I know this is probably a bit rough for a few folk on here but what the **** has happened to DH in this country?

Just ten years ago every race was rammed and there were reserve lists for reserves. Now?

Last month the SDA round at Aberfeldy was almost cancelled.

This months BDS round at Moelfre has been cancelled.

Next months Scottish Champs are in danger of going the same way with just 22 entrants (the SDA cannot absorb another loss like Aberfeldy).

I know it’s been a while since I was at a race but something isn’t right.

SDH changed to Ride.io

People who are not good enough for downhill or fast enough for xc now do enduro.

£90 to race BDS and you have to have a BC Racing licence, on the same tracks they’ve used for 5 years and all but one of the rounds is in North Wales (the other being Fort Bill).

I read earlier today that the cost of entries are putting a lot of people off. That, and Enduro races seem more plentiful and cheaper to enter.

There’s only so many racers in the UK, they’re a different breed to most riders – some of us muggles might dip a toe in with a mini race here or there but there’s only a small number of racers.

I know it’s a cliche but now we have Enduro, Britain is far better suited to Enduro – we only have a small number of proper DH tracks in the uk, lots of them only open for races and the odd uplift day – Enduro is far more accessible, you can ride your Enduro bike every day if you want, you can ride it to the shops if you like – whereas a DH is like owning an Elephant, very cool, but very few expensive and when do you get to use it?

If you had an elephant….what would you use it for?

Riding to the shops.

I think it’s been made very clear that you can’t ride an elephant to the shops, only on DH tracks 🙄

Parking would be atrocious .

not as bad as you think:

Oh, I feel a bit stupid now, no way would it get in the multi storey car parks.

Maybe I could ride it to work and leave it to roam around St Pauls?

I guess the expense is something but at the sensible end of the scale you can still get cheap DH bikes if you are prepared to slum it with a metal *gasp* frame. Besides, ten years ago Fabien Barel was riding a 7″ DH bike, that can’t be much off an enduro bike surely?

As for value, I was looking at that. Okay you get a few hours plus two runs on race day but call it a day and a half of uplift and it’s not so bad.

SDA don’t require a licence either.

P-Jay – as said the races were oversubscribed. Something clearly happened. Taylforth is probably pretty close tbh, SDH and Descent-World forums dying probably didn’t help (though http://www.southerdownhill.com still takes you to ride.io).

I’m a former DH’er who gave up racing and riding before it was the in thing to do 🙄

It basically comes down to what P-Jay has said. Little bikes have got so much more capable over the past few years and they are much better suited to the terrain we have over here but here’s a list of why I drifted away.

Races and associated costs of going away for the weekend started getting silly.

Travelling long distances to ride the few tracks worth riding got boring.

Uplift safety restrictions usually meant you didn’t get enough time on the bike compared to the glory days of piling in a cattle wagon and smashing as many runs as you could.

Races seemed to get “more professional” as everyone wanted to be the next thing. Used to be a weekend away getting messed up then riding your bike with a hangover. Most people are in bed for 9 o’clock now.

Getting an SX Trail and realising I could still enjoy DH riding but peddle around aswell. Obviously as mentioned these bikes morphed into what we all ride now.

There’s a few things from someone who lived the DH life for a good few years although I’ve still got hold of my DH bike just incase! 🙂

take it in to work with you – might stop people stating the bleeding obvious

(or else take it to the castle)

Oh I’d say the websites slowing down had nothing to do with it really. The enduro bike thing was well away by then taking people away from races and Facebook finished of most forums.

squirrelking – Member

I guess the expense is something but at the sensible end of the scale you can still get cheap DH bikes if you are prepared to slum it with a metal *gasp* frame. Besides, ten years ago Fabien Barel was riding a 7″ DH bike, that can’t be much off an enduro bike surely?

THis year’s SDA at innerleithen was a 29er enduro bike clean sweep. Now OK, that’s Innerleithen, it’s “not proper downhill” but the “you need a dh bike” argument was always shite and these days it’s even less true, you could say dh has less hardware restriction than enduro.

Truth is, it’s in decline largely for the same reason XC went into decline- a lot of people used to do it because that was the racing that was out there. Once other options came along, it’s not just that people went off to do something else, it’s that it also made the existing events seem less desirable- when you have cheaper forms of racing, expensive forms seem more expensive, and so on.

