Innerlethin day night enduro next wk end

Just entered myself to do this , never ridden inners before , what am I to expect rocky tyre puncture like surface or soft loamy surface ,
Just wondering if I should put my hans damph super gravitys on or stick with my normal n nick evo snake skins that I use at most trail centers

Hans on the front, NN on the back

not that rocky

but they’ll be using loads of off piste stuff so will be loose as ****.

When I ride DH there I use Conti der baron front and der kaiser back

i’d have hans dampf front and back tbf.

I should be there myself once I’ve sorted some lights out…

I’ve done a couple of these before and whilst there are rocky and trail centre type sections, I’d say you want a tyre that works well on slippery roots and different types of mud.

The last time I rode there it was nice and dry, but as soon as night fell the dew point fell I guess and everything turned slippery. Every other time my bike has basically had what seems like half of Scotland’s mud and forests on it afterwards! The gears have nearly seized up due to clingy think mud and the bike weighs about 10kg heavier! Hopefully, it will not be that bad, but prepare for the worst I guess and enjoy!!

No tyre is that good on slippy roots, its how u attack them that helps

Obv a better compound tyre helps, but you won’t find a certain tyre that is good on roots

Spikes are obviously not great on roots, but everything else, they’re all pretty much the same!

I usually go for IRC mudmad DH.
Just hope they don’t have mince baby mince as a section because I’ve never made it down that in one piece.

Definitely get a tyre that destroys your fork and frames mud clearance. Loads of people did that last year and it was good fun looking at their confused faces when their wheels wouldn’t turn anymore 😀

I thought about entering this but looking at videos on youtube, they seem to use some of the DH trails, some of which are a bit beyond my ability in daylight nevermind the dark. Anyone done it before?

never done the day/night (can never find the motivation for that one) but done a few of the day ones. TBH, the DH runs tend to be the some of the easier parts

Mud, mud, glorious mud… I’ve no clue what the stages will be but I hear there’ll be a new cut section, and they always turn into slippery death by race day. Conti Barons for me, something that works on hard stuff as well as mud. Might even stick a Der Baron on the front.

One of the other night races ended up with hard frost and ice patches on everything, that was… exciting.

Oops… @bigjim, yes they do generally use dh trails but not normally the hardest or scariest ones. You might reasonably expect that the day/night would have easier stages, but that’s not been the case before! It’s challenging stuff but not insane.

I’m not that great- I do OK but I’m never that fast on these things- so you don’t have to be a crazy downhiller, but you do have to be reasonably competent and confident. But they are brilliant, always a great atmosphere, great riding. The night ones have a nice extra edge of silliness about them.

under normal conditions, Inners winter series Enduros are a mud fest. I’d be looking at Conti Barons at a minimum and maybe even a full on Mud DH tyre on the front depending on the sections chosen and preceding weather.

It’s funny on the practice day seeing people changing tyres for the most mud friendly they have or turn up the next day having begged borrowed or stolen full on mud DH tyres. Also seeing locals selling mud tyres to the desperate 🙂

do a lot of people wear full face for this one?

I love the enduro trails at inners but the features and steepness of some of the DH is what I’m not so keen on.

kinda tempted though, just bought a baron for the front and all

some do, most dont. IME.

Take both if you can be ar*ed.

but a lot of the “enduro” trails are steeper than the dh ones. I is confused.

I’m confused too. if they are steeper than the DH stuff I don’t think its for me. I’ve only ridden the ‘popular’ obvious endruo ones like alistair lees, mince, kitty, doggy etc though, which certainly aren’t steep.

Classic gets to be fairly steep after the black (and the mud makes it feel steeper)

I’d say if you’re comfortable on the ali lees etc you’ll probably be fine to do this event, there might be spikes of harder stuff in small doses but not likely to be enough to spoil your day. But that’s just my perception maybe, I find the dh stuff easier because of the more predictable surfaces, if you’re better on slippy stuff than me then maybe that changes…

I’d agree with that. Alistair Lees is probably one of the roughest tracks there, especially when it’s a good rock/slime covering on it.
Probably the hardest trail they’ve used (when I’ve raced) was Bart’s Trail, and it was shit and totally ruined during the race so can’t see that being used again.

