sherwood pines...any good?????

deadliest

Been up there today and to be honest its 10x better than the last time we rode it . . . If you take a little detour down the left hand DH trail through the wall rides it adds a couple of extra little drop offs as well, All in all it seems to be getting better all the time, Some of the corners could do with banking or berms though as they are hard to hit at speed because the hardpack trail drops away at the edges.

lastwords

Went again today, I agree about some corners could do with berms there are two i can think of that are really tight and you have to slow right down to get round. Most of it can be ridden really quick but you get very tired keeping up the speed

big_tex_uk

Video of the new North Shore on the Dual Descender

http://vimeo.com/4246654

lastwords

love the dog 8)

deadliest

Went up there last saturday and we are off up again for a quick blast Thursday night, Been contemplating doing the drop off is there any words of advice in regards speed or what to watch for ?

tomxc

that vids awesome....werr are those sections......the most ive seen ther is the lil wooden drop off but i havent been for a few months. [/quote]

deadliest

When you get to the Dirt Jump section follow the Kitchener trail to the right and the Statrt ramp will be straight in front of you after a few metres.

big_tex_uk

deadliest - re the drop off you just need some reasonable speed and that is about it. You dont need to pull up or anything like that the bike should just land naturally all being your not in some funny position.

Stuff like this is deceptive as really you not getting much height and your just following the natural line through the air.

Give it a go you will love it.

It might be worth getting somebody to film it as it might be funny if you do crash....sorry

tomxc

haha...yeah i usually do stupid stuff like that...usually involves trees :P

JGS

deadliest wrote:

Went up there last saturday and we are off up again for a quick blast Thursday night, Been contemplating doing the drop off is there any words of advice in regards speed or what to watch for ?

With regards to The Pier, it's actually a lot easier to ride at it with pace and flop off it, than it is to try and ride down the slope. I found that I had to go a little bit faster than I thought because the upslope of the pier sapped your speed a bit.

Just a warning to everyone though, be very careful when you come into the bottom of the downhill once you re-enter the trees. There were a lot of familys, despite many polite warnings from our group, riding the wrong way up the trails. In fact it was quite disappointing that when we were trying to warn them of the dangers some of them just said "So what? I'll ride where I like.", and I am sure when someone crashes into one of their kids at 25mph+ it'll be the riders fault and not the parents.

angrymeerkat

JGS wrote:

With regards to The Pier, it's actually a lot easier to ride at it with pace and flop off it, than it is to try and ride down the slope...

Er, I've just got back from Sherwood Pines and either i'm going slightly mad, or it's been removed. Which is annoying, because I was there to pick up my new ride and give it a good shakedown (aka thrashing)...

The trails have matured a lot it seems - it was raining fairly heavily in chunks over the past 2 days and yet the ground is drained and hard for, I'd say, 90% of the route. I also went on the dirt jumps (in the 'bike park' section, not the DH track) for the first time... epic fun, and this was only on the baby tabletops!

Looks like some of the more deserving high-speed turns have been bermed some more; unfortunately there are still some rather tedious sections where you have to play 'dodge the stumps we left in the middle of the trail', between about 4 miles in and the bike park especially. Keeps getting better though

dickie762

I went here on Monday and really enjoyed it, couldn't actually find the park/jumps though! On the map it looked like it was around point 9 on the blue trail, so I went off the red and onto point 8 of the blue, rode up the hill but then came to point 10! :? Found the dh bit with the jumps and the north shore bits though.

Thought the trails were good but maybe a little poorly signposted in some places if you'd never been there before.

Agree with the comments about lack of bermed corners and off camber turns too, was hard to stay on the pace in some sections.

Looking forward to going again soon though!

angrymeerkat

dickie762 wrote:

I went here on Monday and really enjoyed it, couldn't actually find the park/jumps though! On the map it looked like it was around point 9 on the blue trail, so I went off the red and onto point 8 of the blue, rode up the hill but then came to point 10! :? Found the dh bit with the jumps and the north shore bits though.

Thought the trails were good but maybe a little poorly signposted in some places if you'd never been there before.

Really strange that you found the north shore and not the bike park... they begin next to each other! The red trail actually takes you through the bike park entrance gate so maybe next time stay on track. When I went yesterday, the DJ area was full of 8-year-olds on BMX bikes who weren't afraid of losing limbs... they put me to shame, but seriously, no pads, no helmets, no parents... :shock: I'm too old for that stuff. Imagine the time off work you'd need for injury?!

Anyway attempted the north shore drop off after "big_tex_uk" made it look so easy. Let's just say there's a skill shortfall.

