Viewing 33 posts - 1 through 33 (of 33 total)
  • "Simple / basic / restricted" bikes events
  • TheBrick
    Free Member

    Are there any “simple bike” events out there? I know there are some SS races but anything else? Ridgid DH e.t.c

    Just watch Hack bike Derby and it got me thinking about the type of bike I ride and why I like it.

    I’d like to do an event that is less serous, has some kind of limitation on the bike. Trying to minimise the obsessing over the bike and just enjoying the craic. I’ve done SSUK but probably will not be able to make the event this year due to personal commitments.

    Much in the same vane as car rallies where you maximum spend is £500.

    P.S. I’m not anti people using every latest bit of kit its just not my thing.

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    I’d like to do an event that is less serous, has some kind of limitation on the bike. Trying to minimise the obsessing over the bike and just enjoying the craic

    [Dons Bula hat and BeenBag gear]

    Back in the day, this was all events. Turn up, do trials, slalom, DH and XC all on the same bike. Etto helmets with ears were optional, however.

    [Removes Bula hat and BeenBag gear]

    rOcKeTdOg
    Full Member

    That Don gets all the good stuff to wear

    TheBrick
    Free Member

    Don is a cool guy though.

    Another advantage of “simple bike” events is they require less hardcore terrain so are possible over a larger part of the country.

    RobHilton
    Free Member

    Hardtail DH champs?

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    Don is a cool guy though.

    Almost as cool as…

    somafunk
    Full Member

    Greg Herbold?, I had a pair of those padded in the hips Axo shorts but mine were electric blue, I did have a pair of Axo Pony boots though with pink/purple highlights – they were the best mtb boots ever 😀

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    Greg Herbold?

    Has anyone else in the history of all time ever ridden a Miyata? 😉

    TheBrick
    Free Member

    HT dh sound interesting. Can’t find any 2016 info though. Last year was ideal as it was only about an hour away.

    jam-bo
    Full Member

    Does the clunker classic still run?

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    Hardtail DH champs?

    Loads of DH events have a HT category. Problem is that insurance / rules still require full face helmets, body armour etc so it’s still not a simple race in that a participant still needs all the kit.

    The old Singletrack Dirty Weekender events were a good format, took racing back to the old NEMBA style days. DH, trials and XC all in one weekend, same bike. Great event.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    Brighton Big Dog has SS and Pre-95 categories.

    beej
    Full Member

    Battle in the Bowl CX has fat bike and SS categories.

    Stevet1
    Free Member

    I had a mad idea that a small manufacturer like Cotic or Stanton or bird could run a DH series. For 1k you would get a singlespeed long travel hardtail with slack angles, 140mm fork, dual ply tyres etc and entry to 4 DH races just for this bike. Sell 100 entries and away you go. You get to keep the bike at the end everyone’s a winner.

    amedias
    Free Member

    I like that idea as a bit of fun, obviously everyone would have to race on the same ‘control’ tyres, and no component changes allowed other than contact points. Although gearing changes, cut down/shaved tyres/choice of brake pad etc. would all be open, try to keep everyone on the same kit but allow a bit of leeway.

    not sure if you could make it work commercially and there’d always be people complaining about it being X bike instead of Y, and £1k is still a heck of an entry fee even if you do get a bike out of it, but in principle it’ a great idea for a bit of fun!

    STATO
    Free Member

    I had a mad idea that a small manufacturer like Cotic or Stanton or bird could run a DH series. For 1k you would get a singlespeed long travel hardtail with slack angles, 140mm fork, dual ply tyres etc and entry to 4 DH races just for this bike. Sell 100 entries and away you go. You get to keep the bike at the end everyone’s a winner.

