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Bobsled? Bobsledging?
However you say it, it does look like cracking fun!
How do people get into it? Jamaicans aside, we all know that story. But who has a bobsleigh track at home growing up?
What's the method? A good powerful start and using bodyweight to lean in to the curves? I've been watching the four-man teams on the Olympics, but I remember watching a documentary about the Cresta Run where chaps were going down solo. Do the cars ever leave the track?
Where/how can one have a go?!
alwillis of this parish is doing it in Lillehammer, see
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/what-are-the-sporting-events-youd-most-love-to-have-a-go-at/
I did a couple of runs in Latvia, great experience
Had a tour of the Bath training camp when we did an event with some skeleton bob athletes. They said we could come back and have a go on the push track where they practice starts but unfortunately nothing came of it.
Do the cars ever leave the track?
Not sure about cars, I guess possible but sledders or lugers can and do, in fact at Cresta there's a club for them
https://www.cresta-run.com/ride-the-cresta/facts-about-the-cresta/
John Noakes did... No thanks!
And on the Cresta Run
https://twitter.com/bbcarchive/status/1225099263148822529?lang=en
A good powerful start and using bodyweight to lean in to the curves?
They have steering.
They have steering.
I did not know that. Hence 'the pilot', On a bobsleigh wiki-wormhole now.
they had single person bobsleigh this olympics for the first time. i think it was 2 and 4 person before only.
they had single person bobsleigh this olympics for the first time. i think it was 2 and 4 person before only.
Only for the women though.
Something something women drivers something something think of the passengers something something.
Given the bobs cost an absolute shitload and you need very specific conditions and set up to train for it, it's not much of a surprise that it's the same few countries that do well at it.
The Cresta Run
Looks like any old fool can have a go. That's me!
Given the bobs cost an absolute shitload and you need very specific conditions and set up to train for it, it’s not much of a surprise that it’s the same few countries that do well at it.
The new solo ones are a single design for that reason, keeps the cost down to £30k a sled. Compared to £100k+ for the big ones. According to the pundit this morning.
If you want a go yourself head to the La Plage track. Cheapest option is 4 of you in an extra tall padded bobsleigh which gets pushed off from the top and gravity takes you to the bottom. You can pay more for a proper bobsleigh with a proper pilot or have a go at luge with a big cage over you in case you flip. Cage has a live feed camera on so everyone in the waiting area can see you scream your way down the track.
Did it this lunchtime in Lillehammer (as mentioned above). We went for the taxibob which is a proper 4 man bob with a professional pilot and then just the 2 of us in the back (I got the brake man slot right in the tail).
An excellent experience all round, 5G in the corners pushing your head back down your neck, slightly bruised shoulders from bracing against the sides as well.
I’m in awe of how some of the larger power athletes go from an all out effort at the start to curling up in a ball being squashed into the floor of the bob.
I once did the Lillehammer taxibob in the summer. When the ice isn't there it's basically a long concrete channel, on which they ran a crude bob on wheels that looked like something I could have knocked up in my garage. Like alwillis I was in the brake position but I don't recall it actually having any brakes, or suspension; they put 4 of you in behind the professional driver, push it off at the top and you got shaken to bits while enduring ridiculous G-forces on the way down. Main thing I remember about it is getting to the bottom and realising I'd been holding on so tightly that I didn't realise I'd worn off chunks of skin from my hands where they'd been against the inside of the bob. Highly recommended.
Edit- looks like they now have an improved version that actually looks a bit like a bobsleigh - https://en.lillehammer.com/things-to-do/wheelbob-in-lillehammer-olympic-sliding-center-p4228863
Man I work with was on the National squad for skeleton in Canada but didn't qualify for the Olympics. He's also pretty sharp at skiing