[Closed] Am I the only one not to "get" North Shore?

Riding on ladders?

What's that about?

Does nowt for me. Even as a way of crossing boggy ground I hate riding it. Get to a plank up a tree style- Why? But them mountainbiking as a pastime is fairly pointless really.

the north shore is awesome!

I dont get riding pallets in the sky either

Perilous plus predominantly pointless planks. Possibly partly permissible provided planks passover peat pits.

I have no idea why I did that.

How many of you have actually been to the North Shore? When you ride the trails there, everything does flow.

Then again, what is there to *get*? I personally don't see the appeal of riding round a muddy field for 24 hours, but respect the fact that others do. It's all bikes, just different flavours.

A lot of northshore is pretty naff in my opinion. Remember it was originally conceived as a way of making or connecting a trail together and avoiding the unrideable or sensitive bits of ground. The mega high ultra technical stuff was an extension of this. Maybe the boardwalk across the boggy bits that TJ speaks of is more like the original NS than the twee foot high ladders and see saws you might see at a trail centre.
However done right it can be amazing - look at a video of Jedi riding Herts Shore and it's impressive.
I like to try it but the height thing puts me off. I know it's all in my head but it's hard to get past. Can't see why it's so repellant to some, it's no different to ride on than a mildly pebbly track. If you hate riding on the boardwalk stuff maybe some skills training on managing your grip levels may be in order! 😉

I have no idea why I did that.

An abnormal appetite for aimless alliteration?

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sublime shore skills shine[/url]

clunky clicky corrected

Clunky Clicky!!

its requires the same skill set as riding mtb. its cycling so whats to not like

North shore, for kids innit..?

I don't like the high stuff... Well rephrase that, I don't like it when it's something that could have been built a foot up that's been put 6 foot up for no other reason than to make the price of failure higher. I don't object when it's part of the feature to actually use the height change.

(this is because I can ride happilly along an inch wide strip at ground level, or a skinny at a foot, but give me a 2 foot wide bit of shore 10 feet up and I'll fall off 😉 )

But I do enjoy the balancey stuff, as Jedi says it's riding an mtb. Balance, control, occasionally techy bits. It can do things the ground can't, which is good.

It can be fun but is often implemented badly in trail centres over here imo. I saw a pic somewhere of a big bit of boardwalk completely covering a big lovely looking slab of bedrock. 😕

I'd like to try Mabie Darkside though.

just makes me shake

Yeah there's boards 6" above a bog, and there's North Shore. It's like saying you don't like singletrack or something.

WCA built some North Shore stuff once. It was very, very dangerous.

I would say the same as Jedi, except I have never found a trail I have ridden that requires the same skill set as those that require the balls to ride 10, 20 or even 30' up in the air, yes it translates to what you 'do' in mountain biking, but in no way
are you prepared for the consequence's of falling that far if you get it wrong!

Respect to those that can.

Slow and no flow eh?

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Simmons[/url]

I think what Jedi does is absolutely amazing and as he says its all just mucking about on bikes. However I have zero desire to do it. Its just a skill I am not interested in acquiring.

tj, but it is the same skills in all mtbing!

guy that rides tandem in not wanting to ride scary stuff shocker 😉

I've never tried any high stuff as it scares the living crap out of me.

Even the hillside boardwalk on Fort William Red nearly had me in tears...

Simple - it's just not out there. Mtb, to me, is about being out in the Mountains.

NS Vancouver is clearly different - looks fantastic.

NS here is more akin to Trials imo - still riding bikes though so it's all good 🙂

tj, but it is the same skills in all mtbing!

The difference is the level (Both physical height and the amount of skill) of skill required! 🙂

Looks great when you see those fearless riders nailing the high up stuff

Not for me though Self employed and it would be fast track to Hospital
that and fear will keep me off the high stuff .

Would like the low stuff where the price of failure is a swim in a bog

Historically I've always thought that I approve if the woodwork (or for that matter, other obstacle) is "in context". There is some at keilder like that, it crosses a soft area on the black route.
Ive never particularly liked unatural looking or feeling trails, However recently I've started to get past that illogical mental block and begun to appreciate more "manmade" features like tabletops.
Originally I blamed my preference for liking the aesthetic, but as my confidence and skill level has increased the appeal of more technical features has overcome my need part of my need to see pretty, natural looking trails.

I've not ridden coed landegla recently(which I regard as very unnatural looking and feeling) will give a go this w/e and see if I enjoy it as much as the more " natural" (easy?) stuff I usually frequent.

It's no different from any other man made trail out there. You can use wood to create fun or challenging trail features in an otherwise boring landscape. It's not all stupidly high skinnies, it can be very fast and flowing. It's no different from digging out a berm or creating a jump from dirt where there wasn't one before.

There are also the more practical side of it where you can use it to elevate riders off the boggy floor or create crossings over an immovable object but its not always done in a fun way.

It's just messing about on bikes, don't let it keep you up at night. 😀

tj, but it is the same skills in all mtbing!

