New Downhill race series In the south.

The Honey race series will be held at the Gravity projet and Rogate DH
Will be Like the FOD mini DH and PORC Mr Bling.
Support the Local grassroots DH, I will be racing all of the rounds 🙂

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/gravity-project-honey-race.html

Also looks like the Mr Bling series is coming to an end 🙁

Reading the first paragraph of that first link is enough to make me never ever want to attend one of their events!

Why?

And here the link to first race:
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/77137/Gravity-Project-Honey-Series-Round-1

Bee there or bee square! Tell them about the honey, mummy! I actually got stung by a bee the other day…yes…£10 for a jar of honey. Oh beehive! No, seriously, it stung me on my todger, I asked the Dr to remove the sting but leave the swelling!

No, but really, you owe me £20 for that honey. What honey? Never mind darling!

Sorry about that, but I couldn’t resist getting all my honey jokes out of the way. Anybody got any more?

are you pollen my leg? i thought it was sweet 😉

Already entered the first round 😀

are you pollen my leg? i thought it was sweet

Beehave kimbers and stop drone-ing on 🙂

First race is this sunday, hope we have better weather for racing than at rogate last week.

For £20, a minute long track, of which 30 seconds is pedalling along a near flat ridgeline, i’ll give it a miss.

Fingers cross the UKBP summer series will be up & running soon – at least they have a reasonable hill.

new race line is not along the flat ridgeline drops off sooner.
It is a short Run about a min. But its a fun little track. really easy push up. I got 10 runs last time, 3 race runs& 10 practice runs.

UKBP summer races look good too. Will have to give them a go this year. 🙂

That’s a shame, I have an agreement with the missus of being allowed to do of one race a month (apparently my children require some of my weekend time too) anyway I’m already entered for aston Hill on the 25th, Had I heard about the honey race sooner I might have opted for that instead… I’d heard the Gravity project was quite a nice little venue from others… Are they organising any other races there later in the year?

Yep two more at Gravity Project and two at Rogate. Info is on here http://www.rootsandrain.com/series215/2012-gp-honey-series/ the TBAs are rogate.

It does take a lot of man power, money, advertising and commitment to stage these events, and if it wasnt for this series and the likes, there wouldnt be any DH events in the South east at all.

Yes £20 is a fair bit for a 1 min run, but you will most likely get 3-4 race runs and a number of practise runs.
A Wiggle XC event will cost around £40 to enter, which you could argue is easier to plan on existing bridlepaths.

That’s a crap comparison, a Gorrick XC race is c£20, and that’s 90 mins of riding or so.

I’d say that a trailbreak type event on public ROWs requires more planning and logistics than a race too, DH or XC.

whatever. 🙄
£20 isnt much for an organised event. And we dont pay per min of riding.

Yep the guys down there built a new line for this race. I’m happy with the price. Same price and length track as the the Mr bling races at PORC.

Here’s My Vid from the first round of The Honey series round 1 @ Gravity Project: http://www.pinkbike.com/video/246069/

Next round is at rogate on Sunday 1st April: 150 spaces on the BC website: http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/77617/Gravity-Project-Honey-Series-Round-2

That’s a crap comparison, a Gorrick XC race is c£20, and that’s 90 mins of riding or so.

So ~15min ‘riding’, and at least 3x that pushing/riding up, makes it at least an hour, which isn’t far off the XC races.

If they called it enduro and timed every run they could charge 3x that, they’ve mised a trick there :p

Hmmm, good to see someone organising a race series, and also not easy in the south. But; I’d be considering the trades description act if I’d entered that. Other than that pebble garden at the bottom, I saw absolutely nothing that qualified that as a DH track*

*The camera does flatten and slow down I suppose.

Edit: bit of a nobber comment from me reading back, sorry. Is this the extent of DH riding down there?

Scottfitz, that looked a great event from the video and the course looked like fun, well worth £20 id say,,,,,

Would you say it would make a good first dh type event for a novice at DH (me) before having a pop at the gravety enduro type stuff, given im riding a 5″ trail bike not a full-on dh rig?

Cheers Macca

Other than that pebble garden at the bottom

That was much bigger in person. I had a big crash in there in practice.
It was steeper bit in places than it looks on camera.
I think the tracks are going to get harder as the series goes on. 😉

Scottfitz, that looked a great event from the video and the course looked like fun, well worth £20 id say,,,,,

Would you say it would make a good first dh type event for a novice at DH (me) before having a pop at the gravety enduro type stuff, given im riding a 5″ trail bike not a full-on dh rig?

Cheers Macca

Yep thats what its all about Grass roots racing.
There were 5″ trail bike and 4x style HTs To full on DH race rigs.

This was only my 2nd DH race.

You’d be surprised how many people race DH on 5/6″ trail bikes.

So ~15min ‘riding’, and at least 3x that pushing/riding up, makes it at least an hour, which isn’t far off the XC races.

If they called it enduro and timed every run they could charge 3x that, they’ve mised a trick there :p

It wasn’t me who questioned the VFM of the event, I just said that an endurance event on public ROWs is harder to implement, and that XC racing was a fairer comparison if you want to go down that route.

I think ‘grass-roots’ type events like this are excellent for encouraging people into the sport which is the whole point, and I understand DH is a bit crazy now in terms of entry fees and events filling up.

You’re never going to ‘justify’ the cost on a per minute basis, but that’s totally irrelevant, it’s a complete moron who rocks up at a DH race then moans that the 24 hour race was cheaper per minute of riding!

Is this the extent of DH riding down there.

No and yes.

The only official DH is at rogate(CTC) in Hamshire, Tilgate(CTC)in sussex, UKBP Dorst and PORC Kent.

There are two more waiting for the CTC thing Tidworth (Wiltshire) and Stoughton DH (Sussex) vid: http://www.pinkbike.com/video/238772/

The gravity project is private but you can get a day pass for a £5 or race there, they also have a killer pump track.

The CTC thing is the same day pass as Aston Hill.

Hope this helps.

I’m not into DH, but £20 for that looks like a cracking day out in all honesty.. Seems a bargain for what you get for the money.

Respect to the organisers.

Is it full face helmet only for all these little DH races?

I think BC rules state you need a FF lid.

[/quote]Is it full face helmet only for all these little DH races?

Yep! If you want to race and don’t have one some will lend you one. If its a race that i’m doing, i have a spare as long as you dont’t have a big head 😉

Just about to buy one of those POC Trabecs on the ground that it’ll be safer than my flimsy old XC lid for enduro races and with the peak off it’ll be fine for skiing. Also have a horse-riding hat and a motorbike helmet. Looks like I’ll need a FF lid too if I find I’m quick enough to race – so many hats! Do you ride Stoughton DH Scott?

Do you ride Stoughton DH Scott

Yep and a bit of digging when i can. Here a vid of me riding there: http://www.pinkbike.com/video/238772/