I'm in Bristol, so about an hours drive from BPW. I don't get the chance to go as much as I'd like what with family commitments etc.
So as of the new year, how is everyone else doing on the quest to become a crazy bike hoarder person and accumulate lots of horizontal-top-tube steel bicycles?
Being a one bike person is impossible unless under duress. You need at least a proper mountain bike and a curly whirly road machine.
I could give away my road bike tomorrow and I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
I can cover the exact same terrain, just at a time penalty.
And you'd be fitter by the end of it than if you took the Jimmy.
I could give away my road bike tomorrow and I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
I can cover the exact same terrain, just at a time penalty.
I'm just over the estuary on the Chepstow side. PT lives down a mine in deepest darkest Clwdyyddrchbiscuitdimdom.
Bristol's got some great biking right on your doorstep, but you probably know this. Ashton Court has custom-cut trails which are fun (but lacking a little elevation) but you can also go off-piste in the surrounding grounds (and nearby woods) to find some hills. A short ride from there is Ashton Hill Plantation (Belmont Woods) which has decent loops and massive jumps and serious elevation. Then of course there's Leigh Woods, which is superb. All these areas are pretty close to each other.
Only problem with the BPW climb is that it's BORING. I can actually do it in a similar sort of speed to the uplift now, but that's a crazy sort of pace that I can only do a couple of times.
Did you try Bonneyville? That one scares me a bit, and the new drop into A470 line.
I've not tried Bonneyville yet. It's on my list. A470 is brilliant though, love the new biggish drop at the start and another cheeky one in the woods, then it's all jump territory, woooooo. I need to work on my jump technique though, I need to improve my confidence to get some proper air and clear all the table tops as oppose to just a couple of them.
Nice.
Lots of work going on out there in trail land right now: http://www.moredirt.com/article/Trail-Build-Heros/6403/
Belmont has jumps galore. If you ride at Ashton Court then Belmont is probably less than a mile away by bike if you cut through the hole in the big stone wall at the top of one of the trails. A mate used to live equidistant between Ashton Court and Belmont so we'd often do a few loops of AC then head to The Plantation. To give you an idea (also has Ashton Court footage from the main grounds, not the official trails):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1KZUK7jDrwp://
That video is a few years old, I'm sure the 'bike park' bit has been extended greatly since then with more jumps and bigger gaps.
Edit: yep, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP60j-YnraQ#t=53.601865
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=666Au1ULHbw
This is great, thanks! I had no idea Belmont existed. From the footage, some of those gap jumps are a bit outside my abilities/confidence, but I'll head down there as soon as and see for myself.
If it's a road ride, most likely not all that huge of a disadvantage, unless your roads are like cobbled or something. I'd almost guess that the availability of speedy tires in that size would be a larger issue.So, I joined my first cycling group ride yesterday night and I had troubles keeping up... Do you guys think that my 16inch wheels put me at a disadvantage?
So, I joined my first cycling group ride yesterday night and I had troubles keeping up... Do you guys think that my 16inch wheels put me at a disadvantage?
If it's a road ride, most likely not all that huge of a disadvantage, unless your roads are like cobbled or something. I'd almost guess that the availability of speedy tires in that size would be a larger issue.
Is late, but as promsied, here's the bicycle with the 16'' tires.
Anyone know where I can find some quality 16'' rims!?
I wonder if anyone has tested that lol. There's a lot of 700 vs 650, but that's pretty inconclusive. Will assume though that bike will not be able to keep up with a road bike even if it had the slickest tyres on the best surface and a road bike had mountain bike tyres.
I've seen tests that indicate no trend on good roads, from 559 to 622. Obviously that's a much smaller range, though.I wonder if anyone has tested that lol. There's a lot of 700 vs 650, but that's pretty inconclusive.
Definitely not if we're only counting wheel/tire-related differences.Will assume though that bike will not be able to keep up with a road bike even if it had the slickest tyres on the best surface and a road bike had mountain bike tyres.
Well, on the whole, most likely not.Seriously? That thing is as quick as a 700c wheel shod road bike?
Surface irregularities on trails tend to be a lot bigger, though, which should make the angle-of-attack matter more.I can tell the difference in speed between 26er mountain bikes and 29ers, so I'm utterly astonished that the same doesn't apply in road bikes.