Go with the Flow: Leith Hill video

Cheers guys I'll have look.

that would be Princess Diana's seat belt from the picnic benches…

the one down to the Landslip was/is cliff richard.

That's the one (Princess Diana's seatbelt), I remember the name now you say it.

Is it still rideable?

Never been cleaned to my knowledge!! seen a couple of people rag doll down it. Heihes pics are on "Personal Hygene" but the jump as eroded away these days 🙁

It's eroded ever since the tree root disappeared a few years ago. The line we take now, as shown in the photos, is to the right of the main drop-in. This gives a pretty big drop as you can see in the second photo, allowing you to take air for approx 50% of the drop!

yep – looks pretty sweet.

Dango – Member
Richard, a female rider commented on another forum:

Who is Richard Sear? Just watched that video he did on the Downs of about a million middle aged men with their back wheels completely locked, dragging the sh1t out of what was probably a very nice trail.

Cheers Dango,

Yup, that's me. Nope, haven't seen it. There's other forums??? Middle-aged men? Can't think who she's talking about… 😆

BTW, as GlenP regularly states, Leith Hill isn't 'on the Downs' so it clearly wasn't my video!

Must have been some other old and slow riders then, sorry for the confusion. 😛

Quite right – massive difference between North Downs and Leith Hill!

Good fun videos, by the way. As for the dragging brakes – Unfortunately that is why no official trail will have that kind of incline, because it is inevitable that braking will tear it up over time.

Maybe you could coach them to ride properly and responsibly?

Not my point! Those rare steep slopey bits will always get rutted out fairly quick because they are steep and slopey.

Really, not because people ride with their back wheel fully locked, what like a landslip, but smaller?

What I cant understand is, whether they are just trying to skid (fakenger style), aren't able to control their brakes, or are just really scared?

It's virtually impossible to land a drop off without causing some erosion and for a lot of new riders the back brake is a lifeline – lighten up mate. What I can't understand is how the man made environment we ALL ride on in the south is regarded as somehow sacrosanct. So what if they were dragging the brakes?

No, you're right, obviously, locking your brake on all the way down a trail, is good for your tyre and fantastic for the trail, cool

So Piemaster, are you saying we're only allowed to ride stuff if we aren't scared & won't ever lock our brakes??? In that case, anyone wanna buy a bike or 2? 😳

Keef, do you still suffer from skids too?

Never said it was but over time they will get better and do it less, I expect you hate learner drivers too! Everyone has to start somewhere.

20 years ago there were no cut trails on Leith now there are loads some trails erode others are built, what?? It's not a natural environment.

I leave skidmarks everywhere I go – must be cos I get scared…

Seem to recall we've been to this place before! Big difference between intentionally "doing a skid" and accidentally catching the back brake on the way down a steep scrabble.

FWIW, yes, I would agree that it is perfectly possible to ride down those with wheels rolling. But I'm not in the mood to start going on about it!

Have you actually seen the video, you should

Basically, it should be the same as at the funfair: If you can't get down this section without braking like a little girl, you shouldn't attempt the rest. One of the trails in that video has nice, loamy corners with natural loose and shallow berms, built by people who want to ride it fast. What will happen when the masses find it (not hard now that it's been named in this thread) and start skidding down it because they can't ride corners or steep stuff? It'll be trashed. End of trail.

You have less control over the bike if you lock up the back wheel anyway; that's basic stuff. And I bet they can't even do wheelies, either.

I feel like a real **** for this, and I am certainly no riding god by any means, but I don't think I have ever seen a better selection of comedy riding skills than in that video.

Fair play to you for getting out and doing it, not sure I would have made a video personally but it's all part of the fun I spose.

🙂

Basically, it should be the same as at the funfair: If you can't get down this section without braking like a little girl, you shouldn't attempt the rest. One of the trails in that video has nice, loamy corners with natural loose and shallow berms, built by people who want to ride it fast. What will happen when the masses find it (not hard now that it's been named in this thread) and start skidding down it because they can't ride corners or steep stuff? It'll be trashed. End of trail.

Thats terrible. You build a trail on someone else's land, it gets found and ridden by what you obviously regard as lesser riders and eventually gets trashed, of course nothing to do with it not being built properly in the first place. If you don't want other riders riding your trails, buy your own land.

I didn't hear hardly any skidding going on in that vid, sounded more like the back wheel gripping the surface fractionally as it traverses the roots.

What, in your book, is built properly? Armoured trail centre doublewide singletrack with solid built up berms, even on corners that don't need them? Some people don't want to ride that sh1t and would rather ride looser and more natural trails.

