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:
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.
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.
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!
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’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).
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
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?
Phil - Afraid I can’t do SITS this year as I have a friend’s wedding that weekend.
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.
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).
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.
Not decided yet, but will look into it later today if I get the chance. I’ve just got back from hospital as my foot needed x-raying - a ‘slight’ fall on the muni ride Sunday . All is well as it’s not broken - just stained ligaments.
You sure that was a fall? It looked like a very smooth 360 forward roll downhill dismount. I thought you landed on your head though, not your feet. Must have been if you didn’t break your foot…
. All is well as it’s not broken - just stained ligaments.