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

njee20

There won't be that many people there qwerty, you'll easily make the top 200!

The first step is definitely to buy a bike and get yourself riding! There's plenty of advice out there, Boardman do some excellent value bikes at the upper end of your range, or check out OnOne, you may be able to build a ScandAl or something, potentially a bit more 'racey' than a Specialized Rockhopper or similar.

Atz

I do 1-2 races a year, just for the experience. I don't go there to place, I go to get some riding in places I've never been before and get a fitness check after winter. If you want to do well, then you need to train. If you want to go and see what's what, give it a shot. What can you lose (apart from pride, entry fee and, if you're like me, all but two gears for an afternoon)?

D4V1D

njee20 wrote:

The first step is definitely to buy a bike and get yourself riding! There's plenty of advice out there, Boardman do some excellent value bikes at the upper end of your range, or check out OnOne, you may be able to build a ScandAl or something, potentially a bit more 'racey' than a Specialized Rockhopper or similar.

It's clear to me now that when I asked the question what the difference between XC & DH, I should of asked what does XC & DH stand for, I've only just learnt that HT stands for Hard Tail.
I've ridden about 250 miles in the last month or so (which is slightly above the norm). I work shifts and have the ability to get out in the day time (sucks when I'm at work through the night). I have always loved cycling, a point I was trying to make by showing my Falcon, I've owned that bike for the last 23 years, and it still looks in great shape ( I never ment to give the impression that I thought it was good enough to race on, that bike takes alot of power to move along the flat) .
I know that I need a decent xc bike, and I'm currently reading through the Laisure Lake Bike 2011 Brochure. I've got to say that it is hard going as there are alot of makes that are new to me.
Epic,Cannondale,Scott,Trek,Cube,Marin,Orange,Lapierre. Although I have seen a bloke doing the same forest section I ride on, he was on an Orange it looks abit like a Five Pro, Five AM or Apline 160. sadly l was just walking with the wife and kids at the time.

thel33ter

If you are already riding 250ish miles a month, you are probably pretty fit, and a modern bike will complement that, especially compared to your Falcon.

And I find that when I am racing (Cross country running, not bikes) I can push myself much more than just riding with mates. For example I had never trained for XC running before last year, and I came in the top 15 out of 50 or so in about 3 or 4 races, so who knows what will happen with a bit of good training, a new ride and the competitive aspect?

You aren't going to get a bad bike from any of the big names, but it's always best to find sale deals, especially around this time of year on last years models, as you get much more for your money.

welshkev

D4V1D wrote:

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/

TBH at first the thread did come accross as a bit too cluless!! but i think that it's genuine , there's threads started here sometimes just to take the pee, which i think yeehaa was insinuating (sp?) yours might be.

why don't you maybe try and find a shop that will let you take the bikes out for a demo and test a few, it's all well and good being able to afford it and a great spec etc but if it feels wrong out on the trails then it's no good

also, have you visited any trail centres, this will give you an idea of the type of terrain to expect whilst racing. but you can take your time and suss things out as you go rather than worrying about the guy behind you overtaking. but like someone else said the kona things at bristol and cheddar are a good starting point

D4V1D

welshkev wrote:

D4V1D wrote:

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/

TBH at first the thread did come accross as a bit too cluless!!

why don't you maybe try and find a shop that will let you take the bikes out for a demo

also, have you visited any trail centres, this will give you an idea of the type of terrain to expect whilst racing.

It may have sounded clueless because when it come to talking about mountain bikes, I am, but my riding style and fitness levels are fine. Hence the reason for asking. I now have done a bit more research & I was confusing XC with Cycle cross, which If I'm right in thinking you need or use different bikes for.
I've also found a trail center at a place called Cannock Chase trail centre.
They held a weekend on the 24th October in which you had the chance to ride 2011 Giant and Specialized bikes, Shame I'd missed it.

It's also there not that much help on here, and your a bit to quick to judge.

welshkev

D4V1D wrote:

welshkev wrote:

D4V1D wrote:

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/

TBH at first the thread did come accross as a bit too cluless!!

why don't you maybe try and find a shop that will let you take the bikes out for a demo

also, have you visited any trail centres, this will give you an idea of the type of terrain to expect whilst racing.

