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

I'm up for saturday, I thnk

offroad this weekend

saturday or sunday"

Brent has twisted his ankle, so he won't be taking a skills session this week

Gabes had said Sunday earlier in the week, but either is doable in theory.

Sunday for me.

I prefer Sunday

it looks like sunday it is

rough start time is 10 am give or take a gossip, chinwag, natter, bitch and whinge

meet at 10 or just before, ideally ride until 2 and leave so bring trail food

'Tester has the heart of a 20 year old, its quite scary.

9'42" at >190bpm this week, but I only hit 200 once. I have a pretty good feel for how hard I can push it.

'tester perhaps check your heartrate by just watching this.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TaNBuqSuNqk

apologies if this is a repost

A day of bimbletrack at Swinley.

[ame]http://connect.garmin.com/activity/135331887[/ame]

The reprobates gathered, Tester was there early, then Gabes and I followed by Tom. and Unharmed. It was cold, average for the duration at Swinley was 1.5 degrees. By now we seem to be good at wearing appropriate clothing so it was not actually too grim. Plus there is plenty of tree cover so we were never subjected to cold winds.

Decided to do a slightly different take on our usual route out, and headed to Labyrinth as our first named destination. There is a fantastic section of singletrack for nearly the entire route, and we got stuck in. Clearly others had been out on Saturday as the trail was muddy and slippery. I had just received my new Sidi carbon disco slippers and made the decision to install the cleats with the more difficult release setting. Tom.'s joy at this announcement and the likelihood of my imminent unclipping failure was palpable. About 5 minutes into the ride and an inverse cambered corner with mud and roots took me out, wheel span, lost momentum and then the sudden tumble. Thankfully there were 2 of our group and some others there to witness my rolling in the mud (and yes it happened to fast for me to unclip but I doubt the cleat change made any difference). Given the conditions not even my pride was dented by this and I was back up and moving before others even realised my error had occurred.

Thankfully I was not the only one having issues with the ground underneath, clearly I was into falling of bikes on muddy roots before it was cool, as the others then jumped my bandwagon. Gabes I believe was next, followed by Unharmed ending upside down with his bike above him. Even our most adept rider, Tom. had a few moments on slippery climbs. Tester however seemed to escape all such problems, clearly not a dedicated follower of fashion.

It has been amazing watching peoples skills and fitness develop, Gabes' cardio has improved massively in a month of trips to Swinley and clearly his turbo sessions (despite leaving him with dead legs yesterday) have been paying off. It was also interesting to see how the 2cm slip of his saddle on the rails led to some lower back pain, even on an MTB fit can be a serious issue.

Given the treacherous terrain on the day, and taking our regular dives into the mud into consideration, it was clear that compared to this time last year Unharmed and myself are staying upright a lot more of the time and can tackle a lot more challenging sections with a greater degree of success. The regular jaunts out are making a difference. The best thing is that we get to enjoy ourselves more as we become more adept.

There was a comedy bike throwing moment from Gabes when he had a DJ moment of frustration after one section of trail led to a slew of slips and wheel spin. Labyrinth was wet, huge puddles on some of the berms made it interesting - for me it was the question of hold the usual line but be unable to see what was hidden in the puddle or take a less preferable line but know what was under the wheels. First time down i was cautious, the second I was trying to follow Gabes and took the risk. Descending is the greatest of my many areas of weakness on an MTB, still lacking the confidence to let go and for the bike to do all the work.

There was the added excitement of my new fork having rather given up the ghost, the seals seem to have all died and it has been spraying oil everywhere, so it now has an interesting habit of suddenly plunging but in an utterly unpredictable manner. Probably because on descents I try to keep my weight back a bit it was not so bad, but on minor dips it was suddenly sinking.

The climb of heart death after Labyrinth is actually becoming easier, and my heart rate is not rising to such high levels as the first time I nailed it a few weeks ago. After the second go at the descent we noticed some others riding SS and I mentioned to Tester that there were others for him to play with, Jorj I hope you did not take offence (as you suddenly decided it was time to return to the carpark and back home).

We took a meandering route of singletrack back to the Lookout, including finding a couple of new bermed sandy roundabouts in the middle of the forest, before heading out to Stickler and Tank Traps, by this point the effects of the cold were starting to take their toll, it was not so much that we were physically chilled but that the extra work by our bodies to stay warm was really starting to tire us out.

A return home was decided upon, and we all had to work out logistics for cleaning off our bikes, it had been filthy going. Tom. was to avail himself of Unharmed's hose, and Gabes to come back to mine to remove the filth.

There was talk of possible Boxing Day ride, I am hoping I get a chance to burn off some of the xmas xs.

almac - that made me feel really uneasy

Only a still rather than a vid but that is tame compared to the trail Peaty and No Way rode in Ireland a few years ago.

