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I imagine a fair few have actually only every ridden Swinley (being one of the closest trail centres to high population dense areas), therefore their expectations will be somewhat skewed. A red at Swinley doesn’t compare to anything at BPW, let alone A417 or FOD. Possibly only the pushup trail..
I was at A417 at the weekend, and the number of people with absolutly zero clue ready to launch into the Red and Black was scary. I followed a couple guys that crashed infront of me on what appeared to be notthing wearing just a helmet. I also saw 4 people pushing up the trails at various points. I’ve had the same experience at the other trail centres.
I know people need to start somewhere and it must be really difficult for the uplift centres to vet the riders, but there must be some way of educating riders.
But there is nothing at 417 intrinsically more difficult than Swinley...? (Perhaps the black?? by a whisker?)
The point about 417 is the difficulty is what you make it... there are no compulsory gap jumps and you can technically roll any of the trails .if you can ride Red 25 or drop off the end on Red 21 competently then nothing intrinsic to any trail should be different.. personally I wouldn't want to roll the 2nd drop on Dubby its way safer with some clean air but you can roll it... if you want to send the gaps you can but they are clearly signposted and you can just divert..
so no requirement for a qualifier...just common sense to ride it once slowly... choose the line etc.
FoD DH lines are not much more... but then they are the dots.... and all bets are possibly off when its raining.
I followed a couple guys that crashed infront of me on what appeared to be notthing
Easy to do... I hammered Sheepskull with the kid 7-8 weeks ago
I got to the very bottom on the 4th or 5th time and thought I'd just pre-hop 3 tiny little jumps at the bottom (for a bit of fun)... messed up the timing, knocked out for a few secs and I still have a screwed wrist... based on the rest of the run this was a nothing (it's hardly part of the run really... just a bit to join the bottom to the fire trail and road.. no more technical than riding round the skills area)... it's MTB.. shit happens...
We rode Rogate Sunday which I think has the best system with a technical grading for the trail and a DOT grading for the jumps.... hence you can have a techy black trail but 1 dot jumps... (OK, now I remember I managed to crash on the black... but it's MTB.. shit happens... (especially if you decide to look over your shoulder to see how the kid is doing) 😀 .. really nothing very techy... and 1 dot you know there are no compulsory gap jumps and you can just see the sign at the top and know what to expect.
Which I understand isn't like BPW... which isn't 417 with every trail being what you want it challenge wise and isn't Rogate where they use the colours and dots.... Red might mean a 20' hip gap or it might mean a rough rock garden or???
I know loads of people who are better at jumping than I am... (basically everyone)... but lots (some) of them won't follow me down a techy black... then again until a couple of years ago and wrong side of 50 I'd never really deliberately encouraged my wheels to be off the ground for a longer period... whereas anyone who grew up riding DJ's on manicured lines might be super confident on a 20' hip gap but not like pure gnar..???
Went a few weeks ago, on a Sat. Poured it down all day but I swear the trails ride better in the wet!!!
Seen a few accidents but, for the most part, folk riding there do seem to be of a decent skill level. A few newbies but never had a problem, its all bikes & that's good for me.
Agree that some of the reds have got significantly harder. There is a drop-off over a big slab after one of the fire road crossings that was always a bit sketchy but now looks harder than some of the blacks. 🙁
Anyhow, spent a significant part of the day queuing this time..
We have only ever gone on a Saturday, so its always sold out, but the queue was longer than the uplift channel for most of the day. Still a cracking day out though. 🙂
always thought the dai hard double was a fair qualifier when you consider that if you want to ride it as intended there is a reasonably sized road gap/step down followed by a 15-20 ft double near the end of the trail.
“always thought the dai hard double was a fair qualifier when you consider that if you want to ride it as intended there is a reasonably sized road gap/step down followed by a 15-20 ft double near the end of the trail.”
But it wasn’t becauase both those doubles are rollable. I can ride Dai Hard pretty fast and smoothly, I just have a mental block with gap jumps that aren’t tiny.