Dammit’s adventures in mountain biking

you need to order a set of Boxxers Dorados for dh mode in the alps now

Sorry, I haven't actually ordered that bike, it was a joke.

Spending that much I would want a ride on one first.

Ready to obliterate all that comes before it, the Dreadnought XT is dripping in a wish list of fit-and-forget parts.

that's a no from me

Thank god, you'll be able to get the EXT shock then.

Reading the reviews on the Dreadnaught, and for the 'gram, I'd definitely want to upgrade to a coil shock - the Push is £150 more than the EXT, which as a % of the whole is very minor so I assumed you'd just tick that box.

I've never used a Push shock so can't say more than what I've read in reviews.
I run EXT on two bikes and can honestly say it's the only mtb product I've used that I feel genuinely lives up to the hype. Much grip, much plush.

you need to order a set of B̶o̶x̶x̶e̶r̶s̶ D̶o̶r̶a̶d̶o̶s̶ Intend Infinity Dual-Crown USD Fork for dh mode in the alps now

Something that occurred to me this morning that I can’t get away from- Santa Cruz, Forbidden and so forth have a traditional distributor/reseller model. Their frames are around £3,500. Atherton is direct to consumer and the same price.

Is Atherton making insane margin, or are you getting much better value?

I'd imagine Atherton's costs will be a lot higher than SC

isn't that just the difference between handmade in wales and mass produced in Taiwan?

mass produced in Taiwan

This will be better value and better made with better customer support

better customer support

Like YT Industries

too niche, buy a trek

Treks are for sponsored athletes and bike hire shops. Nobody actually buys them

Can’t help think there’s something fishy about Atherton Bikes.
At £3500 the frameset price seems lower than what you’d expect given how it’s made.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a substantial price hike somewhere down the line.

It’s notable that the frames were priced at £4400 before the Athertons bought the company. I don’t think RobotBikeCo were producing big numbers though. Maybe production scale or something makes up the difference.

Maybe an unpopular opinion but I think they look a bit shit too.

Southern Enduro Series Round One, Twisted Oaks bike park Mashup.

Twisted Oaks bike park is just off the A12 in Ipswich - it’s set in just over 40 acres of what was agricultural land (sugar beet) that was sold by the previous owner to the current management three to four years ago (the farmer had to pay for his divorce). The trails have distinct areas, with each area having a focus.

In the woods by the entrance are a range of blue trails, plus one black jump line. Marking the end of this area is a dual-slalom course which is out in the open, but largely screened from the wind because it’s a long narrow strip between two wooded sections.

There’s a push-up/ride-up track that runs alongside the dual-slalom, and is very heavily trafficked as it’s the logical route back up to the top for the majority of the trails.

Next is another wooded section which has a range of harder trails - some of these feature large wooden features and very large jumps. Blue through red to black are found here.

Moving out into the open there is a dedicated jump line section which is very focussed on progression - a row of four small tables, then a row of larger tables each of which has a gap on the right hand side, then a couple of lines which have much larger jumps of differing types. There is also a selection of drops that you can link into a couple of different lines.

Finally around the back there’s a large flat area that features some XC lines, and an area that is being developed (lonely digger sat on a huge pile of earth surrounded by proto-jumps) and a fun high speed series of berms that lead down to the river that runs along the base of the hill.

At the end of the jump line section is a cafe, office and lavatory block, chatting to the staff reveals that the site is being developed further with planning permission for 10 glamping pods, and the lower car park is going to be made suitable for campers.

The trails are very well maintained and extremely well designed, the theme of the whole park is progression and whilst on the first walk through some of the lines are extremely intimidating the reality is that you can run through easier lines until you have the skills and confidence to tackle a slightly harder one. I’m a big fan, and will be going back regularly.

Something to note - if you come here having ridden the red at a typical Forestry England site you are in for something of a surprise if you roll into a red here at full speed and tackle what you find as you find it. Leave the bike at the top and have a walk around before dropping in.

For race day the blue trails in the first wooded section had been taped in such a way that it created two wholly new trails, jumping from one track to the next and running across a fire road into the lower XC area in a way that isn’t permitted outside racing. Stages 1 and 2 were to be found here.

Next was the dual-slalom course, which proved to be one of the most popular with many racers taking run after run - the way the day was organised was that each racer had to do each stage twice, with times averaged. But there was no limit to the number of runs - so you could session a stage and your two fastest times would be taken.

After the dual slalom was a fairly simple, fast run down through the second wooded section with a few small jumps, I probably enjoyed this the most as it was the style of trail that I was most familiar with.

Running parallel to stage four was stage five - but there the similarity ended as five had big gaps, a wooden and earth whale tail, and a very fast run in from an elevated start. I took the chicken line through most of this, which involved one right angle turn and a couple of off-camber fast corners which those with the confidence to take the jumps straight-lined.

Finally stage six - a fairly long flat section into what was an astonishing head-wind, then a series of really fun, high speed berms running down hill. I was cooked by the time I got to the berms and found myself envying the e-bikers.

I ran each stage twice, then stopped for some lunch and a coffee. Post-banana I dropped the suspension into it’s lower setting and ran each stage again (apart from 3, which had a crash that needed to be cleared), and was very roughly a second faster on each stage. Then it started to rain so I packed up and headed home - at that point 31st out of 48 in my class (fun, 18+ male).

It was a lot of fun, on a series of stages that didn’t suit me but very much made me want to broaden my riding so that they would in future.

And cops

and deignan's maternity pay and matching price money between men and women WT race wins, but yeah

Doing some good doesn't mean your wrongs are made alright.

Edit: i don't actually know anything so I'll retract my comments.
Equal prize money is great. Also smart if you want to sell women bikes

You are right.

But also say Trek stops selling to cops, someone else will. Maybe sklar made in Taiwan ones 😂

While we're on the subject of non-shitty plastic bikes, these are very nice

https://raawmtb.com/products/madonna-v2-2-frame-kit-raw

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these are very nice

Yes! If I was to admit(I won’t) that a 29er was worth trying, it would be one of these.

I’m a big fan, and will be going back regularly.

Let me know when you're thinking of going, pretty easy to get to on the train&bike for us

Damn that looks fun!! Much enve