Mountain-bike park - a day trip anyone?

Hey all,

This is a call for mountainbikers to saddle up. I’m intending to head over to one of the close by bike-parks (e.g. Geißkopf, Saalbach, Leogang…) for the day sometime next weekend (31.7 or 1.8). I guess it depends on how the weather turns out but only pouring rain would actually stop me. I will be heading there by car and I can offer 1 person+bike a lift. There is also an option for 2 further without bikes to join me. I might be able to arrange some more seats next week once I know if I can convince some XC-ppl to join. I know some parks have full-sus rigs and helmets/body armour for rental but you would have to check/reserve yourself. Just for clarification: I'm talking about taking a lift up and riding down the hill in a way that will require protective gear. This might not be for everyone but I can tell you it’s a blast if you have the guts.

Can't make this weekend but would definately be up for it sometime in august...

Will either have to rent a bike though.. Not sure my racebike will be at its best on the woop-woops

You can rent a bike from the Karstadt at/near Theriesienwiese. they have a good selection of Scott bikes to rent, and they are pretty trashable. Better than that Ti hardtail XC race, superlight thing that would bend and break under my large ash.

Id love to go, Ill PM you later to see what the deal is. I might have to postpone it, since my insurance isnt fully active yet.

the Diddie Schneider built park in Bayrischer Wald is a nice one too, and has easier sections for the beginner and intermediates out there.

What sort of difficulty are we talking here?

Mad jumpey spinney stuff or something more "down to earth". I'd love to come along to some of these, just hope I am able enough

Tom...

I did end up going to Geißkopf this past sat. Geißkopf is not too far away; 170km iirc, but still 2h+ until i was ready to ride. ~25€ for a day pass on a single(!) chair and a T-bar, but only had to wait in line once. Decent downhill track, pretty much one big rock garden with 2 5ft drops, both had quite nasty landing zones. Sweet dual slalom, 2x and 1x track, some north shore trails and an excellent learning area to gain experience in jumping. They had a cool repair shop, and were able to sell me a new dropout since i managed to break mine. The rental shop had scott high octane dh's, possibly other brands too.

Unfortunately at the end of the day someone stopped right in front of me and in an effort to avoid a full frontal crash I ate some serious dirt. My protectors saved me but the impact was hard and my shoulder and knee took a huge blow. A word of warning, check out my shoulder in the pic I attached, this will happend if you dont wear shoulder pads. Headed to a nearby ER on sun but apparently it seams that I managed to escape serious injuries. So now I'm limping around waiting to heal up so I can go ride again, but once I'm back in the saddle I'll be happy to check out some more parks.

@Tom17 the parks usually have trails for all levels of riding, just pick the trail that suits you.

Count your blessings...At least you didn't hit a tree during the virgin ride of your new MTB. I have experience in that area...Ouch.

Ow, dude. Im glad I have Elbow and Knee protectors, but atill... My bike is set up for long distance XC to light freeride duty. Im not going to be jumping any serious gaps, but Who knows. Maybe Ill rent a Scott, Maybe Ill go with my own.

Full gear in summer sucks tho.

C.

The bike is a Trek Fuel 90 XC and I'm happy to say it was NOT injured. They hold up pretty well...unlike my shoulder, knees and elbows.

I suppose they do:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/27/bush.bike.ap/

albeit I believe he rides a Fuel 98

I was looking at doing a day trip to a bike park next weekend (Aug 28th/29th). I won't be doing anything extreme, just some nice'n easy freeriding since I'm still recovering from injuries.

Anyone interested in joining?

Hi,

I might be up for something this weekend. I doubt I would be up fro a trip anywhere, rather somewhere close. Where were you thinking of going?

Tom...

Well there are 4-5 parks within 2h(give or take some) by car iirc:

Bischofsmais/Geißkopf (aka BMW bike park, think it's the Diddi Schneider park), Bad Wildbad, Leogang (Austria), Saalbach Hinterglemm (Austria)...

Check out this list of bike parks <- German only

Haven't decided where to but I need to do some lift access riding this weekend.

I just got my insurance card in the mail, so Im down for next weekend (Sept 4 or 5). I can kick for gas, and I have a ride, but I might want to rent.

And the Diddie Schneider one looks nice, and I think its not too far. With all levels of trails.

There's a new park around: The Nordpark singletrail in Innsbruck. They've got some cool ns stunts (not that I'd ride such a stunt at my current level of riding). The park trail is pretty darn steep and gnarly and even some of the non park trails close to the designated trail can be pretty narrow and challenging. There is a 4 ride pass for 23€, but if you manage to do all 4 rides you are an extremely strong rider imho.

8" rotors are recommended, my riding buddy got his 6" smoking hot (lost pretty much all power).

Pussies! What's wrong with cantis? If that fails, ram your foot in the back tyre!

so.. when are we going?

@Tom17

Got tempted by that 7x teeter totter? If you ride it I'll shoot some pics for the board

Hmmm.. up in them thar trees? I'm guessing not.. sorry

Naturally I can take pics if you will be going on there

Actually fellas, I'd be up for going there if I can get hold of a bike for a weekend..
Doesn't look so tough! - I'll probably end up regretting that

You planning on heading there this weekend?

I'll be most likely going to some park, yes. I doubt if I'd go to Nordpark twice in a row, don't get me wrong it's a super park but it is quite extreme imho. I'd rather go to a park next were there's all levels of riding and also some dirt jumps for the sake of practice. I did not see any rental shops at Nordpark, but e.g. Geißkopf and Leogang do have shops.

Tench, Tom are you guys up for a trip say sat.?

Yep! Would prefer sunday but could do saturday too..

Are any of these parks you are discussing still open in the first couple weeks of October?

IIRC Bischofsmais is open til October 31st. Check out the bike park link i posted (don't get scared by the german) navigate to the park of choice and they will most likely have an english version of their website. If not just use google language tools

ow. ow. ow. Is anyone else as sore as I am? I think I lost about 5 litres of beer-sweat on that last ungodly climb.

Tons of fun though. Im already trying to plan my next equipment and bike purchase.

C.

Yeah, great day out fellas. Thanks Pat.

Shame I had to leave the chunks of shinbone and the layer of skin from my arse on the hillside though..

Yeh, great day out fellas, even though I was hurting a bit more then Tench climbing.

I'll be venturing on further trips no doubt but with the focus set on downhill rather than the other way around i.e. Bike parks.

Priceless: seeing tench go off the road twice without padding, tench you're the man

Working as a carpenter or alike and got a utility vehicle? Would you mind transporting a "few" bikes? If that would be the case (which I doubt but hey, worth a try) it would be really cool to round up some ppl and head over to Bischofsmais some weekend. I know there are some interested ppl around, but transporting equally many bikes as ppl is impossible