    Reminds me of the old Scott/MBUK scholarship back in 2001. Bike, kit and race entries for £1200 (£2k worth of stuff) for under 16’s (?). DH courses were a little easier back then though, would work for enduro though.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    So I have to build or buy another bike to race? Talent always does better than budget in my book

    Rubber_Buccaneer
    Full Member

    All you need is some like minded friends to enter any event you fancy (maybe not the Fred Whitton but almost any other event)

    chakaping
    Free Member

    I entered a few local XC races in the open cat last year on my long travel hardtail.

    It felt just the same as racing back in the 1990s, I didn’t give any thought to what I was riding – and I doubt anyone else did either (apart from the attention whore CX riders obvs). I just “enjoyed” turning myself inside out to try to catch the bloke in front.

    Might have done better on a proper XC race bike, but then I’d feel like I should be in the racer cat with the leg-shaving, club-lycra wearing whippets.

    Does it matter what everyone else is on? You could even get STW bragging rights by beating people on £3k bikes on your rigid SS inbred, eh?

    4130s0ul
    Free Member

    how about starting up an STW cheap-n-simple race series?

    maximum of £100 budget for a bike to race on. the bike must be bought specifically for the race and not be made post 2000. it has to have v’s or cantis and either rigid forks or elastomer only.
    any clothing and protection aloud (fancy dress to uber-gnar)

    four races over four months, arranged by a representative from each polar region (easily tied in with MNPR and any other regional STW meet)
    everyone has the chance to race in each region for overall points.
    the races are somewhere simple and emphasis is on fun.

    at the end of the series the overall winner and regional winner gets some vague prize for being awsumz and the bikes get donated to local bike related charities or somesuch.

    so bar any organisation that would be a simple race for all the family

    finbar
    Free Member

    I had a mad idea that a small manufacturer like Cotic or Stanton or bird could run a DH series. For 1k you would get a singlespeed long travel hardtail with slack angles, 140mm fork, dual ply tyres etc and entry to 4 DH races just for this bike. Sell 100 entries and away you go. You get to keep the bike at the end everyone’s a winner.

    So, I need to spend a grand on a whole new bike, and I have to keep replacing tyres with the same set?

    I can’t help but feel this is about a million miles from the OP’s question…

    core
    Full Member

    I like the idea in principle, I’m not much of a rider to be honest, mostly XC, do like a bit of tech, but I’m not gnaarr or endyooro in the least, got 2 hardtails, scandal 29er XC machine an a 26″ Soul with dropper etc for more aggro stuff. I’m crap at wheelies, riding no hands, can’t really bunny hop, mostly due to a youth spent playing football and on tractors rather than riding bikes.

    I too watched the hack bike derby and thought “that’s what it should be about”, just pissing about on bikes in the woods with your mates, and not very good bikes at that (though I really want that curvy BTR), simple fun, skills required, bike is almost the least important part of the equation. Instead of riding harder and techier trails all the time, upgrading bike and kit all the time, pining after the latest invitation, why not just ride easier, tamer stuff on a basic bike and have fun at it.

    pictonroad
    Full Member

    Single Speed UK, surprised it’s not been mentioned. Rare to see suspension forks, it’s firmly in the one gear, keep it simple camp you’re after.

    thomthumb
    Free Member

    Single Speed UK, surprised it’s not been mentioned.

    erm…

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    Problem is you create a series for the kind of people who like to think they could win in a normal race, if only it wasn’t for the money others were spending (the reality being they’re unfit and untalented).

    So you give them a stock bike with no upgrades allowed.

    By the time the buzzer goes for the first race you can guarantee there’ll be a cottage industry of people setting them up tubeless, cutting down tyres, modding fork dampers, fitting ceramic bearings, all looking for the easy win.

    And the races still cost just as much to run (properly), except those that spend £500 on a bike are probably less likely to want to shell out £60 to ride an enduro/DH in the first place in the first place.

    jameso
    Full Member

    I’d like to do an event that is less serous, has some kind of limitation on the bike. Trying to minimise the obsessing over the bike and just enjoying the craic.

