Great day for a ride. I rode to Ae, and then went straight to the top of the DH courses.

IMG_3568 by simon ralli, on Flickr

Just a little bit of hill top snow.

Then hit the main DH course, having previously done the shredder.

IMG_3576 by simon ralli, on Flickr

Pretty gnarly I have to say!

Well I whizzed down to the forest section, and then just went for it on the big drop. Only thing the photographer missed the actual air 😯

5th March by simon ralli, on Flickr

Massive compression on my shocks, but I rode out of it and down to the bottom

IMG_3595 by simon ralli, on Flickr

This is how I’m rolling nowadays 🙂

Dude, that’s totally radiculous! Props due.

With a one-footed can-can too?

Sweet.

Did you whip it? Gnarly!

Rad to the power of sik! 😉

World Championship Dh at Ae? when?

ps your fork and shock is ment to bottom out

I call fowl on that drop photo 🙂

Gnarly

That’s nothin Simon, the pros do it backwards on carbon handlebars for added gnar-danger value.

Looks better than my view today, annoyed that the sun comes out when I’m stuck in an office. Little bit of snow up on the higher hills, Criffel and the Lakes seem to have a good covering.

Heh

Just thought I’d have a bit of fun today. I must have walked down around 70% of the course I reckon. It is totally different to seeing it on the tv or youtube where you just can’t get a feel for the steepness and gnarliness! Maybe I could ride a bit more of it with a DH bike who knows? 🙂

steepness and gnarliness!

are we all talking about the same Ae here?

are we all talking about the same Ae here?

Ah I keep forgetting that the world championship DH track at Ae is a mere towpath for ye riding gods of STW 😀

you really should stop calling it the world championship track 😉

Oh sorry – I forgot – it’s the national championship isn’t it. Shows you how much I know about DH 😀 But world class riders have ridden it which is pretty much the same thing in my mind.

U IZ ALL OF TEH GNARRR RADNEZZZZ, Simon. 🙂

just looking at those pictures is making me feel like I have been smoking pure DMT – you must be freakin’ stoked man.. 😀

I was so stoked that even though I had a gear problem and could not get out of top gear at the front I still rode all the way back home! Now that is stoked 🙂 Oh and I was fuelled by white chocolate muslie bars from Poundland. Stick them in your pipe and smoke them!

I just think people should remember mountain biking is fun and we don’t need so much trolling and stuff here. I had a great day today and even really enjoyed the snaky bit through the first bit of the woods that I did genuinely ride! 😀

Cool jump! You prob wont sleep tonight.

What bike is that? It looks xcish to my poor eyes?

Kona Caldera HT, 2004 🙂

simonralli2 – Member

But world class riders have ridden it which is pretty much the same thing in my mind.

I’ve seen world class DH riders at Innerleithen, it’s not a world championship DH course either 😉

But who cares? It’s cool to ride, and an awful lot of people wouldn’t even think of doing a downhill course on a smaller bike or would say “Oh, I’m not a downhiller, I just ride trails”. It’s just riding your bike. So good on you.

an awful lot of people wouldn’t even think of doing a downhill course on a smaller bike It’s just riding your bike

** cough ** there may have been an element of walking down the sketchier parts.
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Which in my case was really quite a large part 😮

I’ve seen world class DH riders at Innerleithen,

Ratboy rides Cannock I’m sure Innerleithen is a bit tougher than that.

simonralli2 – Member

** cough ** there may have been an element of walking down the sketchier parts.

But you did the big stepdown that lots of people bottle even on big bikes. So I’d call that even 😉

Well true. Here’s another photo of me at the bottom of the Slab at Dalbeattie. Again, I can’t seem to find the photo of me half way down it, maybe it was too blurred

The Slab – Dalbeattie by simon ralli, on Flickr

Northwind, I am kind of guessing you have not actually been riding with me on any group rides ay? 😕

You should have photo shopped your right leg out of the shot 😉

What are you talking about?? 🙂

Oh you absolute scoundrel! I hope you feel suitably bad about it 😆

Nice pics, missed out on riding with you when I was up in December doing the Stanes. Ae was lethal in the car-park with ice, but the routes were fantastic to ride 🙂

Cheers, Rich

Rich – a few rides are getting planned maybe for April so look out for them if you are around.

Northwind – it’s not like I did (or am capable) of photoshopping and, as expected, I got busted in the very first posts.

I have this outrageously huge ego that makes me think everyone knows me here and that everyone loves my pootling photos of me out and about on my bike, but when people like you believe that I would ever in this incarnation in this life launch myself off that jump, well it only makes me realise just how few people in this world actually know me at all 🙁

Hopefully you found it funny and if you ever did go riding with me you would really then be able to appreciate the gap between my own dire lack of skills and what you see in that photo!

I only took it so people would find it extraordinarily silly and maybe have a laugh. I do enjoy my biking a lot you know, but am very happy just being in the woods, listening to the birds, breathing fresh air and whizzing around.

But it was an amazing experience walking down the course with my bike. I think I could have probably ridden a little bit more than I did, but with around 100mm of suspension, I just don’t have any compensation for my lack of skills and have to walk over a lot of the stony stuff too.

Here you go, this was my ride last week, and as you can see I tend to be slow and look out for things to photograph 🙂

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/great-little-ride-today

Simon ……… 😀

I think there needs to be a few more Simonralli2’s (maybe a 3 and 4 – and what happened to 1?) on this forum

I salute you sir

That’s made me chuckle!

Well cheers flange but I am not too sure we need more SimonRallis. SimonRalli was me and not someone else. I misread the instructions when STW moved to the new forum and I thought that we would not be allowed our old user names for some unknown reason. I think that in the great scheme of things, none of the moderators think that reinstating my old user name would be a good use of their limited time.

And anyway, there are a lot of good riding videos here. I always look forward to the sweary northerners, and now we have Go pro there seem to be a lot of really well made vids giving you a feel for people’s rides.

But the one thing that rarely comes out is steepness, hence me checking out Ae, and sliding down even while just walking it.

And that photo of me at the bottom of the Slab. Anyone not there would wonder why on earth anyone wouldn’t ride down that tame slope 🙂