The weekly walk today took in passing something called Gawton Gravity Hub which is a set of downhill MTB trails laid in amongst the trees on a very steep bank on the East side of the Tamar valley. They drop about 400ft fairly swiftly.
I think it’s quite a serious and popular destination for MTB racers. Certainly I’ve seen pick up trucks bringing bikes and riders back to the top although I’ve never been to watch an event there.
Today there were just a couple of guys practising starts down the ramps from the wooden structures at the top of the trails and into the first few bends. Looked like fun but I’d hit a tree within seconds!
When I did the Coast to Coast for the first time I’d done a lot of road training to get (reasonably) fit - it was 30 years ago - and there was a forest downhill section that was pretty steep. Of course I was right into it and was descending at an alarming speed when I suddenly realised that there was a sharp left-hander ahead!
I guess it was 50m away but on the loose track and at the speed I was travelling it wasn’t the easiest thing to brake. I miraculously managed to avoid ploughing into the trees and only just stayed on the bike round the 90 deg bend.
Subsequent descents were taken in a much more stately manner
In around 20 years of riding and racing downhill and dirt jumping I had some spectacular crashes, luckily most of them ending up with me wide-eyed and laughing my head off at still being in one piece. 3 years of racing bmx however…
Did manage to do this riding downhill though, the ketamine while they removed it was interesting!
I guess I came quite close to losing an eye. I was wearing a full face helmet and goggles, the branch deflected off my goggles and went in the gap between goggle frame and helmet. It took quite a lot of pulling to get it out.
Plenty of crashes on the mtb, nothing I wasn’t able to walk from, the worst of it ligaments in the shoulder.
What you never want to repeat having done so for the first time is crashing on road, short of getting a stick stuck in your head, yikes! A different level of painful that goes on giving for a week or two even in the most minor of mishaps
My slow speed double crash on black ice on the way home from work in January was a particular favourite. Thankfully they have been few and far between on the road bike.
