Forum

Hi all,
I'm Steve, new to the forum and been riding MTB for a year. I started on the usual LBS Raleigh bike that I bought about 8 years ago. Stupidly thought 50mm travel and V-brakes (and 16kg) would handle Hadleigh MTB park. How wrong was I?!?!?! Lol

Within a couple of months, I had bought my first "proper" bike. An ex demo Pinnacle Jarrah 2. It has 100mm air fork and hydraulic brakes with 27.5" wheels. I put decent flat pedals on and have been loving it ever since! Still not great at climbing but can get up everything I need to at my own pace and the strava times are tumbling steadily.

finding that modification is an expensive hobby but have pretty much settled on the current set up but am always looking at new bikes.

Only get to go out Sunday mornings but love riding the local area, Warley / Thorndon and Hadleigh with the occasional stint at bedgebury or swinley mixing it up a bit.

We all get started in much the same way... for me it was a Decathlon bike and the woods down by the Mardyke.

They don't happen as often now but once it dries up a bit the Warley/Thorndon rides will start up again on a Sunday morning.

Once you get riding with a group you'll settle in, the 'modifications' don't end and you'll find that 100mm of travel soon don't do it - then you'll be looking at the used bikes and on and on

You're from Thurrock - so can I ask have you done the Thurrock Loop yet? It's a fairly flat 25 or so miles that can be a good pedal turner and is a loop so you can jump on and off in multiple places.

Hi,
I have indeed done the loop. It's a regular winter ride for me at the moment while Warley is boggy and it's no fun getting all the wheels clogged and covered in slop lol ( being wet / cold is ok but when it's a pit of sludge, I don't like it lol). I am due a visit to Hadleigh too soon as that's pretty good what ever the weather.

I modified my loop to go from davy downs to ship lane, up to the M25 roundabout and into purfleet via tank lane (?) by circus tavern and picking up the RSPB from there. I managed to eek 33 miles out of that loop before and was knackered for the afternoon!

As for modifications, being I'm not really into jumps as such (don't mind the little ones and drop offs though) I decided to upgrade my brakes to a set of deore's (courtesy of a friend) with semi sintered pads and 180mm up front. The thing stops faster than I can cope with now so that should last a while lol but would still love to upgrade to a Trek or Cannondale at some point.