1st time follow the dog

coxy17

hi all ,my son and i did follow the dog today at cannock chase,1st thing,if you were there today we hope we did not hold you up..it was our 1st time mtb enjoyed so much we went round twice,,and we cant wait to go back nxt wd,there was some expensive bikes going around but our gt avalanche 3.0 disc survived for another day,i think we need go on a skills training course any one been on one, and are they any good,or shall we just keep getting out there,roll on nxt wkd, :

docker0141

when i strated i didn't have the option of skills cources i just had to try and keep up with my mates, sort of "sink or swim" tactics

it does get easier with practice

coxy17

ok tks i keep practicing, but how they fly through those trees with about foot ever side of them i will never no,we only had one tree jump out at us,but the front wheel served,and sure glad had helmet on,. :

toasty

You picked a good day, that's the driest it's been in ages. It is very churned up and bumpy still though and slows you down no end. In the summer it should be a bit smoother and faster, much more fun.

Skills wise, I'd just keep hammering it for a good few times to get started. If you can get the knack of it now, while it's rough, you'll be laughing when summer comes and it gets smoothed out The section at the top of the long fireroad hill and the gravelly section at the opposite side both drain pretty well though, they're much the same in summer.

I was out today on the "Zaskar Team" bike from my sig for a couple of laps, I don't think I saw you, it was a pretty heaving though! Still, we're going again tomorrow, it's an hour-ish drive but it's the best biking around this end!

deadliest

Its a fantastic trail and as Toasty says come the summer will be much faster, Anyone with any intelligence takes it fairly steady on there first lap of a trail but as time progresses you will find that its a trail that begs to be ridden fast and you will find yourself pushing it more each time you ride it.

The Chainslapper puts a huge grin on my face everytime and the cafe does some fantastic post ride food.

Its great that you are out with your son as well but I guarantee that Mrs Coxy17 will soon be sick of hearing about bikes.

Unless she is like Mrs Toast of course and gets bitten by the bug herself I see a Lapierre on the horizon Toasty

toasty

deadliest wrote:

Unless she is like Mrs Toast of course and gets bitten by the bug herself I see a Lapierre on the horizon Toasty

hehe, me too

Mrs Toast

deadliest wrote:

Unless she is like Mrs Toast of course and gets bitten by the bug herself I see a Lapierre on the horizon Toasty

:P

I'm testing a Meta and an Orange Diva today, I think Mr Toast is praying that I like the Meta. He tried to put me off the Lapierre by pointing out that 'Lapierre Zesty' is an anagram of 'Ritzy Sea Leper'. Whereas 'Commencal Meta' is 'Comet Camel Man'. Didn't work...

I was wondering if they'd managed to smooth out section 13, it didn't seem to be as jarring as when I rode it last year.

As for coxy17, don't worry about holding people up - if there's someone approaching fast from behind (ooh er) just try and pull over where it's safe. Most people are fairly aware that the people who ride FtD have differing abilities/speed/experience, and normally keep their distance until it's safe to overtake. Glad you enjoyed the trail!

coxy17

hi mrs toast how did the testing go today,on the meta and orange diva,which bike did you prefer.and we did enjoy the trail only thing that annoyed me was the groups of rides gathering and the bottom of each run,and not moving to the side,mrs coxy still not to sure about her hubby and son,throwing ourselves down single tracks. but we hopping go back nxt sat..why does work get in the way,lol.

Mrs Toast

Ugh, don't ask about the demo day!

To demo the bikes, you had to go on the guided rides. I was dreading it, thinking it was going to be loads of really tame fire roads without any opportunity to see what the bikes were capable of.

In reality, it was the complete opposite. We were taken on a route that was actually far harder than any reds I'd been on before (FtD, Llandegla) and I ended up completely frozen on one section - I had to walk the bike down. :? On the plus side, there were other people who were struggling, so that was a small consolation. I think the ride leaders just assumed that everyone testing high-end bikes would be experienced and awesome, rather than enthusiastic but rubbish!

I didn't get to test the Meta, as they didn't have the small I booked - unfortunately the Commencal chap who was sorting the bikes recently had a recent bereavement, so it's understandable. They managed to get all of the Commencals that people had booked, with the exception of two.

The Orange was great, and I really loved being on a longer bike. Funnily enough, I booked the Diva 'Long' - which actually has the same frame as the normal Fives.

deadliest

After reading Mrs Toasts blog it appears all did not go well . . . Sounds like a silly idea going round with guides anyway its instant pressure to start with and on an unfamiliar bike on an unfamiliar trail the pressure soon mounts, Love the map of joy Mrs Toast im off to Afan on May 1st so if you get there before me it will be interesting to hear your views.

