMM is a bit of an exception, but even then people should be sure they can ride okay to some extent. Either getting in the way, or walking all the course doesn’t do any good for the image of unicycling, and for the chances of us being allowed to enter mountain bike events.
I’ve entered a bunch of quite serious mountain bike races, but I’ve never entered anything out of my depth, and have always done a lot of training, including quite a few rides with mountain bikers, to get used to the pace they go.
Going back on topic, I’m 99% certain I’m up for doing SSMM in a team again. Must check with Penny that I’m not doing anything though, she’s got a better memory for dates than me.
I went riding the other week with some bikes and I think I’m sort of okay fast at the moment. Hopefully will be pretty darn fast by the summer, at the moment I do at least two of commuting / swimming / kayaking / hiking / hockey / muni / spinning poi on weekdays and it appears to be making a difference to my fitness levels. I’d probably be okay to be on the fast team this year if there’s room on it.
Joe
Pleased to hear you’ll be giving SSMM a go this year Joe. I’ll put your name down, but I can’t guarantee which team you’ll be in at the moment.
Hope to see you in Manchester next weekend for the hockey.
Steve
I’ve stoppped believing anyone who says something like this. Generally the people who say it most are people like Des (“this is the last hill…”), Roger and now Joe… who can we trust?!
Didn’t some unicyclists (Joemc and someone else?) do SITS last year?
Phil
Ok I’m very interested but first a couple of questions.
I’m not yet sure I’ll be free that weekend but I’d really like to do it this year.
Steve R. and I were going to do it, but through injury and a general lack of momentum it passed us by.
I did speak to Patrick at the time, and he was more than happy to have a unicycle team entry.
Now SITS is the ideal one to do as a solo…
The majority of people so far have been on 29ers with 150mm cranks on. You could do it on a coker if you’re mental, or a 26" if you’re mental in the other direction.
Steve might know when a definite answer is required, but just changing names around once the teams are in is a simple matter so I don’t think it’s too urgent. Make sure you leave plenty of time to start all that rigorous training though… 
Phil
Hi Gary,
Roger would like things sorted out (names finalised, entry forms filled in and money sent off) while he’s away in Taiwan. He leaves today for a couple of weeks. Whether we actually manage this is a different matter of course. So, the sooner the better to ensure a place would be the answer to the above.
Most of us did it on 29" wheels last year. Roger and Des did it on Cokers of course.
Note for Joe McLean: Are you still thinking of doing SSMM solo this year?
I won’t mention the hockey in Manchester again… oops
See you and the other Emu’s there.
Steve
I’ve got a 29er you can borrow, am getting a replacement frame for the Schlumpf, so I hopefully won’t be using the normal 29er. I don’t ride it all that much, if you like you can borrow it as soon as I’ve repaired my muni wheel, which shouldn’t be long.
Post up on emunicyclists if you want to go on training rides, you’re right near to Bestwood, which it’d be cool to ride more in, and Blidworth etc. which seemed like really cool places for 29er / cokering, or just very fast muni, and had nice soft ground in the unlikely event of falling off. There’s a fantastic route from the top of Blidworth to Bestwood, using the bus from Bestwood to take you to the start, that’d make a great training ride.
I’ve checked the dates and I’m definitely in.
Joe