Well, not a real check out as you mention but I did a little search outside the city to figure out how mountain biking is over there. I rode a traditional city-hybrid bike into the wildness and saw some mountain bikers, took some photos but can´t find the damn mini-card where they are stored. Nevertheless nothing spectacular in it, although there is a pretty nice forest near Coblence I think every other guy in this forum is capable of riding at a very good level, so those photos wouldn´t impress you much I presume. Armentano, remember, Spain is the second most mountainous country in Europe after tiny Switzerland. So many nice places to go to ride… Alicante has nothing to learn from any German city. I hope you are luckier to keep some photos on your ride to Murcia, Sierra Espuña and “El Berro” (sounds like a hilly place to sweat up!). The real difference is inside the city. It´s a flat small city in which bicycles have found the ideal terrain, culture and will to take over in traffic along with cars. Of course Karlsruhe is not Holland but so many people ride their bikes in a daily basis. The common bike there is a 28” cheap one. To our eyes, the city is lack of traffic signals. There aren´t so many, but it is funny, bikers and car drivers know what to do to avoid accidents. I think the idea is simple. Respect to bikes whenever you see one. Based on that, they have saved money in traffic signals and of course have given tons of pleasure to bikers… Movies, books and the like… Chainring´s weekend will be weird to his family!. He will be at home!!! Any more recommendations?. Oh Yeah!, Deep inside, as he confessed, he was thinking of becoming a pilot. So, why don´t kill some more time flying a simulator plane while his bikes are resting waiting for him to ride them? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJe033RMXyo Have a nice not biking 3days-weekend!
Thanks for the flight video interaptor: many many years ago I used to be passionate about that stuff. Bicycles seem to be booming in Spain, both on- and off-road. Maybe one of these days we'll see some really good bike lanes through Madrid, which would be a major step forward and would help cut down on pollution, which has been pretty bad lately, especially with the lack of rain. I Personally haven't got much to tell in the way of bike adventures as I've been stuck at home recovering. I have been watching some bike videos though. One thing that strikes me is how male-dominated mountain biking is, so it's nice to see talented girls out there. For instance, in the video below three Canadian girl, along with guest riders, teach us freeride techniques. Besides all this, I think being injured makes you think a bit, like should I go for a safer version of mountain biking and steer clear of more enduro stuff. Actually having said that, when you're in less technical sections the speed tends to increase, so it can still be dangerous as you're still testing your limits. I guess if you want to be safer you have to stay in your comfort zone, but it also seems to be in some or our nature to push ourselves. Well, as soon as I'm better I'll be back on my bike. By the way, I didn't fall in a particularly difficult section. Actually I think part of the problem was that the night before I only slept for something like four or five hours, so perhaps I wasn't exactly in top form. I think from now on I'm going to be sure I'm well rested, and that may mean riding less. I try to ride four or five days a week and run once or twice, so maybe I'll cut back a bit. I suppose I have a bit of a complex as well because of my age: I'm not exactly the youngest rider out there. In fact, I suppose some people think I may be past mountain-biking retirement age. But I sure don't feel like I'm in my fifties, and I hope I never do. [video=youtube;VKKtf7oVVZU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VKKtf7oVVZU[/video]
I hope you are about to fully recover from the accident. Great video you posted, women on the rise! Age is a feeling, not a fact, isn´t it?. No matter how old you are, what counts here is what you are willing to do. The most passionate biker I know is maybe 70 yo, still in good shape and counting. Maybe we tend to avoid risks when aging but in the bicycle world that only means changing hard core mountain biking to less hard biking or road biking. That´s all. You can ride your bike at 100 yo if in good shape. Whatever your age It´s really in your mind what you are capable of. Just go to any appropriate place and maybe can see sky diving at 90 yo. Talking about risks, airports and bikes, I DID think that riding a bike the way you had that accident, was of course more dangerous than taking a plane… Well today I doubt it. It turns out that in my flight back home I had the hardest landing ever in my life!. People screamed in panic!. The pilot just let the plane drop. BOOOOM! We bounced with some violence at Barajas as the plane got in contact with the tarmac… WOW! What an experience… Remember how you were flying on your MTB in the photo you posted some days ago… Imagine the same picture but this time into a Boeing 737!!!... BOOOOOOM… Boooom… booommm. LOL. Yesterday I rode my Hybrid with headwind and again I felt the advantage that my aerobars give me over a standard riding w/o them. I was able to pass some road bikers fighting against strong wind… Maybe heavy and goofy for a hybrid, but powerful when it´s windy out there. Keep on recovering!. The mountain, bike-lane and friends miss you on the road again. :rasta
I hope that no news is good news for Chainring. You never know how our body recovers... U feel better, David? Yesterday I spoke to a Berg staff member and ended up buying another bike!. Yeah, cheap bike to give it a go to mountain biking. 3 bikes in about one year. Fisrtly my hybrid, Then came my road bike and now an entry-level mountain bike... all the same silver colour, all entry-level bikes, all made by Berg... Oh my God, I don´t know how I became such a Berg enthusiast!!!. My entry-level bike is in its way to Madrid. More to come. Cheers!.
