whats all this mayhem nonsense?

[Tad]

How does it work as a solo event then? you can only keep going for so long before you are to tired I presume? do you take wee, poo, food, sleep breaks?

In Wu's case you sit there and eat cake with your bike never leaving the back of the van.

In my case I treat it like a long ride. I ride for a bit, stop for a bit and have some food, ride for a bit more, stop if I fancy. Ride a bit longer, maybe have a nap, drop the kids off etc, ride a bit and so on. Of course there is endless help and support from the good folks at the RB pits, happy to help sort the bike out, offer food, encouragement. Actually, I lie, there is endless mickey taking and heckles each time you ride past the RB pits. They take the military approach, break a man down before you build him up only they miss out the second part.

 

[jax13]

They take the military approach, break a man down before you build him up only they miss out the second part.

this sounds more and more like my kind of thing!!!

i think i will try and get there next year - whether or not i'll be able to ride at a decent enough pace is another matter altogether with my knees in the condition they are currently!

 

[MikeD]

do you take wee, poo, food, sleep breaks?

No, you pee out the bottom of your shorts, sit in your own excrement and ride 24 hours without eating

More seriously, yes to toilet stuff, eating mostly on the hoof, sleep best avoided if you want to win. I've never managed to get past 2am without needing a bit of a lie down -- only tried two solos, both times I've got to the point where I've felt like if I carry on I'll just crash. Need to work on that

 

[racer x]

im trying to work out the location is it at the Malverns. Also can you tell me is it the old race course that was at the Malvern Hills classic if thats the location ive never done the Mayhem before Nick Craig and his mate at the World cup was talking about the Mayhem im sure. I said id try to be there but for the weekend wasn't 100% where it was though. be a good weekend on the Scotts

 

[gump]

Pinnacle has to be jelly babies on the last lap amble. With dirt.

 

[andrewl]

I'm having one of those weird "sense of perspective" moments with all these people who've never heard of Mayhem

I find it strangely odd that those retrobikers who live a lot closer to the event than I don’t know much about it.

It’s also interesting that it’s been likened to Glastonbury with bikes as all the images I’ve ever seen over the last 10 or so years of the event are people riding around (muddy) grassy paddocks/fields. Is there much (any?) single track on the course or is it just that the photographers aren’t prepared to walk to the interesting parts of the track??

 

[Tad]

Pinnacle has to be jelly babies on the last lap amble. With dirt.

I'll provide more again this year, wine gums that is, not dirt. Judging by the weather forecast they'll be muddy not dusty though so prepare yourself for a new taste sensation.

 

[makster]

How does it work as a solo event then? you can only keep going for so long before you are to tired I presume? do you take wee, poo, food, sleep breaks?

The chap who won the solo last year managed 27 laps in 24 hours.
To put that into perspective, nobody in our ten man team, completed a lap in under 1h10mins :shock:

 

[MikeD]

Is there much (any?) single track on the course or is it just that the photographers aren’t prepared to walk to the interesting parts of the track??

It varies from year to year. There's some. It's deliberately not massively technical -- lots of people make it their first 24hr, lots have never ridden at night, so the organisers like to make it reasonably straightforward.

Ever since Roy Hunt won the first solo with the same number of laps as my team that year, we've made "beating the soloist" our (increasingly unattainable) goal

 

[racer x]

I was just thinking how many laps could be done solo over 24hours round there i thought 33 if its a 10mile lap. it sounds like a hard course even more if it rains