I’m newish here having only been properly riding a mtb since October and an ebike at that….it’s become my No.1 hobby and I ride loads at the local trail centre sherwood pines and must have done 50 laps of the red route and every other track there. So a friend who is much more experienced than me is meeting me at BPW in a couple of weeks. He’s much fitter too but that’s negated somewhat by my motor, I’m assuming even the tamest run at BPW is harder than what I’m used too
So I intend to stick to blue routes but any tips as I assume my motor will be no advantage to me on the runs down and being a bloke I can’t let him beat me by too much 🙂

Yeah don’t go there with the attitude of ‘can’t let him beat me’ as that will be your downfall. Happened to a couple of my mates egging each other on. Just relax nothing technical on the blue runs but they can be a lot longer than you will be used to and as such tiring. Which in my experience is when mistakes are made.

‘can’t let him beat me’ as that will be your downfall

He has no choice…. he’ll be getting torn apart on the mini-bus on the way up… If i don’t make him cry at least once on the day i’ll consider it a failure.

LOL it’s win win for me tbh, as a complete novice there is no expectation and if we’re being fair my mate owes me an awful lot of payback for 15-20 years on motorbikes…

No expectations ? I’ve seen you ride and was destroyed by you at Pines, you’re going into this favourite.. !

Well… That’s assuming you can stay with my 10 year old !

he’ll be getting torn apart on the mini-bus on the way up

Will he be in the mini-bus?

Will he be in the mini-bus?

Depends if the baying pack of FF DHers allow an E-bike on the uplift with them.

Indeed. Hope he’s prepared for that. And for lifting the thing on to the uplift rack 😀

LOL got 2 batteries with me if I have to ride up each time it’s no biggie, as for lifting the bike on it’s a fair point as had to carry it 100yards across a trail the other day and about killed me 😉

If you are not riding up is it really worth taking any battery? Not understanding Ebikes can you not ride them as normal hike swith the battery removed thus saving a proportion of the additional weight?

Depends if the baying pack of FF DHers allow an E-bike on the uplift with them.

I had to move my bike on the trailer last week for an e – fat/plus tyre bike to be put on the trailer…

From experience, take it steady on the blue runs. Nothing technical but they are fast. Falling off at speed hurts. A lot.

TBH the grading is nothing like the grading at other trail centres. They are “bike park” grading. The blues are not like blues at Sherwood or FOD. They are just the easiest at BPW.

Appreciate the advice, I’m old and not daft so will take my time….so long as I pass weeksy all is well in the world 😁

Popty Ping is great for a first timer.

Popty Ping is great for a first timer.

I’d actually say it isnt, the top jumps get bigger and you gather speed and then suddenly they are shorter and you are over clearing them! Rest of the blues are lovely Sixtapod might be one of my favourite trails there

I’d say do Sixtapod into Willy Waver first, then give Terry’s Belly a go. They’re all non-technical blues but are suuuuper fun. After a couple of runs you’ll get more confident and pick up more speed. Just remember that if you haven’t done an uplift day before, it’s a LOT more tiring than you’d expect, so just be mindful when you’re halfway down a run feeling tired, that’s when mistakes happen.

It’ll blow you away at how fun it is though, it’s a totally different experience to a trail centre!

Wow so that’s the first visit to BPW over. With mtb being so new to me I didn’t know what to expect especially taking my ebike. There was 5 of us with 2 of us on ebikes. I was glad of the ebike for the rides back to the uplift with the other riders on our group but tbh it was a bit pointless having them but as it’s the only decent bike I’ve got it’s the one I took and with the group I was with the bike wasn’t holding any of us up on the descents despite me being a novice as well.

I can’t explain how much I enjoyed the day, it seems like a trackday for mountain bikes, we only did the blue trails and that is exactly what I wanted from the day, the way they flowed and the speeds, berms, jumps were all perfect for me and my bike.

My history of 2 wheels is mainly motorbikes…150+ pf them including 8 years racing and 300+ trackdays and this day out on a mtb ranks in the top few things I’ve done on 2 wheels.

I only wish I had took a camera to relive a few of the trails today, I’ve got a load of strava data to pour over till next time though 🙂

No pics of you, but here’s my boy

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2dstxpZ]2019-02-20_06-24-07[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

You were going really well. Novice is a relative term lol

Are you the Couchy I met at a Euro trackday a few years back. You were not riding at the trackday but had a S1000XR at the time?

Certainly sounds like him… He had that 3 months.

Prob was me bazzer, what were you riding and what Euro track was it, Portimao ?