Hamsterly Forest Black Route

BoredHousewife

Hi,

I just rode the black route at Hamsterly today and have a question for anyone familiar with this. The first downhill bit (after the long walk ) is VERY rooty and my little hardtail was bounced to hell and back, I honestly have no idea how I stayed on the thing. Problem is I couldn't even try and choose lines cos the second I spotted on I was kicked out of reach by yet another root or hole.

Can anyone offer any tips or suggestions to make it more bearable in future? Also, what bikes you ride on it?

Oh, the fords were fun though

garsr6

hey there,
on the run up roots try to unweight the bike by lifting your body weight a little and aim for your next line, almost like hopping over them. good speed essential IMO.it will take a while to master, if its a trail you have never run before it will take a few runs till you get to know whats coming around the next corner so you can prepare and get your speed up. also try to hit the roots as square on as you can. i ride with my weight on the forks a little too and just let the back end do what it wants on my local black route.

BoredHousewife

funny thing is i'm usually ok on roots, but these were HUGE. To be honest I've only been riding again for 3 months after a 7 year break so may have over-estimated my abilities although the unweighting technique is something I'm usually fine with. I honestly never though an XC route could hold something that nasty :oops:

garsr6

ha ha, black routes that i do i wouldnt really call them xc trails. they are pretty hard going on my 4" travel xc bike.10 ft pitched rocky drops and large rocky descents? think i need more travel tbh. it took me about 10 runs on my local black before i could get a good rythm going. people were always passing me but perseverance pays and now its me whos doing the passing after 6 months doing 3-4 days a week. once you get the trail dialled in your head it gets a lot more fun.

ukcraigb

Putting weight on the front fork? In my opinion you’re asking to be in a world of pain.

I hope I'm not teaching you to suck eggs as it we're but you should be in the attack position, I tried to find a diagram but couldn’t so I'll try to describe it!

Starting with your feet: You want the pedals to be flat, the last thing you want to do is drop a peddle and have it dangling close to the floor hitting the roots, or anything else for that matter!

Bum: You want your weight to be pushed back over the back wheel. Depending on how steep the decent is you push your weight further and further back. I'm not exaggerating when I say I've seen people literally touching the back of their saddles with their belly button.
Be careful not to drop a peddle when pushing your weight back or it can be tricky getting back up!

Head: Head up all the time. Look as far as far down the track as you possibly can, don’t look at the floor in front of you.

Remember, your bike will go where you look. If you look at a massive root off to your left you will magically end up going straight at it and hitting it, I promise you! Look where you want to go, not at that big root shouting your name

Knees: Slight bend in the knees. Keep yourself lose, use you knees as suspension to suck up those bumps.

Edit: Found an excellent pic of a dude in the attack position.

!

Note the foot position, nice and flat. Knees with a bend in them.

Look at how far back he has his weight, stop him from flipping going over the front of the bars.

Note how his looking, head up planning and looking at what’s comming up next. No point looking down, you should already have a rough idea of what’s bellow you and if you don’t it’s a bit too late by this stage!

I would also recommend you try this out on flat ground to start with a couple of times. Start of riding fairly slowly then transition into the attack position. Lift both hands of the bars briefly. If you slump forward at all it means you putting too much weight on the bars.

The bars arnt there to support your weight, their put there to steer. If you slump forward you need to push more weight back over the wheel.

There should be a 60/40 split in terms of where your weight is on the frame at all times, the 60% being on the rear of the bike.

Anyways, after 15 mins of typing I hope it comes in handy!

garsr6

i mis read original post, i didnt realise he was going downhill. :roll:

jjojjas

you have enough info above^^^
But to be fair, it is a bugger of a route as in some points the roots are really quite bad and theres "calf" deep holes worn away by all the bike traffic.....made even more fun by being about 3 foot wide in places with a fence one one side and a line of trees on the other....
I have done it on a hard tail and on my full suss, both had their advantages (naturally) but the full suss it my preference for that rout, its bloody hard on you knees on the hard tail.
cool rout though. 8)
Jas

BoredHousewife

thanks for all the info, i'll give it a try next time i'm there. Although with the unweighting method, is that not just going to cause more trouble when my weight comes back onto the bike? The section i'm referring to isn't just a few metres, its an entire hillside. Oh, and thanks jjojjas, at least I can stop thinking I'm the only one who had a hard time there physically.

ukcraigb

I'm not too sure what you’re referring too with respect to the unweighting technique?

I'm not saying that the attack position is the be all and end all but I'm pretty sure 95% of people on these forums would adopt it when riding the kind of terrain your in.

