mountain biking in the UK becoming a bit vanilla in places shocker
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Leigh Woods, nearly brought me to tears!
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Posted 4 months ago #
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jhw - Member
mountain biking in the UK becoming a bit vanilla in places shockerPeople don't like change shocker
Posted 4 months ago # -
Impatient people looking gift horse in mouth shocker.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Oli Beckinsale likes them. Maybe you should enter some elite XC races OP?
Posted 4 months ago # -
If you've ever been to Whistler, you'll know that a lot of the trails there are a "bit vanilla" too. A range of stuff is good.
Posted 4 months ago # -
I'm all for hard surfaced easy grade tracks. I think what they've achieved in Ashton Court is great. Apart from spoiling the feel of the Hawthorns section by widening the track and trimming away any branches and trees that you might have formerly smacked into it's generally great fun and still has a lot of character.
I was really looking forward to Leigh Woods being a variation of the same but like the OP am pretty disappointed. It's a lot slower than Ashton Court whatever your skill level and never feels like it gets going. Too many tight corners just for the sake of it, very random and uncohesive "features". Too many completely bonkers pinch points... some places you can pop straight out onto heavily used walkers paths no slowing measures applied, others you practically have to come to a standstill unless you want to risk smacking your pedals on half a dozen huge rocks. One's even put in back to front for the direction of the trail for godsakes with the tight slowing bend on the exit form the path crossing rather than the entry.
I never rode it before the resurfacing but if it faithfully follows the line of the Ho Chi Minh trail then I think that the line is far better suited to a boggy rutted slog than a hard surfaced trail with little "flow" as I believe the phrase is and they should have left it alone and designed something for Fifty Acre Wood instead.
The word used a lot on here when Ashton Court opened was "grin". Anyone feeling that after a spin round Leigh Woods? Sorry, not feeling the love. Great idea poorly executed.
Posted 4 months ago # -
I enjoyed it for sure, yeah there's a couple of weird bits but on the whole it's an enjoyable trail and I really don't miss the old trails in LW inc. the stealth stuff. I do think some things could have been done better but there might be reasons it wasn't that I'm unaware of, not like I'm an experienced trail designer/builder. It's perfect for night riding to...
Posted 4 months ago # -
I don't think it was ever going to give the same experience of continuous riding that Ashton Court does, because it crosses so many other paths. Which of course was true of the old Ho Chi Minh too. The trade off is that you have some interesting optional sections, many of which are brand new.
We rode the new trails last night, then headed over to the Ridge trail. By comparison, it's a complete ditched out mess, and will probably stay that way until early summer, unless it freezes.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Anyone feeling that after a spin round Leigh Woods? Sorry, not feeling the love. Great idea poorly executed.
Yep, me. I like that there are sections that provide a challenge at lower speeds.
Posted 4 months ago # -
It's perfect for night riding to...
Yeah, except all the diggers seem to have scared the deer and badgers away. Lots of Owls over Ashton Court 6:30am this morning though.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Yeah, except all the diggers seem to have scared the deer and badgers away
They will be back as will a slightly more natural feel to the trail, give it a bit time.
Posted 4 months ago # -
the diggers seem to have scared the deer and badgers away
The reason you saw badgers on the old trail so frequently is because it depending on which bits you rode, it went right over the entrance to one or two setts. One trail even had a roller on it that kept getting bigger as the badgers pushed out more earth! I'm sure they're still there, just enjoying a bit more peace and quiet.
Posted 4 months ago # -
We rode the new trails last night, then headed over to the Ridge trail
Which is the Ridge Trail? Phone mast down to Paradise bottom sort of area?
Posted 4 months ago # -
That's the one. Predictably enough, apart from the middle section with the conifers, it's utter mush right now.
Posted 4 months ago # -
At least you can badger hop the badgers... cow hopping's a bit more tricky.
Posted 4 months ago # -
The ridge trail is perhaps a perfect example of my frustrations. This trail has never been significantly subject to wear, it remained in a good state all year round, being well known but not over ridden. But now even the steep sections near there are being turned to mush. I beleive this is due to the increasing numbers of riders attracted by the new trails.