It's also there not that much help on here, and your a bit to quick to judge.

are you talking about me there? i think that i've answered your question quite constructively! :?

oh, and i never questioned your fitness levels or anything else for that matter!!

cooldad

D4V1D wrote:

It's also there not that much help on here, and your a bit to quick to judge.

Generalise much?
Most people have tried to be helpful, but a bit of research on your side might have helped.
Bit difficult to be helpful when you ask about xc, but mean cyclocross. Slight difference.
Most people ride before they decide to race.

And this is an internet forum full of random people, and Yeehaa, who might be a person, but the jury is still out on that one.

You want unconditional love buy a dog.

D4V1D

welshkev wrote:

D4V1D wrote:

, and people are a bit to quick to judge.

are you talking about me there? i think that i've answered your question quite constructively! :?

oh, and i never questioned your fitness levels or anything else for that matter!!

Sorry no, I was generalising, Yes you answered in a constructive manner. I don't think I'm a forum type of person. It only takes one pri k to cause ill feeling.

t0pc4t

just take everything with a big old pinch of salt D4V1D.

Enjoy your riding, I'm hoping to come up and do Cannock Chase soon

toasty

David,

If you want to give a bike a try before buying one, head to Cannock Chase and take out one of the hire bikes from the shop there:

http://www.bikechase.co.uk/

They're a fairly standard example of £500-600ish bikes, hydraulic brakes, suspension etc. You'll also get a vague idea of your strengths and weaknesses. I bet you find trail riding uses a few muscle groups your local rides had been missing out on, most likely arms if you've been getting the miles in. Fitness is only a part of being swift on a bike, you'll have to learn to be as efficient as possible in regards to keeping your momentum over the rough stuff.

Around Follow The Dog, assuming it's all open, the fairly fit trail riders, without stopping at any point, will be doing about 45 minute laps, racers will be sub 30 mins and the general riders who just pop along once in a blue moon will be somewhere over an hour.

D4V1D

Toasty wrote:

David,

If you want to give a bike a try before buying one, head to Cannock Chase and take out one of the hire bikes from the shop there:
I bet you find trail riding uses a few muscle groups your local rides had been missing out on, most likely arms if you've been getting the miles in. Fitness is only a part of being swift on a bike, you'll have to learn to be as efficient as possible in regards to keeping your momentum over the rough stuff. "I'm going to have to post up some pictures of my rough stuff lol."

Around Follow The Dog, assuming it's all open, the fairly fit trail riders, without stopping at any point, will be doing about 45 minute laps, racers will be sub 30 mins

Thanks for the link, can't image why I haven't found that one before. I went to my local cycle shop yesterday to have a look around and then got very confused at the mountain bikes he had in. I did like the look of the Giant Anthem & Trance range, so I'll be booking one of these bad boy's out next week.

http://www.bikechase.co.uk/index.php?p=209878 or mmmm some thing else we see.

Thanks also for the timings I'll be able to have a guess at my fitness levels as well.

Cheers again,[/b]

toasty

The Anthem is definitely more racey, the Trance is a bit more aimed at having fun. The Anthem will be a lot less confidence inspiring, lower front end, long top tube. Riding either will give you a good idea of which side of the line you're at, either would be perfectly fine to get racing with.

It's good to know the local trails around Cannock, there's quite a few races held around there, mainly Midlands XC but occationally the odd interesting race. You can normally hear about things on the Chase Trails forum, or blog:

http://chasetrails.co.uk/

It's not so much the short bursts of rough stuff that I think might tire you out, it's more than fact it's very constant and relentless over a trail center type ride. I'll be intruiged to hear how you get on, it's a good place to start with. "Llandegla" is another speedy one for starting out vaguely in the area, nothing massive there but lots of opportunities to go "too" fast and test your fitness no the hills.