The trail was pretty muddy in places, and a couple of sections were closed early on - fire road diversions in place.

dickie762

I think I might have found it without realising it :oops: Didn't see the jumps though, although it was getting dark so I didn't get much chance to have a look around that area.

Strange how the bottom of some of the more exciting bits had huge tree stumps in the way, I take it the staff have done it but surely thats a bit dangerous if you go down there without looking :?

big_tex_uk

Anyway attempted the north shore drop off after "big_tex_uk" made it look so easy. Let's just say there's a skill shortfall.

Hope you made it ok? I have seen a few people crash on it now with varying degrees of pain/broken bikes......

Speed is your friend although i did it at warp six the other day and landed to flat which was fun (bottom out) ish!

footylegsy

I'm going down on saturday. Will take some photos, and should have afew videos aswell. I'll have to see what the trails like after all this rain. I'm gonna try and drop of the ladder drop, don't dare at the moment, i'm a wimp, will video it incase i crash(likely).

big_tex_uk

Looking forward to the video!!

You only live once!!!

footylegsy

Don't get your hopes up mate, I'm not very good atall, its my son doing the riding!(aged 12!)

footylegsy

Damn. Didn't get to get down in the end. Very fed up... Which means no video or photos.

angrymeerkat

big_tex_uk wrote:

Anyway attempted the north shore drop off after "big_tex_uk" made it look so easy. Let's just say there's a skill shortfall.

Hope you made it ok? I have seen a few people crash on it now with varying degrees of pain/broken bikes......

Speed is your friend although i did it at warp six the other day and landed to flat which was fun (bottom out) ish!

Haha, oh, I survived, it just put the wind up me a little! Realised I wasn't going quickly enough, but knew I'd have a properly serious off if I slowed any more... the gradient just sapped a little too much speed, it's quite deceptive.

Landed heavily nose-down, before the slope is blended in at the bottom. Mercifully all my machinery held up to the shock (er, bent a spoke). No bruises beyond the ego

So has the ladder drop been replaced yet? I've not been to SP for about a month, have been mostly on-road training for the Great Nottinghamshire. Which was fun.

tomxc

i rode at sherwood last week and its the first time ive been in ages, i think the sign posting is alot better...i rode the red trail and it was mint...not quite like other big trail centres but its damn good.

OH NO Dan

Been to sherwood a handfull of times now and think its awesome. Theres some sections on the red trail that have fallen away on the outside of the bend which can get abit tricky if you go too fast.

Dirt jumps are a laugh (only tried the small tabletops ) Why dont they put some bins near the jumps theres friggin rubbish everywhere?!

Id recommend the blue trail aswell, yes its not quite as intense as the red but its quite quick. I'll be going back soon hopefully as its only 40 minute drive there.

slemm

Now you lot have wetted my appetite for this biking mecca.....does it cost to use?? and do you have to book....sorry for being so ignorant

Steve

BlackSpur

slemm wrote:

Now you lot have wetted my appetite for this biking mecca.....does it cost to use?? and do you have to book....sorry for being so ignorant

Steve

You pay for the car park (not sure how much it is now) and the trails themselves are free.

alisdairh

£3 for the car park, and that goes towards the upkeep of the place so it's well worth it.

I took my wife to do the Kitchener trail last Wednesday. It was her first time on a red and now she's got the bug!

We're in Betws y Coed the week after next so we're going to give the Marin trail a go while we're there.

richg1979

i found it enjoyable but nothing special, and a very easy trail (appart from the jump park with the huge doubles). even the 3 spot dh black run was easy, there was nothing technical and nothing to really get you working, seems very flat and everything looks the same.

but ideal if your a novice as its fast and flowing

i aslo found the jump park to be full of 8yr olds sorounded by hordes of rubbish and piles of poo everywhere surrounded by dirty toilet paper :shock: obvioulsy cant be botherd to make a trip to the toilets.

angrymeerkat

richg1979 wrote:

i aslo found the jump park to be full of 8yr olds sorounded by hordes of rubbish and piles of poo everywhere surrounded by dirty toilet paper :shock: obvioulsy cant be botherd to make a trip to the toilets.

The place really has gone a bit wrong - evidently the saying "you don't s**t in your back yard" is lost on the current generation of scallies. Was there yesterday, whilst I didn't venture too far to the outer edges of the park, there's rubbish everywhere at the top. Disgusting. The jumps are also starting to disintegrate; the final, biggest tabletop on the baby run (the only one I have the balls for!) has fallen to pieces.

All the best to the poor guy who broke his collarbone on the middle run whilst we were there. Ya took that like a man, I'd have been squealing like a stuck pig.