I just moved to Vancouver finally got to ride northshore. This was the first trail I came across. Its a easy blue run apparently.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-tHpHi1Eg8[/video]

your bike sounds like it was put together at Halfords.

oh you missed the little drop…

Looks good .

It’ll get harder 🙂 This is one of the many features that I rode down* today:

*or around….

Lived there for a year at the bottom of Neds on Mt Seymour, was a good year that.

Get yourself over to Cypress, first time i rode there crashed lots, riding friends did a lot of waiting for me, very steep and technical, end of the year was one of the faster ones in the group and had sections I liked to lead down. love steep tech now..

I miss Cypress Sundays. 😀

Def get on some roadtrips too!, Kamloops, Kelowna, Pemberton(Grouse!), Squamish, etc. etc.

Loved the almost subliminal heartbeat soundtrack for added tension!

Looks about right. Remember they grade white/green/blue/black and not green/blue/red/black.

If you want a harder blue then the Baden Powell at the bottom of Fromme is hard enough.

Also, try and clean the access track to the start of Ned’s Atomic Dustbin. 😆

Bobsled was the first trail I rode there too.
It wasn’t very representative 🙂
Neither in terms of grading, or flow.

Floppy Bunny isn’t a good representation of Black either.

Loved all the steep techy stuff over there. That freshly cut bit of loamy goodness on Kirkford is a must-ride.
7th Secret > Leppard (sic) > Crinkum Crankum > Kirkford > Upper/Mid/Lower Griffen

That was one of the best hours on a bike ever!

Expresso was also fun.

On that same first day, I also came upon this (which I’d seen in videos).

Decided to retry on the last day, but then completely forgot.

That looks great fun, enjoy!

Looks nice. Canadian blue = UK red on average

That looks soooo nice. Well jealous!!! 🙂

Freakin’ awesome!!! Why do ‘shore trails always look so dry? Finishing up in Vancouver at the end of a coast to coast Canada/USA road trip this summer and the ‘shore is a definite must-visit even if only to collect a bit of shore dirt to add to my collection 😆 . Scoping out areas for a possible retirement cabin – visited Van several times and if we could afford it, it would definitely be top of the list – you lucky lucky burger 😛

Try Squamish or Nelson

some of those trials had me question my sanity in doing them on my own

Especially the ones with bears

Jon Taylor – Member

Looks about right. Remember they grade white/green/blue/black and not green/blue/red/black.

If you want a harder blue then the Baden Powell at the bottom of Fromme is hard enough.

Also, try and clean the access track to the start of Ned’s Atomic Dustbin.

I did Baden powell after this. Its was one od the most technical trails iv ever ridden. Great feeling once I finished it.

AlexSimon – Member

Bobsled was the first trail I rode there too.
It wasn’t very representative
Neither in terms of grading, or flow.

Floppy Bunny isn’t a good representation of Black either.

Loved all the steep techy stuff over there. That freshly cut bit of loamy goodness on Kirkford is a must-ride.
7th Secret > Leppard (sic) > Crinkum Crankum > Kirkford > Upper/Mid/Lower Griffen

That was one of the best hours on a bike ever!

Expresso was also fun.

Floppy bunny sounded so fun, I was wrong, That drop at the start almost killed me. I loved espresso so much fun and so long. I cant belive how well maintained the trails are over here.

plumber – Member

Try Squamish or Nelson

some of those trials had me question my sanity in doing them on my own

Especially the ones with bears

Im off to squamish tomorrow and then to whistler, Treated myself to a bike pass ar the park. Cant wait.

Im off to squamish tomorrow and then to whistler, Treated myself to a bike pass ar the park. Cant wait.

You’ll have an amazing time. Enjoy!
(looks out the window at the pissing rain and wind in the peak district – not jealous at all)

Off to BC this week! Super excited! BC Bike Race for me!!

I like they way it’s possible to hear your heart in the background!

shortcut – Member

Off to BC this week! Super excited! BC Bike Race for me!!

That race looks amazing. I would love to do it one day. Good luck

Out of interest, how tough are some of these routes compared to (for example) the natural trails in Les Arcs? Which are about as tough as I can cope with for a days riding.

Edit: Just to clarify, I mean trails that you could do on a 150-160mm ‘trail’ bike, rather than massive drops and gaps!

Interested in BC as a riding destination, but have to be realistic for someone that lives in the southern part of the UK!

mtbtom – Member

Out of interest, how tough are some of these routes compared to (for example) the natural trails in Les Arcs? Which are about as tough as I can cope with for a days riding.

Edit: Just to clarify, I mean trails that you could do on a 150-160mm ‘trail’ bike, rather than massive drops and gaps!

Interested in BC as a riding destination, but have to be realistic for someone that lives in the southern part of the UK!

They aren’t that tough to be honest. I have only been riding for a year. I have a 160mm travel bike, and I have done a few of the black runs. Some of the trails are very hard but I ride to my ability. Ive seen people doing the black runs on full ridged bikes and my girlfriend rides a 120mm bike on them. Its a different style of riding. I am used to riding Swinley, Peaslake and BPW. Ive noticed that theses trails are so much more technical and its not about how fast you ride them, its just about getting down at your own pace.