Have you tried any other trails Coxy17 ? The peak district is a fantastic place to ride and has rides to suit everyone a particular favourite of mine is the Ladybower Classic the views are absolutely stunning .

And the Ladybower Pub does a mean Beef and onion bap

Mrs Toast

As I said on ze blog, I can understand why they'd prefer the guided ride format to their demos - by limiting it to that, they know when the bikes are going out and coming back in, and don't have their bookings thrown into complete disarray by the inevitable numpties who bring their bikes back late.

But yeah, I did feel really pressured - I've never liked riding in groups at the best of times. If I come off my bike, I'd like to be able to claim that it was because I was heroically bunny hopping over a passing stag when I got knocked out of the air by a low-flying buzzard. It sounds a lot more impressive than "I panicked when I got hit in the face by branches and fell off". Can't do that with witnesses.

In the end I decided to use it as incentive to up my skills and fitness, so that I don't make a muppet out of myself when riding with other people.

I doubt I'll be able to get to Afan before May, but we'll be hitting Dalby at Easter when we visit Mr Toast's parents.

And Coxy, how old is your lad? I think the younger you get them out there on the trails, the better they'll be. A lot of mountain biking is about confidence, so get 'em on there whilst they're young and fearless!

And besides, if they should break anything, broken bones repair easier when they're younger, plus having a cast makes you really cool at school!

Alex

Hello Mrs Toast.

Since they started at the downhill course, I presume they took you down one of the downhill tracks? Can you recall which one it was?

Also, what was the rest of the route like? Did you cross the A460 or did you just stay in the special events area? If you just stayed in the special events area, which singletrack did you ride?

Mrs Toast

Truth be told, I have no idea - I've always stuck with the Marquis Drive/Birches Valley end of things. We definitely didn't actually do any of the 'proper' marked downhill stuff - in fact, I think Leisure Lakes were flat out banning anyone from demoing bikes on those tracks.

We went past the start of the downhill tracks, and went down a rooty descent that ran parallel to Stile Cop road. We stayed on mostly stayed on the fire roads and long, long climbs. The only real bit of singletrack that I can recall is the descent, which was a bit beyond me.

As I've said, I'm afraid I'm not really that familiar with that end of the Chase - all I can tell you was the singletrack was off to the left of a fire road (if you're climbing it), very, very steep in parts, very muddy, had very tight corners and lots of trees. Which probably describes a lot of trails! We didn't cross the A460 - we did pass the special events area, but we were on the fire road at that point.

I wish we would have gone and helped with the build day instead. I'm glad I tried an Orange, and that I know that the bloke's 14" inch frame is fine for me - but other than that, all I know about its performance is that it's quite good on fire roads and that it's quite nice to push down singletrack descents that are too hard for me to ride. It just felt like a bit of a wasted day.

Alex

Started with some really rooty, steep switchbacks? Then properly muddy at the very bottom? Sounds like Wonderland.

http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/2306826/

If they'd spoken to chasetrails or to the forestry Recreation Ranger, they'd have been told that the downhill course was a very bad place to start a demo ride. There's not even any good singletrack in the Special Events area any more as it's all closed for trailbuilding during the Phase 2 construction. The only bits that are open are muddy, ruined sections of the cross country race course what're suitable for neither man nor beast in a wet late February. That's before anyone mentions that the cheeky singletrack in that area is double-steep and not at all suitable for folks who're possibly new to riding and/or on an unfamiliar bike.

I had to turn away one of the demo rides myself before they went round a brashed section and ran over the trail builders.

The build day was good, the BBQ was excellent and lots of trail got built. Don't worry about missing out though, we're running another one in month or so's time.

AdvoCake

It wasn't on the downhill runs at stile cop, that was just the starting point. Having seen the carparks at Birches Valley and Marquis Drive on the way over, they were heaving, so Stile Cop was definitely quieter. The route was away from Stile Cop, back towards Marquis Drive on the far side of the A460. Down towards where the new phase 2 stuff is and up the hill towards the end of the golf course, then there's a nice steep, narrow bit that spits you out near Marquis Drive again. Then, up the hill towards the other road (towards Beaudesert). Over the top then back to Stile Cop.

Apparently, they did it in the guided route format for insurance purposes. Asking people's ability levels BEFORE leading them down that narrow route would perhaps have helped...

