I'm new to bike racing, whats the difference between XC DH

D4V1D

I cycle to work 3 out of 5 days most weeks and it's crossed my mind to do a bit of mountain bike racing, but I don't know where to start. Or where to go.

I've read about 12 hour races and that seems to spark an interest. Are there any clubs in North Shropshire for mountain bike racing, were only a stones throw from North Wales.

Thanks very much for you help.

nicklouse

about 100mm of travel and 10 kg.

eg
XC a fully and an HT



and for DH

D4V1D

I take it the silver bike is for HT, what type of sport is that?. It looks like it has only one gear speed.

thel33ter

HT stands for hard tail - as in no rear suspension.

And singlespeed is a silly faddy thing for people who are either trying to look cool or really fast.

Sounds like you would be best doing XC racing, which is basically like road racing, but without the road. DH - downhill is basically going crazy fast down a big hill/cliff.

Like so http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwTkaLD-rPU

D4V1D

My bike isn't a road racing bike it's like the silver bike but without the front suspension. I was thinking of buying a bike as a race bike, is XC like single track racing?.

I don't fancy doing Down Hill but maybe mountain racing, is that single track racing?.

thel33ter

XC = Cross country, basically a mixture of fireroads with the odd bits of singletrack.

AM = All mountain, a bit of everything really.

DH = As above.

This is XC racing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsVzX3oh ... re=related

Pretty much any bike is up to it, maybe get a cheap bike to see if you like mountain biking before blowing a chunk of cash on an all out race bike?

D4V1D

I think I'd like it as I use to do a lot of motorcycle off road enduro racing (3hrs). but the cost got the better of me. Thanks for the advice, just need a track or race day lol.

cooldad

thel33ter wrote:

This is XC racing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsVzX3oh ... re=related

Sure you could have found a more exciting video - that looked like my style, nice and smooth, especially for geriatrics. Not like the cliffs you guys try and make me ride down, and no giant bike eating roots.

mak3m

cooldad wrote:

thel33ter wrote:

This is XC racing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsVzX3oh ... re=related

Sure you could have found a more exciting video - that looked like my style, nice and smooth, especially for geriatrics. Not like the cliffs you guys try and make me ride down, and no giant bike eating roots.

LMAO actually that video reminded me of my time on monkey trail at cannock, should of really pulled over and let them through :P

D4V1D

Hope this works,

This is my first Falcon Everest, I had it back in 1986-87.







And this is my trusty works bike lol.

Raleigh trail 2000.

njee20

So is that what you've got now? That'll be out of it's depth rather quickly at any sort of mountain bike race.

XC is the most 'accessible' discipline, courses are lap based, you ride up and down the hills. Virtually any modern bike will be up to that, expect to spend around £300 upwards to get something suitable.

I would advise doing some non-competitive mountain biking before you start racing though!

D4V1D

njee20 wrote:

So is that what you've got now? That'll be out of it's depth rather quickly at any sort of mountain bike race.

XC is the most 'accessible' discipline, courses are lap based, you ride up and down the hills. Virtually any modern bike will be up to that, expect to spend around £300 upwards to get something suitable.

I would advise doing some non-competitive mountain biking before you start racing though!

Thanks, yes I still own those two bikes. I do ride a section of green lanes/legal forestry tracks (with two others) and I can understand that these bike aren't well suited for thet job of racing. Hence the reson for trying to understand the different formats of mountain bike racing. So I can go out and buy the right bike for the job.

Here are a couple of bike I like the look of, what do you guy reckon to them?.

http://www.davemellorcycles.com/product ... ctid=15291
http://www.davemellorcycles.com/product ... ctid=16440
http://www.davemellorcycles.com/product ... ctid=16492
http://www.davemellorcycles.com/product ... ctid=16496

thel33ter

At £850, this blows all those others our of the water.

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.p ... 1b0s2p2290

Anonymous

My trollsense is tingling. :?

D4V1D

yeehaamcgee wrote:

My trollsense is tingling. :?

WTF!. say what you mean man. If people can't have a chat what the point of having a forum?.





















PS your trollsense is probibly tingling all the time living in North Wales. lol. :P

Anonymous

You want me to say what I mean?
Fine.
I reckon you're just trolling the forum. You don't own a mountain bike, and have never ridden anything that resembles what could realistically be called "mountain biking" trails, or terrain.
However, you have decided that rather than just try it, and see if it's your bag, you want to race instead.
So you either have way too much self confidence, or consider MTBing to be so easy that you can immediately step in and race (rather belittling the people who train hard for their events), or, and this is where my money would go if I were a betting man, a complete buffoon.

Is that better, or would you be happier had I just left it at what I said before?

D4V1D

yeehaamcgee wrote:

You want me to say what I mean?
Fine.
I reckon you're just trolling the forum. You don't own a mountain bike, and have never ridden anything that resembles what could realistically be called "mountain biking" trails, or terrain.
However, you have decided that rather than just try it, and see if it's your bag, you want to race instead.
So you either have way too much self confidence, or consider MTBing to be so easy that you can immediately step in and race (rather belittling the people who train hard for their events), or, and this is where my money would go if I were a betting man, a complete buffoon.

Is that better, or would you be happier had I just left it at what I said before?

Go back and have a read through my posts, I don't know where you have picked up all your negativity from?. Don't you want new people to get into mountain biking?. (perhaps it's a post whore count thing 14460) I'm asking for advice. I've shown the two bike I currently own, and I've stated that I use to race 3hr motor cycle enduro's, so I do have some level of base fittness way above a couch potato. I've always trained, running/cycled as part of my fitness for motor cycle enduro racing, with http://www.worevents.com/. I can see that off road motor endours and DH use the same techniques. I live in sy4 which has enough B-roads and some green lanes - forest tracks which I train on.
I have noway implied or stated that I would ever win an XC race, I would take great enjoy from racing with like minded peolpe. Or are they all A holes like you, tell me know before I buy the XC bike.

cooldad

Yeehaa is our resident ahole. He gives the rest of us something to aspire to.