^ Nope. Not going. Ever.

really sorry guys, wishing you all a pleasant and eventful christmas.. well not too eventful keep safe ;)

almac x

Tester however seemed to escape all such problems, clearly not a dedicated follower of fashion.

I was just too far behind for you to notice when I hooked a tree with my bar end and bike and I parted company in opposite directions

we noticed some others riding SS and I mentioned to Tester that there were others for him to play with, Jorj I hope you did not take offence (as you suddenly decided it was time to return to the carpark and back home)

No offence taken, I'm just too fat and unfit at this time of year, and I had a bit of a cold, and my asthma has never liked cold air + heavy breathing, so I thought discretion was the better part of valour.

There was talk of possible Boxing Day ride, I am hoping I get a chance to burn off some of the xmas xs.

Boxing day ride for me will be in my much more familiar territory of 10 miles against the clock on the Bath Road http://www.maidenheadcc.org.uk/node/542

Sssshhhhh, you could have got the upright prize for the day, actually if you only had one tumble it sounds like you came out on top.

Sssshhhhh, you could have got the upright prize for the day, actually if you only had one tumble it sounds like you came out on top.

Pfft, I didn't fall off. It was Gabes that was atomic elbow dropping the ground every hundred metres or so.

Yeah, stupid shoes. I have dug out some old specialized shoes for the next outing, wont have trouble unclipping then!

I hope you're going to dig out a hi viz jacket too, and maybe wear your helmet the wrong way round too, to complete the look.

Was recommended to ask here... so here we go!

I've never ridden off road before. Been invited to go out with some local guys each weekend - not sure how rough, but rough enough to need at least front suspension.

Naturally I'm inclined to a single speed option - but I'm not dogmatic on the subject. For a slender budget of 500 quid, any recommendations?

I saw this:
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/trek/marlin-29-ss-2012-mountain-bike-ec030310

Any good?

On the other thread, going second hand was suggested... do I assume you meant geared? Or geared + conversion?

I'm guessing 500 is too little to get anything worthwhile building it myself from bits and bobs....

Anyway - educate me and advise me :)

across Scotland you'll want gears, SS is ok but limits you unnecessarily (I rode ss for a couple of years, it's fine on 'most' southern terrain but there'll be times when you'll curse it) and fixed mtb is a joke, I'm sure somebody will be along to defend it though...

As you've been advised already, avoid full suspension in order to remain within budget, choose second hand if you know what you're doing or otherwise (so long as you don't mind a high street brand) Halfords own make Carrera Kraken is around 27lb, well specced and bang on the upper end of your budget.

Buy something in the new year though, as you'll be sure to get a discount on last year's model.

i originally started riding MTBs a few years ago and then got seeded riding XC as part of my uni teams. Me and a few guys used to train in Scotland every weekend pretty much but these days having moved south we ride swinley/dorking quite a bit. Thinking about doing the forest of Dene in the new year for my birthday ride

Forest of Dean has an uplift service called flyup or something (google it) near Coleford. Do you ride 'Surrey Hills' from the YHA carpark? Excellent riding in the area but some is tricky to find.

Was recommended to ask here... so here we go!

I've never ridden off road before. Been invited to go out with some local guys each weekend - not sure how rough, but rough enough to need at least front suspension.

Naturally I'm inclined to a single speed option - but I'm not dogmatic on the subject. For a slender budget of 500 quid, any recommendations?

I saw this:
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/trek/marlin-29-ss-2012-mountain-bike-ec030310

Any good?

On the other thread, going second hand was suggested... do I assume you meant geared? Or geared + conversion?

I'm guessing 500 is too little to get anything worthwhile building it myself from bits and bobs....

Anyway - educate me and advise me :)

If you can build bikes £500 is doable for a decent 2nd hand front suspension bike with gears. You could even probably afford an on one hardtail frame new and get everything else off ebay if you're not bothered about your wheels matching.

Start with a decent frame and you can upgrade everything else as you go.

eg. On one 456 £160 new, ok second hand fork £100. Front and back wheel £30 each. Then £200ish for all the rest of the bits is doable. There will be a lot of stuff on ebay on the NY. You could always run it singlesped to start with a standard back wheel convertor, then you can buy gears when you can afford them. Better to get good quality base parts.

you'll also get a decent new complete bike for that if you check some of the ads in the back of mbuk or similar magazines for last seasons models. And if you take a small frame size Wiggle has loads of half price bikes.

TF Tuned Forks are awesome. The new fork was leaking oil, when I reported this to them they arranged a courier to collect the fork on Monday this week. I just had a call from them, and they have completely serviced it and upgraded the seals, fork will be back with me by Thursday. All done for free under warranty.

Just really impressed with the service, I would definitely use them again.