Dr_Death

That bit is getting very cut up and (IMHO) needs some work doing to it. If you don't give it your absolute full attention then it can quite easily throw you off and, as mentioned above, it's fairly unforgiving ground.

Having said that, now I have my 5" full sus I just launch at it with gay abandon!!

BoredHousewife

I'm gonna go back to it when the LTS is up and running again (hopefully soon ) and rip them up! When i went last time I was embarrassed by a mate on a cannondale prophet cos of those roots so have to conquer them!

garsr6

ukcraigb;I'm not too sure what you’re referring too with respect to the unweighting technique?

i hope im not teaching you to suck eggs as it were, but to quote an expert from a well known monthly publication; 'unweighting your bike is important for riding roots, and its often the safest, most predictable and quickest way over them blah blah blah..... watch any pro hit a gnarly set of roots-on any bike- and youll see him or her employ this tactic.'

' riding wet roots is one of the scariest things you can do on a bike, especially a hardtail,.................. imagine walking on ice- you tread softly with flat feet to spread your weight, and move subtly. combine this approach with the unweighting technique and always be ready for a wheel to step out from under you.'

these quotes were taken from an article on hardtail riding.

ok riding on the forks only really used for cornering granted, but im sure most folk use unweighting technique for large rooty or rocky sections?

when i read the article i already did most of what was being explained instinctively, as long as you have good speed and pick a good line it works. try it.

oh and just to clarify they are going downhill in the fotos on hardtails with big roots.

BoredHousewife

garsr6 wrote:

oh and just to clarify they are going downhill in the fotos on hardtails with big roots.

It did appear to be a short section of roots though, anyway, I'll work it out

ukcraigb

garsr6 wrote:

ukcraigb;I'm not too sure what you’re referring too with respect to the unweighting technique?

i hope im not teaching you to suck eggs as it were, but to quote an expert from a well known monthly publication; 'unweighting your bike is important for riding roots, and its often the safest, most predictable and quickest way over them blah blah blah..... watch any pro hit a gnarly set of roots-on any bike- and youll see him or her employ this tactic.'

' riding wet roots is one of the scariest things you can do on a bike, especially a hardtail,.................. imagine walking on ice- you tread softly with flat feet to spread your weight, and move subtly. combine this approach with the unweighting technique and always be ready for a wheel to step out from under you.'

these quotes were taken from an article on hardtail riding.

ok riding on the forks only really used for cornering granted, but im sure most folk use unweighting technique for large rooty or rocky sections?

when i read the article i already did most of what was being explained instinctively, as long as you have good speed and pick a good line it works. try it.

oh and just to clarify they are going downhill in the fotos on hardtails with big roots.

I never said it was unimportant, I asked for someone to clarify what is meant by this, you seem to have a good grasp of the technique, perhaps you could describe it to me in detail in the same sort of way I did for the attack position? It would be much appreciated.

From what I'm reading it sounds like you stick your weight over the front of the fork. If that’s true there’s not a cat in hells chance I'm doing that on steep roots, I quite enjoy my teeth being where they belong!

I look foward to your reply.

BoredHousewife

this should hopefully explain it simply enough:

Linky

Sorry I couldn't find a better example. I wish this site would load all of the interesting stuff from the mags and not just trickle in a few reviews every now and again

Anyway, think bunnyhop but not quite

jacktheoc

i think i know the part you are on about at hamsterley i am a regular there as i only live in billingham (about 10 miles away) i had that trouble the first few times i went there and i just took my time over them beasts and found a good route through them and everytime i go i always use the same route and now i can do it fairly fast, just pick a line that suits you and practice it...

Rich25

hi there.you either mean one of two sections.If its the first root section its marked by a big boulder at the top.can you remember this? this section is difficult to ride fast but its all about carrying your momentum through each section (IMHO!) Ive been riding this route for over ten years so think i know it pretty well now! The second section is actually called the roots section (for obvious reasons!) and it comes after the first ford crossing. This is probably the most technical part of the black route and probably the biggest lung buster! Some of the bits are tricky but i find if you get your bum out the saddle and carry your weight forward you should be fine.

BoredHousewife

Hey Rich, It was the first of those bits I struggled with. Just couldn't ride it, I don't think I'm a particualrly bad rider but the bike was kicked all over. From the responses I've had from locals like yourself I guess I just need to practice it, I did only do the 1 run. With the 2nd I walked up (lazy & unfit, bad combo) and was fine on the flat and down bits.

Thanks for the reply