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

really tho epping is the best

For local stuff North downs > Swinely > Bedgebury.

As I age, I'm less inclined towards trail centres in general and more into a lovely day out in the hills. Any of the national parks are therefore marvellous.

Secret Swinley trails > Marked trails

I did Epping > Badgebury > Swinley in a week in that order, enjoyed Swinley the most but thats maybe I was shit scared in Epping ..

maybe I was shit scared in Epping ..

@7Üp 's not that bad

I agree. Doing the South Downs Way tomorrow. At least that's the plan. My current lack of fitness may have other ideas.

Had my first mtb experience at Coed y Brenin the other day. Loved it.
Where's the easiest trails to to get to from southwest London?

Come to swinley on weds

I'm not back in London this week and don't have an mtb yet. Otherwise I would, will come and hire a bike in the future though.

Alternatively if I was to buy a mountain bike, whats the best place to start? In Wales, I hired this and it did the job. Rode lots of technical bits on up and down on red trails and didn't feel like I was missing out on full suspension. I'm a student so it will be a budget buy for sure.

Well that was the hardest thing I've ever done. And I've ridden it in the other direction. But the heat today was brutal. That and the relentless climbs.

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The whole thing? It’s a beautiful bastard isn’t it?

A slow 50km around Epping was enough for me yesterday. 80 all in with the ride out and back and 1000m climbing which is nothing compared to ^

If budget is a primary concern then you could do worse than checking out the options at decathlon / pinnacle / go outdoors - they all have versatile hardtail options for good prices.

Yep. Beautiful bastard is a good summary.

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Bravo. That’s bonkers

Nuts! Amazing time.

Jesus that’s some amount of climbing, even the amount per hour is super tough never mind for 10hours!
I’ve been out a lot round my way recently, plus went to Dalby with the kids last week, after not doing mtb for few years and I’m amazed at how everyone I see has pads, fancy mtb kit and what I’d have called an enduro/ alpine bike. I look a right tit on my rigid mess with old track Lycra that’s too tight!

Thanks @fredtc @pit and @Tallboy

I've done it before in the opposite direction but did that mainly through the night so it was cooler and much easier by comparison. Still bloody hard, but add in the heat and complete lack of shelter from the blazing sun, my relative lack of endurance riding in the last 6 months and it made this attempt a total battle of mind over matter.

We did quite a lot of stopping for food, topping up bottles, punctures, gates etc so it certainly didn't feel quick. Progress felt very slow actually.

But a great sense of satisfaction to have completed it when it would have been so easy to bail out early to the nearest train station. Stunning day out.

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^ nicely done. Know what you mean about the heat, esp the exposed sections.

That looks lovely.

Went out for my first proper mtb ride in yonks today. Was glorious. One of the few times I've seen bristol trails completely dry, so ended spending over 5 hours out. Found several new trails, got back to grips with the steep stuff, walked away from a proper oh-sh1t crash (on the steep stuff), got lost a couple of times, and saw the bluebells out in full force.

Happy, happy, happy.

Bloobs from today’s montercross/mtb tandem ride on N Downs. I thought it was an early thing?

please can I ask anyone on the mtb forum is they might have an old 2.3 or more UST or similar 26er tyre lingering in their garages and that they’d not mind donating or selling cheap? Worn is fine, repairable holes fine, main things are tubeless reliability high volume and wide, stable profile. Much appreciated

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I got SRAM GX 1200 cranks from ebay they came off a Trek Stache.

I can't find them on Sram website. Maybe they are OEM. The ebay listing says they are 'boost'. They are GXP. What makes them boost? Longer axle or chainring? I plan to use Garbaruk boost chainring.

Yep, longer axle to run with wider axle hubs/frames.

What frame do you have?

just read a few threads on STW .. they say diff brands do BOOST differently in the cranks, shimano offsets crank arms, cannondale has longer axle but sram does it with the chainring by offsetting 3mm .. phew.

So even if I get this it will work with the cranks.

What frame do you have?

A bike will be built around these cranks ;)
Custom Triton with Boost spacing, I wanted threaded BB and direct mount chainring. Ideally wanted shimano but they are pricey. And 12 speed, I am going 11 for cheapness rn.