Connemara Gaelforce: Bike

agore21

Hi
I'm doing Connemara Gaelforce in May which will be my first Adventure race. I have a Ridgeback Flight03 hybrid bike with no suspension and the current tyres are Continental Gatorskin slick 700x28c (http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/bike/flight-03#details). Can anyone advise here please. Do I need to change over to different tyres? Some are telling me to get marathon tyres and others are saying the ones I have will do. Being a novice I'm unsure myself and would appreciate any advice.
Cheers...

woody1

i havent done the connemara adventure race, which is on a different route to gaelforce but i have done gaelforce and a few other rough surface adventure races on gatorskins and been fine.. youd be better off to wait maybe for someone thats done that particular race before to comment
as for the runners question i had kanadias before and found them grand.. speedcross would be ideal but they are pricey .. if you are planning to do a few of this type of race then probably worth the investment .. have heard good things about columbia ravenous too

agore21

Cheer for the reply. Have had a few people tell me now that the gatorskins are tough enough. Think I'll stick with them and make sure I have two or three spare inner tubes. Seems to be a trade off between the forest and normal roads. Suffer on one and speed through the other depending on your choice of bike...

Rew

Ive Gaelforce and a few other mixed terrain races and Gatorskins are perfect but make sure your have them pumped to max PSI. I carry an inflator with a sealant in case of puncture but i have never had to use it

spurscormac

Took a wander over here cos its Friday, occasional lurker from AR forum.

I did this race a few years ago, took my mtb. The first half of the bike route is very rough & I saw a few people on road bikes on the side of the route with buckled wheels.
That said, you can really make up time on the road over the MTB, so I suppose it depends what you value more, a couple more minutes or risking your bike.
How sturdy are your hybrid wheels would be the question to ask.

Ideal for this would probably be a really sturdy cyclecross.

Earlsie

Fairly new to these Adventure Races myself and have not done this race but have a few WAR \ KAR Races under my belt, I always use a Road Bike \ Gator Skins\ Toe Clips , as already mentioned the PSI is key and I usually run 115-120psi for the races.

If it gets crazy rocky \ muddy \ slippy get off and run\walk with the bike.

I worried alot about punctures at the start but just enjoy the race,

spurscormac

Earlsie wrote: »

Fairly new to these Adventure Races myself and have not done this race but have a few WAR \ KAR Races under my belt, I always use a Road Bike \ Gator Skins\ Toe Clips , as already mentioned the PSI is key and I usually run 115-120psi for the races.

If it gets crazy rocky \ muddy \ slippy get off and run\walk with the bike.

I worried alot about punctures at the start but just enjoy the race,

That's a fair amount of walking in the Connemara Adv Race - enjoy.

munsterbear

I've done both Gaelforce and the Connemara Adventure races (maybe change title of thread as it's misleading)

Road bike with Gators for Gaelforce. The sections you will walk are a mere fraction of the entire bike section so advantage is with the road bike.
MTB for Connemara. You won't make up the time you'll lose on the muddy/rocky sections if you bring a road bike. Especially if weather is bad.