Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

I'd pay good money to see someone riding at BPW on a fixed.

I'd pay good money to see someone riding at BPW on a fixed.

Paging @IR ..

I've built so many BMXs and quite a few fixed bikes, and some road bikes, without many issues at all (apart from my first experience with internal cable routing).

I got to a point where I could start with a BMX frame and all the parts and build it under 60 mins. Including hammering in the BB and headset cups, and the inevitable faff with setting up a U brake. A brakeless BMX would take no time at all!

It seems modern bikes need a lot of specialist knowledge and tools which I just don't have :-(

A bit like working on modern cars!

We can talk it over when you all get here but I figured that were all on hardtails and of varying riding abilities so we'll only be able to ride 30/40% of the trails at BPW tops.

My plan would be:
Saturday: ride from my front door (no one drives) 10 miles (under 1mile on road) to Cwmcarn and ride the 2 trails there and stop for beers on route home.
Sunday: Head to Afan (only 15/20 minutes longer drive that BPW) and enjoy any of the trails there.

Since I'm here, I figure I may as well ask a little advice...

Where does a complete beginner start with trying to choose an mtb? I've got 10years experience building riding and racing road, tt and track bikes but I've only ridden rental mtbs one or two times since I was a kid but it was massive fun. I loved my CX bike but that's since been build into a commuter bike and it also felt a bit limited on some trails.

I live in the flatlands of the Thames Vally so almost all riding would be confined to footpaths and bridleways... plenty of mud but nothing even vaguely resembling anything gnarly without getting in the car. Going for a spin along the Ridgeway also sounds pretty fun.

How do I know what kind of bike I need/want? I'm pretty sure I don't want a downhill bike, a cross country bike sounds vaguely appealing and I don't even know what enduro means... I sort of guess I might want something with a rigid rear end and front suspension, but no idea about wheel sizes or types of suspension or anything...

That calibre bossnut seems like good value but I was sort of hoping for a budget nearer £500 since I've no idea what I'm doing... where on earth am I supposed to start?

Afan is harder than BPW

Technical harder trails yes, but from what I've ridden at PBW over half the trails are littered with wheels off the ground sort of stuff and on a hardtail on that type of trail when things go wrong they go WRONG.

I've only ever ridden BPW on an HT - it was great fun.

Afan is great too, but in a different way. I'm never scared at BPW, some bits of Afan freak me out.

Afan is harder than BPW

In the 'nobody driving you back to the top' sense?

Any of you lot doing this?

https://www.facebook.com/events/1670993113192752/

if somebody pays for a sweet fixed gear 29er and my petrol there and back I'd actually do that.

Where does a complete beginner start with trying to choose an mtb?

Get a mid travel trail bike like that Bossnut or a Whyte T130. They do everything quite well, and you can grow in to it and do rad things on them and not feel totally underbiked.

Traily hardtails are fun too like a Stanton or Cotic Soul. But £500 will get you a more XC orientated hardtail and they are a bit of a drag unless you get something progressive like a Scalpel. Which aint £500.

I'd try to borrow a bike and see what you like and don't like about it.

If you just want something that's more capable than a cross bike, there are good bikes to be had for £500 if you shop around, and great ones if you forsake suspension (I'm of the opinion that steel forks are better than shit suspension forks, but I may be in the minority)

Straight off the peg though, I'd be inclined towards the Genesis Core 10 from a quick browse

Except when it isn't...

Just booked some trains to ride the Pennine Bridleway end to end over the bank holiday weekend.
Anybody ridden it? How was it?

I'm just going to throw in a bargain basement suggestion:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/vitus-bikes-dee-city-bike-2017/rp-prod147644

Got one (2014 model) to keep over in Ireland when I visit and it's perfectly fine with the mountains and trails there. Cheap, simple and reliable (so far.)

Also they've got a placeholder photo of one of the older V-brake models, but it comes with discs.

agreed, I rode a full sus on the blade and went over the bars so many times

Yes.

I've heard so many good things about the Bossnut from people who own them, @Howard .

Totally unbelievable biek for the price. The only essential immediate upgrade is a dropper.

Good man. Looks like it'll be a good event.

Just collected this piece of unnecessarily exotic exotica after having a Fox Transfer post fitted in Factory Kashima coating to match the forks. Now, to do the ironing. That was the deal.

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Looks rowdy

Very nice! Who needs 'slack' when that looks that hot?!

Thanks to an OTB at Cwymcarn last weekend I'm on the sofa today rather than doing the Great Escape. Lovely trails though - and on the day I strapped the foot and popped some Ibuprofen so still got to ride both trails. It just swelled up like a balloon and has stayed that way since.