Dabbling in the dark side

[Shawn]

I joined some mountain bikers today to ride the taff trail and take in one of the Bike Park Wales trails ... all in the name of charity. It should be noted I don't own a mountain bike of any description but I do have a hybrid of more MTB than road shapeness, so that was my stead for the day.


A couple of immediate thoughts.
1. MTB riders (or at least those that I was with) really don't ride up hills very well. I'm no mountain goat, but as soon as the gradient veered up I was comfortably riding away from the group without really putting an effort in.
2. Bike Park Wales is an out standing facility. Simple as that

We rode up the fire roads to the top of BPW and as there was mixed abilities in the group we took blue routes (beginner) down. I survived on my hybrid, but its easy to see why full sussers are the de rigeur for the downhillers. I would recommend it as a day out, if nothing else the downhills are sure to improve your bike handling skills. It takes a fair bit of bottle but the minute you get scared then you are sure to find yourself in trouble, so I took the approach of a sembelance of control at all times.

That said, I am not going to be a convert anytime soon, give me the BWlch, Rhigos, Maerdy any day, I will give the faithful hybrid a few more spins out, now that I have dusted cobwebs off.

[Rob Jones]

  Try swapping your hybrid for a full susser and see if you still climb better than the MTB riders Shaun...I say this cos all the MTB riders I know that have taken to the road cycling also, seem to be v strong climbers!

[Rob Jones]

Heard nowt but good things about Bike Park Wales!

[Davey C]

Believe it or not I come from an MTB background, the philosophy has changed dramatically since I started (1995ish..) Back then it was essentially road bikes off road, ie lightweight, lycra, cross country, up climbs knacker yourself out.

These days when I take the occasional dabble I notice it's far mroe about just having fun, not blasting up climbs (walking if needs be) and blasting down the singletrack. Indeed many MTBers you'll see are far from the hunched, skinny road cyclists milling round village hall HQs every Sunday!! 

[ron b]

I use my MTB quite a bit in the winter, doesn't suffer so much from punctures in the lanes and the best bit is no traffic in the forestry except for the occasional "muppet" in a stolen car. The 25er's did pass a fully armoured MTBer down the Vale a few weeks ago, look a little out of place.