Aston Hill

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Mr Gearchange

Original Poster:

5,892 posts

205 months

Tuesday 15th April 2014
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Planning on going over tomorrow morning to ride the DH tracks.

Anyone been and got any useful info? Likewise if anyone fancies it I will be trying to avoid serious injury from around 10:30 ish..

anonymous-user

53 months

Tuesday 15th April 2014
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Looks like i might be up for this! Just need to confirm i can rearrange a meeting tomorrow!

(would make sense to lift share too) ;-)

Mr Gearchange

Original Poster:

5,892 posts

205 months

Tuesday 15th April 2014
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Cool. biggrin
Will ping you my number on email

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 16th April 2014
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Well that was good fun! no major incidents bar a shredded tyre, need to go back again and do it justice (rather than just mincing down the trails banging into stuff....... ;-)

Mr Gearchange

Original Poster:

5,892 posts

205 months

Wednesday 16th April 2014
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Indeed biggrin
Shame things got brought to a premature end - but I probably only had one run left in me.
Riding DH with a shredded tyre AND a brake leaking fluid and held together with a zip tie probably ain't a recipe for staying out of A&E.
Will do it again once I get my ride fixed thumbup

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 16th April 2014
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BTW, readers, we completely forgot to take any pics, even though it was a beautiful sunny day in the woods! (too busy just trying to avoid the trees..... ;-))

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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What are the trails like there, live locally but never tried them! Suitable for a hardtail?

Mr Gearchange

Original Poster:

5,892 posts

205 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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I'd not ridden it before yesterday - but thought it was great.
There were some kids there on hardtails and I admired their bravery. We were on 160mm+ travel full sussers - I wouldn't have wanted to be on anything less to be honest - but then again I am rubbish.

Most people were riding full DH rigs - which looked both easier and more comfortable.

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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yonex said:
What are the trails like there, live locally but never tried them! Suitable for a hardtail?
Best described as steep and rooty. A hardtail in the dry would be ok, but pretty dam uncomfortable. In the wet, i'd go somewhere else......... ;-)

(Even the XC route looks surprisingly rough compared to the modern style of "surfaced" trail centre)

roadman

488 posts

137 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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I have ridden them for many years, i used to live at the bottom. Iv only ridden hard tail there, however a full sus would be way more comfortable and for the Black run that is a def for a good run.

great trails though

Ponk

1,380 posts

191 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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Perfectly rideable on a hard tail. Less margin for error though! I've ridden there regularly in an SX trail and a lapierre Zesty. Actually felt more confident on the Zesty despite the shorter travel.

Surface to Air is absolutely brilliant but I'd walk it first as the drops etc are much larger. Less technical than the other runs though so it's swings and roundabouts to an extent.

TheBALDpuma

5,842 posts

167 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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I used to do the race series there abotu 8 years ago. Loads of fun, but I bet a lot has changed although I do remember it being very rooty!

One memory was going and messing about on the (flinty) 4x track between my DH runs, coming off and taking most of the skin off my back and then doing my second run dripping blood everywhere. hehe

nessiemac

1,525 posts

240 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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TheBALDpuma said:
I used to do the race series there abotu 8 years ago. Loads of fun, but I bet a lot has changed although I do remember it being very rooty!

One memory was going and messing about on the (flinty) 4x track between my DH runs, coming off and taking most of the skin off my back and then doing my second run dripping blood everywhere. hehe
Everything else is different or new in the last 8 years but the 4X track unfortunatley hasn't changed a bit!!

graeme4130

3,823 posts

180 months

Saturday 19th April 2014
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I took a trip there recently
Nice trails and pretty good fun considering how short they are
I imagine they'd be pretty slippery in the wet due to the chalky nature, but could be a skiddy fun day
Depending on how you ride a bike, but I'd say a full 200mm DH bike is massively overkill for the place, and a 160mm bike would be ideal and a hardtail could be fun
Tough push up though for the size of the runs, but friendly locals

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 21st April 2014
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graeme4130 said:
but I'd say a full 200mm DH bike is massively overkill for the place
Whilst i'd probably normally agree that a full on DH bike is really an overkill for pretty much anything in the UK, whilst we were stood chatting, a guy cruised down one of the blacks on the Commencal DH rig, and the way the long travel suspension just rippled over the roots was pretty impressive to watch. (ie when you have 200mm of travel, you can afford to make the first 100mm odd be pretty supple!)

Mr Gearchange

Original Poster:

5,892 posts

205 months

Monday 21st April 2014
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That bike rode those roots like they really weren't there. I could bloody well feel them on my bike.
Slack angles are probably more important than suspension travel - the first run down the black and I was having to hang well off the back of the bike - if I had ridden it on my trance I'm sure I would have gone OTB quite a lot!

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 21st April 2014
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To be fair, we could have probably chosen a better option for our first run, rather than the steepest/most technical rooty black one! If we had done it again later in the day i think it would have felt a lot better as we would have been carrying a bit more speed to "level" the drops a bit. The other black run with the "corkscrew" steep bits probably was just as steep/droppy but felt better carrying a smidge more speed!

graeme4130

3,823 posts

180 months

Monday 21st April 2014
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Max_Torque said:
graeme4130 said:
but I'd say a full 200mm DH bike is massively overkill for the place
Whilst i'd probably normally agree that a full on DH bike is really an overkill for pretty much anything in the UK, whilst we were stood chatting, a guy cruised down one of the blacks on the Commencal DH rig, and the way the long travel suspension just rippled over the roots was pretty impressive to watch. (ie when you have 200mm of travel, you can afford to make the first 100mm odd be pretty supple!)
There's certain sections at the top where the roots are, but it depends how well set up your 160mm bike is
If he was using all his 200mm of travel in that rooty section, then I'd hazard a guess that his suspension is way out
You can set up a 160mm bike with the right forks/shock to take impact like a dh bike, just with obviously less travel, so a bit more ramp up later in the stroke
I guess it also depends how you ride. Some guys like to smash through stuff and some find the fun in jumping around or over it. Horses for courses
It's a cool spot though, and I'll be back there in the next couple of weeks if this rain sods off
I'm still on a demo dh rig though as my new 170mm bike doesn't come till June frown