1st Off Road ride in 30 years ! Arrochar Loop

Hawmaw
Hawmaw Posts: 124
edited September 2010 in MTB beginners
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. :D Now I need to improve my fitness :(

Comments

  • unixnerd
    unixnerd Posts: 2,864
    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.
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    Marin Mount Vision (1997), Edinburgh Country tourer, 3 cats!
  • mak3m
    mak3m Posts: 1,394
    :lol::lol::lol:

    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 difference