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So far this summer I've ridden at Coed-y-Brenin, Afan, Dalby and Sherwood Pines.Just posting this to see what other peoples thoughts are about surface types.
Personally I can't stand really rocky sections for more than 2 or 3 mins at a time!
There was loads at Afan on 'The Wall' route on the decent and in quite a few places at Dalby. I mean, I do like a bit of rocky technical stuff but when it goes on for ages down a decent it just rattles the hell out of me!
I ride hardtail and know to absorb this type of thing with my arms and legs etc. but still, I just find it kills the 'flow' a bit if it lasts ages!
Went round the new red route at Sherwood most recently and it was brilliant! Loads of single track with very few rocks and stones in it, plus it was dry so plenty of super fast dusty hard mud to roll across. Ended up playing on the jump park and having a go at some of the orange extreme sections and did the red route a second time when we got back to the car park!
Does anyone else feel this way about stones and rocks on single track?!
Cheers, J
http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12651435
GO!
🙂
MTFU
or get a road bike
WTF does this guy normally ride on!!!!
Sherwood Pines is the best trail centre it seems. 🙂
Does anyone else feel this way about stones and rocks on single track?!
No.
There was loads at Afan on 'The Wall' route. I ride hardtail and know to absorb this type of thing with my arms and legs etc. but still, I just find it kills the 'flow' a bit if it lasts ages!
I did the wall on my Bfe, thought it was good, a little tame if anything 😆
Post him a link to this thread.
The guy has a point
its like an arms race...
bikes get more capable, trail centres respond, bikes get more capable etc etc etc
grumm, perhaps you can tell us what a 'core rider you are, post up a couple of photos of you hitting up a 25ft gap and laying it flat?
Or do you reach you pathetic limit with rocky sections, over biked with your 160mm £800 forks reaching about 1/4 of their travel.
❓
He doesn't like really rocky stuff. What's the problem?
Or do you reach you pathetic limit with rocky sections, over biked with your 160mm £800 forks reaching about 1/4 of their travel.
Sorry what?
Just found it funny and thought it would wind up all the people on here who whinge about trail centres being too sanitized. I like riding hard stuff and easy stuff - whatever floats your boat really.
i agree with him, the opening to coedy is crap, those slabs just suck all momentum out of it.
its horrible.
and its totally un natural! i realise the trail needs to be protected, due to the high traffic, but there are better ways.
STW reccomend he gets an orange 5 to compensate? i wouldnt be suprised, i agree with the arms race thing.
bikes are getting so good, trails are being MADE un naturally tehcnical, with piles of jagged boulders being dumped in places they wouldnt be found to add a challenge.
its toss.
im not adverse to rocks, drops, steps, etc, but not at the cost of the flow of the trail or momentum.
its also why i chose a 4" full susser over a 5" or more.
He's maybe going a bit too far with his dislike of rocks but I suppose he sort of a has a point. I ride a relatively racey hardtail with 100mm forks and I like Afan a lot, but wouldn't be in a huge hurry to go back to Coed y Brenin because a lot of it just wasn't that much fun for me. Sure it's doable but I'd just as soon go somewhere a bit less rocky.
Can someone on Bike radar e-mail him as myself and Grumm wish to introduce him to Walna Scar + others 😈
People enjoy riding different sorts of trails. What's the problem ?
As it happens, I enjoy rocky stuff but on this point ..............
There was loads at Afan on 'The Wall' route. I ride hardtail and know to absorb this type of thing with my arms and legs etc. but still, I just find it kills the 'flow' a bit if it lasts ages!
I totally agree with him. I hate the Wall on a HT.
i agree with him, the opening to coedy is crap, those slabs just suck all momentum out of it.
its horrible.
Most of the threads on here about CYB are full of people whining about how sanitized it is. I enjoyed it personally - the rocky bits and the smooth bits.
Can someone on Bike radar e-mail him as myself and Grumm wish to introduce him to Walna Scar + others
Think you would be in for a bit of a shock doing that or Garburn Pass if you think trail centres are too rocky.
He should try riding the Laggan Wolftrax (the red will do) and that will show him what real rocks are 😉
[i]its horrible.
and its totally un natural![/i]
This made me LOL, trail centre in un natural shocker :o)
I totally agree with him. I hate the Wall on a HT.
Well i quite enjoyed it on my HT, as i said a little tame if anything, but still enjoyable.
I enjoy riding anything full stop, be it sherwood pines or the alps, its all riding, just enjoy........ 😉
I bought a full sus bike because rocks make things too bumpy - I wish they'd tarmac the trails then I could use my road bike!
Plus I say there should be huge piles of cotton wool and sponge piles up at the edges of a trail in case you fall off.
😀
What a puff!
I enjoy fast and swoopy stuff the most so would agree with him too 😐
Maybe he's using the wrong tyres 😀
Can someone on Bike radar e-mail him as myself and Grumm wish to introduce him to Walna Scar + othersThink you would be in for a bit of a shock doing that or Garburn Pass if you think trail centres are too rocky.
Agree he/she needs a proper reference point for rocks though.
I have no problem with people liking trail centres but too complain they are too rocky is just ridiculous do they just want a series of hardpacked jumps like a BMX track?
[i]Plus I say there should be huge piles of cotton wool and sponge piles up at the edges of a trail in case you fall off.[/i]
Years ago a rider injured himself quite seriously at CyB by falling onto one of the big rocks which mark the edge of the trail and are there both to stop the rider straying 'off piste' and hold the trail together. I can't remember the outcome but one of his suggestions was that trees and rocks be padded like at DH races!
Never been to a trail centre. I don't think I'll bother if they're all bumpy.
Point him at Llandegla.
