Hate to sound like a skintflint, but looking into racing for my lad this weekend and it is stacking up to be potentially a VERY expensive day out.

entry £7 for race.

Uplift x 3 for practice with both of us going. £18 (£9 each)

racing x 2 for him £6

So that’s £31 for a 2 race run all in… Then add in £20 in fuel and some lunch, we’re up at £75.

If we stayed for the day it’s £33 each for uplifts and £7 entry… So £73 plus fuel and lunch.

If we can do it at say £7 entry and then just uplift for races at £3 each, it’s far more viable.

Otherwise, i can see us hitting Swinley instead.

Yes, it’s possible. It’s a relativley short. Not sure if you’ve been, but it’s about twice the distance as from BPW cafe to where the uplift road croses the trail, but less elevation. I’ve pushed up in about 12 minutes (I guess?) when I was knackered. I’ve seen people ride up the uplift road, but I think it’s frowned upon. It’s obviously far more enjoyable to just get an uplift and you save more energy for the downs/race runs. Personally wouldn’t bother unless I did the uplift.

The push up doesn’t look too bad to me but can’t say I’ve tried it. I did a demo there a few months ago with uplift included for £20 (bargain) however some did opt to ride up to test a bikes climbing etc and said it wasn’t too bad, the push/ride up route does run fairly closely to the uplift track.

A couple people testing e-bikes claimed to have beaten or came fairly close to the uplift time however can’t confirm if these were exaggerations…

A couple people testing e-bikes claimed to have beaten or came fairly close to the uplift time however can’t confirm if these were exaggerations…

Wouldn’t suprise me. Last time I went it was painfully slow loading the bikes. Often we milled around for a few other riders before we’d leave. There was a fit young lad who’d arrive around the same time as us and he was riding up.

For me it’s more about best use of energy used. I managed 13 uplits last time and all my efforts went into riding. I was absolutley knackered at the end of the day and loved it. If I had to push up, I imagine i’d get 5 or so rides in and feel like I’d accomplished less. To each their own though.

If we do the race event then we’d only be looking at 5 runs really as i cant see him doing all day at the moment.

Why not go to the Forest of Dean trail centre.  Do the Red / Blue trail, ride / push up to the top and do some DH runs and also see if you can pay for a couple of uplifts on the spot.  You can then try out a push up and see if you can be bothered with it and try out a few uplifts.  I think you can pay as you go.

I’ve ridden up to the DH start a few times, its not too hard, but obviously harder than an uplift.  You can pedal most of it pretty easily, then there is a steep bit which is almost as quick walking, then pedal the rest.  Depends what your pedalling of course.

Why not go to the Forest of Dean trail centre.

Because this weekends race is at the A417 🙂

13th Oct the race is at FoD and we’ll be doing that for sure… It’s just that SteveXTC mentioned this race on Sunday this week so i thought we’d potentially enter.

But the financial aspect isn’t really working for me, so i rekon Swinley is now topping the list for this weekend.

Racing’s expensive, probably worth getting used to that now. Taking him to a race but making him push when everyone he’s against is using the uplift would be a bit of a shitty thing to do imo

Push up at the A417 and FoD is fairly comparable I’d say having done both.  Although it’s a while since I went to the A417 I can’t imagine the hill has got shorter at all, the surface on the push up was a bit loose in some places and muddy in others last time I was there.

Bonus with A417 is you can stop after the first bit and have a coffee, visit the shop, get something from your car before then carrying on to the top.

Racing’s expensive, probably worth getting used to that now. Taking him to a race but making him push when everyone he’s against is using the uplift would be a bit of a shitty thing to do imo

It’s not though. The FoD little Fodders enduro is £5 entry and push/walk/ride up, sure it’s limited in the number of runs because of that, but he’s never come away unhappy.. XC Racing is £4 entry and obviously no push up.

They’re both perfectly acceptable, but the cheapest way around doing this particular event is still £31 and that’s without me actually doing any riding at all. Which seems ridiculous as we’re at a riding destination. The cheapest way for us both to ride the day is £73. That’s without petrol/food/anything.

I’m honestly astounded they’ve got a kids race and are charging the kids for the uplift service… IMO if you’re entering the race for kids, you should really be uplifted for practice/race for nothing (Charge the parents if they want to do runs with their kids, yes.)… Then of course if you want to ride all day, you pay like anyone else.

I used to live a stones throw away but never bothered to support them as their pricing was a joke plus their tracks weren’t even up and running fully back then.

credit to the owners if they get chelt folk and beyond to part with their cc info lol

£33 is in-line with BPW, i don’t know what FoD charge but i doubt it’s much different for a day… However due to my lad being small, a full day isn’t likely to happen… at BPW we were in the car and off home by 11:30, partly due to a crash, but partly due to him just not having the desire/stamina or the ability to hang on for that long etc.

So when wanting to do days at these places i look for the costs associated to them of course… You can theoretcially do 4 runs at BPW each for the same as it would cost me to send him up there for races and us to do 3 practice runs at A417… So i’m not feeling we’d get value for money.

Certainly when you compare it do a morning at FoD (non-uplift) or a day at Swinley and making him pedal, it just all seems to get a little crazy.

BPW recently was a ‘holiday treat’ but there’s a limit to how often i can spend £100 a day

FoD uplift and A417 are the same people and IIRC any uplift tickets you have left are transferrable between the 2.

I did push up at 417 a couple of weeks ago. Got there for 9:30ish and rode up from the car park for the first run. That was 10min ish. It was on a seriously hot day. Pushed up the rest from the bottom of the hill which were around 25min to 30min to get to the top.