Hi friends! I´m with Interaptor, age it isn´t a problem to practice mountain biking, obviously it´s very different when you fall with forty-five than with twenty, but in my riding group there are more riders in his fifty riding with enduro bikes. Sometimes or always when you are in the "age to ride" it´s when you had more life complications like childrens or working hard. Only I can tell you that here there are people in his forties who are the strongest it´s posible because the head it´s very important to ride and the experience too. Chainring I would like see you soon in a new pictures "on the air" other time. Last weekend finally I only made two pictures with the road bike I´m going to try and put here. I have been some problems to up the picture here it is with the road bike in Sierra Espuña with some riders from Alcantarilla (Murcia) http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/204/20120318101035.jpg/
Interaptor, you've bought a mountain bike! Wow, what a surprise! So which one did you get? When you get it and I'm better we'll go for a little ride somewhere, like maybe Valdelatas, which is fairly easy and safe. By the way, I'm slowly getting better, though I'm still not back on my bike. If I'm lucky maybe I'll go for a ride in about a week. Arementano, thanks for the encouragement. And don't worry, sooner or later I'll be riding again and hanging pictures. That's a good pictures you posted. I didn't know you rode road bikes. Looks like you're riding in a beautiful area. The picture makes me want to go for a ride! Alas, must wait a bit longer.
Yes Chainring! Normally I practice mountain biking every saturday and I usually ride with the road bike on sunday, the reason it´s because normally when I practice mountain biking on Saturday I finish too tired and day after with the road bike it´s easier and it´s different, I always tell that if you enjoy riding you enjoy with each kind of biking, and I can know different places, with different people and obviously when I take my mountainbike I can see I´m strongest than if I only use my mountainbike . Next time I will ride in Sierra Espuña I promise better pictures and with my mountain bike.
hi, I'm new in the this post and I'm studient english, only took six months study, and choose the post to follow learning my english because is very bad. sorry I hope be other more the this post. good night
Welcome to this thread, cristian_texas! By the way, since I've been injured I've been spending a lot more time in front of my computer. In case anyone's interested, this is a classic mountain biking video: Life Cycles. It has some really spectacular photography, well worth watching. [video=youtube;EknrGhC9pBM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EknrGhC9pBM&feature=related[/video]
Ey! Sorry for the delay guys… Armentano, nice road biking there mate!. Taking a photo while riding a road bike is a pain in the neck, so thank you for taking the time and (why not?) the risk of showing us how it is like to sweat up to Sierra Espuña with your partners!. You made me curious about that climb at it best right to the top, and found there is a (unknown for me) military base called EVA13… (Maybe it´s a mountain military base for skiing or a telecommunication porpoise there). Anyway, there are two tough ways to get there on a roadie. To Eva13 through Totana: http://www.altimetrias.net/aspbk/verPuerto.asp?id=267 To Eva13 through Alhama: http://www.altimetrias.net/aspbk/verPuerto.asp?id=252 Mamma mia!. :roll: El Berro peak is not even in the middle of the climb!!!. 248 in coefficient as shown is a very long (near 30 kmts) hard road to get there mate! Have a warm welcome, Cristian_Texas. Feel free to write whatever you wish, whenever you want. :rabbit Chainring, Spectacular photography in that vid, :clap Thank U!!! yeap! I gave a thought to getting into different surfaces, in other words… dirt and the like. I was tempted to buy both the MTB and the road bike at the same time, but I ended up just getting the roadie. Not for too long. 4 or 5 days ago I emailed Berg asking for the same bike I was willing to buy the very day I bought the Fuego. Since I don´t need a top of the line bike, this one is just an entry level model, neither an expensive fork, not hydraulic brakes but mechanical. Well, excellent stuff for the euro, you know. (It´s Deore derailleur, Shimano M460 m brakes, Sountour XCT fork, 3x9 speeds, etc). I just wanna know if a more robust bike, wider tyres and handlebars are for me. I mean, any of the three bikes I got are really experiments to figure out what kind of biking I like the most… No need of an expensive bike at least for now. We have to meet up to burn those easy unpaved roads!. I´ll wait till you are fully recovered get my new bike and the sun up there!. Now it´s just my skill as a cyclist, not the bike, the key factor to follow you!!! Cheers!.
