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

They are a BMX design but they do 26" versions at least, I haz some.

Alps on MTB = amazing

Looks like all terrain cycles have some DTH, do look difficult to get now though.

All terrain only look to have black, not skingumwall

They do appear ideal tho.

I used them in the city, they're tough but not too grippy in the wet or particularly fast.

Now I mostly just use mountain kings for pretty much everything.

Rolling on some now. Tan wall too. I you're on disc, you're ok, if on rim braking, prepare for them to be black pretty quick. Aside from that, meh tyres. They'll do off road ok. Emphasis on OK. Anything more than paths and avoid. On Tarmac, they're alright if you don't intend to push 20mph+. You will feel that weight at some point. Shit in wet unless you really lower the pressure.

Don't trust anything indra says or does.

Ah shit.... where will I get all my fixiebiek advice now :-(

Some poor sod died at Swinley on Saturday:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-33669582

According to the Swinley Forest Mountain Bikers group his name was Mark Kingston, aged 50. Came off the bike at Red 25 and hit a tree. Some riders in that Facebook group found him and attempted CPR until the air aumbulance came but all was for nothing.
Condolences to the family and friends.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/SwinleyforestMTB/1027839777240537/?comment_id=1027881410569707&ref=notif&notif_t=group_comment_reply

Fucking hell, that's awful.

RIP rider.

Yeah, it's pretty fucking bad. Guy goes out for a fun day blast and winds up dead. Tragic.
Things like this do make me think: how much of a factor was his riding alone? I don't ride alone these days as much as I used to but things like this give me pause for thought.

That's shit, poor guy.

I was there today. Red 25 is a section of wide swooping track with table tops and trees close by and a slight curve at the end. Don't know about riding alone (like I was) but it's very fast and has always scared the hell out of me.

RIP

Yeah, that section does invite you to go very, very fast.

how much of a factor was his riding alone?

Sounds like his impact caused enough trauma for even immediate assistance to be quite a long-shot.

RIP

That's sad, as has been said it's quite easy to pick up a whole load more speed than you're confident with on red25, I sure did.

I'm not really confident riding trails alone.

Tbh if you're gonna ride trails alone Swinley's gonna be the safest place.

It sucks, but it's a sport with inherent risk and it's not worth worrying over whatifs.

This is the second fatality that I know of at Swinley, couple of years ago a guy had a heart attack whilst riding, also alone AFAICR

Sad, a tragic accident.

I followed a dude who had a very nasty crash 10' in front of me in the jump gulley at Swinley. He knocked himself unconscious in a brutal fall and was left mooing and gurning as he came round. He was still fucked and had no idea what had happened after half an hour, repeatedly asking the same questions and looking bemused.

The problem with trail centres is that they tend to get pigeonholed as "Huh, Swinley's easy peasy, Afan's for noobs, blah blah blah" when all it takes is a slight miscalculation and you're sprawling in the dirt. The grading system is helpful, but it's not always the jumps and drops that do for riders, an innocuous slippery slab or a off camber corner can be enough to catch the tired or unwary.

Sucks, but it happens. A dude crashed 100 metres behind me on day 1 of tour divide, his front wheel came out of the fork on a rocky descent, he ripped a large part of his face off on a rock. Guy I was riding with pressed the SOS button on this SPOT GPS straight away. The dude had no idea where he was or how he got there. Riding alone has its risks, and even a GPS device with an SOS button doesn't help if you're concussed/out cold.

Life's too short to worry about riding alone, just ride alone, it's awesome. If something happens, at least you were doing something you enjoy. Fuck all this risk averse health and safety bullshit.

In other news, here's my bike.

1 Attachment

fat bottomed girls springs to mind, but it's not a fat bike and Freddy wasn't into the other :)

Can't make out the race plate, what race was it ?

Bontrager twentyfour 12 this weekend, came last-ish

don't do xc on a big bike if you want to win