[Bubba]

This is the daddy - think i've posted it before

[Houdini]

Can you walk?!


Man, I'd start w/ can you hear me if I saw that!

[SA Chris]

I think if they've not been on the uplift then they're probably not doing DH - the hour long walk up would put most people off doing the DH runs there without uplift, though I'm sure there's some hardy souls who do it.

I think the full XC circuit still ends with the DH part, although I don't think they were doing the most gnarly sections of the DH tracks. Although I saw some photos of bleeding people, so they may well have.

[slackline]

Don't over-shoot the landing 

[Bubba]

In the originally intended spirit of this topic, see: BMX Girls

NSFW  :

[lagerstarfish]

They all seem to have shaved their legs, so I guess they are the the real deal.

[fatboySlimfast]

Whath the first scene in this vid, either the shittest freerider to ever be famous or a true visionary,
Josh Bender

[SA Chris]

Has anyone seen the new Collective film "Seasons"? Any good? It's on at our local independant and be nice to see some great action on a big screen.

[Bubba]

It's good but like Roam it's not as good at The Collective imho.

[fatboySlimfast]

Has anyone seen the new Collective film "Seasons"? Any good? It's on at our local independant and be nice to see some great action on a big screen.

Not bad, better than the usual thrash metal canadian offerings!

[Bubba]

And it's got Wharncliffe in it

[SA Chris]

It's good but like Roam it's not as good at The Collective imho.

Aye. The Collective was miles ahead of anything else at the time, then Roam was at a similar level. Good still, but no further giant step.

[fatboySlimfast]

So a weekend at Innerleithen, despite shredding a tyre and a rather epic journey back, the courses were amazing, big and full on!
Not my photo but this was done by all the team with aplomb

It feels as big when your on it as it looks

[jordysi]

you boys do the top drop as well?  bigger than this but you got to hit it a bit slower cos of the flat loose corner just below, though I did jump over Marcus on it as he was taking the chicken line at the time ah memories memories

[Bubba]

The big drop on Matador was awesome - 8ft to the landing on an already very steep hillside makes for a lot of adrenaline for an old codger like me Isn't that photo of the bottom drop Luce?

Innerlleithen is an amazing hill - huge variety of tracks and 350m of vertical makes for a lot of fun. There are four main (i.e. FC approved and maintained) tracks:

"Make or Brake" is a very fast track with a prepared surface and contains loads of doubles, triples, tables and great berms. It leads you into the top of one of the main XC descents "Caddon Bank" which is nice with a series of small (up to 4ft) drops, lovely switchbacks and though a bit pedally on a downhiller is still fun.

"Gold Run" is rocky and rooty at the top then pops out into another section similar to Make or Brake lower down.

"Cresta Run" is an amazing steep run with loads of variations, all of which are very rooty, bumpy, rocky and with loads of technical switchbacks. A bit like "Nemba" at Wharncliffe but steeper, harder and four times as long.

"Matador" which used to be known as the "Red Bull" which is more of a full on freeride track with big jumps and drops. Scary but fantastic.

Apparantly there's a whole load of unofficial tracks too, but we didn't really seek these out, though at some points you'd suddenly find yourself on one - the middle section of the hill is a maze of tracks.

It's certainly the best hill i've ridden in Britain and with an excellent uplift service it was well worth the £32 for the day.

The place is pretty hard on bike and rider - we had a total front brake failure, destroyed rear mech, blown tyres, fucked chains and various other bits falling off and coming loose and that's on bikes with 8 to 9 inches of travel so I can safely now answer this:

I think the full XC circuit still ends with the DH part, although I don't think they were doing the most gnarly sections of the DH tracks. Although I saw some photos of bleeding people, so they may well have.

You're right, the XC loop ends on Caddon Bank but this just has smooth 3 to 4 ft drops which are easily ridden round to avoid. If you took an XC bike onto any of the tracks other than this one and Make or Brake then you'd probably destroy your bike and hurt yourself if you tried to ride them properly.

Can't wait for the next one


 

[Bubba]

you boys do the top drop as well?  bigger than this but you got to hit it a bit slower cos of the flat loose corner just below, though I did jump over Marcus on it as he was taking the chicken line at the time ah memories memories

We all did the top drop - Luce and Matt did the bottom one but by the time I got there my front brake had lost all it's fluid  so I didn't drop it - by that point I was just trying to get down the hill in one piece with only a  rear brake which was enough entertainment in itself

[fatboySlimfast]

I actually found the bottom one more intimidating, the gap to the tranny is longer!
On a side issue Si, why has Marcus given up biking and taken up paintballing?

[Bubba]

[cofe]

not really riders wives, but still mtb related. i note the athertons cleaned up at the worlds this weekend, Gee for the homies, Rachel for the shorties. Peaty had the gold snatched away from him again. he fucking deserves those world champs bands. Go Gee:

[cofe]

some sweet looking trail riding from current Bike mag:

[SA Chris]

Mate's pics from the Wildcat trails near Golspie on Saturday







Need to get there I think.

[Bubba]

The step-down in the last pic looks fun.

[Falling Down]

Looks great Chris and you had far better weather than we did this weekend.

[SA Chris]

Saturday was lovely. Did a couple of routes at Redhythe (had to negotiate boat festival traffic in Portsoy though), then surfed Banff.

Yesterday was awful to start; torrential rain and fog, but was OK for a while in afternoon.

[cofe]

some fine looking natural riding: