1st Off Road ride in 30 years ! Arrochar Loop
Hawmaw
Posts: 124
Having joined up here a while back I set about a cheap upgrade to bring my '96 Rockhopper a wee bit more up to date (i.e : cheapo SR XCR fork, Tektra cable disc up front , Mavic wheels , new tyres). I didin't want to splash the big cash until I found out if I liked the rough stuff !
Anyway due to family and work commitments yesterday was my first opportunity to get out in the country. 2 colleagues let me down so it was left to me and another novice on a full rigid '96 Trek 800 to set off for Arrochar.
Now , I'm a fairly compitent road rider who can handle 50 miles but the climb out of Arrochar on the shale and rocks killed me before we even started. I was knackered after 15 min. My legs were burning and heart pounding !. But my big mate , 16 years younger than me at 29 , and a keen sportsman kept pounding away on his old bike .
I must admit I walked a lot of the uphill but after lunch at the top the down hill on the single track was a hoot. Totally mental. There was a few jumps and the big chap managed to land side ways and went over the bars into a bush. He was uninjured and I nearly died laughing.
We got back to Arrochar in one piece with silly grins on our faces. The bikes were intact . The much malined SR fork still works................
I'm hooked.
Now I need to improve my fitness 
Anyway due to family and work commitments yesterday was my first opportunity to get out in the country. 2 colleagues let me down so it was left to me and another novice on a full rigid '96 Trek 800 to set off for Arrochar.
Now , I'm a fairly compitent road rider who can handle 50 miles but the climb out of Arrochar on the shale and rocks killed me before we even started. I was knackered after 15 min. My legs were burning and heart pounding !. But my big mate , 16 years younger than me at 29 , and a keen sportsman kept pounding away on his old bike .
I must admit I walked a lot of the uphill but after lunch at the top the down hill on the single track was a hoot. Totally mental. There was a few jumps and the big chap managed to land side ways and went over the bars into a bush. He was uninjured and I nearly died laughing.
We got back to Arrochar in one piece with silly grins on our faces. The bikes were intact . The much malined SR fork still works................
I'm hooked.
Now I need to improve my fitness 0
Comments
-
Your fitness will improve in no time. If you can do 4 or 5 days a week with a good effort then after two weeks you'll see a huge difference :-)
For a budget fork the Suntour XCR takes some beating. I only paid about 40 quid for one and it was much better than my ancient Manitou. Not too heavy either. Having read piles of reviews I reckoned I'd need to spend well over 200 for anything noticeably better.http://www.strathspey.co.uk - Quality Binoculars at a Sensible Price.
Specialized Roubaix SL3 Expert 2012, Cannondale CAAD5,
Marin Mount Vision (1997), Edinburgh Country tourer, 3 cats!0 -
need to mark your mate on air time, technical difficulty and style :P
sounds like a good ride
i got caught out byt the difference between road and trail recenlty, its one hell of a difference0