Obviously it still gives those who can ride 20' high skinnies some sort of rush otherwise there's no reason* for them to be 20' up.

*ok a few trails may require it.

"Lifer - Member
Slow and no flow eh?

Wade Simmons"

I don't think the Ewoks will be best pleased with cyclists tearing up their village.

I used to love it, and it did my riding skills no end of good.

Having been to Canada and ridden on *The* North Shore, I now find large amounts of it pointless. The real thing is very largely practical - getting across a swamp or a ravine, or bridging a gap between 2 big rocks. Makes sense - allows a trail to be created and sustained where one otherwise couldn't exist.

If it has a purpose - ie making an otherwise unstainable trail viable, then great - bring on as much of it as you like. The playpen mentality of building some non-challenging ladders 18" above an otherwise flat, featureless piece of ground and calling it "freeride"? Nah.

I still have very fond memories of Hertshore though. Electrifying, terrifying, and just such a brilliant vibe. Not ridden there in ages 🙁

I don't think the Ewoks will be best pleased with cyclists tearing up their village

What they going to do about it ay? Furry wasters

It looks like they've all been killed off anyway. 😥

That's climate change for you

North Shore has no appeal for me. It's great for crossing boggy areas etc to keep the flow and maintain the trail, but putting it in for the sake of it as a techy trail feature doesn't float my boat.

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I'd like to give it a go but I'm not great with heights. Just walking across Herts Shore was bad enough for me 😛

The stuff on the North Shore of Vancouver is AMAZING and worth seeing even if, like me, you only ride the jessie xc stuff but stop to look at the big stuff.

I think riding North Shore is fantastic.

I am crap at it, too much fear, but I've "got it" a couple of times and to me it seems to be about freeing your mind of the fear and realising it can be as easy as riding along the white line on a road - when you get that sensation it is an amazing buzz.

Long live diversity in cycling! And in everything else.

Cheez

That video is amazing... i'm impressed what can be ridden if you have the skills and the guts! 😕

I'm a huge fan of it, as much for the aesthetic as anything. I agree that some of the trail centre stuff just seems pointles, low, wide, sturdy raised sections where you could have have swoopy singletrack just seems daft, and to me tht Ft William boardwalk just looks boring.

Loved the Darkside though, quite imaginative use of a nasty forested hillside, and linking the exposed stumps together like that was really neat.

I'd love to go back to the forests above Loch Creran where I used to build and really craft something special just for fun.

From the skills point of view, I take a lot of satisfaction in just riding along kerbs, I found a line of old kerbstones just outside the Kingshouse Hotel in Glencoe and spent an entertaining ten minutes dicking about on those, despite the epic surroundings and the big trails stretching away in every direction.

I also think the 'gesture' north shore at trail centres is just pointless unless it genuinely crosses bogs or something in which case its just a boardwalk. Why ride a bike on slippery wood 6 inches above good dirt!

I saw some north shore in private woods in Edinburgh a few years ago which must have been double head height - no way i would ride that though!

I prefer the North East shore, the beach at South Shields has lovely golden sand, but the very best is Bamburgh - miles of unspoiled shoreline.

A word of warning though, wrap up warm as it gets very cold at this time of year!

if you didnt have woodwork to ride at a safe 6" above the ground, you would not be happy to try when its 3' up.

same as jumps or drops, if trail centres only had huge jumps nobody would ride them, gotta start small

(im not good with heights, not at all)

I don't think you can truely "get" any type of riding until you can do it to a fairly high level (or at least spend time with those who can), whether it be XC racing, trials, BMX, DH, dirtjumping or whatever.. you don't need to "get it" though, appreciating it for what it is is another matter entirely. I think I could prob get into it if there was a scene round here (local, not Scotland) but the same would be true if I had better skate parks, BMX tracks, pump tracks or trails(dj) on my doorstep sometimes there's just not enough time and too many ways to have fun on bikes 8)

Jedi - fundamentally I agree with you about shore riding using the same skills as mtb but I think because it's tuning into a very different part of those skills to every day mtb riding it's very easily written off as something too different to even try. My natural skills (you know all those skills that've become so natural over the years you just do without thinking) are quite different from yours and I find I'm tested to the max if I even try to ride slowly along the kerbstones on a straight pavement but I can hit exactly the same 2" patch of dirt/root etc. on a corner at 30mph again and again without even thinking and if I hop onto the same kerbstones at 20mph I can get along it fine until the momentum dies. I'm just not tuned into the slow speed moves in the same way you are. Way back when me n MC rode (and ahem.. walked) the Darkside at mabie I found a lot of the narrowest bits that needed to be pedalled along/up too awkward/difficult but cleaned the faster rollable downhill sections fairly easily whether they were narrow or not and found those bits fun.

