Since losing a considerable amount of weight I’ve been into mountain biking. I’ve always ridden the likes of Follow the Dog/Monkey Trail at Cannock, Llandegla, Sherwood Pines, various natural trails in the peaks and loved it. I’ve even done things like HONC and the Merida/ChainReaction marathons.

However I joined a mate on a coaching day at Antor Stiniog last Friday. The coach, Adrian, was a top bloke with the patience of a saint. He had me doing stuff I seriously balked at before. But I loved it and came away with a huge grin.

Now for the am I mad bit, with the words of Adrian ringing in my ear – “you’ve brought a knife (Santa Cruz Bronson) to a gun fight”. I’ve past my 50th birthday, I have seriously arthritic knees (so much so that I have been advised to have both replaced), so do I buy a downhill rig and ride more at places like Antor. I’ve been looking at the likes of the YT Industries Tues Comp or the Nukeproof Pulse on offer at ChainReaction.

So stick to riding the reds/blacks at Cannock/Llandegla or man up and get a downhill bike?

Where is this Antor you speak of?

Get both? I have transition covert and a TR450. If I ahd my time again I would by a tues in a heartbeat. My mate has one, great bike, she rips on it. At 2.5k vs 6k, I can’t find the differnece in performance/ride quality.

If you’ve got dodgy knees then maybe moving to a ‘lift up ride down’ type of riding would let you carry on riding for longer without damaging them further?

I guess it’s a trade off, excitement v actual time on the bike v risk of injury.

For me the consequences of getting it wrong have always pushed me to more gentle terrain but spending longer actually riding.

Have you not seen James Coburn in the Magnificent Seven?

1) Can you afford a DH bike?
2) Do you want a DH bike?

If Y/Y then buy DH bike. Easy! 😀

(Crap, I just looked at the YT site, now I want a DH bike…)

So stick to riding the reds/blacks at Cannock/Llandegla or man up and get a downhill bike?

You can’t ride DH trails on a 150mm travel bike these days? I’ve ridden DH courses on a Trance at the same time as friends have been riding them on hardtails. Wait until you’re limited by your bike IMO, unless you’ve got the cash and want a DH bike in which case get one.

Yes sir you are barking* !!!! 😀

*to even consider another bike it should be ordered already 😉

I am about the same age, my knees are ok and bought a DH bike 2 years ago – I’ve done various uplift days in the UK, a couple of “push up” rides and quite a bit of ski resort summer riding. I’m so glad I did, I get yo push myself as hard as I dare, out in fantastic countryside, and give myself a right good workout – skills wise. The DH riding gas complemented my other riding and whilst my DH bike doesn’t get used anywhere near the same amount, it still gets a fair amount.

A friend of mine got into mountain biking last year. Spent quite a bit of time ski racing (dryslope slalom from quite young with a bit of snow later on) so was keen on learning technique and used to progress measured by times and speed. She lives near Aston Hill, and she’s got a decent job too, so you can see where this is going.

She’s got pretty quick, pretty quickly, but also spent a lot of time off the bike and driving hundreds of miles to rehab and back.

You can’t knock her enthusiasm or her dedication, but I don’t know how much that’s contibuted to her time off the bike.

I like a bit of DH action, and I’d love to have a big, squishy bike and get into the big tracks, but a lot of ways I’m as enthusiastic as her ^, and it would be a matter of time before I hurt myself, and I’d rather any riding than no riding. Call me a pussy, but I’m going to leave the box closed! (for now)

I would be seriously irritated by a coach telling me the problem was my bike, to be honest. 🙂

you rode it on your little Bike and survived and enjoyed yourself so why bother, you’ll gain more from learning to ride well then stepping up when the bike holds you back than buying big and over compensating. Next time you’re blasting round llandegla count the number of big bike riders you catch on the down bits and consider, most of the guns people take to that gun fight aren’t loaded

Downhill bikes are fun but a Bronson’s no knife, it’s just a fairly small gun. I used my hemlock at antur, did everything apart from the drop on the double black (and not doing that was nothing to do with the bike), it was pretty much spot on- I was supposed to be there tomorrow on my 224 but tbh I don’t see it being significantly better, and quite a lot of the time it’d be worse.

But hey- if you want to buy approximately 2/3ds of a 224 Evo with Boxxer R2C2s and a CCDB coil, let me know 😉 I’m probably getting rid, don’t use it enough and the rare times I do, I’d be perfectly happy on a good trailbike.