I did 6 runs by 2pm ish and then went home as I was knackered….. Could have done a 7th but, you know…. Legs were beat the next day.

I think I did 8 runs when I did the uplift.

thanks Monkey.

Definitely do-able push-up. I went s few months ago for a morning and got 5 runs in. Was a scorching hot day and I was knackered by the end of it! In cooler weather I could probably have done another few.

You can just about ride the push up but it’s not worth it for the really steep bits – easier just to push. Maybe a 10-15 min push. I might do it again soon as I often only have a few hours to go out so a whole day uplift when I can only use half of it works out expensive.

Which route down are they racing? Compared to a few years ago they have a lot more trail routes now – I was quite jmpressed. Loved the black and the new jumpy red. Kids will probably love the blue – very fast and flowy.

Blue raccoon

I’m local to 417 and have never been!  It’s a business, which I get but boy do they charge.  Plus all but one of my mates who have ridden there say it’s a bit meh! Of the group of people I ride with none bother.  Seems a shame, I always liked the idea of an after work uplift, burger and a beer but just remembered when looking falling over at the price!

Have they got more tracks there yet? I went shortly after opening & there were about 3 tracks

You’ve got the original 3 but there seemed to be various options now on the red and the black. They’ve also put in another red that is much wider and faster with a few drops and huge tables or gap jumps (next to each other so you have the choice). I reckon there’s enough there for a fun day – I prefer it to the fod uplift dh tracks although many would disagree.

They’ve opened up a few more on the other side of the hill and the red + black have had option lines added to increase variety.

Blue Raccoon is one of the new ones.

I’d go back for an after work session as it’s convenient but my boy prefers a more XC type of thing for our Thursday night rides.

I guess the first thing is flyup is not 417 is not the Crickley Flyers .. I won’t pretend to know details but…

Lots of the same people are involved but Crickley Flyers is a BC club… so a lot of stuff is just down to the BC rules and such.  That includes the £1 of the £7 … though if you book by post you don’t need to pay the £1…

I know even less about the separation of Flyup to 417 but I think it’s probably a lot to do with how 417 was funded/sponsored or whatever… Flyup need to pay an extra driver …. and in fact Si has had to miss his own son racing a few times because he’s filling in at FoD…. either way … I look at it like 417 is hosting and has to turn away some paying customers.. and flyup is providing the uplift and recovering some costs.

In a way it’s like complaining about parking at Cannop… on top of uplift… it’s just separate concerns… (It’s free at 417) …. and Bedgebury XC is something like £12 parking… though the kids racing is about £3 though I think….

Certainly when you compare it do a morning at FoD (non-uplift) or a day at Swinley and making him pedal, it just all seems to get a little crazy.

BPW recently was a ‘holiday treat’ but there’s a limit to how often i can spend £100 a day

£100 is £100…. however just fuel and food, drinks etc. it’s soon <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>approaching</span> £50.

However for us I can’t really compare them (but for a whole load of reasons you get more runs in @417)

Anyway, you don’t need to do the uplift for the race.  I know one of the kids lives opposite (as in 5 min walk) it’s the equivalent of us doing Swinley.. except he can literally ride there on his hard tail and push up.  If the uplift isn’t full of paying riders then he seems to manage to scrounge a couple.

The push up is a lot less than FoD as well… and I understand they are using the new blue which the uplift starts at “car park/cafe level”.  (Obviously that won’t mean much until you know the place but it cuts off the lower third)

Swinley is £4 parking and sarnies, Surrey hills is free parking and sarnies…. FoD is way more parking and we end up buying lunch either at a garage on the way or in the cafe and dinner on the way home (even if that’s Burger King at Membury) ….whereas parking is free at 417.  417 is also a fair bit less fuel … when you have a motorway/dual carriageway chugger.

BPW I never managed to book far enough in advance but if I did I wouldn’t expect him to ride anything like the same number of runs.

If we rode FoD gnarlier stuff all the time he’d only get a few runs (obviously that scale slides with practice) … but the way the runs are designed at 417 is very much they are as hard/exhausting as you make them. (Obviously within limits)

Whereas GBU is still GBU for example … you can do it slow or fast (or with experience bloody fast.).. but you’d need to be pretty much race fit to hammer it all day.  For me and Jnr at least it’s physically and mentally gruelling so we have to put in easier and harder runs.

@417 the features are man made and how tiring they are is largely down to how you ride a run.  Last time we went Jnr only wanted to ride Red and Black… if I’d let him he would have been finished by lunch time and probably had an accident through being tired to boot.

Because the runs are short the uplift itself is also a good rest… and it’s less of a commitment to going up (as in the do I really want to do ALL of it)… a fast run is 3 mins…. but a 4 min run is pretty relaxed… some bloke was doing the blue on a CX bike past time I was there…

Either way I’d expect you’d get way more runs than BPW….

So you can do it on the cheap … excluding food, fuel etc.

You can buy a book of tickets at £2.50 a shot… for £12.50…. worse case you use remaining ones at FoD… but from experience @£2.50 a shot we can pretty much get close to the £33 in a morning or afternoon…

Ultimately … I just try and make it a BIG DAY …. rather than try and do it for £40 and it’s basically then down to the whole day coming down to 2x3min runs … a lot of driving, getting up at stupid o clock…. etc. etc. and try and save money elsewhere to make up.

It’s looking like being a non discussion anyway now as his knee still isn’t right, so can’t see him riding anywhere.