I used to 'not see the point of it' until I tried it (Surrey Shore that is, not real North Shore) then realised how much it concentrates and focuses the riding experience so that every pedal stroke and bike movement 'counts'

I do like most types of riding but find many 'almost-a-mountain' rides consist of an awful lot of mindless codger cog cranking through pretty boring landscape and although this does involve a stubborn endurance type of mentality the skill level is close to zero (IMO)

Anyway, I find plank riding is great fun and develops confidence, coordination and sphincter control - all skills you may be glad of one day

Ride On 😀

Its very easy to enjoy even if you R H8TR.

Simply sing out the theme of Kick Start whilst riding along it. It then makes sense.

I hate it because it makes me nervous.

I am pretty sure that on the ground I can track my tyres along a 4" wide path without any trouble at all. Stick me on some wood, raise it up more than 6" and I wobble all over the place. Even if it's just a log that's had a flat surface cut into it......aaarrrghhhh!

Practice practice practice, I know but I barely find the time to ride, let alone go back and forth over the same bit!

Dammit JHW, I've just lost an hour at work to daydreaming about what I could build back home...

I think one of my hiking trips this year will have to make way for a week of trailbuilding (or 'grubbing about in the woods' as my dad insists on calling it, doubt he'll be happy to have his 27 yr old son back for a week breaking his tools up in the forest haha!)

I've never subscribed to the theory that riding along a kerb 4" off the ground is the same as riding on a skinny 10 feet in the air. The same bike-handling skills may be involved, but overcoming the psychological element is the most crucial skill (that Jedi has nailed!)..

Same with rock climbing. No way would I solo some of the stuff that I try when bouldering. As many have pointed out, it is the penalty for failure that is the biggest issue.

Still, I do enjoy messing around on a bit of wood work

I've never subscribed to the theory that riding along a kerb 4" off the ground is the same as riding on a skinny 10 feet in the air.

It's exactly the same, until you fall off that is 😳

To gain confidence I went from kerbs to scaffold planks on the ground to sissy shore in the garden then a few days at Esher Shore (RIP 🙁 ) to get the 'skilz' - would love to have a go at the 'real stuff' some day, though I'd more than likely bottle it/hurt myself badly 🙄

but overcoming the psychological element is the most crucial skill

Perhaps, but I'd suggest that a major part of 'overcoming the psycological element' is confidence in your ability to ride skinny stuff?

No point blundering on to a 10 foot skinny if you can't ride in a straight line 8)

Edit: Hilldodger sort of beat me to it.

I just love the brrrrrrp! sound when you ride across a bit of woodwork. If I could ride the high up stuff without fear of death I would!

The bog std trail centre stuff is OK, and a good way of protecting bogs (The North Face trail), but:

1. It's wood. Makes me think it's slippery (like roots).
2. Ground trails often develop nice catchy edges on corners, NS doesn't
3. Heights, and falling, worry me.

I'd suggest that a major part of 'overcoming the psycological element' is confidence in your ability to ride skinny stuff?

I'm sure for some that is the case, but not for me. Reiterating my analogy with rock climbing, there's a level of technical difficulty I will not attempt when 50 feet up a rock face (or north shore!), despite knowing it is within my ability. There is just too much risk. Maybe as a young 20 something with no wife and kids it would be different 😀

I love the stuff, first time riding some was in morzine (canyon run I think it's called?) and I absolutely poo'd myself when I looked down and realised the ground had just dropped away, gave me a serious adrenalin buzz which just pootling along the trail wouldn't have done.

Stuff I've ridden in this country at trail centres has been quite disappointing.

Still don't think I'm good enough to safely do 'proper' north shore though, penalities for failure are scary.

13thfloormonk - Member

"to me tht Ft William boardwalk just looks boring."

It is, but it's really just link trails- the nevis red equivalent of a fire road. There's still some fun bits in it, wee jumps and steps and berms and such but about half is just a motorway to get over the deep bogs.

most of the time i see wood work, i start to worry, brings attention where it is not wanted and causes issues with other user groups.

i love creating new phycological challenges in a place where otherwise would be still just a flooded hole in winter.
some of the best constructions i have ridden in canada haven't been on the north shore 🙂

I'd like to get good at riding north shore where it isn't far off the ground so mistakes won't be too costly. The tall stuff really scares me!

Most of the best "Shore Style" constructions I've ridden have been at unoffical sites where the health and safety factors haven't been rigourously applied. Ladder drops, banked/bermed woodwork and see saws add new,fun, elements to riding. A flowing section of boardwalk can be used to good effect here and there.

However when I see a couple of token "skinnies" in the undergrowth beside a trail centre track (usually on an uphill section) it makes me think "what a waste of effort"

hats off to the uk wide shore builders. (zack, jcl, steffan, fish esp )

Most of the best "Shore Style" constructions I've ridden have been at unoffical sites where the health and safety factors haven't been rigourously applied.

Ha! I can second that, the local nutcases to me were Ben Cathro, Chris Hutchens and the Phillips brothers, all of whom race/raced DH to a pretty high standard, and in the space of what seemed like an afternoon they came up with about 500 metres of beautiful, imaginative but downright shonky 'shore'.

The section propped against a small rock face with rhododenron bushes hanging over it was a particular highlight..

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