Islabike on a red run?

bompington
bompington Posts: 7,674
edited June 2012 in MTB beginners
A few weeks ago I took Bomp jr. to Wolftrax & we had a great time, both on our cheapy Edinburgh Coop bikes which seemed to cope fine with the red runs, apart from a minor case of undue intimacy between my rear mech & some spokes that happened to be in the vicinity.

Now Bompette wants to go too: she is a pretty accomplished rider on her Beinn 24:

...which is to say that I'm quite happy about her skills, but really not sure whether a rigid fork is going to work on red runs.

What does the hive mind think?

EDIT: if not, bike hire? Any recommendations?
EDIT 2: OK, just found the bike hire at Wolftrax, recommended or not?

Comments

  • cooldad
    cooldad Posts: 32,599
    edited June 2012
    It will be fine.
    When I was a lad, we had none of this new fangled bouncy stuff. Just used to turn the bars up on our racing (ie road) bikes and scramble.

    I still have a rigid MTB from 1988 and it's done lots of stuff. But it is a bit sh1t compared to my modernish FS admittedly
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  • 1mancity2
    1mancity2 Posts: 2,355
    When I started back up I did Dalby red and black on a rigid GT tempest, it was fine, as CD says we never had suspension when we were kids and red runs are usually tame with chicken runs around jumps/drops etc.
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  • mountaingoatimnot
    mountaingoatimnot Posts: 185
    Bomp Jnr is light and agile enough for the solid fork to not be an issue - just do the usual checks before and after a ride, and wear good padded gloves to assist with the bump adsorption
  • Daz555
    Daz555 Posts: 3,976
    I survived 20 odd years of off-road cycling without even a hint of bounce.

    Kids are even more able to just crack on with it - for a start those rigid Islabikes are lovely and light - far more important than a couple of inches of suspension.
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  • YeehaaMcgee
    YeehaaMcgee Posts: 5,740
    Same here, rode for years without suspension. Then rode some trail centres, still without suspension.
    Coed y Brenin hasn't changed much on the "old side" of the road, and it was perfectly manageable on a rigid - although far slower than with modern squishy bikes.
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  • bompington
    bompington Posts: 7,674
    Well, needless to say she cruised it - it being both red runs at Wolftrax, as well as the jump park. No pix sadly as weather too foul, suffice it to say that we were wet, dirty, bloody even in my case (schoolboy error on little step -> shin on pedal -> disproportionate bleeding) and very happy.
    So it looked like a rigid Islabike coped better than a cheap Edinburgh Cuillin, at least I'm insisting that was the reason I couldn't keep up most of the time :oops:

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