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lynx
@pdlouche
More interesting than skidding DR’s, here’s my small small recap from my ABR Fest:
Watched talks by and shook hands with Ted Simon, Austin Vince, and had a really nice conversation with Elspeth Beard. Also watched talks by Lyndon Poskitt and Ryan F9. Sad to have missed Lel Pavey and a couple others.
Spent almost zero time looking at bikes and the only one worth seeing was a near-pristine DR BIG that Suzuki had found in a warehouse somewhere (literally). Lots of men with erections looking at bikes they can’t sit on.
Ducati wanted 2 years minimum on your license so having waited from 06:30 until 08:00 to find out it was a waste of time, I was unimpressed. Was queuing for the Desert X, but was hardly excited either way. All stalls the same - queue at 06:00 if you want to get a test ride. All booked up by 08:05.
The Adventure Trail was okay. The entire thing was one big gravel trail for fat bikes. Way too dusty. Constant cloud of dust and too many people all fighting to get an inch in front. People didn’t keep to one side to allow you to pass. When you left a gap for the dust to clear some idiot would take that gap and fill your whole vision again. Normally someone who then failed to go fast on the not-straight bits.
The ‘expert’ route was most accurately described as ‘idiot-plus’ and provided no bother so long as you went without a hangover. These were the only sections of anything that wasn’t flat or gravel. The climbs provided a lot of dropped bike entertainment.
Even the idiot trail had masses of crashes and ambulance calls. It was shut for hours at a time because of too many people and not enough ambulances for the ones already injured. I nearly washed out going hard into a 90° gravel corner. Had to run off the grass a little. Said 30mph limit would be fine if I wasn’t going 50 at the time.
The highlight of the riding was ‘Little London’ enduro track, which was actually challenging and fast in between trees. My injured hand meant I only managed three laps before I was bollocksed. Definitely more what people with any experience were after.
Camping was okay (slept in the van) but the communication and organisation was shit. They tried to force any non-bike (ie even a van carrying a tent) into a far away field “for camper-vans” on the Friday AM. Having paid a huge £30 supplement sod that. Soon as they actually let us through, after holding us in a distant field until all the bikers had gone and got the best spots, I just drove to the regular site where the mates already had a spot for me. That was 09:00 (I turned up at 08:00), and that site was full by 09:30.
Toilets were interesting. Showers worked. Didn’t eat at any food stalls. Didn’t see any bargain kit.
Overall it was okay, but 10,000 people was at least 5,000 too many. I can’t be sure who they were actually catering for. Probably GS riders.