To be honest, if you seriously wanted to get into racing, you'd be better off saving a bit of cash and getting some skills training, with someone like http://www.chaseskills.co.uk/, he takes you through some of the intermediate bits and tells you how you should be riding them. Once your confidence is up, there's http://www.mammothlifestyle.co.uk/ who do fitness training for some very successful XC racers. You often see their riders on the trails, and at every race.

The wife and I head down to Cannock Chase pretty much every weekend without fail, neither of us take it very seriously. Occationally helping out with the trail building or races where needed (ok, very occationally this year ). It's another good facet of the sport to get into though if you want to meet people and get to know what's going on, they meet up every Sunday morning, details will be on the website.

x-isle

Toasty wrote:

To be honest, if you seriously wanted to get into racing, you'd be better off saving a bit of cash and getting some skills training, with someone like http://www.chaseskills.co.uk/, he takes you through some of the intermediate bits and tells you how you should be riding them.

Thanks for the nudge Toasty. If it helps at all, there are still a few places (just the 4!) remaining on our free Taster Day on the 4th December at the 'Chase. www.chaseskills.co.uk/taster.html

D4V1D

x-isle wrote:

Toasty wrote:

To be honest, if you seriously wanted to get into racing, you'd be better off saving a bit of cash and getting some skills training, with someone like http://www.chaseskills.co.uk/, he takes you through some of the intermediate bits and tells you how you should be riding them.

Thanks for the nudge Toasty. If it helps at all, there are still a few places (just the 4!) remaining on our free Taster Day on the 4th December at the 'Chase. www.chaseskills.co.uk/taster.html

I went to http://www.coedllandegla.com/ yesterday 13-11-2010. I managed to hire a 2011 Kona 2+2 DL £3200 for a £10. I was in a group of 4, two others hired a Kona Cadabara £2500 and an Orange Crush. One lad had brought his own Kona Blast along.

We swopped about with the bikes just to see the differences, I was very surprised that no one could get on with the Orange Crush, The Kona Blast just seemed better and easier to pedal, Everything was fine with the Crush but it just sapped your energy with little reward.
I loved the full suspension, quick steering, light weight and awesome brakes. of the kona 2+2 but then at the price I should. I've now come to the conclution that I love single track & would love to have a full Suspenion bike. Even though the 2+2 got me in to trouble as I was able to get a high speed through the trees. lol
I found riding the Black single track route to be just like motor cycle enduro racing, look ahead and attack out of the corners.

PS The bloke maning the Kona stand was a top bloke, The others seened to judge on what I was wearing, & not the amount of money I have to spend.

welshkev

cool, have you leaned towards any bike in particular?

p.s, glad you weren't scared off and ventured back

D4V1D

welshkev wrote:

cool, have you leaned towards any bike in particular?

p.s, glad you weren't scared off and ventured back

I'm still f3cking clueless, I'd have the Kona 2+2 but the price tag is just to high, ( I could get a KTM 525 exc for less). I'd like to try a Kona Tanuki or any £1000 full suspension bike.

I found the remote front fork lock outs to be ace, but the Orange crush didn't have this as I found out going down a steep rocky trail with the forks locked :oops:

thel33ter

Have a go on the 1k Boardman if you can, one of the best full sussers at around 1k.

This is also a good buy at the 100mmish travel market

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.p ... 1b0s1p2852

welshkev

D4V1D wrote:

welshkev wrote:

cool, have you leaned towards any bike in particular?

p.s, glad you weren't scared off and ventured back

I'm still f3cking clueless, I'd have the Kona 2+2 but the price tag is just to high, ( I could get a KTM 525 exc for less). I'd like to try a Kona Tanuki or any £1000 full suspension bike.

I found the remote front fork lock outs to be ace, but the Orange crush didn't have this as I found out going down a steep rocky trail with the forks locked :oops:

i very rarely lock my forks out except for long fireroad climbs. but you can usually buy 'pop lock' levers for most rock shox as an extra if the bike doesn't come with them

D4V1D

Toasty wrote:

thel33ter wrote:

Have a go on the 1k Boardman if you can, one of the best full sussers at around 1k.

