"What we need is..."

[JustKev]

I got up early this morning with the aim of a couple of hours MM09 preparation at Chicksands.

Arrived at 8 and began riding only to find that a round of the 'British Short Course Downhill Champs' was being held there today :shock: No problem, teh course doesn't affect the XC loops just a bit of extra 'traffic' on some of teh trails.

After an hour I stopped for refreshment - water and powerbar but near to one of teh temporary tea bars where various DHers had gathered. And then I heard it.

The problem with this course is its too short and twisty. I wish I'd brought my 6" bike and not my 7", nobody told me

I think the clue was in a DH race in Hertfordshire but then

Yeah - somebody needs to design a 2 or 3" travel bike

Genius. Well it kept me laughing for the rest of my morning

 

[perry]

id have walked up to them and laughed in their faces

 

[Pickle]

Yeah - somebody needs to design a 2 or 3" travel bike

 

[Xesh]

id have walked up to them and laughed in their faces

And then tell them to get a retro DH bike with 100mm travel on the rear!

 

[fingers]

id have walked up to them and laughed in their faces

And then tell them to get a retro DH bike with 100mm travel on the rear!

Who needs that much travel?

I thought all you need to do to set up a downhill bike was take your bar ends off???

 

[Xesh]

Who needs that much travel?

Someone who does a lot of DH in Wales/Scotland maybe.

 

[perry]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwp6ER3A ... re=related

the biggest insult would have been passing them all and asking why there were so many engineless motorbikes in the woods

id quite like to see the hardtail downhill racing , sounds fun

 

[Xesh]

id quite like to see the hardtail downhill racing , sounds fun

It is! Bitd one of my mates and I went to Penshurst and rode the K2 DH run, which was going to have the first race on it the next day. He had an Orange Prestige (which I sold to him) and I had my Orange Aluminium Elite.

I was going down the steepest section and my stem came loose just before a turn. Luckily there was nothing there to crash into! My mate was a lot faster than me but he hadn't overtaken me. There I was thinking that I was improving my riding and all that'd happened was that he'd snapped his bars (Zero Gravity ones iIrc).

The funny thing was we had to find him a set of bars at about 9pm that evening because he was racing in the K2 the next day! Luckily I had a spare set at home.

The most common bike at the K2 that day was the amplifier. Everywhere you looked there was one about. I'd never seen one outside a bike show before but they were everywhere that day.

 

[drystonepaul]

Funny this one.
A couple of days ago I was on my way back from a trip to my LBS on my 94 Marin Muirwoods along a section of disused railway. Under the bridge and I turned up the gently inclined access path up to the road I'd just passed under. I slowed as I met another cyclist apparently psyching himself up for the next part of his ride. The great thing was that he was more or less in full body armour, with a full-face helmet and goggles astride a big burly downhill bike. I think I may have smirked a little and perhaps shook my head as I greeted him.
The thing is, I use this route for commuting a fair bit and I've always looked to find something a little more exciting; a log to hop; a corner to drift; but this is a disused railway afterall and a tarmaced one at that, so the pickings are slim and none. Perhaps the nearby canal towpath may have presented more of a challenge.
To be fair he did look rather young and probably didn't know any better, and I suppose I'm lucky to have the experience and knowledge to understand that there are lots of bikes that are perfectly adequate for the job at hand and I have the intelligence ( and enough bikes ) to pick the right one for the terrain.
Can't help but feel that the mountain bike press could do more than constantly bang on about full sussers and body armour as though it's the be all and end all.
Maybe I'm just getting old and it's late and I'm a bit tired and grumpy.
It did make me chuckle for a few miles though...

 

[hondamatic]

I'd love to see you guys hit slimy gapped jumps and step-ups on your '92 GT's and Marins!

That said, that's a pretty hilarious comment coming from the downhill racers. Many of those guys keep a 5" - 6" downhill bike or a 4X bike (a Giant Reign/Reign X, Transition Bottlerocket, Cannondale Prophex MX) for racecourses that are too flat and slow to ride their big rigs down. Yes, sometimes it's possible to have too much mass and squish going down hills...