Cool, I like some of the DH routes but I’ve come across some pretty steep bits and drops n stuff (matador?), which frankly I’m too much of a wuss for. A Lees trail is one of my faves though. I like steep, just not big stuff.

tbh We often ride the trails used in various Enduros on our night rides – so based my Hans front and NN rear thoughts on the fact that compared to my current Minion DHF front and worn-out Ardent you’ll have enough grip. 🙂

Cool, I like some of the DH routes but I’ve come across some pretty steep bits and drops n stuff (matador?), which frankly I’m too much of a wuss for. A Lees trail is one of my faves though. I like steep, just not big stuff.

theres some decent sized drops on matador, but its not very steep, only the first chute into the top of the middle section is steep

the very end of lower gold and lower cresta are steep.

I really want to do this but none of me mates fancy it 🙁

I’ll be riding some of them tomorrow, took my summer tyre off the back tonight but it was a close call. I’m hoping for some frozen mud.

barryboglips – just do it! It’s quite friendly – I’m sure you could hook up with folk during the day.

I don’t really mind riding by meself that much, more than happy to mingle, just cba with driving up by meself lol.

Well post up on here or on the FB site to share a lift?

I’m in again. expecting mud and more mud. Pack some goggles or glasses 🙂

I am on my own again which I like. Just chat away on the ups and get passed continuously on the downs. 😀

did you all survive? It was sold out when I tried to book it, though i hear there were some spaces this morning.

Watched at the rooty bit near the bottom of the top section of stage 2, carnage is the only word 🙂 I have some video I might manage to post some time.

Hated it !! It was more or less a full downhill rooty run , nothing like the uk gravity enduro rounds I’ve done ( although I didn’t do inners) pushing back up 50 % of the hill after each run was a right ball ace ,

Two of my pals did it, the one on the 170mm FS was quick while I got the impression that the other one on a 29er 100mm HT ‘survived’.

Mind you, the first is now ‘resting’ while the second is out all day with me 🙂

I did it. I’ve ridden that same kind of race before up there but I’d describe this one as the hardest day’s biking I’ve ever done! I felt a bit under the weather which didn’t help and I thought I was fit enough – I wasn’t.

I’ve ridden sections of both trails before there, but they were pretty brutal. I even considered giving up after completing the day stages (including the practice runs). But I manned up, popped some pills and a can of red bull and did the night stages as well and I’m glad I did otherwise I’d have been kicking myself otherwise. Still freaking hard though and the second stage was completely knackering.

I have to admit I’d have preferred a steady fire road climb as opposed to the push up tracks, but hey ho.

In my opinion Inners has a humbling effect on you. I like to think I’m a pretty decent rider (and reasonably fit), but I always come away from there thinking how the hell did I just get through that?! It really does open your eyes up to how good you are and where you need to improve (if you’re into that kind of thing).

If you’re looking for challenging steep technical riding, then I’d say you can’t beat it. I certainly struggle to find anything close to it within a 2hr drive from Hull.

Looking forward to the next one!

Had a stupid crash in stage 2 and smashed up my hand so had to dnf 🙁 Thought it was maybe broken but just very dinged up luckily. Fell off on the horrible pedal along the old xc climb (which is mysteriously a horrible climb no matter which direction you do it in), still no idea how considering all the tricky riding we did! Really enjoyed it up til that point though.

The climb being largely a push up was a wee bit off I thought, it’s not a dh race, but then the descent stages made some of the other options impossible. And the timing- the big queue for dibbers meant a late start, so we ended up doing our second “daytime” run in the dark. Chap behind me came down with no lights and must have been riding by supersonic sonar radar.

Still, these are fantastic events. Love that they can take a classic enduro descent like the alistair lees, absolutely perfect for the job, and still think “Let’s mess with it”, put in a new (and bloody awkward) handcut section, then suddenly plonk you on a totally different bit of hill than you expected. Mind you I kind of wish it had ended in the quarry like usual, I do hate that pedal.

Oh and the BARREL OF FIRE! All winter races should have one.