Jesus!

Handy for myself as Ballyhoura is where I've been going regularly since starting a few months ago. Don't have to worry about having change for the gate. And at 5 euro a pop the card will have itself paid for after a few weeks

Never heard of it but if they bring in paid parking at Ticknock and Ballinastoe I'd be all over it. Can't wait for the January health kick people to give up and get off my mountain!!!

bogmanfan wrote: »

Well if the health kick folks don't go away, Coillte will have to do something about the parking situation up there. Was insanely busy on Sunday and people were just leaving their cars anywhere regardless of whether they were inconveniencing others. Saw several cars turn left inside the gate and park facing the wrong way up the one-way system. Would love to know how they intended to get out.

I'm guessing you're referring to Ticknock and not Ballinastoe? As I didn't see any parking issues in Ballinastoe on Sunday - they even opened the gate to allow cars use the overflow above the last berm section so there was no obstructions on the road past the entrance.

Peter T wrote: »

Anyone able to recommend somewhere in munster to buy knee and elbow pads ? Want to pick up a few other bits too so somewhere with good variety so i can try different brands and sizes to see whats the best fit

Raw Cycles, Limerick

I gave a walk around the Edge last week and didn't see anything that grabbed my attention but I'll call again as its 5 min from my house. I do prefer to support the smaller bike shops. I feel the edge does enough business praying on clueless people spending their bike to work money

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/every-county-to-benefit-from-62m-rural-regeneration-funding-904522.html


€10,262,900 to be provided for an International Mountain Biking Project.

This flagship national project will develop international standard Mountain
Biking Trails which will provide recreational, health and tourism benefits.
The locations include: Slieve Bloom (Offaly & Laois); Collaney (Sligo);
Ballyhoura (Limerick & Cork); Ticknock/Ballinastoe (Wicklow & Dublin)

Bike park in Tipp, can you just rock up on the day and take a spin around, or do you need to book regardless if you're going to use the uplift? I see on the website there's a section for booking a pedal pass for €8, so I presume that's your entry fee. Given it'll be a bank holiday weekend when I may be there how am I fixed for turning up on the day?

Cheers woky. What's the Enduro Climb like? Distance wise it seems short and from checking out the strava segment it doesn't seem too bad. I don't plan on getting the uplift but plan to do 3 or 4 spins up to the trail head instead this way.

Hurrache wrote: »

Cheers woky. What's the Enduro Climb like? Distance wise it seems short and from checking out the strava segment it doesn't seem too bad. I don't plan on getting the uplift but plan to do 3 or 4 spins up to the trail head instead this way.

climb is short but a **** of a thing, just pay for the uplifts, its some crack coming down those trails

Hurrache wrote: »

I like to climb for the workout, or masochism, not quite sure yet!

Are familiar with Ticknock or Ballinastoe for comparison purposes?

ive been to all three, all good fun, but id know bike park the best out of them, and it would be my favorite. its coming from a more downhill perspective compared to the others, better facilities, better setup. ive only ever done the enduro climb once i think, horrible yoke, uplifts all the way for that place, you d be bollocked after doing that a couple of times

Hurrache wrote: »

I may take the lazy route so. Cheers.

theres certainly no harm in checking out the climb yourself, but very few do it, i found walkers on it before, but those trails are really great fun, i ll probably never do that climb again. ive done half days and full days, im finding the full days to be the best, as you can do things at your leisure, missing the odd uplift, you will find yourself tiring late in the afternoon though. theres probably no harm in starting on the green, then moving slowly up the ranks as the day progresses, the blues are a lot of fun, i spend a lot of time on them

Look forward to hearing how you fare!

I'll be riding a hard tail too, sure it focuses your mind on improving your handling over letting the bike soak it up. That's what I tell myself anyway.

Sorry for leaving it so long Hurrache, but this is the first chance I've had to sit down to the computer since we got home on Sunday.

BPI was brilliant. Even though it was my first visit, and as such I was tackling the trails pretty blind, I had a whale of a time. Started off on Green, then moved on to Blue, New Black & Blue Jump trail. All could be done on a hard-tail once you weren't an idiot, and were great fun. As the day progressed I found myself getting slightly more confident in my abilities including getting a tiny bit of air on the jump trail. :cool:

There was a Trek Demo weekend while we were there so I got to try the Remedy for an hour before lunch, and then the Slash for the last hour of uplift. I didn't really gel with the Remedy (the one time I came off a bike all day I was on it) but I think a lot of that was due to having the brakes backwards to what I'm used to so I grabbed a little too much front brake at one point which threw me off. Enjoyed the Slash a lot more, which had the brakes the way I'm used to, but an hour wasn't really long enough to form an opinion (and it had a sticky dropper which was annoying).

Uplifts run in 2 sessions - 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm. The park is open from 9am-6pm so when the uplift isn't running you're welcome to use the Enduro climb to access the trails. I walked it on the Saturday, and yeah, its steep in parts. I didn't try cycling it Sunday as the uplift was just too tempting to skip. Truck runs on average 4 times an hour, meaning a possible 24 uplifts over the course of the day. I ended up using it 22 times! Between my own bike, the 2 demo's and the uplift, I clocked just over 56km over the course of the day. :eek: Legs were pretty tired by the end of it, but then I'd done 50km in Portumna on the Friday so was probably to be expected :pac:

We stayed overnight on the Saturday, along with a family in a caravan and a lad I know in his recently converted van. Handy waking up on-site. Toilets were left open for the night, but there was no electric hook-up (not that we needed it). Cost us 10 each. Everything else is priced as per my previous post - cheaper to pre-pay online rather than on the day.

Already looking forward to a return visit - my wife saw how much I enjoyed it and suggested going back for the full weekend of my birthday in June

So got out there this morning, what a great place they have. I went with the uplift after checking out Strava and what the times were like on the enduro climb. There was only one sucker appearing on Strava who done the run all day yesterday, and I actually know him, he'll get a slagging next time I see him. He done it about 5 or 6 times!

There's more routes than they have on their site and I didn't have the ability to go beyond the blue trails. I had plenty of bravado and confidence to attempt them but my skills were in no way a match so I erred on the side of caution.

Lots of people and families camping there in their camper vans and the little kids were kept entertained on the various pump tracks.

Really worth a visit if you're any where near the place, or even make a weekend out of it.

anyone have any idea when shimano are officially putting the new 12 speed stuff up for sale, my sram eagle derailleur is fcuked and i am sick of eagle and its finicky to setup bull****