STAR LETTER
JUMPING BACK IN
Something that I feel doesn’t get enough media coverage is crashing. For most of us who have ever ridden a bike, crashing is something that you can’t avoid, after all if you are not crashing, you are not trying hard enough. I watch my young children learning to ride and crashing is exactly that, a learning curve. But what I really want to touch on is the mental effect that, not just having a crash can have, but also witnessing one can have.
At 34-years-old, coming to retirement age for 1st team rugby, I knew I wanted my retirement sport to be cycling. My local dirt jumps have been a bucket list item of mine since I was at school and I took it upon myself over the past few years to learn how to master the pro line (S4P) with a lot of trial and error. My neighbour of a similar age has always been a rider with steeze to aspire to and one evening in late summer we were sending it and he had a crash. It was a bad one. He was in the midst of alternate whips when something made him want to throw the bike down in mid air, he tried to land with a foot on the top of the landing and missed, sending him onto his side and head from the highest point down to the lowest. Thirteen feet of impact. Eight ribs, three vertebrae, punctured lung and unresponsive.
What followed was a very lonely period as we were up there by ourselves. Then there were ambulances, paramedics, phone calls to his wife, talk of helicopters and evacuation plans.
Riding my bike afterwards was difficult, I decided to get back on my full-sus rather than DJ bike and gradually my confidence grew.
I really want to get back on the jumps, and had it not been for an epic downpour and the trails being closed for a winter re-build, I may have been tempted to go down there. But I am torn.
Ed - thanks for the offer Roland, probably could do with all the local knowledge we can get! Coincidentally, we’ve just been down to Exmoor for a feature this month, check out page 14.
GORTIN GLEN
I am a 15-year-old rider enjoying your magazine from Northern Ireland. In the past few months I got into mountain biking after having heard about it from friends. To my luck, in the last years, the Fermanagh and Omagh District Council had invested in mtb trails at a local forest park – Gortin Glen. With the trails came numerous small businesses in the nearby small village of Gortin.
All very well, but I have been saving money to buy my own mountain bike. I have been considering something like the Vitus Nucleus VR 2021 or the Kona Lava Dome 2022. Any advice? Necessities include: tapered head tube, single chainring up front, and hydraulic disc brakes.
Ed – Sometimes, just sometimes, the politicians get it right. Both your bike choices there would be good, you should also check out our Hardtail of the Year Test, bit.ly/mbrhardtail