[Closed] Do you ride down long runs of steps?

Serious answer- it's often hard to tell from a photo as it makes things look a lot easier/shallower....but yes, probably.

Why wouldn't you on a 29er? They roll everything don't they?

Ive yet to find steps i wouldn't ride down so id say yes

one way to find out! (please video and post results)

Get yourself down it. Especially on a wagon wheeler.

Serious answer- it's often hard to tell from a photo as it makes things look a lot easier/shallower....but yes, probably.

I would second this gentleman's response.

And yes you can ride a 29er down most things, but its not the law.

If you didn't feel like it then there's no shame in that. We all have (a developing?) skills envelope.

But why turn around? You could have walked down.

 

I ride steps on the full rigid so you'd be fine on your bike.

Yep - steps are fun. Only problem I'd have with riding that is there's not many places to go if there are walkers coming up.

oops! got me quotes the wrong way round - don't know how that happened!

needs a fatbike

great pic, yeah I'd ride that, it looks like it would be great fun.

If you don't like the look of something you don't have to turn back. It's not against the rules to walk through the bit you don't like the look of then get back on.

OK then... I'm back there tomorrow morning! 😆 I'll walk them up first...

Are those the steps down into the Devils Punchbowl at Hindhead?

Some great (and steep) riding round there....as per your original post, I'd ride down most steps...mountain bikes are great at that kind of thing!

I once went down a set of steps that were exactly the same dimenions as my wheel base it was bizarre.

I#d wimp those steps I reckon unless I could see the run out at the bottom and do them fast.

Oh, and I turned back as I was late to work already and I didn't know where the track would take me to (hospital maybe...)! 😆

only thing that slightly puts me off steps like that is where the mud behind the wooden risers has eroded so there's a lip at the edge of each step - I always worry my front wheel will 'jam' against one. Getting my weight back further seems to help though.

Depends what the risers are made of. Slippy, damp wood? No chance!

There's a ridiculous set of steps on the Stiperstones I had a go at a while back; I got so far down before getting The Fear and "intentionally" ditching into the long bracken beside the track... 🙂

If they are regularly spaced & height steps yes, those with shallow & large drops mixed because of erosion & slip I'd stop and check out first

I know photos flatten stuff out, but that just looks like a bumpy slope. get yer arse over your back wheel and you'll be reet!!

The TOC h trail on Cannock chase is built for wheelchairs and has a brilliant set of 30 steps hacked into one bit of hillside. Very good fun for taking strangers down as each step is a different height and width and the erosion means you have to go up a bit before each down. It has a bit of a non-pc name too which makes it more fun.
No way could you get down it in a wheelchair.

my daughter asked me to ride down a longer set than that with her behind me on the tag-a-long..
We did.
she was 4 at the time.
there was no suspension or 29" wheels.
she is AWESOME tho.

No pressure. 8)

I'll do a few steps or shallow ones but I'd chicken out of those ones. Really don't fancy a trip to A&E

I don't like the ones where the tread is made of earth and the risers wood holding it back, the earth gets compacted down and eroded so they start to become concave, and eventually become a set of little wheel traps.

The steps down from by the Windmill on pitch hill as example. Rideable but a bit nervy (probably been repaired now so everyone thinks i'm a wuss)

Yes, whenever I can. There's a set of steps on the Malverns that are are a perfect pitch so that both wheels drop at the same time. Must be about 50 of them which then change to varying pitch for another 40 or 50. I giggle like a small child all the way down them 😆

The challenge is bunnyhopping back up them, winner is exluded from buying the rounds after. Thankfully my miss-spent youth trying to emulate the Martins in the town centre has put me in good stead. *burp*

if you're clipped in....... go for it

I'd ride those, although steep, if they are fairly regularly spaced out then it should not take long to get into the rhythm.

[i]OK then... I'm back there tomorrow morning! [/i]

careful of ice, count to 3 go on 2, once you're in the rhythm, you'll wonder what the fuss was about... wheeeeee!

i have rode bigger sets of steps, problem with those and some i have local is the wooden edges, if the gravel behind them wears down and the steps are uneven its a dodgy ride and an easy otb ending

I would have been half way down before realising they were steps.
But give them a go. You can almost crawl down them on the brakes 1st.
Or balls out and hit them hard and fast

Please film your first attempt.

