Mine's riding up the kerb off the road and immediately down the steps to the canal near the station in Furness Vale. Those that know it will agree that it could definitely feature in any future Rampage...
So, what's the bit of, ahem, "tech", that you can clear that makes you feel like some kind of hero?
I'm an Enduro racer and this weekend i'm a DH racer... at 50 years of age...
Admittedly i'm the WORST Enduro and DH racer on the planet.... but hey, i'm a racer 😀
Any time both wheels come off the ground at the same time!
I'm usually a bit of a fanny riding, but there's a couple of bits of trail that I know like the back of my hand and yeah... I've got a couple of moves... if you know what I mean 😉
In my head I'm sailing over stuff flat as a pancake like Brandon Fairclough on his best day, in reality I've gone over a whoop on a groomed bit of trail centre and turned the bike a hardly perceivable amount, but it makes me happy.
Pulling "big air" in front of the Rampage cliffs...
Having bottled it first time (hence the "take 2" audio) I don't think I ever had the bottle to try this again
graceful 😀
I likes the title "Givin it medium", that made me chuckle 🤣
In my head I was a riding god nailing the DH track, in reality the DH track nailed me...
On a later day I crashed on the drop at 2m18 on the above video, breaking my thumb (Bennett's fracture) - haven't ridden the track since.
@nbt - I was disappointed the person filming didn't end that with a "No, didn't get it. You'll have to do it again."
My pride disappears quickly whenever my 13yo rides the things I took years to work up the courage to do. Quick look, shrug and he's over it.
This was the best of several very mediocre attempts that all felt huuuuuge...
This was also a challenge (to me), but it was before I went to Yair with @singlespeedstu...
Clearing Dave's Descent in Penn Woods without a dab does it for me. Nemesis in the same woods has been done, never consistently & now it seems my bottles gone.
I have cleared Dalbeaties Slab fully naked, rather a long time ago.
This was also a challenge (to me), but it was before I went to Yair with @singlespeedstu…
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Them is some properly active forks! 🙂
Jules that doesn't count as it wasn't even slightly pathetic, it was pretty impressive in my book.
Any time both wheels come off the ground at the same time!
Does by accident count?
Down the steps outside the local high school.
One glorious occasion a kid shouted, "Oi, you stole my stunt!"
@doomanic.
You didn't look all that scared at Yair.
Not like on Trailfairys. 😜
I wasn't scared on Trailfairys, I was tired and hung-over. And tricked into doing it as a warm-up by a "mate"... 😀
Anything where you get a bit loose and 5mph faster than normal. Doesn't count if someone films it as the mental illusion is quickly shattered when reality is played back to you.
One glorious occasion a kid shouted, “Oi, you stole my stunt!”
Yeah, that's definitely what they shouted 😉
One glorious occasion a kid shouted, “Oi, you stole my stunt!”
Yeah, that’s definitely what they shouted
That's what I heard, so that's what they shouted 🙂
Clearing the plank over the ditch on the way back from the pub. I've been doing it for over 30 years, its about 6" wide and half a mile long (OK about 6ft long) and I've never failed to make it, no matter how drunk.
So I'll report back my injures after tonight then.
My Edge 530 bleeps whenever I get air. It took me 3 months to find this out but now I feel awesome whenever it happens.
Beaten to it on the stunt comment!
And tricked into doing it as a warm-up by a “mate”… 😀
I did ask you a couple of times if you were sure you wanted to do it first.😁
You did indeed, next trip I'll listen to you...
Rode my new bike at Leeds Bike Park the other week and joined the main trail at a short cut section I hadn't used before. Brought my straight into a jump and at more speed than usual. Actually cleared the table top and landed on the down slope as a kid was sitting at the side waiting to film his mate.
I'm pretty sure he thought I looked awesome, and not shit scared at the accidental extra air I'd got!!
A perfect singletrack corner on the CX bike, sort of muddy but with a coating of pine needles. Slightly uphill so I pedalled in fast and confident, both wheels slid but I kept pedalling so the back wheel was spinning and sliding at the same time before it caught and I spat out the other side.
In fact, most corners on the CX bike, it seems designed to always slide but always let you away with it, and since I purposely go looking for flat muddy trails I'm usually pedalling round most corners as well. Doing this all at 5mph doesn't seem to diminish how awesome it feels! 😁
I did ask you a couple of times if you were sure you wanted to do it first.😁
A cunning use of reverse psychology 😀
My contribution:
The drop itself isn't big but the run-in is a bit tricky and yadda yadda yadda. I was made up when I rode it, but it doesn't half look unimpressive!
Oooh I remembered another one!
This really is a good as it ever got for me.
10 years ago Mates and I took a trip to Whistler to ride the Bike Park, we were happily riding the blue flow trails (about my level), but I managed to lose the back of our train. As I arrived at a clearing I thought I saw one of my pals entering a trail (I had, but I confused which trail they'd started) and ended up riding a Technical Black, it was all rocks, roots, drops and a couple of (not very high) ladder bridges that bounced when you rode over them. I took a couple of bites out of my shorts on the way down, and it was slow and messy, but I 'cleared' it, even better than that, I emerged out of the end right in front of our group. Paul Aston of Pinkbike 'fame' was our guide that day and said "Yeah, we don't ride that trail in the wet, it's terrifying', I was tumescent with pride.
