I’ll be heading to Ballyhoura for a day of riding in 10 days time. Haven’t ridden anything proper for yonks, just minced along the canal in mud. The bike – 456SS either rigid or with 36 Talas. Rigid lighter, bouncy comfier. But… what’s it like down there? Should I just pop the Foxes on or keep the rigid forks? I can’t afford to break myself as I’ll be on my way to the airport to collect my family (from Cork in the evening).
Anything else I should know?
Thanks!

Been a while since I was there but rigid would have been fine. The bridges have mostly been saw cut to make them grippier as they were lethal when it thought of raining. There were a few rock gardens but generally it is trail centre riding. We used to do a couple of laps of the green (shortest) as it had all the best bits of the next longest one without the boring bits. I used to use a Kona Scrap/456 and went with guys on Rockhoppers and XTCs. Did take out a Ransom a couple of times and it was just a pain to drag up to the top.

Oh and it can be pretty exposed on the fire road climbs.
Not sure what the facilities are like at the moment but you will need some change (5e I think) for the car park and the vending machines/showers. There is a bike rental place there at weekends who has the odd spares and tea and coffee.

I’ve only ridden it once a few years back, but at that point I reckon you could have ridden it on a road bike. Or at the very least a CX bike.

I’m thinking the 456SS with rigids and fat tyres should suffice. With a bit of luck I’ll have a SS frame by then so a rigid SS would be great (could blame the bike instead of my fitness 😉 ).
It’s 5 Euro for parking, I’ve checked it. No need for showers, the missus knows I will’ve been biking before collecting her and understands the “dirty but happy” phrase better than most wives.