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Got a chance to try mountain biking for the first time with my gf's dad on Friday. We headed to Laggan Wolftrax and I did the red route twice on his mate's Whyte 46 MK 2. Overall I had loads of fun but it was much harder and more scary than i imagined. There seemed to be lots of large rocks either side of the trail and I had never done jumps, used disc brakes and suspension before. Paired with the fact everyone else had loads of protective gear on I felt quite vulnerable to having my jaw or knees caved in by a boulder.
Do most people use protective gear when they start off? Or is just a normal road style helmet ok for the most part?
A lot of people wear the new 'ride all day pads' now (see issue 90- of the mag for reviews) - for confidence if nothing else. I do since getting a knee injury a few years back but, equally, lots of people don't...
Standard helmet should be as effective as an mtb one unless you go for something with a much lower back 'enduro style'.
Most don't. Most don't ride with loads of pads, etc even after.
That said, plenty do.
Almost everyone feels scared when starting mtbing - as you ride more you realise that it's not (normally) as dangerous as you thought and that bikes are amazingly capable of handling rough terrain if you let them (eg don't brake all the time!)
eg don't brake all the time!
Yea I found that one out pretty quickly, I guess it's the catch 22 of not enough confidence to go fast meaning you're just putting yourself in danger by riding too slow. Just about dropped off a couple of jumps 😯
I might see if anyone has any old cheap guards on the classifieds.
[i]I might see if anyone has any old cheap guards on the classifieds.[/i]
buy new, if nothing else some else's sweaty old knee pads or shin guards may have reached the end of their useful life. You can get something new for £30-£40.
I guess it's the catch 22 of not enough confidence to go fast meaning you're just putting yourself in danger by riding too slow.
If it's any consolation, I've been mtbing 20 years and still brake too much...
Get some proper arse protection sorted first, if you don't already have padded undershorts then i'd suggest they be your first purchase 😀
Just need a helmet.
I have some pads that I never use, you can have them for postage.
I think of course they can be useful. But also, it's important that they don't freak people out, sometimes just seeing all the protective kit is intimidating- "it must be more dangerous than I thought, otherwise why would I need all this crap!" It should feel like the equivalent of doing up a seatbelt, rather than putting on a bulletproof vest because there's a crazy dude with a gun.
I go riding with my brother sometimes, he's a total mountain biking disaster but he enjoys it. I more or less order him into kneepads and gloves, just because he's fairly likely to fall off and I don't want to clean up the blood. But at the same time I made sure he knows it's not because he's definitely going to kill himself, it'll just help keep his comedy falls funny.
Get some proper arse protection sorted first, if you don't already have padded undershorts then i'd suggest they be your first purchase
Haha thankfully I'm a 'road cyclist' whatever that is, so my arse is well protected!
I have some pads that I never use, you can have them for postage.
Mackem, that's exceptionally kind of you. Are you sure?
Aye, they are just sitting in a box doing nowt. (I'm in Spain so postage will be about 10 euro. If you can wait, i'm back in the UK next month)
I think all day knee pads are worth it those are joints you really don't want to screw up!
Pads have to be comfortable otherwise you just won't wear them.
Technique first, speed later, remember you have a limit, enjoy.
Protection is only any use if you crash and need it.
The problem of course, is knowing when you are going to need it........
For a beginner, i'd say a small amount of basic protection is a good thing, and shouldn't feel too intimidating (helmet (obviously), gloves, and some subtle knee protection maybe)
Some of your choice also depends upon on what terrain you ride. My "daily" riding is really all on sandy stuff, so whilst there are some pretty big things to jump/drop off, the consequences of getting it wrong are a lot less for more rocky or harder ground etc.
Whilst it is intimidating seeing other riders getting dressed up like stormtroopers, you'll still find they are a normal person underneath, with all the same concerns and fears that you have 😉
Thanks guys I'll take Mackem up on his offer which sounds like will be all that I need.
One more question (which is not really relevant) I think I'll have the option of buying the Whyte 46 MK 2(2005) soon for a low price, maybe £450-500. I really loved it (even though it's the only MTB i've tried) and I know it's been taken really good care of and the Mavericks were rebuilt last year. My only concern is that it seems to built with lots of proprietary parts and quite a unique design so I'm worried about the cost of maintenance, my road bike is just a Spesh Tricross so all super simple super cheap parts.
What do you think about taking on an aging bike like that?
I'd check how easy it'll be to get spares (ask on here with a new thread) - it may be fine or it might be an issue with the fork being fairly rare even when the bike came out.
Mind you, it may well be a better bike than you could get otherwise for that cash if it's in good condition.
Here's a question, does d3o lose it's impact absorbtion over time?
I bought some a couple of months ago for sailing (so they get far more abuse than on a bike), but whereas they would obviously stiffen when folded quickly when new, now they just stay floppy. Hard to say if they've lost impact resistance though, as 90% of their job is dealing with frequent low impacts with flat surfaces on the boat rather than infrequent hard impacts in crashes.
As for the Whyte, the mavericks are fairly simple and use standard sized seals, and I've never heard of reliability problems with them so it's not like you need a stock of new dampers. And apart from frame bit's there nothing else proprietory, and it's not often you'll break frames/swingarms (and if you do then it's generaly terminal and new frame time anyway).