For those, who were also there, my mrs was the one that fell off and had to be escorted back to the start. She's ok though, she perked up no end when I told her I'd buy her an EX8

coxy17

hi mrs toast my son is 15 and i am 50 i no bit old to start this mtb lark,my son had his bike since last sept, and he persuaded me i needed a bike for xmas. ,we have only been going off road,mostly along the centenary way,from warwick out towards kenilworth,back through beausale.plenty of mud..two wks ago.halfterm hols had wk in north wales,so our 1st ever ride was the marin trail,we were based in betws-y-coed,good job there was few shops there for mrs coxy and daughter, we biked from there up to pencraig and joined the trail from there,what a climb to get up there,why did i start this mtb at my age.,and 5hrs latter we had completed the trail,with few stops to take in the views,and little push here and there,that was my excuse for rest anyway.and that was it we were bitten.last wkd cannock and hope to go again this wkd.maybe go back to wales for our sum hols do penmachno and coed-y-brenin,if they not to technical for us,have to be nice to mrs coxy she was talking about hols on easy coast,bit flat that way,dont think there any trails past thetford forest.just glad my riding better than my typing and spelling skills.[/b]

Mrs Toast

AdvoCake wrote:

For those, who were also there, my mrs was the one that fell off and had to be escorted back to the start. She's ok though, she perked up no end when I told her I'd buy her an EX8

Falling off bike = New bike...might have to try that one!

Glad to hear your missus is OK and looking forward to getting back in the saddle! Interesting to hear about the guided ride being an insurance-related thing, I wonder why the other demo days didn't have similar? :?

hi mrs toast my son is 15 and i am 50 i no bit old to start this mtb lark,my son had his bike since last sept, and he persuaded me i needed a bike for xmas.

Nah, you're never too old - use it or lose it! One of my fondest FtD memories was being overtaken by two anorak clad, grey-haired ladies on top-end full-sussers. I eventually caught up with them, but only because they'd stopped to have a picnic! I can only hope that I'm that awesome at that age. Hell, I'd quite like to be that awesome now...

For the holidays, http://www.mbwales.com/ lets you see which trail centres have a mixture of routes - green, blue, red, etc., but it's worth checking on here how technical the routes are in comparison to what you're used to. For example, I'm happy doing Cannock Chase and Llandegla reds, but I shy away from Dalby and Glentress reds.

If you fancy venturing oop north, Dalby has green, blue and red routes, plus a Go Ape centre, and is reasonably close for days out in York, and seaside towns like Scarborough and Whitby. There's also the 'Moor to Sea' cycle route which uses the disused railway lines.

Alex

Cannock's follow the dog is "mostly blue with a hint of red", but a trail's graded by its hardest compulsory point, so FTD is red.

Phase 2 will be a proper red, with optional black sections, so you'll be able to ride locally and still cut your teeth into a red route that stands up to other red routes nationally.

Mrs Toast

Aye, looking forward to phase two (not as much as Mr Toast, mind!)! It'll be giving more experienced bikers a better challenge, whilst also easing up the volume of traffic on FtD, allowing beginners/intermediates to learn with a little less pressure. I'll be waiting until I feel confident enough (and fit enough!) before hitting phase two (still need to master step-ups...and anything involving large rocks), but it's nice to know that there will be a trail that will push me to get better without having to go to Wales.

Incidentally, what is it about FtD that makes it a red? Is it just the timber features like the little double plank bridge and northshore, or are there other parts of the track which are considered 'red'? I've often wondered, the Forestry Commission website doesn't go into a huge amount of detail.

And are the build days still going on every Sunday, or is it just selected ones?

EDIT: Sorry about the barrage of questions, I promise I won't start asking about the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow!

Alex

The little plank bridge, the boardwalk, the log roll at the end of the new Section 8, the state of the chainslapper and a couple of other technicalities like tread width and length. Overall, it's a red, but a very easy red.

We're out building almost every Sunday, starting at 10am from Birches Valley, if you wait outside of swinnos or say "Hi i'm here for trailbuilding" to one of the shop folks we'll come and get you.

There's more information on trailbuilding on www.chasetrails.co.uk and on the midlands MTB forum

Alex

Oh, and 24 miles an hour.

counterculture

docker0141 wrote:

when i strated i didn't have the option of skills cources i just had to try and keep up with my mates, sort of "sink or swim" tactics

it does get easier with practice

it doestn get easier, you just go faster and harder

deadliest

Alex wrote:

Oh, and 24 miles an hour.

http://www.style.org/unladenswallow/

This link should tell you all you need to know Mrs Toast

joshtp

i'm 14 and got my 54 year old dad into riding, i'v been riding for a while but he's very new, did his first red the other day at afan. he loved it! although the brakes on his spesh hardreock died at about halfway, so he did have quite a big crash, he still vowed to come runing bake soon though. never too young or old.... mtb is food for the soul!

Mrs Toast

deadliest wrote:

Alex wrote:

Oh, and 24 miles an hour.

http://www.style.org/unladenswallow/

This link should tell you all you need to know Mrs Toast

I love the internet!