As above went night riding last night with a couple of mates, and anyone that knows this woods will know the descent I’m talking about it’s the one at the Ashwood primary school end.

You turn down into it and it’s loose with a root drop at the top and another couple of root droops at the bottom. Anyway my mate never rides it he always carries on further along but for some reason last night he followed me in and the end result was him being carried to the road and into an ambulance where he’s been kept in overnight and is having an operation this morning to fix a badly broken knee.

Last night made me realise just how vulnerable we are out in the woods at night, luckily not far from help and I’d just charged my phone before coming out. Also thanks to the guys that helped move him off the descent. stay safe people
.

you night riders are plain mad… hope your friend gets better soon

Some of the guys I ride with have started night riding, they enjoy it for various reasons…one of them recenlty on a fire road tried to pump some ditch and ended up over the handle bars, dislocated his shoulder and broke his wrist and elbow on the other hand.

XCNeil – hope your mate heals quick.

Tuskaloosa – with lights these days I don’t see any great difference in the risks between riding in the light or the dark. all bar one of my big smashes have been in broad daylight.

xc neil,did clent last night instead of heading that way so missed all the “fun” hope your mate heals fast and is back riding soon.

Just realised where you mean thats the nasty drop down to the monkey bridge that leads to the stour and the canal.daz who rides with us is just back riding after breaking his wrist on the same descent resulting in external scaffolding srewed to his arm!

Cheers guys, i’ll pop and visit him at Russells Hall this evening. Sargey yeah thats the descent you got it, it’s sketchy !

I’ve seen loads of people bin it down there.

All have walked away from it OK though.

Bad luck that your mate hurt himself.

Hope you don’t take the piss too much when you visit him later. 😉

Vibes of healing to your mate OP.

Remember my mate being put on a spinal board miles from the road on Cannock Chase. When that 4×4 ambulance came in to sight I was somewhat relieved. 🙂

Had a great night ride last night, loads of big gap jumps, drops and fast rooty stuff all good until…
Last descent of the night saw a rut too late over the bar, landed on my head, thanks to Urge and Poc I came off with badly bruised ribs and a bit of whiplash, could have been so much worse.
Funny though felt I was due a big off been a bit cocky
of late
Reminds me how fragile we really are, hope your mate has a speedy recovery

Is it weird that I wanna go ride this descent now? I think I know where it is! Healing vibes to your mate!

Bummer! It is short, but a bit of a bugger.

I was out with a mate last night too and was riding in the area. It was lucky the other mate of yours shouted because we nearly went down and would have ran him over. My mate and I helped move him from the bottom of the descent to the road but the other guy decided that there wasn’t anything else we could do to help, so we carried on.

I hope he gets better soon. It reminded me why I virtually live in my knee pads.

HI Pete thanks for your help, he’s had an operation today where they have pinned and wired his broken in half knee cap and are keeping him in tonight. The bike/frame is a write off the forks have pushed back into the head tube and snapped the down tube so I suppose a positive is a new carbon frame is required

No problem. I’m glad he’s been sorted out and I hope he doesn’t take too long to recover. At least there’s a silver lining then.

On a side note, it must have been a very impressive crash!

Haven’t rode that bit in some time. Hope he heals well

Yeah Pete he hit the tree at the bottom on the left of the run out after loosing control after going over to two consecutive root droops towards the bottom

Ouch! It’s quite easy to do tbf, especially with a saddle all the way up your arse!

I know some people will take this as a bit of shameless self promotion but it isn’t. For anybody that is interested, the trail in question is the one at 1:36 through to 1:43

[video]http://vimeo.com/56329632[/video]

Looks like it could be nasty at speed! Where is that little gap after that section Pete?

I’ll tell you now that it’s ending in disaster if you really try to go fast down it because it’s quite steep.

It’s in the woods on the other side of the canal.

Nice little vid that

Is that the Stourbridge canal then? Or towards ashwood marina side?

Stourbridge canal. The wood with that jump in is opposite the descent mentioned in this thread, on the other side of the canal.

Yeah, back of the tennis courts

Well I woon’t fancy that section at night!…Healing vibes to your mate…

Bit OT but went to ride round this area today. I think I found the descent in question. It leads into the corner of the wood not far from a small bridge across the stour? No luck with the wood on the other side of the canal though. Is it a bit of a cheeky one at the back of the houses on the A458? Found some good little bits of singletrack in that area though- I’ve never strayed down towards lawnswood before.

There’s two descents there, one very well worn and the the other less so especially when it’s covered in leaves in the autumn.

I’m guessing it’s the less obvious one as it can be a bit tricky, binned it there myself but got off lightly compared to your mate. Hope he’s up and about soon.

Luke, I think it might be the one at the top of the horses field, the one with the nice grass climb to get up to it.

I think I found the descent in question. It leads into the corner of the wood not far from a small bridge across the stour?

Turn sharp right about 300yds before you go down that one.
90 degree turn down a steep bank. There’s a big cut out in the bank at the top of the track.
Rode it yesterday and the tree at the bottom was thankfully undamaged. 😉