With the ‘Rise Of Enduro’, it’s all about getting from the top to the bottom of the mountain as fast as possible and riding around all the hard bits 😉

I moved here in 2007 and there are certainly more ‘normal’ trails here than there were back then. Or trails that were once gnarly have been smoothed out. To be fair, the trails weren’t chundery messes when they were first built, but neglect meant that that’s how they ended up. So if you are using a 150mm trail bike to anywhere near it’s full potential, there is plenty to ride between Vancouver and Whistler (and beyond) and it’s generally awesome. If the bike is a portable couch, then maybe go somewhere else 😀

On the other hand, this is an example of a double black trail (contains swearing):

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP8J4NE_ppk[/video]

I’ve ridden this……once. Didn’t realize how long it was as I stupidly didn’t check it out before riding on to it, and then there was no getting off….. I filled the air with brown mist.

Like that trail.

Out of interest, how tough are some of these routes compared to (for example) the natural trails in Les Arcs? Which are about as tough as I can cope with for a days riding.

Edit: Just to clarify, I mean trails that you could do on a 150-160mm ‘trail’ bike, rather than massive drops and gaps!

Interested in BC as a riding destination, but have to be realistic for someone that lives in the southern part of the UK!

Similar, but different. There’s some pretty steep stuff in Les Arc iirc and there’s plenty of steep stuff here too. The trails outside the bike park in Whistler are awesome on a 140-160mm bike. You can ride them with less but they have a habit of being pretty techy, so a bigger bike is helpful.

As jakeyo1 says – they are much tighter and slower than anything man-made I’ve ridden before. A bit like some of the stuff you used to see Matt/Benji/Brant doing on videos around Calderdale.
Thrutch Core or whatever it was they named them.

I think rider progression would be very quick. It was quite unnerving on the first day (walking on a wet rooty bit of blue trail), but I gradually got the measure of it and began to feel at home.

Unfortunately, just I was getting into the swing of it I had to leave.
I will return one day!

One good thing – cedar planks are quite grippy compared to uk timber trails 🙂

There seemed to be quite a split between old-school riders and people wanting flow/jump trails. Bobsled in the OP is quite controversial!

as much as i like riding along low walls or logs, i don’t get the whole riding 5ft off the ground for 100m’s thing.

i can understnd the need to cross rivers/streams, depressions and boggy ground, but just for the sake of it…? especilly when you can see a trail running alongside the woodwork as in Walleater’s vid.

bit meh.

Walleater’s vid is of the swamp log, there would be absolutely no riding alongside that, big boggy area tangled with fallen trees.

The feeling I loved when coming off a trail full of skinnies/wooden stunts (however pointless or otherwise) was of being 100% focused on what was underneath my wheels, every muscle felt like it was tensed up to maintain balance and control, and it required full concentration. Plus the adrenaline when you get off a stunt smoothly and roll into a nice easy/fast section.

The constant change in mental focus and pace was an extra challenge, rather than just berm/jump/repeat

Similar to the buzz I get after a long section of cramponing steep snow or ice, the release from the concentration and physical constraints feels like a little shot of endorphin.

I consider myself a fairly competent rider but I totally wimp out on raised wooden stuff like in that video. All in my head, I know, but it psyches me out and I become unbalanced, rigid and clunky.

Most are optional, and there is a lot less than there used to be.
A nice challenge for those that relish it.

Git, bring back the holy trail. Shore is fantastic and not enough people are embracing it, it’s all big gaps and shiiit now, anything remotely technical seems to get smoothed out..

i know, i live in the past..

Sui – Member

Git, bring back the holy trail. Shore is fantastic and not enough people are embracing it, it’s all big gaps and shiiit now, anything remotely technical seems to get smoothed out..

i know, i live in the past..

nice video. Im off to whistler today to ride bike park for a couple days, the a couple days riding the valley singletrack and squamish, trail hunting.

If you’ve got a full day ‘Comfortably Numb’ was amazing – in a techy climb kind of way 🙂
We only managed the first 6km or so (after doing the green lake trails), but it’s 24km in total!

If you’ve got a full day ‘Comfortably Numb’ was amazing – in a techy climb kind of way

And if you’ve only got an hour and a half or so then you can skip most of it and just do the final descent. Look up Yummy Nummy on Trail Forks. It’s a really good value ride down for the climbing you put in, most of which is technical enough to keep it fun on the way up.

havnt got time for comfortably numb this time. Will hopefully do yummy nummy today. I done a river runs through it today. It was amazing, ive never ridden trails like this before.

How did you get on with River Runs Through It?
Did you do both north and south?

[/quote] AlexSimon – Member

How did you get on with River Runs Through It?
Did you do both north and south?

Done really well thanks. The start was really hard with the uphill ladders and that, but it got a lot faster and flower after that. I done the double seesaw which i was stoked about. my friend came off pretty hard and smashed her face unfortunately, but shes ok. The trails are so amazing, i cant wait to go back. North shore again tomorrow and then squamish on monday.

Ace. Pardon me while I live my life vicariously through you for a bit 🙂

I don’t suppose anyone is in whistler on Sunday. Need a riding partner as mine has dropped out.