Obviously I’m just one person, but I did a couple of SDAs and some local races, quite enjoyed it and would probably have carried on doing it, but then I started racing enduro and it just seemed better. More like my riding, more bang for your buck, (*), more riding for my day out. And most importantly, to me, less about the top boys- I usually place better in DH and XC than I do in enduro but I was happier being 260th out of 300 or whatever it was at the EWS, than being in the top third in the SDA but still out of touch of the winners- I felt more part of it and less like I was just there to make the race financially viable so that the real racers could play.

A couple of years earlier, there was no enduro scene, I’d have got into DH instead. If I was somewhere there was no DH scene, maybe I’d have got into XC. DH hasn’t changed or got worse though.

(* I’m not saying DH is too expensive, I understand why it costs what it does- but it doesn’t have to be too expensive, to be out-valued)

I think it’s a shame, lots of people think it’s a shame, but that’s not going to get me to go and do it.

People who are not good enough for downhill or fast enough for xc now do enduro.

So, by that, DHers are folk that weren’t fit enough for xc, and XCers were folk that were too shite to ride DH. You can make any of that shit sound plausible, but at the end of the day it’s shite.

Trail/enduro bikes are now exceptionally capable, DH bikes are too one trick pony, hardly any actual ride time for your weekend are all affecting issues.

It is a shame, but given the amount of Brits racing at the top level. It’s not just an issue in this country.

Distance, money and priority? Racing a dh series if you didn’t live in Shropshire or Scotland was always hard costly work. Now you can race enduro closer to home, get the same atmosphere and ride the same bike you ride on the other weekends.

Peaty & Ratboy retired

andysredmini – Member

People who are not good enough for downhill or fast enough for xc now do enduro.

That’s why Katy Winton, enduro podium-botherer, could turn up for an SDA round on an enduro bike and win- her first dh race ever. She didn’t quite get it, she was spotted riding up the hill instead of waiting for the bus.

Greg Minaar believed this line about enduro being for washed up downhillers, decided to do an EWS round, and got a bit upset when Fabien Barel overtook him midstage. Peaty wasn’t quite paying attention at the time and ended up doing pretty much the same thing at the first tweedlove ews.

Speeder – Member
Peaty & Ratboy retired

Must be (Peaty is certainly still doing some National rounds)

DH is over, very over, no more.

Just a niche sport now.

Probably more insightful of the higher levels
https://www.morvelo.com/blog/privateer/
https://www.morvelo.com/blog/hometown-hero/

I know it’s been a while since I was at a race

Its all your fault for not turning up. Now everyone else has copied you

Distance, money and priority? Racing a dh series if you didn’t live in Shropshire or Scotland was always hard costly work. Now you can race enduro closer to home, get the same atmosphere and ride the same bike you ride on the other weekends

I was just going to post exactly this. Why travel to Wales or Scotland when you can race enduro much nearer to home?

I still love riding my DH bike, and places like Aston Hill and Rogate appear to be thriving. DH is far from being dead IMO.

Rogate thriving? Really? Every time i’ve been past, it’s been dead. It’s also garbage to ride these days.

As an Ex BDS racer, I and basically the entire riding group I rode with cumulatively reached the same opinion at the same time. Racing at Llangollen probably 5 years ago now, we timed a few things. I rode my bike for the sum total of about 30 minutes over the course of the weekend. I also spent nearly 12 hours stood in uplift queues.

The races are expensive now, at nearly £95 – the time on the bike is a joke.

Good race series’s do well still – Pearce still sells out.

The BDS pitched itself as too Elite, it actually forgot about the hardcore racers, who provide the bulk of the income – we were the ones who paid to be there.

I still race DH, but I only race regional stuff, things I can enter on the day, and race on a trail bike. Having a DH bike in the south of England is a bit pointless these days. I think of the races I did, every podium I was on was made up of trail bikes.

The numbers make it look like it is dying (from a racing perspective, in the UK at least).

Our local series (woodland riders at tavi woodlands) sells out regularly. But it’s one day, practice in the morning, no uplift.

Interestingly when they run races on the harder tracks they struggle for entries.

Given the comments above, how do the manufactures justify running DH teams then. The cost of a proper team and all the support that we see at the world events on Red Bull TV must be massive.

They cant sell many DH bikes to pay for all that.

Trimix, its more promoting a Brand as much as pure Dh bikes and its not just for the UK market, it gets broadcast globally.

Given the comments above, how do the manufactures justify running DH teams then. The cost of a proper team and all the support that we see at the world events on Red Bull TV must be massive.
They cant sell many DH bikes to pay for all that.

