Have got a couple of days uplift at BPW coming up. Definitely plan on riding my Trek Remedy for the first day, but considering renting the Session for the second.

Have never ridden a DH bike before. I imagine it would be great fun!

I can afford the extra money, so that’s no the problem. Just want to make sure I won’t be riding a DH bike thinking ‘I wish I was on _my_ bike’.

What do you think?

P.s. For completeness, my head angle is 66 degrees. 😉

I didn’t think BPW warranted a full on DH bike.

I’m a bit funny about bike set up and do t like rid g hire bikes or other peoples bikes so I’d be happier to stick yo my own.

Probably not needed but If you can afford to then worth giving it a go, you can always switch back to yours after a few runs if you hate it.

I was there on thursday on the Covert and I would say it was the perfect bike for BPW. A full DH bike is a bit overkill I would say. Still if you ride your bike on the first day then you can guage it from there.

Only ridden the blues and reds at BPW and in my experience a full on DH is way overkill.

I rode there on my Bandit and found it totally fine, did not feel the need for a bigger bike at all.

Maybe the blacks are a lot tougher and warrant a DH bike?

A DH bike would be a nightmare at bpw on anything but the black’s. And even the black’s are fine on a medium to long travel trail bike

If you absolutely want to get to the bottom of the blacks as fast as possible, which means smashing through the (short)rocky bits, taking the directest line (over some drops/techy rock stuff) hitting all the gaps on the pro line, then yes, i pukka DH bike will be best.

However, you can easily ride everything on the blacks on a decent 160mm AM bike. You’ll probably get a bit bashed around in the rocky stuff if you hit it at max speed, and might chose a few more tyre friendly lines in some places, but you’ll be having just as much fun imo!

as long as there is no pedally sections then a properly sorted DH bike is a blast and is pretty hard to beat. I’d have one again in a shot if i didnt have to push the damn thing uphills.

I rode Antur on a 140mm hardtail and it was not nice. I decided I’d hire a DH bike the next day if BPW was similar – it wasn’t, it was great on the hardtail. It was better on my 6″ FS gnarpoon the next time – it’s not steep or rough enough to really shine on a DH bike.

I rode BPW recently and was sorely disappointed in how tame the black trails seemed to be. Absolutely no need for a DH bike.

I’d say a Remedy is just about perfect. I’ll be taking my Heckler for 2 days there in July.

Rode BPW last Dec on a Scott Voltage FR, 180mm front & back. Was there on Sunday on my Orange 5, 150mm front, 140mm back. Shorter bike was fantastic. Hit all the blues, reds & blacks. Superb. Unless you’re hitting the big gaps on the blacks at full pelt intending to clear them, you’ll be overbiked on a DH bike.

One thing to bare in mind – they cannot change the springs so the set up is for 80-90kg. I was going to do the same as you but at 105kg too heavy for their setups.

Well, I had my first day there today. Cracking day 🙂 As close to driving my own roller-coaster as it gets I think.

Definitely agree with everyone about the DH bike – I’m only really good for the blues and reds fast-ish and blacks slowly (going around the gaps!). Didn’t feel underbiked at any point, so while I’m DH-bike-curious, I think I’ll save it for the Alps.

May still be renting a bike for the second visit, as I came off and need to do a few ‘little’ repairs. 😉

Go to an LBS and rent a demo bike?

I took my DH bike, was great fun on the blacks, not so much fun elsewhere.

Yeah because that is what lbs demo bikes are for 🙄

I’ve taken a few different bikes and the DH bike was by far the most fun, I could quite happily spend a whole day just riding Enter the Dragon.

Yeah you can do it fine on a trail/enduro/all mountain bike, as you can every other DH track in the country, but having the extra travel will encourage you to try more ambitious lines which helps to build your confidence. And once you are confident clearing a jump or drop on a DH bike you can then transfer that know-how to your other bikes and the cycle starts all over again.

Only problem is that if you’re not used to a DH bike, you probably won’t be any quicker on one first time out. I like to Strava all my rides and noticed when I first got mine about a year ago I was a fair chunk slower than on my 160mm FS, it took a good few weeks for me to get up to the speed I was at before.