So my original point still remains, personally I find the new trails uninspiring and the woods will never be like it used to be. The rise in numbers of riders due to the new trails means that the woods have changed, for the worse, for ever!
Maybe this is selfish, and the rest of you seem more accepting than me, but its the way I feel and I know I'm not alone.
Posted 4 months ago # -
This trail has never been significantly subject to wear
Eh? So the eroded corners and the succession of muddy pits just before the trail drops down to Paradise Bottom were always a figment of my imagination then.
It's been wearing out, gradually, for years. All trails do this. The difference is that trails built of stone, with proper drainage and sideslope, do this a lot more slowly.
Posted 4 months ago # -
The ridge trail was the least worst trail in gloop ... this is quite seperate from 'a good state all year round'.
The reason is that the ridge trail has some topography and water run-off going for it. Not a luxury much of the rest of the wood enjoys.
The spot has had to deal with increasing number of riders getting out for increasing periods, night and day, come rain or shine, one way or another. You can't limit riders to 'only locals who have ridden here since the 90's' or stop rain falling on it. This is just about the only way.
In time the trails will revert to something akin to that perfect summers day in 1995 that you fondly idolise ... maybe even *gasp* better.
Impatient people looking gift horse in mouth shocker.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Want to ride a natural trail 5 minutes from Clifton, head over to 50 acre or other parts of LW. (Or this north somerset stuff that I am not exactly sure where it is.)
Wet? Winter? Ride the man made stuff at AC or LW.
Dry? 50 acre, plenty of stuff in LW of old and the fun bits like paradise bottom, picnic table.
Wealth of opportunities for the discerning Brissle biker. What's not to like?
Like others have said yes the new trails maybe don't have the rooty challenge of old but the quarry was goosed with multiple lines and parts of Leigh woods were going the same way.
Some winters it was a gloop fest for several weeks at a time which meant either not riding offroad or 1:1 cleaning time and the knowledge that really the trail should be left to dry out.
And you know what, the new stuff is fun. Especially at night with a bit of pace and a few friends in convoy!
Posted 4 months ago # -
Maybe this is selfish
Ridiculous is the word you're looking for. Like many of the walkers in LW you seem unable to understand that it is the harvesting of sections of the woods that has caused the majority of the old trails / paths to be covered up. These will reappear as the discarded wood breaks down and new trees grow throughout the next few years. I've found plenty of lines diverging from Yer Tiz - you can't get far at the moment because of branches and mud, but that will change. Yer Tiz will be the backbone of the new network of trails, a nice mix of built and natural surfaces, and we'll all live happily ever after.
Posted 4 months ago # -
This rather apt Johnny Cash song just started playing:
"If you waste your time a-talkin' to the people who don't listen,
"To the things that you are sayin', who do you think's gonna hear.
"And if you should die explainin' how the things that they complain about,
"Are things they could be changin', who do you think's gonna care?"I think I'm going to step away from this thread now and get on with planning our next trail day.
Posted 4 months ago # -
As a nostalgic footnote... this thread brought to mind an article ('Scheduled Punishment' by Mike Ferrentino) in one of my favourite ever issues of Bike ('The Joy of Dirt', March 1998). It covered a whistlestop tour of the UK, including a sojourn to San Fran Bristo, as follows...
Another day, another few hundred miles later, and we were again in another distinctly different piece of England: Bristol, port city home to the drum and bass movement* as well as Steve Worland, my spirit guide and revered mentor in all things bike... a very fit master class racer who had a quiet grace in the singletrack that made most of us look like shambling idiots.
And shamble we did. Steve, one-speeding, "recovering" after racing a day previously, took us on a three-hour maze of disorientating, root-strewn singletrack that would have made any Vermonter cry for joy.
I think the clear sub-text of all this is that Bristol needs far more woodland, in every direction, stretching as far as the eye can see.... The campaign to turn the Downs into a forestry plantation starts here.
*Open to question, of course.
Posted 4 months ago # -
seek and ye shall find
and
XC will never die
that's all folks
Posted 4 months ago #
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