[Closed] To gnar or not to gnar?

Full gnar to me is a big day in the Lakes or some munro bashing, which with our restrictions up here isn't happening. Have a local spot with 5 or 6 handbuilt tracks that are pretty full on, I'm most definitely riding those.

On mans Gnar is anothers pootle. You decide what risk you want to take, not the internet.

Personally I fall off when Im not riding the techy stuff as I tend to stop concentrating.
Ive a friend who works at the hospital in Oxford in A&E, she said they were really quite and anyone comming to A&E was not at risk from catching anything as they have segregated the whole place.

So, go and ride your bike till it makes you happy.

The question is when can I go full gnar as we are still classed as been in lockdown?

The answer is use your judgement, but ensure you've had your eye test first.

Watch this and go ride!

can I go full gnar

Only you can answer that on a risk-benefit judgement.

The choice isn't binary - you could go barely-gnar, semi-gnar or close-but-not-daft-gnar.

you can crash just as easily and hurt yourself on the South Down Way...

TBH I'm sticking to quiet roads and a bit of gravel bike towpath/bridalway trundling. Everything carries its own risks of course but I really don't want to escalate my chances of visiting A&E too much.

2020 will just be the year that didn't really happen. Back on it next year perhaps?

you can crash just as easily and hurt yourself on the South Down Way…

Yep. Did my shoulder on a tame bridleway, not on anything remotely 'gnar'.

Have been riding proper trails the last couple of weeks but still taking it easy.

We have space in ICU at the moment, we don't mind a good trauma from doing fun activities. Gnar away I say.

I am going with regular trails, but not necessarily new gnar. There's some tempting gaps and drops, but I am avoiding them and sticking to what I already know for now.

This is one descent that I've been looking at doing for a while. https://earth.google.com/web/ @54.65715934,-3.14727034,813.81135784a,1000d,30y,0h,0t,0r/data=MicKJQojCiExM1I5T0J3cE9BeUN3RkVqdVJwLXlIVk1XN1NsWDJNMHQ

I'm riding as I normally would. I figure I've more chance of falling off if I ride too conservatively and I've been self employed for 18 years and don't get paid if I can't work so I'm pretty good at judging what I can and can't do. As soon as we're allowed to travel a bit further I'll be off to the Golfie for some proper fun.

I'm just taking it really easy on home trails.

I wont be riding big days in the lakes till the guys who would come and wipe me up from a big off (MRT) advise that we are welcome to come back.

https://www.adventuresmart.uk/

I went on an anti-social ride last night with a small group of mates, and did some of our regular trails in Wakerley and Fineshades

I managed to take a tumble on a drop that's really no bigger than a double curb, dunno what happened, we weren't filming so I can't find out, took a bit of a scrape to the arm, lid took a bash, but could have been a ton worse.

I'd not have really considered it gnar, but I am out of practice with my usual riding, as such I ****ed up and it went wrong.

So, by all means, make the judgement, take the risk, but always know you could get it wrong very easily.

.....Personally I fall off when Im not riding the techy stuff as I tend to stop concentrating.....

Not seen that one for a while..."I was bored so I fell off" no gnar is seriously dangerous needs banning

…..Personally I fall off when Im not riding the techy stuff as I tend to stop concentrating…..

Not seen that one for a while…”I was bored so I fell off” no gnar is seriously dangerous needs banning

I've had three visits to A&E from crashing on very easy, but very fast trails. Generally, it's the easy stuff I have big crashes on.

A&E may be quiet - but:

I've a friend who recently broke his arm bimbling in the local woods.

His wife is a GP and had just been tested for Coronavirus. His surgery was not scheduled until her results were clear. It was an uncomfortable wait.

2/3 of my broken arms were on fire roads or actual roads.

You could argue that the one that was on a downhill track isn't enough to be statistically significant.

But that's a daft argument.

I've started riding at Swinley again, perhaps not flat out, and avoiding the steep bits of the take offs. Having said that it almost bit me in the arse on a baby maker where there's a right berm, a lip, then a left. I took the first one wide so as to minimize the size of the lip, then found myself at warp speed off the line in the deeper sand trying to set up for the left hand one! Poor line choice rather than lack of concentration though.

thisisnotaspoon - you got 3 arms ?

Well, I do not know about gnar, but the big bikes coming out for the first time in over two months this weekend.