The MTB thread

[northwind]

Ah, well, I don't want to be too horrible But basically, you pay money to ride your bike round in circles, and there's usually some slow feller in front on all the descents who just won't get out the way (sometimes even pushing down the descents, I loved that), and then you're just getting into the swing of it and you have to stop while your teammate goes out, and you end up spending half the day riding along fireroads just to make up the distance. Oh and it's cold and it rains.

My 10UTB captured here. This video is not very rivetting:

See what you mean. That would get right on my womans chest...

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by northwind

I don't think I'll be doing any more XC races, 10 Under the Ben cured me of that it's just like riding your bike, only worse.

The MTB marathon series is 'non-competitive', it's a participation event. I did the Ruthin round last year and it was right mud-fest and a physical challenge. I did the 54km event in 4:58 dead and was well chuffed. I won't ever be racing, I know I'm not top 10 material so not interested (even in super vets or whatever I am these days). Events such as this are a challenge and something to work up to. If I was doing these this year I'd want to have a go at a 75km one at some point, but doubt I will ever work up to a 100km one. But £30 a go is a lot of brass to just ride around the hills! For instance I can ride 90% of the Ruthin course for free, just by heading out the door...

[northwind]

Ah, well, see when I say I was racing? We came about 10 millionth So not that competitive.

[northwind]

Well that was good. Actually it was brilliant... Didn't do very well, the standard of riding was damn good so I ended up 77th in class, which sounds alright til you see that's 9th last But I beat my mate by miles so that's the main thing. Really was a brilliant day out though, fab for £30. The riding was hard as nails too, lots of loose off-piste stuff and they used a load of the DH trails so amazing to see people tearing it up on racy hardtails. Not so amazing to see knobbers like me failing on big 30lb full sussers (crashed twice in one stage, gah! lost about 20 places through that)

I'm still rubbish at it but it's more fun being rubbish at this than XC! There's a full race series coming, which I might just enter and be rubbish in if timing allows. If anyone else fancies something a bit more technical/skills based than XC racing but not as mad as DH racing, worth a look. You still need to be fit but it's nice to have a bit less importance placed on how fast you can ride up a fire road and a bit more on how hard you can throw yourself down a hill.

http://www.ukgravityenduro.co.uk/public/default.aspx

[northwind]

Good photographer this, he makes it look like I know what I'm doing, rather than just being involved in a 30 minute long near-crash


Innerleithen Enduro by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

[Luckypants]

Nice air man!

Wheels of the floor scares the hell out of me!

Cool pic, looks like you know what you're doing

I was getting some air off some large speed humps on Saturday and hit one on the angle and nearly binned it my right arms been killing me since

So jumps like that are asking for trouble ATM .

[Luckypants]

Perhaps you can give Mr. Venom some lessons in jumping a bike