ARD Rock last weekend Reeth

[wassy]

ARD rock is THE mtb festival and just up the road from us so Ollie thought he’d have a go. He’s 15 so the sprint which covers three timed sections and 30km loop is the only option. We don’t have a current enduro bike so he used my five year old Vitus.
Came away with a 5th in class and 9th overall out of 360 in the Sprint category beating several team riders which seemed to make him happy ( although he’s a teenager and you can never really tell ).

 

[PIGGLET]

Nice work! Never made it to ardrock but a few mates do it every year. Looks a harsh place to crash hard! I've done ardmoors most years. I reckon your lad would like it as its more flowy and bike park esq and not as rocky as Reeth.

 

[wassy]

He wants to have a go at ARD moors next year so hopefully it doesn’t clash with other events. We’ve just done Glencoe downhill British championship round the rocks were savage he burped two tyres on one run and that’s with inserts !

Nice work! Never made it to ardrock but a few mates do it every year. Looks a harsh place to crash hard! I've done ardmoors most years. I reckon your lad would like it as its more flowy and bike park esq and not as rocky as Reeth.

 

[PIGGLET]

I've pissed about with wheel and tyre and shock conficguratiikns for a few years now to try and find the goldilock set uo that eliminates burps and snakebites and thenconclusions I have come to are as follows:
Rim width is really important for sidewall support. Minimum 35mm for 2.3/2.5 tyres and 40mm for 2.6's.

Suspension plays a big part to. If your suspension platform set up properly the you dont need soft tyres to off-set the lack of small bump compliance that manifests around 95% of mtb's. A custom tuned fork with a custom tuned coil shock in a properly designed frame will akkow you to run MUCH higher tyre pressures without sacrificing traction. When it all works the differennce is very noticeable as there is no tyre squirm on fast high g corners so hamdling is much more precise and rolling resistance is significantly reduced.
Check out tyre mwnufacturers pressure guides and then see what most people end up running..... most folk end up running tyres way below optimum.
Have you tried a DH maxxis Assegai on the front? Its amazing in dry to intermediate condtions.

 

[wassy]

I've pissed about with wheel and tyre and shock conficguratiikns for a few years now to try and find the goldilock set uo that eliminates burps and snakebites and thenconclusions I have come to are as follows:
Rim width is really important for sidewall support. Minimum 35mm for 2.3/2.5 tyres and 40mm for 2.6's.

Suspension plays a big part to. If your suspension platform set up properly the you dont need soft tyres to off-set the lack of small bump compliance that manifests around 95% of mtb's. A custom tuned fork with a custom tuned coil shock in a properly designed frame will akkow you to run MUCH higher tyre pressures without sacrificing traction. When it all works the differennce is very noticeable as there is no tyre squirm on fast high g corners so hamdling is much more precise and rolling resistance is significantly reduced.
Check out tyre mwnufacturers pressure guides and then see what most people end up running..... most folk end up running tyres way below optimum.
Have you tried a DH maxxis Assegai on the front? Its amazing in dry to intermediate condtions.

He’s running Continental Argotal front and Assegai rear both DH compound and the suspension was set up by the Saracen factory mechanic so bike is pretty much perfect for him the problem was that all the rain washed the track out overnight and it was very rocky. I’ve never seen so many bent wheels !