Wrong tyres? Probably.
you don't wanna be using smooth narrow tyres for trails like the wall.
You want rocky tyres for rocky trails.
I'm no riding-god, far from it, but I like all styles of trail, fast, rough, balancy, whoopy/jumpy, slippy/grippy, tight etc - you have to be capable on everything. It's meant to be hard, a physical, mental and technical workout. That and the variety is why I love the sport. It's not f'ing road riding!
coedy is crap
"Badger"? Couldn't disagree more. I've ridden at CyB three times now, always on soaking wet days, and loved it. My mate thoroughly thrashed it on his rigid and he wasn't that far behind me. Sure there are some slower balancy bits (they are fun too you know), but I got loads of flow on most of it you just have to be loose and attack it from the outset.
Armoured and bouldery is the style of CyB. It roughs you up and shreds your tyres but it's all doable and the workout makes the cake at the end extra sweet. Go attack it and get stronger IMO.
Man made trails are designed that way to stop erosion in the winter months .. or summer months 😀
"they just want a series of hardpacked jumps like a BMX track"
That would be brechfa (which is also a scream in it's own way)!
"Laggan Wolftrax "
Oh yes, "The chessboard" and "ayres rock" make me tremble just thinking about them. I'm not up to them yet, something to work up is good IMO. One day...
Can't see why you felt the thread needed to be highlighted for ridicule STW-style. He rides a hard tail and doesn't like long rocky sections, not exactly shocking. He probably also doesn't need to MTFU, people that enjoy their arse taking a battering sound more like candidates for needing to MTFU...
If there are rocks naturaly on the trail so be it, let's ride!
Putting loads of house brick size rocks half sunk into nice swoopy parts of the trail to make it "more technical" = FAIL
Jeyboys will moan it's not swoopy and flowing anymore.
Gnarly dudes will still say it's not gnarly enough.
Double fail.
Can't see why you felt the thread needed to be highlighted for ridicule STW-style.
Just found it funny and thought it would wind up all the people on here who whinge about trail centres being too sanitized. I like riding hard stuff and easy stuff - whatever floats your boat really.
I do think it's a bit of a shame though if people only ever ride trail centres and this is their only frame of reference. I like trail centres, but missing out on big days out in the hills (which are generally much rockier than any trail centre) seems a pity.
point of clarification,
the rocky bits at coedy are ace.
the SLABs on the poening sections are the rubbish bit.
If you only like loamy singletrack, you're not going to get on with trail centres where they've had to amour the trail with loads of rock are you? Simples.
"loamy" - Here we go 😉
I disagree with the arms race comments (bikes versus trail centres). Over the last few years the Welsh trail centres have, if anything, got tamer not more techinical. It's probably more true to say that the trails evolve rather than have any specific taming or 'gnarling' with some bits getting harder for some riders, some bits getting easier.
In Wales it seems the recent trend is for smoother finished, fast, swoopy and jumpy trails (Brechfa for example, or NRG section on Whites). These put a grin on people faces (mine too), but my personal preference is for rooty, rocky, bouldery, balancy stuff and this only seems to exist as a last resort in Wales, put in where soft ground makes a smooth flowing trail too susceptable to erosion.
do they just want a series of hardpacked jumps like a BMX track?
that'd be 13/14 at cannock then 🙂
Yes please!!!!!
Rocks have their place, but TBH trail centers would be more fun if they did concreet over the whole thing, would solve the errosion, more grip, faster, what's not to like?
Brechfa is basically the anti-naturalist trail - but it's a bloody good larf!
When I rode the Black trail at Glentress a few years ago I didn't like it because it was too rocky. It felt like they couldn't decide whether they wanted a fast, swoopy trail or a rocky, technical one, so ended up with a load of descents where you basically point the bike downhill and hold on until you either get to the bottom or your bike falls to bits. It wasn't at all difficult, there was no line picking to be done like rocky bits on natural trails, it was just a bit tedious...
FFS!
I decree from this moment on that the word 'mountain' is removed from the sport currently called 'mountain biking'.
Horses for courses and all that but complaining a trail is too rocky is kind of missing the point of [b]mountain[/b] biking isn't it?
As great as trail centres are it strikes me we're starting to rip apart one of the fundamentals of the sport which is that it's all about adventure.
The rocks don't bother me, but the braking bumps do. Last time I went to a trail center I was amazed at how many people can't ride for toffee and straightline anything technical and dig braking bumps before every corner.
Lapped Dolby last Sunday. They have (horrors) bermed certain sections and smoothed-off some rocky bits. Spoilt my day. Keep it Rugged!
I thought that the initial section at CyB was deliberately designed to be rocky/non-flowy as a sort of qualifier for any leisure riders who turn up and don't know what awaits them. That's what I'd do if I were designing a red/black trail anyway.
errrrrrrr.............
Calm down, I like rocks, I lived in sheffield for 4 years, I know all about riding on rocks, if I wanted to ride on rocks I'd go back there.
When someone puts rocks down at a trail center I just aproach them thinking "the fastest line is to go arround them, or double the whole lot if its short enough" it's only my morals that say I should actualy ride them rather than making a new line.
I got to Cannock to ride a scaelektric track fopr mountainbikes
I got to the Lakes to ride on some rocks
simples!
I'd prefer it if one style - park (brechfa, llandegla etc) or trad (penmachno, marin etc) is picked for a route and its stuck with. Lurch at coedy now seems more in keeping with the mbr than the karrimor (or is it dragons back?)
Didnt like the NRG section at afan as it felt out of place with the rest of the route. Same with able or what ever it is on the MBR where a staircase has been put in the middle of what used to be the off camber bit through the wood.
Not a fan of the kitty litter wearing course either.