Sometimes I forget that it is wintertime at the moment. Although our rainy season (and therefore trail building season- I’m actually looking forward to it this year) is supposedly still on its way, in other places riders are riding in the wet stuff. I can’t say I miss doing my laundry or all the required bike maintenance after each ride, but I do miss a lot of the trails in the northwest after watching this video link shot over to me from some dudes in the UK.
We’re big fans of Santa Cruz bikes and the VPP platform, so the fact the whole posse is rolling SC-style is just a bonus. I’m a fan already, simply because this is the kind of riding I like to do best: trail rides with the bro-ham crew, where we’re all dicing our way down the trail. I love that everyone is just rolling with the half shell sans knee pads or any other layers on a slick trail with some fun looking features and flow. My knees get cold just watching.
“Beaten Tracks” is the first of three films about trail riding in all weathers. We teamed up with a group of local riders who who know the Surrey hills inside out. The weather was murky and muddy, perfect conditions for some fast trail riding.The trails situated just South of London and they criss-cross a group of 4 or 5 pine and oak covered hills. The riding is a mixture of, mainly naturally occurring, downhill sections joined together by miles of technical XC single track and fire roads.The bikes of choice here, as with riders in the film, are mainly Californian long travel trail bikes, which seem to have the perfect set up for the up and down riding conditions.Tyres are matter of constant debate, but we were really impressed with the new Black Chilli versions of Continental’s Barons which most of the riders used in the film. As you can see they stuck to everything and yet at the same time, somehow kept rolling quickly too.I hope this is all ok and heres the Vimeo link, but let me know if you need anything else. —Rob
