Just wondering anyone tried a cyclocross bike around somewhere like afan? Was it fun/ fast or a near death experience?

So far..llandegla,more fun than the mtb!
Cwm rhayder,ok
coed y brenin,bloody hard work!
The marin,excellent.
Last year I rode the cx more than the mtb and road bikes combined including a couple of crc 100k marathons.

If all your CX rides aren’t near death experiences then you’re doing it wrong. 😉

As above though, Llandegla is a lot of fun on a CX bike, the marin was good. If you can ride it on an MTB, chances are you can ride it on CX. It’s different but always a good laugh.[1]

[1] And I’m assuming here that ‘a good laugh’ for you involves terror, forearms pumped up so you look like the Hulk, a numb sac from getting hit between the legs by a bucking saddle, overshooting everything because your brakes don’t work, a couple of loose teeth from the ride and a selection of permanent hearing and vision problems.

Glentress is on my “to do” list. I’ll be starting with the Blue route…. 😉

Excellent definition of “a good laugh” there samuri. We should start a STW glossary..

I can’t comment on afan, as I’ve never ridden there, and I don’t ride trail centres often in general. When I do though, it’s quite often on a cx bike. I find myself limited (fun wise) by the really steep and really rocky stuff, otherwise generally fine. Like samurai says, descending in the drops you can overcook the speed very easily, and on long descents I get pretty knackered wrists (by about 2/3 of the way down something like Caddon Bank I’m just hanging on). Basically, none of the 7Stanes ‘official’ stuff would be a worry, something like Golspie or Laggan black I’d probably take something with better gearing and brakes if I had the option. Little skills/ ‘freeride’ areas like the one at Glentress buzzard’s nest car park are great fun too.

I’m assuming here that ‘a good laugh’ for you involves terror, forearms pumped up so you look like the Hulk, a numb sac from getting hit between the legs by a bucking saddle, overshooting everything because your brakes don’t work, a couple of loose teeth from the ride and a selection of permanent hearing and vision problems.

So very this 😀

Samuri’s ‘good laugh’ description +1 (not including the numb nuts – replace with female equivalent).

I decided that suspension was invented for a (good) reason, and the marin was more fun when not being rattled to death! Worth doing once though 🙂