Car manufacturers don’t sell many F1 cars but still plow millions into running teams.

Same as F1 innit, Mercedes aren’t in that game to try and sell F1 cars to the public. Similarly Specialized etc want you to see the brand and remember them when looking for your next bike regardless of the discipline youre thinking of.

My over-whelming memories of DH are just too much waiting, not enough riding. Every time I think about racing again I remember waiting in uplift queues, waiting for race runs, waiting for red flags to clear, etc at which point i think better of it

Rogate thriving? Really?

Well every race there has sold out since 2015 https://www.rootsandrain.com/venue285/rogate/

Rogate is a winter spot, its always been rubbish in the summer.

I think its partly enduro but also the rise in availability of uplift locations.

When you had to push your bike to the top every time you went riding the option of a Race with an uplift was exciting and worth paying for. Now I can go a DH venue, get on the weekend (or even weekday in some places) uplift for 1/3 of the cost, have a full days riding with barely a stop for lunch, ride different lines, have a laugh riding with mates or trying a full run. Its actually made having a Dh bike worth the cost (for me). I would only ever be a back marker at a race, and was seriously put off by event organisers marking the courses to suit to top 10%, so didnt race. Yes courses should be hard, but by making them so difficult its not fun and charging huge amounts to pay for live timing or large prize pots (both of which are of no interest to people like me) they lost a lot of the people who might have given it a go, and now they dont have a series at all.

I stopped racing any DH 4 years ago and have done a lot of Enduro since. This year I decided I was going to do the full SDA series. Went to the first round at Ae and managed to get 3 runs done in 4.5 hours because the uplift was slow, got fed up and went home.

You just get so much more bike time with Enduro, I could have done the whole SES route in the same time I got 3 runs in at Ae.

Not going to do anymore DH.

Always seemed like a LOT of money involved to get really good at DH. Don’t most of the top guys practice a lot on MX as well to get used to the speed/handling?

Car manufacturers don’t sell many F1 cars but still plow millions into running teams.

F1 Teams are fast expensive advertising hoardings, Most Car manufacturer’s don’t really care about the sport, outside of the handful supplying engines Fizzy drinks, banking and IT service sector organisations love slapping their logos on F1 cars as it fits a certain aspirational branding niche.

Similarly Pro’ road cycling has as many, if not more non-cycling sponsors.

DH being a smaller Niche seems to be more of a focus of the cycling industry and cycling enthusiasts than something with more of a mainstream appeal.

And now Enduro is here, in all honesty it’s a better fit for most “Normal” riders than DH ever was.

The bike you need is less ‘Specialized’ towards a specific racing format, the commitment of time and money can be as much or as little as you want the “Seriousness” that seems to have permeated DH and driven off the casual rider/racers doesn’t seem to be there (yet?)… all the things that encourage and grow accessibility are there with Enduro and falling back in DH.

Of course modern Enduro owes a lot to DH, the “gravity-fed” racing that we’ve seen over the last 25 odd years has driven the changes in bikes and course/trail design that eventually made Enduro a credible discipline. Without DH there would be no Enduro today, unfortunately I think it will be left behind now to a certain extent and that is a shame in many ways…

But then lots of us who’ve dabbled with DH in the past, are now less likely to stump up the time and money to relive their DH glory days when there mortgages to be payed, stalled wage growth, a national consumer debt crisis looming and plenty of fun to be had on more sensible trail/enduro type bikes…

I agree with the uplift thing.Revolution Bike Park has 80 places at the weekend and pretty much full both days (and friday too but is usually quieter).If you’ve got the stamina you can get 15+ runs in,on 8 different trails!! For 33 quid!
And BPW is booked up months ahead.

Part of the issue with moelfre being cancelled is that it is a week before mont sainte Anne World Cup and most riders who will be going to this ( the elites anyway) and with the time difference most fly out that weekend poor planning on si Paton’s side

Ok, in an attempt to offer something new to the thread…

i stopped racing dh because I got old and broken, ran out of money to spend on that kind of thing (mortgage), and honestly found myself more excited about a weekend bimbling around mellow trails with msWife, than sliding down a stream on my face.

But, I’m an old git, i’m supposed to **** off and make room for the kids. 5000 years ago I’d have been eaten by bear by now, I’m happy enough that the 21st century equivalent is spending my time at garden centres.

So, where are the kids? – what are they doing instead of racing dh? Making sick edits? I suspect that this isn’t the best place to find the answer…