Heres the last section of Blue 14 at swinley. Gopro.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAwwvM1teQQ

Great stuff!

Is suspension/pads/helmet really necessary for a trail like that though?

Each to their own 🙄

Great stuff!

Is suspension/pads/helmet really necessary for a trail like that though?

Only if you crash (helmet and pads anyway)
Even then not necessary but definitely preferential.
I don’t think pants are necessary but I still wear them.

Is suspension/pads/helmet really necessary for a trail like that though?

All relative isn’t it?

The guys in the vid are obviously beginners so they probably feel better on that trail padded up.

Heading over today, think I might go for knee pads and no pants. People on bikes having fun, what’s not to like.

You can only ride at Swinley with no helmet if you have a gormless expression, trackies tucked into socks and some hack bike you’ve just nicked. Or are a women on a ride with the other half having been convinced to get on a bike with him and very nervously ride about with no helmet in case your hair gets messed up.

If you go for a family ride, do ensure you have no helmet but your kids are fully armoured with loads of pads and a full face. Oh and take a picnic and set it up in the middle of a trail.

Love the blue and red at Swinley. I’m not a great jumper but the blue has given me my biggest air to date. Time enough mid-flight to look down at my front wheel and think ‘ooh that looks a long way off the ground’.

[/quote]Great stuff!

Is suspension/pads/helmet really necessary for a trail like that though?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsG2TvGJSA8
This is why i wear pads now. As you can see I am new to this.

Good judgement on the camera angle – worked better than lots of the other back-facing gopro vids I’ve had frm mates (view of ground or view of arse)!

Where abouts was that crash video? Looks really familiar and I’m guessing swinley, but struggling to place it…

thanks, I am just getting used to the gopro atm. Still trying to work it all out.
The crash was at peaslake, Barry knows best trail.

I wear elbow pads in addition to knee pads. Better safe than scraped and in pain

Yeah I will probably get some elbow pads after I come off and hurt my elbows.

Are pads needed on a trail like that? Depends how fast you hit it. The two innocuous looking lumps that the riders went over can send you 15-20 ft if you hit them right, they are actually step downs, just most people land so far in front of the landing they’d never notice.

nice camera work.

Not wearing a helmet means ‘i fully accept the risks of not wearing a helmet and I wouldn’t expect anyone to stop to help me after I have suffered a head injury in a fall, and I certainly wouldn’t want to be taken to the overstretched A&E department with an injury that I might have been able to mitigate if I hadn’t have been so selfish to decide not to wear a helmet and place the burden of my selfishness on other people’

Edit…..
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AXdlbIC3yFs/UrtUqae_PDI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/SsDT6KNC9g8/s1600/Swinley%20map%20-%20New%20Routes2%20(1)-1.jpg