REAL ALE WOBBLE 2009 !!!

Camping last year was £5 a night.

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I must admit I always sleep in the car so guess I've avoided the chap :roll: Never had any of my camping mates charged though... you must have been unlucky.

Newbie alert. Christ, I am soooo out of my depth here please let me off!

Heard about this event and fancied it; Googled it and this forum was one of the results. Few - really basic - questions I'm afraid:

1. I'm pretty sure what I've got is a mountain bike... I know, I'm so ashamed but my other half got it off a mate years ago when I started biking to work. On the plus side, I think I do have what might qualify as a retro-bike. I can only see 'Raleigh' in big letters though - where will I find any more info? Should I just stick a pic up and you can diagnose?!

2. I'm reasonably fit and can do 50m a day on it (on roads, mind) so was thinking of the 35m version of the wobble? Laughable?

3. Did I tell you I've done hardly any off-road stuff ever? Is this gonna be a complete nightmare for beginners? Or will the beer dull the searing pain of 3rd degree skin scrapage as I plummet down some 1:10 rock-strewn incline?


Thanks for your patience!
Erylp

if my mate can cycle on his heap, you'll be able to cycle on whatever you've got!! Put up a pic anyway and we'll have a look. 50m on road doesn't = 35m offroad. I've done the wobble 13 years now and only once have managed the full route and that took around 4-5hours. It's a monster as there are no flat bits at all. I'd take it steady and you can always take a short cut if necessary. See how you go - you might do it, who knows.

oh and it's muddy. very muddy. and very wet (puddles 18 inces deep). and a bit cold, too. but don't let me put you off!

And the Ale is lovely

and the craic is great

orange71":1o985nu8 said:

and the craic is great

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I had to Google that!!

The craic is what makes the event so special !!

Thanks for the reply. I'm still keen but will have to put in some off-road training - and quick!

Unfortunately, mountains, bogs, forests etc are a bit thin on the ground in Herts so I might have to improvise: say, do 100 circuits of our village taking in all the hostelries and making sure I come off in the ford each time.

I'll drag the beast out of the garage at the w/e and you can laugh and then tell me what I'm dealing with. Now I've started educating myself about these things I have reason to believe it's one of those in-between road/MTB affairs. But what do I know.

Cheers folks!

a hybrid? That's aOK - a mate of mine did it on his hybrid one year :shock:

I'm half tempted to do it on a Shopper just for a laugh

There's a lot to be said for narrow tyres in excessive mud... but something a bit more knobbley than your average hybrid has, could be a good idea!

Like Ed said, there are plenty of places you can take short cuts / miss sections out - just bring an enthusiasm for being wet & muddy and you'll be fine!

Some what to our shame last year we were roughly pacing it against a couple of 30 something year old women on Hybrids...while we were hoofing it on silly money high tech mountain bikes. (Specialised Epic etc)

That said the girls were amusing and we enjoyed the banter.