Cwmcarn DH Track 08/09/09 Pics

2»

Comments

  • bungalistic
    bungalistic Posts: 543
    deadpool2e wrote:
    All those pics where taken near the bottom, the top half is a lot more tech.

    Agreed, and i've only took the right hand path from the top (the easier option). The bottom section is much more open and the photos make it look easier than it really is, some bits are pretty steep and loose and still require some skill.

    We rode it a few times on hardtails a few week back and will do so again soon as it is great fun, a full on DH rig isn't really needed for it.
  • el loco pollo
    el loco pollo Posts: 158
    I went up there last weekend. They have had to mark the sleeper drop in as "bike park" with the three orange dots, and the roll-in at the same spot with two orange dots because so many people were crashing badly.

    I hope the same thing doesn't happen that happened up on the freeride section - too many people were smashing themselves up on the drop offs, so the FC had to remove them.

    Talking to some lads on the uplift they were saying that an increasing number of people are attempting to ride the DH track on unsuitable bikes and without suitable helmets / armour, which is threatening the enjoyment of others (presumably because they go slow or fall off badly and the track needs to be shut?) - I kind of see their point but everyone has to start somewhere, right.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    how long is the DH run... average time?
  • joshtp
    joshtp Posts: 3,966
    looks like fun, but its suprsing that the ones on the iphone- not a famously good camera, are the best, at least thay are properly in focus!
    I like bikes and stuff
  • P-Jay
    P-Jay Posts: 1,478
    GmanUK101 wrote:
    how long is the DH run... average time?

    A full race run is about 3 mins and some seconds,

    The red is longer so takes a bit longer.

    I've never timed myself, but the guy going off the drop in the pics is my riding buddie and does it in low 4's a think.

    I'd guess 6-7 mins on a lighter bike? But it's all relative, I've been utterly, utterly smoked by a guy riding an SX more than once.

    it's long enough tbh, I'm usually knackered by the end of a run, and can do 10 or so max before I start making silly mistaked and crashing. I'm not very fit at all though.
    Shocker Enduro
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    looks like ace fun mate! you are lucky, i've got to go accross the other coast for a long run like that (or almost) and even then i'm on a 5" 120mm travel XC bike, which I fly over the bars on..lol (lower back is swollen at the mo..nice).

    keep pushing it man, looks ace!

    l8rs

    G
  • P-Jay
    P-Jay Posts: 1,478
    joshtp/mbukman wrote:
    looks like fun, but its suprsing that the ones on the iphone- not a famously good camera, are the best, at least thay are properly in focus!

    Yeah it's true. Oddly the pics from the camera look better on the originals, but suffered badly when they got photobucketed.

    I'm not able to DH for months and months yet so I'm taking pics for fun at the moment.

    My other mate has got a digial lecia and I'd love to borrow that for a day and have a go. It's probably worth a fortune though so he might pass on it, after I tell him some tree climbing is involved ha ha.

    I've got an old Cannon EOS, but not sure if I can be arsed getting them printed. I could really do with something with a decent view finder and variable shutter speed.
    Shocker Enduro
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    try the cannon eos 400, i've got one,, get an image stabalized (can't spell) lense...worth an invest' in that. there is a cannon reFurb store on eBay...top quality.
  • joshtp
    joshtp Posts: 3,966
    i have an minolta Z1, its a briliant camera for loads of stuff, and takes some great pics of action, i have got some really good mtb pics with mine. its of the "big zoom" variety. so it aint small, but its not as big a dslr. it has full manual modes and loads of inbetween-ness so you can totaly custom everything. it was realeased it 02 so it has low Mp at 3.2, but its the lense not the Mega pixels that make a good camera, so it still won all the tests when it was raeleased. and unless you want to blow them up past A4, the low mp's dont matter. becouse its older you can get a mint one on ebay for less than £30!
    GET IT, you wont regret it.
    (and, no, i dont work for minolta)
    I like bikes and stuff
  • ride_whenever
    ride_whenever Posts: 13,279
    hmmm, i'd do it on my 456, it'd be slow but i'd pick up speed once i knew it better.

    Much rather have armour and a FF to do it though, more for confidence.




    Hell i'd probably give it a decent whack on my inbred with sids on the front...
    Neeermad
    Carbon 456
    456 lefty
    Pompino
    White Inbred
  • nferrar
    nferrar Posts: 2,511
    Do it then and let us know how you get on :p

    As for times, I was doing 6 minute red runs which is slow but I was mostly trying to avoid trashing myself (and walking the road drop takes some time :p ). Someone in the group was doing close to 4 minutes on an Orange 5 (his first day on the course to), that's probably about the limit until you get some proper skills and more travel (and bigger balls in my case).

    It's certainly doable on a hardtail, even though the top section is more technical there's nothing I avoided (unlike the road drop) although I generally took chicken run options. I guess if you're going super fast then you'll be airborne a fair bit more and some stuff would get a lot sketchier.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    totally, its the lense not the MPs.... +1
  • bungalistic
    bungalistic Posts: 543
    nferrar wrote:
    that's probably about the limit until you get some proper skills and more travel

    I wouldn't say it's big enough to warrant too much travel, riding it more and having the skill makes up for 'lack of travel' though as you say having bigger balls certainly helps with some bits. :D
  • zero303
    zero303 Posts: 1,162
    I was doing very low 4s on an Orange Five (that was me in nferrars post btw), I'd class it as a very black XC descent personally. Apparently Rowan is almost as quick when he did it on a Five as he was on his 224. I'm reckon I'd have been no faster on a DH bike myself.

    I'm not saying it's an easy track to ride, it's really tough to get a clean run in and keep it on the boil all the way down, I had a couple that I thought could have been sub 4 mins but I binned it on both of those. As an experienced trail rider and first time DHer, it wasn't that there was anything I couldn't ride, it's just the speed of the course and how it just keeps coming at you. Like I said, 4 mins I was doing but it feels like you're being battered non-stop for more like 20 mins! LOL

    If you can manage the very last rock garden on the Afan black run, you'll probably get by on the CC DH course. Worth having a guide lead you down the first run though :D

Categories