Red Runs

Sixtoes
Sixtoes Posts: 7
edited July 2009 in MTB beginners
Hi,

Fairly new to this mountain biking lark. I do about 40 miles a week over the Wiltshire downs on a Claud Butler cape Wrath XC 2007, mostly on bridleways, but occasionally on some rougher stuff.

A good mate of mine has been riding for a fair bit longer, and we have been talking about heading to one of the Welsh trail centres. I'm just a little concerned that me and the bike won't be up to the red runs he want's to try, I really don't want to hold him up too much and spoil his enjoyment of the ride.

I'm reasonably fit, although still carrying too much weight round the middle. My normal rides involve about 800ft of height gain, and are around 20 miles in length which takes me about 2 hours.

Are the bike and I going to be able to handle the red trails at Cwmcarn for instance?

Cheers in advance for any help.

Comments

  • Noizetek
    Noizetek Posts: 98
    Sorry Sixtoes I'm gonna hijack this thread as well...I ride in the Peak District so have ploughed through quite a lot of varried and technical terrain, even though im still a novice really. Planning on hitting some trail centres this year, I have a Kona Blast Deluxe with Zoccy MX Pro Lo forks, Sunringle equaliser rims and raceface atlas bar and stem, will this be ok to tackle the red routes or will a full sus be more advisable?
    Kona Blast 2008
    http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu182/Todd_Robinson/PICT0326.jpg
  • geordiefreerider
    geordiefreerider Posts: 888
    Both the bikes you have are more than up to the job, the cape wrath got a cracking write up in mbuk i seem to remember, I dont know the kona blast but there decent forks you have so i imagine the rest of the bike is a fairly decent spec so neither of you have got any worrys :wink:
    http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak- ... 230783.jpg
  • GHill
    GHill Posts: 2,402
    Both bikes are fine, I've seen people get round the red routes on rigid singlespeeds.

    All of the stuff can be ridden pretty easily, just don't get carried away and go too fast as there are a lot of rocks (as my face can testify :lol: ).
  • geordiefreerider
    geordiefreerider Posts: 888
    just looked at the kona online its a spot on bit of kit more than up to the job as is the cape wrath !! I would take either of those on any red route and some black routes as well !!
    http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak- ... 230783.jpg
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    It's worth bearing in mind that "red" run doesn't mean anything, really. One centre's "red" is another's "blue" or "black"

    In Llandegla, for example, you could easily ride the (great fun) red route on a rigid. Riding the Red trail in Coed y Brenin on a rigid, however (dragon's back), would prove a bit more than challenging - although I have seen people do it. Hell, I used to do it back in the day, before all this suspension malarkey came to pass.
  • Sixtoes
    Sixtoes Posts: 7
    Thanks for the advice guys.

    Looks like the bike is up to it, now just got to worry about the fool riding it!
  • tlw1
    tlw1 Posts: 22,121
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    It's worth bearing in mind that "red" run doesn't mean anything, really. One centre's "red" is another's "blue" or "black"

    In Llandegla, for example, you could easily ride the (great fun) red route on a rigid. Riding the Red trail in Coed y Brenin on a rigid, however (dragon's back), would prove a bit more than challenging - although I have seen people do it. Hell, I used to do it back in the day, before all this suspension malarkey came to pass.

    +1

    You can even do the the llandegla black on a rigid singlespeed - but I wouldn't consider doing CYB on a rigid

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