Long Term Diaries | Disaster, Podiums and Adventuring

You can check in on the Long Term Test Timeline anytime to see all the action, but now we check in with three testers to discover some highlights, including workshop disasters, adventures and some serious endurance racing.

Marin Attack Trail – The bike is under attack

After UK Tester Jim’s Long Term Test Marin Attack trail’s E-thirteen chain guide decided to start to crack, as they all seem to, he took the measure of replacing it with the fantastic stiff little carbon MRP option instead. On tightening the MRP’s single hollow alloy bolt to hold it to the down-tube’s high mount, Jim’s heavy handed approach turned round and bit him in the ass, as the bolt sheared off in the frame!

Jim then attempted to remove the bolt with a tool called an EZ-out, this is basically a hardened steel reverse-thread bit designed for extracting such problems. The EZ-out then snapped too, Jim tried to get this out with a drill, which wouldn’t touch it, then a centre punch and finally he realized it needed a professional’s touch!

An engineering friend took sympathy and got to work on it. He drilled out the remains of the EZ-out with a tungsten drill bit, then had to drill out some of the damaged alloy insert to make a larger diameter hole. Then a threaded alloy bar was screwed into the larger diameter hole, cut off level, then drilled and threaded to the right diameter for the correct fixing bolt.

The (overly long) moral to this story is, ‘when you are tightening a soft alloy bolt into a threaded alloy bonded carbon insert and things start to get tight, back it off and clean the threads out with a steel bolt first’ Now the new MRP device is fitted and all is well.

Whyte T-129 Works SCR – 10 hours of toil

UK Tester Cat was looking for a challenge so she decided to take on the 10 hour Ten Under the Ben, held in Fort William. She entered the race at the beginning of the year as part of a series of tough challenges which will culminate in the the 24 hour relentless 24 race in October. After winning the mixed pairs at the previous 7 hour endurance race, she entered the 10 Under the Ben as a female pair with her lovely friend Amy. After considering an efficient hardtail, in the end she chose her long term Whyte T-129 instead.

The course was great from start to finish, after rolling out of the transition area the lap immediately dived off a small drop to a river crossing – that sounds possibly more dramatic than it was. The first couple of kilometers certainly packed a couple of punches and left Cat immediately very happy that she had gone with her 29er full susser rather than the brutal hard tail.

The T-129 was great on the tricky little climbs and the big wheels and suspension made Cat remember why mountain biking is so much fun and why Nevis range trails are such a popular destination. There were no crazy stunts dropped in, this wasn’t enduro and it certainly isn’t downhill, but there was certainly enough “gnarr” to keep the non-XC heads entertained, and she was stoked to have the Pike up front and a dropper seatpost.

Cat had a fantastic day with friends old and new, discovering both that riding with a team mate is a very motivating force and the T-129 was incredibly good. Cat and Amy secured a comfortable second place result.

High Mountain Adventure on the Juliana Rubion

While in NZ, UK based tester Racheal set herself the challenge of climbing to the Meg Hut in the Pila Range of mountains, this hut like many others once had a commercial use as a shelter for shepherds but is now managed by the New Zealand Department of Conservation for use by tourists like us. The hut she was aiming for was about a 20km ride away, mostly uphill from sea level up to 1,500m in the mountains. She knew that facilities would be sparse, just a bunk with plastic mattress, a log burner and a long drop toilet so she carried sleeping bags, waterproofs, clothes for the night, a gas stove and enough water for the day.

The ride into the hut was mainly uphill fire road making Rachael very glad that her Juliana Roubion weighs in at about 27.5lb. From riding to hike a biking this is about as easy as it gets! Before setting off I pumped more air into my Cane Creek DB Air shock to counteract the extra weight of all the kit I was carrying in my pack. At a plateau just prior to the summit she had to wade and hike through ‘spear grass’ – nasty stuff giving us a grand total of three punctures. Lessons learnt about the toughness of a Schwalbe vs a Continental tyre! Topping out at 1,500m she was glad to see the descent was all single-track and the Meg Hut was clearly visible sitting in a valley about 800m vertical descent away!

The Roubion has its foibles in its suspension design, but that doesn’t distract from the fact that this bike was able to bring a smile to my face both uphill and downhill on the same day, carrying me into the remote mountains of New Zealand to a beautiful little hut. Adam and I had thought it was quite likely that we would spend the night in the hut alone but in fact at about 7pm we were joined by three hikers, a Brit, a Canadian and a Slovakian. Five people brought together by the great outdoors and the incredible facilities of the hut network, whiling away the evening talking about something and nothing and reveling in the beauty of the sunset.

Words and photos: Various from the test team

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