Monday 5 October 2015

One day one photo - 6

This bike was the reason I was able to ride the Red Bull Foxhunt downhill race last weekend. It's not my bike, sadly.

There was no way I would have got down in one piece had I used old faithful hard-tail that I have had for the last 15 years! As well as my old Rockhopper has performed for me over the years, throwing 500m down a hill, over rocks, heather etc would have been a bridge too far - well for me it would have been!

So, the very nice people at Alpine Bikes in Glentress mountain bike trail centre (where they hire out mountain bikes) leant me a lovely Trek Remedy.

It was a great ride. Full suspension, comfortable saddle, a "reverb" button which lets you adjust the saddle height while you are riding, depending on the conditions of the slope. There was also another switch to give extra bounce (or not) depending on whether you are riding uphill, downhill or on flat trails. Naturally, for this event the bike stayed in just the one setting!

People say, if you have a nice bike it makes you want to ride more. I had always been sceptical about this statement. No, surely it's just the actual activity of riding that will make you do it more - and you will just make do with whatever material you have! Well, I have to say I am tempted to do a little U-turn when it comes to mountain biking. I had so much fun bouncing down the hill on the Trek Remedy during the Foxhunt that I would do this sort of descending again and again - but only with a bike that is fit for purpose!

Now that I have got the bug, I will start saving my pennies - all 250,000 of them so I can afford an all-mountain bouncy bike. Thanks again to Andy at Alpine Bikes.

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