My beef isn't actually with the Vimeo version of Alex Rankin and his mates riding slowly down the trails, it's more the fact that what was maybe unknown to quite a few people has now been published on STW, so that every muppet will now go in search of these trails, drag their brakes like little girls and cut it all to sh1t in no time.

If I did own my own land, I'd let everyone on it except you. There would be a big sign outside with "No Sonors" written on it in big red letters. Red.

😆

Erm…. Nah. I should stay out of this one.

What, in your book, is built properly? Armoured trail centre doublewide singletrack with solid built up berms, even on corners that don't need them? Some people don't want to ride that sh1t and would rather ride looser and more natural trails.

As I said before, but I'll have to clarify it again, until you can get your own piece of land you are going to have to accept that these trails will be found and whether there are videos or not, if you build them looser and more natural, they will get trashed. Accept it.

Can you put a skull and crossbones on the sign as well?

This is how you drag your brakes on deliverance.

I do hopefully ride it a bit better now.

Pretty difficult to ride without applying the back brake though, and really, how are poeple going to improve their skills if they don't ride things because the "elite" don't want them ruining "their" trails?

Dango – I remember the good old days when you were such a gnarly huckmeister you pulled forward flips whilst riding 'Deliverance', at night! I guess being a father means you've scaled back your gnarliness to Bubbaesque levels now days…BTW to whoever said its difficult to ride 'Deliverance' without pulling your brakes, there is a difference between 'scrubbing a bit of speed' and 'p!ssing your pants like a little girl and yanking handfuls in the vain hope that physics will suddenly go for a wander and allow your 14 stone of uncaring idiocy, the bike MBR told you to buy, a small contact patch on its tyre and some overkill brakes to fight the combined forces of momentum and a loose, downwards pointing surface to bring you to a halt'.

You know the etiquette that dirt jumpers have for other people's trails? Do you not feel that it should be the same for singletrack? If you went through the back of a berm and trashed it, would you just think "They should have built it better" and carry on?

Anyway, as I said, but will clarify again, it is the fact that the whereabouts of the trail have been published on here rather than the fact that people are going to ride it when they see it. If they didn't know it was there, they wouldn't find it. See now?

I am no Elite, I'm probably no better at riding than you, but I wouldn't tell the World and his wife on a very popular forum if I had found a trail that is little known and that someone has obviously put a lot of effort into crafting.

There would be a wine bar on my land, for those types who like wine bars. I bet you like wine bars. Shame.

You'd be surprised, Jim. Dango did the first double at Tilgate the other week, with only the help of a few pallets to see him on his way.

Stoppa – Then I doff my hat, Dango has indeed come of age.

stoopa, how are you my friend

Jim, I wouldn't say that he has come of age, more like he has done his first p1ss in the potty rather than his nappy.

Jedi, I'm not too bad at all mate; how are you keeping? Met a mate of yours recently in the Extreme shop in Oxford, whilst I was (once again) contemplating buying a 24" cruiser BMX. Once again, I didn't buy it.

Basically, it should be the same as at the funfair: If you can't get down this section without braking like a little girl, you shouldn't attempt the rest.

Anyway, as I said, but will clarify again, it is the fact that the whereabouts of the trail have been published on here rather than the fact that people are going to ride it when they see it. If they didn't know it was there, they wouldn't find it.

So, you don't want novices or less skilled riders riding these particular trails and you don't want videos posted either that may show people where these trails are. You don't own the trails so you can't stop who rides them. As for the videos I agree with you, but you'd have trouble convincing youtube and the like to pull them.

As for not knowing the trail was there…dream on.

I don't like wine bars. They are for retards.

Common sense; if you're struggling on the first section, you're going to struggle down the rest. If you do wreck a trail, you should fix it.

A video alone doesn't tell you where a trail is, unless you are filming from high up in a helicopter. What does tell you where a trail is is writing in a forum where they are.

You're very fussy aren't you? "I don't like wine bars. I think that all trails should be built well enough to withstand the hundreds of non-handlers who are going to drag their brakes down them time and time again and then lift over the gap jump. I don't like Y-Fronts because sometimes my pen1s pokes out of the "Y" and rubs on my slacks".
How about if I build a 17th century coaching inn that serves real ale with bits floating in it and don't let you in that instead? Would that be better?

im all good. starting working in coaching and trail building

Nice one; heard that you were looking into doing coaching, Dango mentioned it. I assume you'd do a better job than we did with him, e.g. "hit it faster, don't be scared of the berm you puff, a kid on a rigid piece of sh1t just did it, pull up a bit, there are pallets there for Christ's sake, maybe if you didn't eat as much, I bet you like to be bummed don't you?"

Of course, if you want to borrow those motivational phrases, you're more than welcome.

jots down notes…………………….