nightshade18

Hi guys,

I usually ride a road bike, so mountain bike knowledge is very limited. I was looking for a buddy to cycle with, and a friend I haven't seen for ages suggested we go out and ride together - Jackpot, I was super happy.

Then I realised he's talking about off road riding...

He wants to go to Gisburn Forrest in the Uk which is a dedicated mountain bike site. I've linked a video below to show you the kind of terrain - it looks terrifying!

Anyway, I do have an old mountain bike. It's a godawful, 15 year old, super cheap, no name (actually it's called a Chicago thunder), full suspension monstrosity. Whilst it's still in good mechanical order, it weighs about the same as a small moon and the last time I rode it (about 3 years ago) I seem to remember that most of my effort seemed to be converted into bouncing up and down rather than actually moving along. Neither fork or rear suspension lock out. Clearly it's not the ideal choice.
But I've hardly any cash to replace it.
The idea is that we could make meeting up and going for a ride into a regular Sunday outing.

So my question is, am I better off trying to replace it with say, £100 - whatever I can find local on ebay - likely a rigid bike, or should I just make do with what I have?

If we can make this a regular feature then it'll be well worth saving some cash for a decent replacement, but what to do in the meantime?
If it's not worth spending cash, is there anything I can do to my existing bike to improve things?

Scary off road place : https://youtu.be/iOKu3szJ58E

*edit* bike looks like this one

nightshade18

Just thought of one thing - I could throw my pedals from my road bike on, as I use spd's and mountain shoes on my road bike

shopkins1995

I would go with what you have. It seems like the rider in that video is riding really slow, so suspension won't matter that much. Now if you want to try to take that at 50 MPH then that's a different story.

FrozenK

That Chicago thing is a piece of crap -sorry to be blunt. Ask your friend if he has a bike you can borrow, because the one you have is not going to be a lot of fun. More so if you are chasing a person with a decent bike who mountainbikes regularly.

I would also skip the clipless for the first outing. If you are not confident riding on trails being clipped in will only freak you out more.

nightshade18

Haha, don't worry about being blunt - I know full well how terrible it is. Beggars can't be choosers
No spare bikes available unfortunately - my buddy is inexperienced so at least he won't be clearing off into the distance

nightshade18

Aha, success!
I have the loan of a Marin mountain bike. I'm not sure which model it is but it's a 2013 bike and it's a hardtail and the right size for me - hopefully that'll be much better than my awful Chicago.

Then if it turns out to be a regular feature, I can put some cash away from something decent!

FrozenK

Awesome, now go and have fun. Gisburn Forest looks like a great trail system. It looks like they have the trails rated by difficulty, and I would suggest you start on greens and blues. Maybe check the reds out, understanding you may have to walk some sections. But looking at their website I think you can have all kinds of fun with the blue trails only.

jimc101

Just remember that mobile coverage is poor to non-existent at Gisburn, you'd need to drag yourself to high ground for medevac; as your starting out, ride within your limits, and as a beginner, would use a lot of caution (read really wouldn't till your a lot more confident & have a bike capable) if attempting the Hope Line, or The Slab, starting out on the blues & green runs is good advise

LesterOfPuppets

Should be nearly infinitely better! Have fun!

nightshade18

Medevac?!?
Yeah, we'll be starting with blue and green and going slow and steady. As it sounds like you're familiar with gisburn, is it a decent spot?
Anything else we should know?

jimc101

See Singletrack forums, the air ambulance is kept up busy there, same as in North Wales, MTB'er keep the A&E departments in business.