DH bike hire FOD

nasha48

Small group of us going to Forest of Dean in a few weeks. £60 to hire out a Cube Fritzz for the day - I'm assuming there is no issue with hiring a bike then sharing it between riders out on the trails thus splitting the cost? Anyone confirm?

The Rookie

No, except the hirer would be liable for any loss not the rider at the time, so either get someone else's name on the agreement, be sure you trust them all, or be the kind of guy they don't want to mess with!

nasha48

Ha! Cheers Rookie, good point made.
I'll just have to say I've injured my hand and can't use a pen...

rockmonkeysc

I wouldn't bother. The DH trails are really very tame and much more fun on a trail Bike.
I have raced on Ski Run with my DH bike and my trail Bike and went two seconds faster in similar conditions on the trail Bike and had more fun.
If you're not used to riding a big bike you will spend all day trying to get used to a completely different type of bike and not be able to get any benefit from it. Even more so if you're sharing it.

benpinnick

Hire a Bird Aeris instead. The longer wheelbase, lower BB, short stem and wide bars... It will beat a Fritz on the DH runs all day long

rockmonkeysc

benpinnick wrote:

Hire a Bird Aeris instead. The longer wheelbase, lower BB, short stem and wide bars... It will beat a Fritz on the DH runs all day long

Much better suited to the FoD trails.

ilovedirt

The Fritzz isn't a downhill bike anyway.

nasha48

Thanks chaps, interesting to read. Cube Fritzz has 180mm travel up front and bikeradar review it as a "marathon downhill rig" - seems appropriate lovedirt??

Personally, the DH trails at FOD do challenge me if I let go, I ride a lot at home in the New Forest which is pretty flat overall! My Boardman Comp FS (2009) is a bit under specced to nail some of the harder runs at FOD, coupled also with my inexperience of course. However, I've never smiled so much as when I took it through the Verderers trail a few times where I felt "at one" with my machine. Hear you re Bird Aeris, but no idea if pedalabikeaway at FOD keep that in stock for hire - anyone know if there are alternative DH bikes to the Cube?

nasha48

...Sorry, actually just looked on website and see the Bird bike + a few others there. Pretty steep at £50 for half day hire though!

rockmonkeysc

If you have never ridden a big bike before you will spend most of the day struggling to get used to riding a bike which takes much more effort to steer and needs to be ridden with a much more forceful style. They also need to be ridden much faster to make that geometry and suspension work properly.
I have my own downhill bike and even after a few weeks off it I struggle to get back in to riding it at the start of a day.
An all mountain bike like the Bird will be much easier to get used to and enjoy. £50 sounds pretty reasonable if it includes delivery to FoD.
Your Boardman will be more than up to the job as well. I can get down the roughest trail at FoD on my XC bike near enough as fast as on my downhill bike. I have seen literally hundreds of people ride FoD downhill trails on xc hardtails.

nasha48

Thanks RM, appreciate you're comments. I suppose you're right about the DH bikes and getting used to them. However, since I've never been on one before I really fancy a ride, albeit brief. That Bird bike does sound very good looking at reviews but I still think £50 is steep personally, given that the Fritzz is just £10 for the whole day and not just half a day.

My Boardman can certainly handle almost everything at FOD I agree, but I felt quite uneasy on it when I put it down the GBU track. As I said though, this was at least 50% down to my inability and slight panic in parts, especially as my Rockshox Recon forks aren't particularly smooth these days despite a service. And I really struggled with nailing anything like a smooth jump on the many ramps/tabletops on the trails - tended to slow down considerably and roll it. Where's the excitement in that??!! Only time I did go big I over-rotated and nearly broke my arms on the front-heavy landing jut trying to save my face being caved in (in full view of a fair few riders too!).

Thanks again.

rockmonkeysc

Don't expect to be smoothly clearing jumps on the Fritz. You will need to hit them a LOT faster with all that suspension sucking up the kick from the jump.
If there is a possibility of hiring something with a bit less suspension then that would be better.