Had a fantastic ride in Cranham Yesterday afternoon after work. Found some lovely technical tracks (thanks to whoever made them) and the NRS/ tyres/ weather/ grip were all totally ace. By far my best experience in this new hobby of mine by far.
Until I fell off… (poor me, etc)

Following my mate, we merrily rode along what we thought was the racetrak until a large jump caught us by surprise and we managed to synchronously land on our heads/ shoulders .

my thoughts are.

1. My new helmet certainly saved me a sore head (first ride out on it- the old one was far too small)

2. Would knowing how to jump make any difference?

3. Should one be riding recons of tracks before riding them properly?(certainly takes the fun out of it)

The crash wasnt that bad of coure, (my shoulder just smarts). But for the rest of the ride I was a gibbering wreck and kept falling off.

The good new is I had a helmet cam on 🙂

The crash is here at a bout 2 minutes

HERE

And this one just hows how your confidence gets battered (2 of many fall off!)

(it starts off I am too pooed up to go down a little slope! 😛

I have lot me bottle ]

warning…swearing agogo

my tips;

don’t follow so close behind the rider in front – you can’t see whta’s coming up

ride any new bit of track slowish the firss time – be prepared to stop – there coudl be branches across it or anything.

you don’t need to be able to jump usually – you could probably have rolled that if you’d set yourself up properly, the rider in fornt looks liek they did.

Keep trying – it’ll get easier…

How did that take you by surprise?! 🙂

next time you go up there when you come down the hump(the shrine) take the left trail for the best run.

Bumbags make it harder.

I think it was the bike rack that caused the crash… remove the offending item 🙂 jobs a goodun!

funny as 🙂 🙂

jumping isn’t realy neccecary for the majority of the riding most of us do, at best i’d say most people on here launch off take-off’s and land on the flat soemwhere, rather than hitting propper doubles.

Learn to pump first, its faster than jumping and makes most jumps (as long as the bit in the middle is ridable) rollable regardless of speed. Best way to learn is on a BMX at a local track, try and keep up with better riders, you’ll find its actualy quicker not to pedal over a lot of the track! Best place to learn to jump is a quiet road with those big trafic calming bumps, with the right ballance of technique and speed its possible to land the front wheel on the downslope followed by the cack wheel. Teaches you to think about landing not just taking off which tends to be the problem!

looks like a bombhole type of jump with a short bowl which can ping you up in the air easily and throw you out of shape. on that trail it looks easy enough to practice, just take it slow and build up.

You need tighter lycra to be aerodynamic in the air, of course shaving your legs will help as well…………

but seriously yes learn to jump, you can then hit any trail and jump and hit it 1st time without doing a recon!

always recon stuff 1st

I’d recon more stuff if I could jump tbh.

it’s easier to stop safely when you always keep at least 1 wheel on the ground like me.

I think it was the bike rack that caused the crash… remove the offending item jobs a goodun!

aw dont be so hard on the lad..someone nicked his S-works epic last month.

How did that take you by surprise?!

lol I think it was a case of thinking we had ridden this track before and knowing there were no jumps on it 😉

you don’t need to be able to jump usually – you could probably have rolled that if you’d set yourself up properly, the rider in fornt looks liek they did.

..actually he landed on his front wheel closely followed by his head! Curiously, his back wheel ended up mangled but the front was relatavely unscathed. That is my point exactly though..for a start we were both sitting down on high saddles. I guess a good start will be to get the bodyweight right to roll over these

sorry to hear about the s-works…. only problem with a recon is you cannot do that on epic all day rides otherwise you would ride in circles all day!

and what about the “gibbering wreck, falling off every five minutes, scared-not-enjoying-any-more” stupidity that occured afterwards… Any cure of am I just going to have have a word with myself? After all, Malc (now with a wheel stamped into shape and no rear brake) doesnt seemed to have slowed down any.

god Im a (for want of a better word) Chicken 🙂

NB Going to afan soon. cant recon there so any pitfalls? Really want to go for it but dont want to ruin my weekend! We will do the wall first probably

NB on a different note, does anyone have any benchmark times for the Wall, Cranham? That one i can do without falling off :), and its my sort of “Benchmark” for how things are improving.

Dan – IME there are two main attitudes for riding your bike – there’s the ‘I fell off last time i rode this so I’m scared so I’ll tense up and go slow this time and I’ll actually have less bike control and will probably fall off again and get even more tense and go even slower’ one and the ‘i cleared that so i’m feeling better about my riding so i’m relaxed more on the bike and carrying a bit more speed so next time i hit something the bike will move under me rather than pitching me off and i might even clear that too’ one. I’m pretty sure we’ve all been on both – I know I have!

Just go back to something that is on the edge of your current comfort zone, ride it a few times till it’s easy then maybe move to something else and do the same thing.

A good skills session would be money well spent – but I would say that!

The basics would get you much better placed on your bike (certainly not sitting down, ffs!) and we can give you lots of help with gaining confidence.

There’s nothing at Afan to catch you out if you’ve got your eyes peeled. Some trails, like White’s Level, have a few 1-3ft drop-offs at the side but you wouldn’t ride them by accident.

thepurist – Member
Dan – IME there are two main attitudes for riding your bike – there’s the ‘I fell off last time i rode this so I’m scared so I’ll tense up and go slow this time and I’ll actually have less bike control and will probably fall off again and get even more tense and go even slower’ one and the ‘i cleared that so i’m feeling better about my riding so i’m relaxed more on the bike and carrying a bit more speed so next time i hit something the bike will move under me rather than pitching me off and i might even clear that too’ one. I’m pretty sure we’ve all been on both – I know I have!

Just go back to something that is on the edge of your current comfort zone, ride it a few times till it’s easy then maybe move to something else and do the same thing.

you know that is gloriously simple…might actually be a bit of fun to do the same trail over and over too

it annoys me that I cannot just get on the thing and ride it without all the need for the bloody analysis, but thats just how i am, i guess

Yeah if you just have your weight back stuff like that shouldn’t be a problem – was there possibly a little panic front brake usage too to help with going over the bars.

There’s nothing at Afan to catch you out if you’ve got your eyes peeled. Some trails, like White’s Level, have a few 1-3ft drop-offs at the side but you wouldn’t ride them by accident.

I love the drops…I think if I can see the other side then I am ok

the ‘wall’ is in buckholt wood, id say its much more techy than those trails at the shrine and popes in the vid. dont worry about times just ride them, enjoy them, challenge yourself. keep coming back for more.

the ‘wall’ is in buckholt wood, id say its much more techy than those trails at the shrine and popes in the vid. dont worry about times just ride them, enjoy them, challenge yourself. keep coming back for more.

The first few times i would pause a bit at the top of the 2 drops and always end up hitting the tree on the left on the second one. The learning curve has steepened and now its so much more rewarding to set yourself up and ride straight down. Of all the tracks I have been shown, this is my Fav so far…

Dancake Hi

I feel slightly guilty reading your posting and seeing the Vid because
I showed Malc the trail in the first place!!

Have you found “Teachers” yet ?

STS