is my bike strong enough?

crispy1980

Just a quick one, I have a 2009 spesh xc pro. we have started to go to coed y brenin and llandegla a lot. I was talking to my mate at work and he put doubt in my mind that the bike will take the punishment?

querhoch

your mates a goon. thats a perfectly good bike.

ilovedirt

Yes, it's fine. Brenin and Degla aren't exactly gnarly.

cooldad

Depends how hard you hit the tree. I suggest going in head first, which will protect the bike.

ricardo_smooth

It's fine. Mine was anyway and stood up to worse things

MountainMonster

Only super weight weenie bikes will have problems, but a normal build will hold almost anything out. Not saying it would be fun though.

You will be fine.

The Rookie

Most weight weenie bikes are just as strong, they just cost shedloads, it's cheap (and usually very heavy) bikes that have issues.

ilovedirt

Agreed, no weight weenie bike should have any problem at Brenin or Degla. I've seen people riding argos special BSOs around both places faster than people on bikes that cost ten or twenty times the price.

The Rookie

Every time I go to Cannock I seem to see at least one guy on a catalogue special, usually in amongst a group of good bikes, always seem riden well, I wonder if it's some kind of right of passage! After all you can pick one up used for about £35!

rockmonkeysc

Some people seem to think trail centres are gnarly and you need a big AM bike if you want to ride fast. Thats bollocks, any bike can take trail centre rides, even if your hitting the bigger features on the black trails.
Last time I went to Afan one of the lads in our group was on a cyclocross bike, he even did the black trail. At the end of the day his wheels were just as true as anyone elses and he kept up everywhere. We still abused him for the whole ride.

bennett_346

For me though it's about how fast you hit it, not whether you can hit it.

It's no real challenge to ride a trail centre but to go as fast as i want to go i wouldn't have anything less than my 140mm stumpjumper. Sometimes going fast you make small mistakes where a racey bike would have thrown you off.

The Rookie

bennett_346 wrote:

Sometimes going fast you make small mistakes where a racey bike would have thrown you off.

So your admitting you ride full sus to compensate for a lack of skill? (Heh, that's what your saying..........)

bennett_346

The Beginner wrote:

bennett_346 wrote:

Sometimes going fast you make small mistakes where a racey bike would have thrown you off.

So your admitting you ride full sus to compensate for a lack of skill? (Heh, that's what your saying..........)

Yes, i am. We'd all be riding road bikes off road if we weren't using our bikes to compensate for skill.

paulneenan76

Who's up for penny farthings at Aston Hill? Separate the men from the boys eh ;D

querhoch

I don't ride a susser to compensate for a lack of skill. it takes skill to ride any bike, i just use different skills.

Northwind

CYB was built so that Roman invaders could do laps on their wooden bikes. There's not a quality modern bike that isn't well up for it. Course, you might prefer a bigger/stronger/longer travel bike... Or conversely, you might find it makes things less fun. I thought my Ragley suited the place perfectly, it's the stonepitch that makes CYB so unique and it'd be a shame to deplete that I reckon. But ymmv.

bennett_346 wrote:

Yes, i am. We'd all be riding road bikes off road if we weren't using our bikes to compensate for skill.

cross by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

ilovedirt

CX bike at CYB? fuck that, it's pretty rocky in places. I could do it, it just wouldn't be fun.

Northwind

Yeah, that would be crap to be fair. Doable, but crap.