McMoab- good or bad?

Northwind
Northwind Posts: 14,675
edited October 2009 in Routes
I was in a group of 5 at Kirroughtree over the weekend... It's ace btw, absolutely ace, kind of a shame it's an hour's drive from the middle of nowhere. Quite convenient from Larne, mind...

Anyway, we found a big division in the group, which was McMoab- fantastic or terrible. Now, don't misunderstand, it wasn't "too hard" or "too scary", these were riders which are more skilled, braver and more confident than me, so I don't doubt for a second they could ride it. And of the 3 of us that did it, the one who enjoyed it least was the one who had the least trouble on it. While I absolutely loved it, but have to admit some parts were just beyond me, either on ability or on confidence/balls. So, it's not a "I can't do it/I can do it" thing... Just a really stark difference of opinion

So, if you've ridden or attempted or failed at or been maimed by or cleared McMoab- did you like it? Was it just OK?
Uncompromising extremist

Comments

  • stubs
    stubs Posts: 5,001
    First time I had a go I flew over no problem. Yes I am a riding god

    Went back a year later and I bottled it I just couldnt let go of the brakes and ended up going down on my backside ruining my shorts and giving me a good collection of bruises

    I thought things were supposed to get easier :?

    I probably think things through too much I should just go for it
    Fig rolls: proof that god loves cyclists and that she wants us to do another lap
  • dave_hill
    dave_hill Posts: 3,877
    It's good, but it's in the wrong place. I went up there earlier this year and parked the car up at the gate near where the trail crosses the road, then just spent a couple of hours sessioning it in the evening. That was good fun, but including it as a trail feature at half distance is a bit pointless. If it was down near the car park, or the car park was at the top of the valley instead of the bottom it might make more sense.
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  • craker
    craker Posts: 1,739
    My avatar photo is me at McMoab in June 8) . Now I'm a spud fan but I found spuds a bit of a mare. At really low speeds I wasn't happy clipped in, and unclipped is a poor option on such tricky terrain. I ended up very slowly falling on my ar£e a couple of times...

    Also... I found my front suspension hindered progress. Drop into a divot between two rocks and instead of my momentum carrying the wheel over, the bike would stop and compress the suspension, again this is down to the really low speeds.

    I think you need good tyres too.

    Rigid bike with flatties and rock tyres, ace.
  • Northwind
    Northwind Posts: 14,675
    dave_hill wrote:
    It's good, but it's in the wrong place. I went up there earlier this year and parked the car up at the gate near where the trail crosses the road, then just spent a couple of hours sessioning it in the evening. That was good fun, but including it as a trail feature at half distance is a bit pointless. If it was down near the car park, or the car park was at the top of the valley instead of the bottom it might make more sense.

    Well, we rode it as part of the full black, and we re-rode the first and last sections of the red as we had to return to the shop for a mechanical. Makes for a very hard ride, by most people's standards, I was pretty much crippled by the end but it's definately doable.

    But you're spot on, next time I'm there I want to do the black on day one, then drive up and do mcmoab by itself on day 2 I think both parts will be better without the other. McMoab was seriously draining, I was absolutely dead by the end... And the climb afterwards, oh my...

    Oh. The other thing is, for people who liked it but found it a bit too hard, particularily physically, try nevis red- there's a lot of granite bedrock features there as well, the exact same rock and it rides the same, but it's mostly descent so it's a little easier (well, for me at least) and a LOT less tiring. There's less of it but then you can do it 8 or 9 times in a day as part of the full descent. Possibly higher consequence should you mess up mind, much more long drops to hard rock, but a bit less technical.
    Uncompromising extremist
  • Foll Zofalot
    Foll Zofalot Posts: 204
    Couldn't do the first part at all, you really need momentum but couldn't keep it going and too paranoid I wouldn't get myself unclipped if I messed up. One guy I met there gave it a bash and got a snakebite so I thought ar5e to that! The rest of it I loved though, especially the bit where you do a U turn then the climb up the main rock via the difficult route by 'accident' first time round. Unfortunately you lose the aspect in the headcam, as ever so was a bit dissapointed.
    White Beastie
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