ChrisEyles
Guru
- Location
- Devon
I went out mountain biking for the first time ever this morning with my wife and a friend from work. We went to the trail centre in Haldon forest and rented some of the hire bikes there (650b hardtails).
Had an absolutely awesome time bombing along the trails! Unfortunately my enthusiasm rapidly overtook my experience and after a couple of hours I thought I'd try and get some serious air off a nice downhill bump.... not quite sure what happened after that but ended up sliding through the flinty mud on my knees and face with the bike on top of me, to be met by horrified glances all around when I got to my feet - urk!
Knee is now pretty fooked (hopefully nothing actually serious just swollen so bad I can't really walk on it at the moment) and face is stinging like the blazes (I have a good action-hero cut/graze from forehead to cheekbone)....
But what's this? I seem to be opening multiple ebay and gumtree tabs and looking for a mountain bike! Might have to take it a little more cautiously next time but it was so much fun I *have* to give it another go.
I really like the look of the old GT bikes with the "triple triangle" frames, especially the older ones with more-or-less horizontal top tubes. Budget will be, well, budget for a MTB (I guess around £50 or so) but I will keep an eye out for second hand ones, something's bound to come up sooner or later.
Any tips for how not to catapult off the bike next time (or any good resources for these)? I more or less know what I'm doing on a road bike, but these seem to be rather different beasts!
Had an absolutely awesome time bombing along the trails! Unfortunately my enthusiasm rapidly overtook my experience and after a couple of hours I thought I'd try and get some serious air off a nice downhill bump.... not quite sure what happened after that but ended up sliding through the flinty mud on my knees and face with the bike on top of me, to be met by horrified glances all around when I got to my feet - urk!
Knee is now pretty fooked (hopefully nothing actually serious just swollen so bad I can't really walk on it at the moment) and face is stinging like the blazes (I have a good action-hero cut/graze from forehead to cheekbone)....
But what's this? I seem to be opening multiple ebay and gumtree tabs and looking for a mountain bike! Might have to take it a little more cautiously next time but it was so much fun I *have* to give it another go.
I really like the look of the old GT bikes with the "triple triangle" frames, especially the older ones with more-or-less horizontal top tubes. Budget will be, well, budget for a MTB (I guess around £50 or so) but I will keep an eye out for second hand ones, something's bound to come up sooner or later.
Any tips for how not to catapult off the bike next time (or any good resources for these)? I more or less know what I'm doing on a road bike, but these seem to be rather different beasts!