UK gravity enduro racing

ej2320

Hello

I seem to be posting a lot recently...

I recently noticed this.. http://www.ukgravityenduro.com/

I was wondering if anyone could advise what sort of ability level I would need to be at to enter this to actually be competitive with other riders? I would be in the Under 18 category. I'm planning on getting an all mountain fs bike soon as well, an upgrade from my xc fs.

Also I assume you can enter separate races and you don't have to do the whole series?

Thanks!

rockmonkeysc

You wont be competitive straight off. You will be in the Juniors category and some of those lads are fearless, a lot of them race downhill as well so are pretty fit and technically very good.
You don't have to be competitive to enjoy it. As long as you are reasonably competent you will be fine.

ej2320

RockmonkeySC wrote:

You wont be competitive straight off. You will be in the Juniors category and some of those lads are fearless, a lot of them race downhill as well so are pretty fit and technically very good.
You don't have to be competitive to enjoy it. As long as you are reasonably competent you will be fine.

That's what I feared haha, although it's a year away and with some intense training I might surprise myself

rockmonkeysc

Your first race is a lesson in how rubbish you are for most riders but race regularly and you will soon get fast.
I race a fair amount of downhill and im faster than most of my mates but at races its a struggle to get in to the top third. One mistake in a race just ruins a run or a section time.
It is addictive and huge fun and very friendly.

ej2320

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Your first race is a lesson in how rubbish you are for most riders but race regularly and you will soon get fast.
I race a fair amount of downhill and im faster than most of my mates but at races its a struggle to get in to the top third. One mistake in a race just ruins a run or a section time.
It is addictive and huge fun and very friendly.

I really don't know how fast I am, I ride cannock and often catch people and that's on a 100mm FS bike which I also ride on DH tracks

I need to get a good AM bike sorted out then I think the best training will be to ride DH tracks and hard trails and XC for the fitness

I think I might just be embarrassingly slow..

rockmonkeysc

Get to the winter mini DH races at Forest of Dean. The trails are pretty easy by DH standards, more like enduro tracks. Its a good intro to racing.

ej2320

Funny you should say that, I saw an advert for that an was thinking I'd give it a go

Still, need to get my bike sorted first

rockmonkeysc

Go for it. Duncan Ferris has won it before on a 100mm travel bike so you never know.

lawman

ej2320 wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Your first race is a lesson in how rubbish you are for most riders but race regularly and you will soon get fast.
I race a fair amount of downhill and im faster than most of my mates but at races its a struggle to get in to the top third. One mistake in a race just ruins a run or a section time.
It is addictive and huge fun and very friendly.

I really don't know how fast I am, I ride cannock and often catch people and that's on a 100mm FS bike which I also ride on DH tracks

I need to get a good AM bike sorted out then I think the best training will be to ride DH tracks and hard trails and XC for the fitness

I think I might just be embarrassingly slow..

I wouldn't judge your pace on who you catch/overtake/keep up with at trail centres, cos I can pretty much guarantee they'll be below the standard you'll be racing against, especially in your age group. One thing is to take a look at Strava and get it for yourself. Many of the pro's use it and it's useful for seeing how far up the leaderboard you can get. I'd say as a rough guess unless you're well in the top 10% of the board you'll find it tough going in terms of being competitive.

But still you don't have to be doing well to enjoy it!

ej2320

What sort of difficulty is the track?

I ride some DH runs but are a slow pace and avoid the big drops (Hope to change that on a new bike)

Would I need a full face?

I assume I wouldn't be the only casual competitor

HebdenBiker

ej2320 wrote:

I assume I wouldn't be the only casual competitor

No you wouldn't. I'm thinking of having a go at some of this next year too, and I am really sh!t. I'm going to do a skills course over the winter, and lots of practising, take stock in the spring and then maybe get some entries in.

It looks like this Enduro series is aimed more at beginners/casual trail riders, so this might be my starting point, although for me, each of these events will involve a very long drive :roll:

It's never nice to be the noob in a new sport, but if we haven't got the guts to turn up, compete and risk looking stupid, then we'd probably be better off sitting at home and watching Cash in the Attic

Edit: I forgot to say - there's loads of headcam/spectator footage on Youtube of amateur enduro riding, and you see loads of people getting off and pushing round the steep bits, riding their brakes, and doing all sorts of noob stuff that I would probably do. If you gave it a go I reckon you'll be fine.

sanchez89

I rode round 4 of UK Gravity Enduro last year with a mate, it wasnt our first event, we had done a couple of XC races earlier on in the year but this event is very very different to that.