Anonymous

cooldad wrote:

Yeehaa is our resident ahole. He gives the rest of us something to aspire to.

You mean you dream of my ahole?
Well, I can;t say I'm happy about that, but whatever makes you tick.

D4V1D

cooldad wrote:

Yeehaa is our resident ahole. He gives the rest of us something to aspire to.

To be honest I'm not shocked, I'm only on my 9th post and I've already met this forums tough guy, you can spot them really easy by the super high post count.

http://www.monkeyreview.co.uk/2009/03/2 ... -toughguy/

Anonymous

"Tough guy" is a bit rich coming from someone who believes he's going to be immediately competitive at something he's never tried.

D4V1D

yeehaamcgee wrote:

"Tough guy" is a bit rich coming from someone who believes he's going to be immediately competitive at something he's never tried.

Put your money where your mouth (typing fingers) is and let meet up. you can show me how good you are, and how uncompetitive I am.

Anonymous

D4V1D wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

"Tough guy" is a bit rich coming from someone who believes he's going to be immediately competitive at something he's never tried.

Put your money where your mouth (typing fingers) is and let meet up. you can show me how good you are, and how uncompetitive I am.

Haha, you're doing it again!

Seems I was right on calling you out as a troll then.

GhallTN6

Invest some money in a magazine, or two to get an idea of what you can be in for, or go to an event as a spectator to see what the fuss is all about and the kit they use.

Me, I've just learnt to swim, I can now do a whole length (of the 10 metre pool), in the style of a doggy, so I'm thinking, what do I need to swim the channel next week.. that's what you are basically asking to some of the peope on here though.

LjStronge

Get a bike (at least a cheap HT) and get out in some forests or singletrack or some decent XC before you even think about racing.

In my opinion

t0pc4t

My first proper riding was a race, Kona Bikefest, I thought pottering round on an old heavy hardtail was mountain biking and I was totally wrong.

It shot my confidence to pieces and was an unpleasant introduction to something I've grown to love.

Not saying anything about being competitive, I have no idea about your fitness adn how quickly you could adapt your MX skills but I'd go with what LJ has said and try some 'normal' riding first.

Apart from anything else it will answer the XC or downhill question for you as you'll know what sort of terrain you like riding and the sections that excite you the most.

It would be a total shame to spend 3k on a race ready downhill rig and then find that XC is your bag (it's where my heart is btw)

D4V1D

GhallTN6 wrote:

Invest some money in a magazine, or two to get an idea of what you can be in for, or go to an event as a spectator to see what the fuss is all about and the kit they use.

Me, I've just learnt to swim, I can now do a whole length (of the 10 metre pool), in the style of a doggy, so I'm thinking, what do I need to swim the channel next week.. that's what you are basically asking to some of the peope on here though.

If you read my first post properly, you'd understand that I'm trying to find a club-event to see what MTB racing is all about. I never said that I'd be taking part on my first visit or that I'd exspect to win. Dose that make me a troll?, I think not.

As to your analogy; well the only way I can make a connection is if I'd just taken my stablizers off. :P [/code]

D4V1D

LjStronge wrote:

Get a bike (at least a cheap HT) and get out in some forests or singletrack or some decent XC before you even think about racing.

In my opinion

I have a cheap none suspenion bike which I have been using to do some green lanes-forest track on.I've already killed the head bearings once and had to replace the Bottom Bracket Crank Bearings thingies as well. Heres my training route I use.

D4V1D

t0pc4t wrote:

My first proper riding was a race, Kona Bikefest, I thought pottering round on an old heavy hardtail was mountain biking and I was totally wrong.

It shot my confidence to pieces and was an unpleasant introduction to something I've grown to love.

Not saying anything about being competitive, I have no idea about your fitness adn how quickly you could adapt your MX skills but I'd go with what LJ has said and try some 'normal' riding first.

Apart from anything else it will answer the XC or downhill question for you as you'll know what sort of terrain you like riding and the sections that excite you the most.

It would be a total shame to spend 3k on a race ready downhill rig and then find that XC is your bag (it's where my heart is btw)

Thanks for your understanding reply, along with nicklouse, thel33ter,njee20, the people that have answered after yeehaamcgee have got the wrong end of the sh ity stick.

As to spendine 3K on a Down Hill bike, well thats why I'd started the thread, to find out the different aspecs of racing DH as to XC. I still haven't found out any information on where to ride, but I've found out that £300 - £950 is the way to go for a XC bike.

WierdBeard

sounds to me like you need to get yourself a descent bike, maybe join a club and get out and ride different trails etc. Maybe attend a race event and see what its all about. Learn the different disaplines and styles of bike there are then decide which direction you want to go in.

MTBing is lots of fun but a reqiured amount of skill and fitness is needed, especailly if you want to race.

Need to learn to walk before you can run.

As for the people giving you stick/banter on here i think they seem to forget that they were beginners at some point.

qwerty1982

WierdBeard wrote:

As for the people giving you stick/banter on here i think they seem to forget that they were beginners at some point.

Got my first race tomorrow, no way do i think i will be in the top 50 let alone the top 200 but im taking part for fun, i mean its a local winter series, not the olympics.
Good luck with what ever you find mate and just remember to have fun, thats what it is al about at the end o the day.