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We are doing the 'Puffer for the first time this year. team of four, so nothing too 'solo' insane. I am hearing some horror stories about the special grinding paste that the course applies to your bike.
Am i about to destroy my bike? I dont mind going through brake pads, but am i about to destroy my brand new forks? am i about to wreck my transmission?
i dont mind wear and tear, bike is meant to be ridden and happy to ride in all weathers. i dont mind scrapes, marks, and am happy to replace parts periodically from winter riding. I am just slightly concerned that this one event could be a rather expensive undertaking. i am considering if its worthwhile taking entire transmission off, and putting nearly completly worn out 9 speed stuff (currently in the 'you never know when a 5 year old 9 speed XTR chainset will come in handy' box) back on. or even building up an old frame i have knocking about.
Do most folk just ride with their normal components and just accept its going to shorten their life (thats the components life, hopefully not the rider :wink:) a bit, but worth it in the grand scheme of things. or are people de-pimping their bikes for the event?
the only way your bike will survive a wet puffer without complete rebuild is singlespeed(or hub gear)
i had a customer with a brand new custom blur .
finished building it on the monday and he brought it back the following monday after a quad at the puffer. EVERY bearing on the bike was shagged and the middle ring looked like it had done a billion miles.
old worn stuff isnt worth the risk.
My SS after a full 24 hours still performed like new 😉
You'll probably do something like 25-30 miles cycling in some pretty cack muddy conditions (who knows, might be dry, -15 and frozen solid, we can hope). The mud's pretty abrasive stuff - but it's not really anything _that_ nasty.
You'll go through a few sets of brake pads - and do some wear on the chain/sprockets. Not really any worse than any other winter riding.
I think the last one (2011), I went through a few sets of pads and the cables needed replaced afterwards, but that was the extent of the carnage. I tend to go through suspension bearings on an annual basis but I don't think 'Puffer contributes to this massively.
EDIT - second trail_rat on the worn kit - not worth the risk. It'll be cold and muddy - do you really want to have to do any more trailside repairs than you have to?
While last year's weather was admittedly tropical and balmy, my solo effort saw me go through two sets of pads and two spokes. I'm not sure I can blame the latter on the conditions.
True, my gears didn't work for most of the race, but a good clean sorted that out when I got home.
I did have fairly new stuff on there and I'd bedded in my spare pads before hand.
Oh yeah, and my forks wore out suspiciously soon afterwards, although I suspect that was more due to my lack of maintenance than anything else.
Steve at Icycles started the race with brand new XTR and ended the race with a bill roughly the size of brand new XTR.
This sounds as bad as Mayhem when that has been wet and muddy.
on balance, I agree it likely would be a bit foolish to be starting with worn kit.
its a shame my forks are only a couple of months old (and are all shiny and pretty), if only the old ones had lasted that bit longer. all suspension has recently been serviced and all suspensions bushings replaced.
i think i will just ride my bike as is, wash it between laps and hope for a nice icy day!
Bikes are meant to be ridden!
"This sounds as bad as Mayhem when that has been wet and muddy. "
done both .... mayhems a walk in the park for bikes compared to puffer grit.
Never been to Strathpuffer but endurance racing seems to destroy bikes.
10 Under the Ben always destroys something for what is effectively no more than 40-50 miles of offroad riding. I swear I had square jockey wheels at the end one year
Thanks. I gave up on Mayhem as the damage done was not worth it IMHO so Puffer will no longer be on my to do list.
yeah but mayhems a long non technical walk. the puffer is actually interesting and ridable 😀
It's not like it used to be. A lot of the qugmire bits are now gravelled. At least to start with anyways. It'll be frozen hard so don't worry.
As devs says, it used to be really bad for both drivechain and brake pads, however over the years the trails have been rebuilt and improved and new trails have been built to avoid some of the old 'nasty' sections so it's not quite as bad now.
It's still very abrasive, gritstone mud (that has a bizarre 'sparkly' quality to it!), so it'll still take it's toll, but you might get more than a single lap out of a pair of brake pads now 🙂
Take the gears off and go SS...
Ive just replaced the hub bearings, headset and BB for the puffer, would rather have a bike that works well(ish) than go with worn out kit you know probably wont last.
Lets hope its -10 and the ground is solid, with ice 🙂
its looking good for nice frozen non muddy conditions! long may the return of proper winter continue!!!
If your riding as a team and if they have the hoses running and they not frozen then give your bike a quick wash off after your stint. I usually use the Puffer as an excuse to replace worn parts but after a particularly wet event the other year I had to replace pads, chainring(s), cables, chain and cassette!! It's worth it though 🙂
It's abrasive but if you wash the bike off between laps you should be ok. My stantions looked a bit worn afterwards but this may not of been totally down to the puffer.
I'm back again as a quad but SS this time, maintaining the gears took up much of my down time last year. Chain suck was a massive ball ache too.