The practice runs on saturday showed us what to expect and it was a shock to our system believe me. We can both comfortably ride Red routes at trail centres along with the slightly easier black sections and i do pretty well on the DH stuff over Cannocks Stile Cop, but this was a diiferent league.

I believe all of the tracks were black graded with the last stage (qualifying run) being a national level DH run. He came off on his quali run and smashed his wrist to pieces on one of the drops. I managed to get all the way down (somehow) but i was second from bottom time wise. We did not compete on the second day, but i can be fairly sure the course was well beyond my skills and i would have been rock bottom if not in a&e at the end.

So just be aware, its not all about having a suitable bike, i used a 150mm travel 'trail' bike and it carried me superbly all the way, you need to have the skills to ride it properly aswell, not just skid down on the brakes.

My advice would be to start off in an easier category or even a beginners series to get you used to how the events are and the sort of trails they use.

Im entered into the FOD Enduro in september but im certain that with the training i have been doing i will be better prepared for the event, plus i have ridden FOD before so know what sort of trails are there.

rockmonkeysc

FoD would be ideal for a beginner. Even the hardest DH track there is pretty steady, there aren't really any drops (unless you're hitting stuff fast) and all the jumps can be rolled.

ricardo_smooth

RockmonkeySC wrote:

FoD would be ideal for a beginner. Even the hardest DH track there is pretty steady, there aren't really any drops (unless you're hitting stuff fast) and all the jumps can be rolled.

Apart from GBU! I'd not like to try and roll the last 2 drops

rockmonkeysc

There are chicken runs and the drops are about as easy as you will ever find.

ej2320

That seems good, I think those beginner ones will suit me

I won't have my bike sorted till the end of the year and will need some practise

So the question is now, are there any beginner or newbie type enduro races between Jan and Sep (I'll be off to uni next year but should link up with the uni Mtb club/team)

There's the Winter DH at FOD which I could do
The enduro 1
Some one off enduro events
Any others?

Quickly I should explain my ability, I ride Cannock red and find that very easy, werewolf drop and so on, (Still need to pluck up the balls to do the black rock garden!) although I ride a 100mm FS with a 69 head angle so a burly bike should really boost my confidence

I also ride DH tracks on my 100mm and can hit jumps, drops rocks fine just need some more speed

rockmonkeysc

Cannock trails are very tame, the DH tracks there are very easy.
There is quite a difference between getting down a trail and riding it at race speed.
A 100mm xc bike can do a lot more than you might think. You just have to be smooth.

lawman

As good as cannock is, it's pretty tame really, as Rockmonkey says. It's great fun, but the only reason it's remotely challenging for some is the enormous amount of braking bumps in stupid places, to be expected when you get that much traffic over it, and not everyone is riding god!

I went to over to Eastridge forest t'other week for a warm up ride for the Crudcatcher C2C and was pretty surprised by how gnarly it was!! Get yourself over there and you'll have a better what to expect.

rockmonkeysc

I would say FoD downhill trails are pretty close to gravity enduro tracks. Only problem is at weekends there are a lot of VERY fast local DH riders on the tracks and some of them forget not everyone is as fast as them. It would be a good place to train mid week though.

ej2320

I ride hopton woods a lot, Long mynd, Nant yr Arian, Coed y Brenin (MBR Black)

I would agree by comparison Cannock is smoothed

Maybe those other places are nastier

sofaboy73

to the OP, from where you're doing your riding i'm guessing your in the shropshire / borders region? if so, deffinately get yourslef over to eastridge as lawman suggests. has been used for dowm hill and enduro type events for years and theres a real good mix of some pretty tame to certainly exciting trails there

ej2320

sofaboy73 wrote:

to the OP, from where you're doing your riding i'm guessing your in the shropshire / borders region? if so, deffinately get yourslef over to eastridge as lawman suggests. has been used for dowm hill and enduro type events for years and theres a real good mix of some pretty tame to certainly exciting trails there

I do indeed live in shropshire, I ride the downhill runs in bringewood which are quite tricky

Never been to eastridge so should check it out