Last set of steps I saw, I wheelied down them... broken knee and elbow though.

Honestly, only you (and perhaps close riding mates) know if you can

a) ride them

b) probably ride them but the chance of injury is small

c) don't be an idiot - lets go the other way

It's rhythms over steps that worry me, and you're accelerating faster than you can brake safely and you can either fly down them at full whack or bounce down them with your helmet falling over your face.

I reckon you could clear the fist ½doz or so with a good run up! 🙄 eyes on the landing zone though..

Would you ride it on 100mm [s]29[/s]26er HT

Not a massive fan of stairs but they look fine to me. Run off is important because I try to keep off the brakes after an OTB incident descending a set of random drop stairs made from railway sleepers. Ouch.

Saddle down and nice and steeady does it... but those look like wooden risers that are shouting "hospital food"

Also check if the gravel behind the riser is washed out as these make great wheel blockers... There is nothing like a set of steps where the lip is the same as teh bikes wheelbase for that comedy barely incontrol bouncing effect..

Video, or it didnt happen

Video, or it didnt happen

I have no GoPro. Which means I can't record it. Which means I can't ride them... Sorry guys. 😆

I think people are over analysing it, if you are going to do them just do them. The more you look the more nervous you will be. The more nervous you are the more likley you are to grab a fist full of brake and go OTB. The best situation would have been to carry on going down them the first time you stumbled upon them. You would have made it, felt like a boss and applied the knowledge that you can do those steps so you can do 'X' in the future.

It doesn't always work like that though haha!

I've rode down the granite trail/bogey hill in Newcastle, Co Down. It was... interesting? The steps are of varying length and drop. Some are short and shallow, others are long with big drops. The hill is also pretty steep and long. ([url= http://www.seaviewapartment.co.uk/granitetrail.pdf ]1 in 3 incline[/url])

[img] [/img]
Modern picture that doesn't really show how uneven or steep it is.

[img] [/img]
Old picture that gives a better idea of how steep it is, but still has the bogey tracks and doesn't have the stairs yet.

29er with suspension? I rode my CX bike down a set of concrete steps on holiday, felt like I was 12 again, it was great fun. 30 steps down onto the beach road. Not sure if I would do it again though

Wheel was easasily trued again once home.

There's a set of steps by the clocktower in Malvern, after the longest/most technical downhill on the Malvern's, I get to the flight of steps at the end and just bottle it!!! 😳

As others have written, steps are OK until they get eroded and scooped out behind wooden boards. Usually they are shallower if you stick to the edges, which means you can bail out easily if your nerve fails.

Don't do what I did: near ASDA in Radcliffe there's a very shallow flight of steps, just begging to be ridden, that has a bend in the middle. Pikeys have stolen the hand rail so all that's left is the cast-iron stanchions. The day before we moved into a new "project" house I was riding down at a good speed and I leaned to take the corner. Right hip hit a stanchion and I bounced off and cannonned fast into a stanchion on the outside of the bend at speed, hitting it with my shoulder just far enough outboard of my collar bone not to break it. It flippin' hurt and I was not popular as the next morning we moved in and started pulling down ceilings and partitions - me doing it all one-handed as my left arm was useless, the shoulder blue and yellow and siezed. Cool. I still have the "dent" in my right hip to show for it ten years later.

Steps? pah!
Try this on - I only did it once, with two 'dismounts'....250m+ descent in just under 1km. A shame the SDA choose the muddy field next door to race down, rather than this....
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[url= https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8401/8614104382_811dd32208_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8401/8614104382_811dd32208_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/e8cx85 ]R0017150[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/88555557@N00/ ]matt_outandabout[/url], on Flickr

Can't make this appear as a picture, sorry. These steps are too scarey for me on my rigid:

http://singletrackworld.com/magarchive/issue-26/