It sounds like Sierra Espuña's a good place to go for a ride. For the moment I've only ridden here in Madrid and in the Ferrol area, which is beautiful. I still haven't been back on my bike, and I really doubt I will next weekend. In fact, I'll probably be off it for a month, then I'll slowly get back into it and start building up my strength again. In any case, hopefully we can go to Valdelatas sometime at Easter.
David, !stop talking bullshit! :razz: Is not that I would like to be in your shape when I'm at your age, is that I would like to ride like you right now! Hey, !so you got a nice MTB! If you accept some guests, I would like to go with you to Valdelatas or El Pardo.
Sure Doohan!. So there are three of us waiting for the right day to meet up, we will keep in contact to know when that day is when Chainring is on the game again. And remember guys, I´m relatively new to mountain biking, need to learn the very basics on my new bike in not too demanding tracks as I firstly did on my road or hybrid bike See U when David is OK!
Welcome Cristian-texas! Don´t worry if you are thinking that your english isn´t enought , my level is similar and I´m learning on this moments and here you can practice and enjoy at the same time with your hobby. Interaptor in Sierra Espuña you can go up for differents opcions like you can see, all of them are beautiful to up, I love ride uphill. Every Sunday when I´m there I up for some of this La Marina from Alhama with 9 kilometers and you have the option to continue until the Militaryr base with five or six kilometers more, with and uphill a little hardest than until this moment or from Totana which it´s hardest because there is La Santa up with and uphill above 20%, and when you finish this continues with El Collado Bermejo during nine kilometers more with and uphill near 9%, the problem it´s only because normally we up both at the same time and when you arrive at the second up you are really tired. Next time I will try to take some pictures in this points more importants and I can show all, I can tell us at the same time that in this area to practice mountain biking is incredible there are a lot of bikers on or off road, off road there are the "One thousand curves up" very famous there. Next time more pictures!
Hey Doohan, good to hear from over here in the English corner! Oh, and thanks for the nice words: Stop talking bullshit! Ha ha ha, that's pretty good. In any case, love to have you come along with us to Valdelata (or El Pardo), though we'll want to go easy on Interaptor, who's a rank beginner on bikes with fat tires. Also, in Valdelatas you could be the guide since I'm not that familiar with the terrain. Armentano, from the sound of it there are a lot of uphills, but of course, every uphill also means a downhill! Actually I enjoy going uphill and going downhill, but the skills are quite different. By the way, I found this video of the Sierra Espuña: the riding looks good! [video=youtube;A7vldmgz1wI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7vldmgz1wI&feature=related[/video]
Armentano, We´re looking forward to seeing those pictures whenever you can. Sierra Espuña is a really great place to go to ride as seen on David´s video!. :razz: Thanks both of you guys. That´s it Chainring. I´m new on sturdier wheels, can´t go out and hammer the trails as David and Doohan do, don´t frown at me when we meet up… It will take me some time to get used to it. Road bikes and mountain bikes are apples and oranges. By now, I´m limited to get by on road bikes, rode also a hybrid for a while, never seriously drive to the trails. You have ridden mountain bikes off and on for years… Mine is a scratch start. As you encourage me to ride more, I feel like getting into the dirt stuff. But remember, no magic pill for newbies so it will take some time, great time, to catch up. I am under the impression that mountain biking is more fun. Hybrid or road riding for me anyway is much easier to gage your progress as you start out only being about to do a certain amount of kilometers and before you know it, you are cruising up the hills, in an addicting way the short rides you started off with are just short!. Chainring´s words about his 1st time on heavier mountain bikes are water clear. It´s Harder than expected. And still learning!:rasta Cheers.
Well, El Pardo is kinda great, I must recognize it, a lot of shifting terrains, Valdelatas' is more for strolling In fact the last day I was around there, I met a couple of your compatriots, seemed that they were having a nice ride you can use my track as guidance http://es.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=2547824
Hi there DavidVSP, Valdelatas :lool maybe easy peasy japanese for Chainring & Doohan. It´s me the only one allowed to have an accident there... :qmeparto Cheers.
hi guys thank you very much everyone. how gone the weekend? I hope well I this weekend been in the race of enduro the salines (girona) have you been some?
Hi DavidVSP! Thanks for the track, though I think I'm familiar with most of those places. I tend to bicycle around here, except when we go to the Sierra, which attracts me more and more since it gets old riding in the same places all the time. El Pardo is a favorite, though the last time I was there I had a little fall which I'm still recovering from. In any case, since we seem to have the same stomping grounds maybe we can meet up sometime. I was thinking of going to Valdelatas, or maybe the Casa de Campo, in order to give Interaptor and easy introduction into mountain riding. I think El Pardo would probably be over his head, though if you stay along the highway it's not too bad. Hi Cristian_texas! So you were in an enduro race? Sounds great!
