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Hi,

I'm Rachel (30) and I'm excited to find this forum!

I travel a lot for work - leading hiking trips abroad - but when I'm back in the UK I'll now be based in Woodford Green. I got into roadbiking when I lived in Granada, Spain, but coming back to the UK I find the roads a bit scary, and want to see more local nature, hence my interest in mountain biking. A friend gave me a Ridgeback Hybrid commuter bike - would that be suitable to bring on a mtb trail?

Are there any group rides suitable for beginners also?
I'm also looking to take a bike repair course so if anyone has any suggestions (the freer the better ; ) please let me know.
I'm really starting from scratch here so sorry for the real newby questions!

Looking forward to hearing from you and hopefully meeting you on a ride!

Cheers,

Rach

Rach,

Welcome to the forum

Glad you've ditched the road bike thoughts coming onto a MTB forum

Does the Hybrid bike you have now, have off road tyres on as oposed to smooth road tyres which will give you ZERO grip off road, good fun but not if you like hugging trees

There is a ride organized for 27th Dec in epping it will be a good laugh but you will need a level of some fitness, your hiking experiance should help their.

On the main front page of the forum top left is a calendar of when most rides are going out ect..

Welcome along!

Regarding maintenance courses , I know Evens cycles do run free maintenance courses but to be honest I would rather trust Stevey Wonder with my bike than them. What are things are you looking at learning exactly? I learn a lot off of stuff off youtube

Welcome

I often ride through Woodford Green on my way to High Beach but its pretty muddy this time of year until you get to the fire road around Buckhurst Hill. Not much fun and tyres will defo be the limiting factor. At least on the Epping group ride it misses that section out and starts from a car park further up.

Hi all,

Thank you for your replies and suggestions - I will check out youtube for help (patching a puncture mainly I suppose...I'm a hiking guide but might get to go out the on bikes soon and so need to learn a bit about bike prep also)

...and the 27th sounds great! But I checked my bike (I have it stored somewhere else at the moment...) and the wheels are quite thin...and although I've been known to treehug, it really was in a different context
So I'll try to sort out a mtb soom...maybe in Jan sales!

If anyone's selling one cheap let me know!

See you all soon,

Rachel