I was so buoyed with my new found mad skillz that the next day, when I was dry I invited my entire crew to follow me down this trail, Triumphally saying "don't worry Lads, it's a bit tricky, but just follow me' more than a bit glibly. Obviously, with extra confidence and drier conditions it would be easy yeah? Nope. I shit myself at the first drop, grabbed the brakes, went OTB, mercifully not hurting myself, and took my dented pride out on my bike by punching it and calling it at "see you next Tuesday" and then rode/walked/whimpered myself down as my mates tried not to die of laughter. In way, in fairness, incredibly tricky.
Clearing the plank over the ditch on the way back from the pub
This sort of thing.
Tonight, after a couple of hours on pretty gnarly trails, we'll adjourn to the pub, for probably two pints, and then I'll ride home. I will struggle with the awkward right/left kerb/step into the park.
Them is some properly active forks!
Came here to write the same thing!
Riding home from work one dark wet night in Melbourne in 2008 with some Specialized Fatboy tyres on my Avanti Barracuda. I got a good pace on along the central tram track, then went to take a sharp left turn onto another road. Rear wheel stayed on the wet tram line and I did what looked like a very impressive power slide around the corner by complete mistake. The resulting adrenaline rush powered me home, although I did almost crap myself.
Getting down the black at Glencoe, while not on a DH bike. Mostly by accident rather than design
I still maintain it's one of the hardest black runs open to the public. The red they've built there is heaps of fun, and it sort of lures into a false sense of security, then (because you're an idiot) you think "How hard can that black actually be?" The Answer is "Very. Very hard indeed, you idiot"
Luckily there's a very nice café where you can sit down and gather your thoughts about just what an idiot you are, and what were thinking? At your age as well? Moron.
I squeeze between car and wall on our steep driveway. ,🤘🤘
Probably something on the road bike actually, on holiday in Tuscany.
Going into a hairpin far too fast, overcooking it, running wide, wrong side of the road, running out of tarmac, telling myself that braking will only make it worse, feeling both wheels slide as i headed, sideways towards the Armco, then realising i'm actually drifting a road bike. Suddenly the bike snapped upright, i'm heading forwards into the next straight and I realise i'm not actually going to die.
It must have looked absolutely awesome, but it felt terrible. If there'd been a car coming...
Launching, ney flying, off any kerb of any height, and landing with both wheels in perfect synchronicity, no clatter whatsoever. Heroic.
Trying to riding all the way back from Sainsbury to the office doing no-hands along the cycle lane. Only done it once. Extra bonus points for getting all the way into the office car park. MTB is definitely easier than a road bike.
Clearing Dave’s Descent in Penn Woods without a dab does it for me. Nemesis in the same woods has been done, never consistently & now it seems my bottles gone.
@qwerty is this Penn in Buckinghamshire? I’ve never been but live near-ish so might check it out if so.
Edit: it isn’t is it, its near Stroud.
A few years ago, riding a narrow beam, about 1' - 1'6" off the ground at sherwood pines, lost my balance and started to fall off sideways but at the last moment pulled up on the handlebars and landed successfully and rode out of it. I'm still amazed I didn't stack it.
This year I got round ardrock on a hardtail and didn't break myself or the bike (notice I didn't say without falling off)
Riding down a steep cobbled hill after bottling 4 goes.
Post Hill near Leeds.
Still scares me.
At the time i was pleased with this, not least because it was dark and i had no lights.
(the light is from a remote camera flash)
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It felt a lot steeper at the time, one of those things where you look at the picture later and say "is that it???".
Post Hill requires a lot of confidence in your front brake and front tyre.
My brother first did Post hill on a hard tail canti brakes and elastomer pace forks.
He went into work and told a lad about it.
He heard nothing more from the lad until a week or so later he came in with a bust wrist having fallen off trying
I rode Post Hill about 15 years ago i think. It was a regular feature on night rides. Probably haven't ridden it since about 2009 i would have thought.
It would be interesting to try Post Hill on a modern bike.
Bet it’s still scary and a challenge.
Any time both wheels come off the ground at the same time!
For clarity, do we need to still be attached to the bike on landing? 🙁
Any time both wheels come off the ground at the same time!
yeah, I've toppled slowly over on my side too
anyway, let's get urban...
I've just clocked the angle of the tree, which I assume is vertical, against the angle of the track on that Post Hill pic. Yoiks.
Off the Plenney run in Morzine. On a 26inch wheel bike and I didn't die 😉 Good job it was a 26 based on how far I've got my ar*e over the back. Everyone else seemed to ride off it no problems. I had to be towed in a number of times before committing. I was blooming proud of that right up until I saw the pic. It was WAY smaller than I remember.