    Good call. imo you get that from the event format and the course. ie, make it fun but not ‘the most’ anything so you don’t attract the ambitious. Don’t have any timing or entry fees, only have spot prizes that are a bit of fun. As soon as you limit the bike in any way or classify stuff you have rules and half the point of a fun event is to have no rules. If you’re riding for fun it won’t matter if someone goes faster on a susser than you can on a rigid bike. Who cares : )

    (I still have an Axo top like Herbold has there, and the Pony boots : ) Shorts are a bit tatty now though..)

    SSBonty
    Free Member

    Clunker classic (as above) was still going 2 years ago:

    https://vimeo.com/100600680

    basically anything thats not an MTB, start in a pub in Pollock, push up a big hill, drink/eat at the top, first back to the pub is the winner. I’ve won it on a single speeded 80s racer with raked back forks (where it had been front ended and bent!); postie bikes, folding shoppers, cruisers, bmws have all done well. It’s actually quite a nice descent – I’ve ridden in on an MTB and enjoyed it, on a 20″ wheeled folding bike it’s hairy in places.

    Charliethebikemonger disorganises it, ask him if its still on…

    TheBrick
    Free Member

    Some interesting thoughts guys and girls thanks.

    I don’t have a group of riding friends other wise you are correct that any event can be a fun event as you can have your own mini comp between friends.

    I think core nailed my point.

    . Instead of riding harder and techier trails all the time, upgrading bike and kit all the time, pining after the latest invitation, why not just ride easier, tamer stuff on a basic bike and have fun at it.

    ITs also partly because I live in a “less interesting” are for mtbing shall we say, plus have little time to travel to ride I feel you can get more from less terrain wise on a basic bike.

    @thisisnotaspoon
    I’d never considered the point of cost of putting on an event would be more or less the same no matter. I guess that is why DIY events work best for this.

    epicyclo
    Full Member

    Seems to me the obvious thing is to have an Africa Bike championship, and at the end of the event all the bikes go to Africa.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    I’d like to do an event that is less serous, has some kind of limitation on the bike. Trying to minimise the obsessing over the bike and just enjoying the craic.

    Most events I’ve done have a great atmosphere, lots of craic, lots of people having fun.

    Problem is you create a series for the kind of people who like to think they could win in a normal race, if only it wasn’t for the money others were spending (the reality being they’re unfit and untalented).

    Once you accept this part then it all gets less serious, do the best you can, race your mates, Roots and Rain had a great feature where it identified your nemesis, they person you were really battling over the season.

    Instead of riding harder and techier trails all the time, upgrading bike and kit all the time, pining after the latest invitation, why not just ride easier, tamer stuff on a basic bike and have fun at it.

    Having got a couple of sorted bikes I ride all sorts of stuff on them, I’ve pushed myself hard as the bike isn’t the limit, when you get your arse handed to you by a guy on a 100mm XC hardtail on some really tech trails you realise that. When the guy is hitting the drop you bottled or the corner you couldn’t make the tyres grip through on a set of skinny crossmarks, or the guys who beat you by a huge margin in the 4 day XC race on Bronsons when you were there on your XC race machine then you get it.

    Most of this is not about the bike, or the cost but about the state of mind. Thats harder to fix

    epicyclo
    Full Member

    Further to my thoughts above, how about a few events based around World Bicycle Relief bikes.

    Sort of like an off road but very noncompetitive sportif/audax?

    I could think of a few routes in the Highlands if anyone is interested, and I’m sure there’s plenty of places down south.

    jameso
    Full Member

    Great idea.

    kayla1
    Free Member

    I love the idea of this! I suppose you can enter any event on any bike really, but to be in with a shout of a cheap plastic trophy and maybe a bag of free tat you have to be up against people on similar stuff. I’m in- where do I sign on? (GT Bravado SS and a Missy-style plaid shirt here!)

Viewing 33 posts - 1 through 33 (of 33 total)

The topic ‘"Simple / basic / restricted" bikes events’ is closed to new replies.