This is also a good buy at the 100mmish travel market

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.p ... 1b0s1p2852

The Anthem is definitely more racey,

Thats the sort of thing, yeah dude :P . Just need to have a rip round on one.

D4V1D

I've been to Llandgal and now a visit to Cannock is on the cards for the middle of next week, Tuesday or Wednesday. any body else going there soon. Is it easy to find your way around?.
Hope so :P I fancy hiring a Giant something.

D4V1D

I hired a Gaint Anthem X2 today from Chase bikes today. http://www.bikechase.co.uk/index.php?p=209878 and I loved it, I managed to do the trails marked up as Follow the Dog & The Monkey Trail in 1hr59 not bad as I didn't know where I was going. I still had an hour left so I had another quick go around the Follow the Dog trail.
I think that I'm not quite convinced about the rear suspention idea on a MTB, I think that I've come round to the thought of a light weight HT with a great set of forks and great gear chain stuff.

popstar

HT = Fun, FS = Speed, and in some cases while it shouldn't = comfort.

All day epics are better on FS, while hardcore fun on HT. To buy and maintain HT is also cheap, opposite to FS which costs more money to maintain. I have both, but had exactly the same dillema like D4v1d. You will only know the truth when you have both, I started from HT Spesh Rockhopper while for 1k the bestest bike would be Boardman Pro.

If you end up riding smooth trails there is no need of FS anyway.

lg18

If you're still wanting to get into racing, many XC racers use HTs. Lighter... plus good for avoiding "lazy" technique choosing a line, i.e. less "forgiving" of bad lines. That could be a good or a bad thing depending on your perspective!!!!

D4V1D

Thanks everyone. I went to Cannock trail center again today, but on my old Falcon Everest and shock of all shocks I managed to over take some riders on full suspension bikes. That sealed it for myself, I went to my local Cube dealer and picked up a Cube Acid 2010. I get my hands on it tomorrow at 12 pm.

ps my old bike worked well, but I had to hand tighten my head stock after every down hill section .

D4V1D

Hello everyone who commented on this thread. This is my quick update.

I now know what's what about mountain biking. Where the local trail parks are. I've now covered over 900 mile on my Cube. Also killed one Scape seat in a big crash. Replaced the seat with replacement scape but used original bolts (I didn't over tighten them), then on another ride a month later, both bolt just let go at the same time with a big bang nearly ripping me nuts off on the seat post. Dealer replaced seat post and bolts and clamp under warranty.

I've also just entered my first race for this coming weekend at Minsterley. I hope I do well and come mid pack.

D4V1D

Just found this place to ride as well http://singletrackworld.com/trailguide/ ... mountains/ As time goes by I find all this stuff out by myself. I don't know why I ever asked in the first place :shock: lol only joking.

supafly1982

get a half decent bike and get out and ride, maybe buy a MTB skills dvd if you cant get out with more experienced riders so you can learn how to tackle drop offs, chutes, climbs, stance, berms, cambers and so on,

its alot to learn with many variables, ive only boing getting into riding propperly the past 9 months, all the techniques you use dont happen over night, anyone can ride a bike but not everyone knows how to ride them propperly, i dare say it will be a while yet before i can race over wet rooted cambers and keep up with the pack, in the mean time i just get out, ride and enjoy it!

Slow Loris

Brilliant topic - I'm curious D4V1D, how did you get on in the race you entered?

D4V1D wrote:

Hope this works,

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

I'm curious, is it called 'Everest' cos it's the tallest bike in the world?

D4V1D

Well it's two years on now, and I've enjoyed the Cube Acid but it's time to get another bike to add to the collection. The Cube is a great work horse, getting me to and from work over a green lane and b-roads but I've come to the relization that a Full Suspension bike is the way forward for the likes of Llandegla and Cannock.

I'm still confused as to what to get next, I'm 6'3 so need a 18"-20" bike frame. I've been checking out some bikes and, well its very confusing to work out the best spec'd bike for the money. I've got it down to two bikes.
Giant X4 2011 £1143 http://www.ashcycles.com/site/giant-anthem-x4-2011
Kona 2+2 2011 £1249 http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... tedKingdom