Still did make full use of all the travel and tyre squish 🙂
That ^^^ cobble hill looks steep. Bet it's fun in the wet 😳
I think the first time I hit the bottom drop on Matador at Inners. Admittedly it was slightly off to the right, but having watched a few of my mates hit it no problem I finally plucked up the courage to do it a couple of times. I do have photographic evidence somewhere....
Then you realise that probably 75% of anyone who does Matador probably hits that drop!
Did a wall ride off the top of a quarter last night.It was pretty small but took a gulp of mtfu to do.
Off the Plenney run in Morzine
Handily, if it all went wrong, you could have pulled on the ripcord & used the parachute to save yourself.
I assume that's what you had in the holdall you are wearing on your back? 🙂
@nbt - The Middlewood platform drop, yeah always go off that. The flat landing is a bit thumpy on a HT or short travel bike!
Turn off the Middlewood Way at Springbank Ln or Brookledge Ln and get yourself up to Nab Quarry/Styperson's. There's a good selection of drops (some are a bit hidden/not obvious) and a cliff drop I've not got the bottle for. Mind you it can be lethal slippy at this time of year!
The thing about post hill, is that it's not just steep, it's really, really long.
Very intimidating rolling into the top
That gives you an idea of the size of it. Old photo from back when it was used as a motorbike trial hill climb.
It was bought by the Yorkshire Post for use by the local motorsports clubs, hence the name.
The Middlewood platform drop, yeah always go off that. The flat landing is a bit thumpy on a HT or short travel bike!
Tried it on my Dirtbomb this summer and it went a tad wrong.
It's not a huge drop but I wouldn't be over keen to do it on a fully rigid!
I've done a few with uphill landings, proper violent bottom outs, they don't even have to be that big and it feels like your bike will snap in two!
Finally managing to drop the first drop on Bomper at BMCC this year. It's really not that big but the sightlines are absolutely cursed, the horizon as you approach is like some sort of escher picture, and the run-in's awkward too. The same rock in another place would be an effortless float off.
That was probably my best riding moment of the year tbh!
Bloody hell ^^ that hill
I assume that’s what you had in the holdall you are wearing on your back?
That contained my bravery pills 🙂
The other thing that shits me up about post hill is the transition to flat at the bottom.
If it was a gentler transition, then even if your front brake failed, you may be able to ride it out.
As it is, if your brake failed near to the top you'd probably be doing... what? 70mph at least by the bottom? Slammed into the deck.
I pretty chuffed when I get up the kerb and round the corner into my front path without dabbing.
Post Hill.
It’s not just the steepness it’s how rough the cobbles are.
It’s a case of getting down the steep bit as slowly as you can / as fast as you dare then getting under control before you get going too fast on the easier less steep bottom section.
Old footage of accident on post hill.
This has reminded me of a 'fun' ride i led a few years ago. I'm not proud of it, but anyway...
I'd ridden some fire trails on a motorbike a few years previous and remembered them being particularly steep and feeling very relieved to make it out alive.
For some reason i thought this might make it interesting to ride on an MTB. Not many people were game to join me... i ended up with two ebiker mates only.
It started well, with a fun descent. Then it got unrideable. I went OTB on one of the steepest sections and my mates didn't even try to ride that section.
Weirdly the trail was marked 'moderate' for horse riding.
The descent was the easiest bit though, even cutting the loop short, pushing ebikes up hill because it was way too steep to ride turned out to be a lot less fun than intended. Only bit of video i took was one of the sketchy bits. The rest was too tiring.
Needless to say this was a long way from phone reception, let alone houses or people.
I've found a pic of the steps what started this whole thing off 🙂
Huck your gnarpoons over this and stoke yourself to the max:
Plenney run in Morzine
Oh yeah - I spent a fortnight riding everything, including some blacks on my steel 26" HT.
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There is a cheeky footpath cut through on my local loop that ends with a really tight right angled right hander between 2 walls that are about 800mm apart. To get round without cheating requires a little endo in just the right spot.
Always makes me smile when i nail it.
still maintain it’s one of the hardest black runs open to the public. The red they’ve built there is heaps of fun, and it sort of lures into a false sense of security, then (because you’re an idiot) you think “How hard can that black actually be?”
But, but, but the bloody chairlift runs right above it for about 15 minutes. It's quite clearly certain death 🙂
Except when covered in two feet of powder.)
That's a fair sized drop with a saddle at full mast. Not really a pathetic act of gnaar.
That's not a saddle, it's his chin rest.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, aged 12, I once rode down the gnarr concrete stairs at Whitley Bay bandstand (if you know them you'll know just how utterly crazy that is 🤔😜) on my 5 speed Puch Pacemaker racing bike. I survived. Just. Never did it again. I've hated rock gardens ever since.
In the 70s, doing a jump on ny Raleigh 3 speed where I landed hard enough to bend the forks but stayed on.
Last time I was in Morzine (close to 10 yrs ago) I hired a DH bike for a day. Did this jump on the black under the main chairlift. I was properly bricking it rolling in to it. In my mind after it I was now ready for Rampage 🙂