Greetings from Sherwood Forest

[Sherwood Forester]

Hi everyone. My EMTB story began about five years ago. I'd just finished building up a full carbon Whyte E120 on which I expected to smash the trails. How wrong I was. Not only was I unfit but unbeknownst to me I was also unwell. I was always "tail-end charlie" and it got to the point where I stayed at home rather than go out. Many weeks of medical tests ensued including wearing a heart monitor for a month. I was diagnosed with a form of arrythmia which is now under control.
So I hatched a plan to build an Ebike. Starting with a Kinesis hardtail I added a Xiongda two speed motor and a 635Wh battery from Insat International. It was fabulous and still is! However, it became increasingly obvious that some of the trails we frequent were beyond it's capabilities and I really didn't want to break it so I have recently splurged out on a Levo Expert Carbon so the limitation is now my capability, not the bikes!

 

[steve_sordy]

@Sherwood Forester : Welcome, I ride Sherwood Pines on a regular basis, nearly always off-piste. Let me know next time you fancy a ride out.

 

[Sherwood Forester]

Hi Steve. We usually find ourselves in the Pines in the evening, after work. ( My chum's work, not mine. I'm effectively retired.) More often than not we do the Red route but both myself and my chum have health issues so sometimes we go Blue. "Off piste" sounds interesting though.
Most of our visits aren't pre-arranged. We'll decide to go at a few hours notice. A planned ride could be sorted though.
My level of "expertise" isn't very high TBH but improving all the time. I prefer a fast, sweeping trail to rocks and big drop-offs. I do need to learn more. (A bit like my trackday shenanigans. I couldn't drive a greasy stick up a dog's arse!)
Where are you Steve? I'm in Kirkby. We also do routes taking in the fire trails around Blidworth/Annesley/Newstead and have recently discovered the Big Wood in Bestwood. The service guy in the Nottm Spesh centre told me about a wood near the old Calverton pit tip, opposite the Jet station on the A614, that has some good "downhill" type runs in. We'll be checking that out soon.
I'll speak to my chum and see what we can schedule. Nice to hear from you. Geoff.

 

[steve_sordy]

Thanks for the reply. I can ride any day of the week except Monday mornings (pilates class). I am not too keen on an evening ride as a regular thing as I have no lights.

I am leading a guided ride around the best off-piste routes and features at Sherwood Pines on Sun 14th Apr, ready to ride at 10am by the Cafe veranda. Most people attending will be clockwork bikers, but there will be me and one other on an emtb (we are both old gits). I will be running this ride by special request from members on the Bike Radar forum.
Link to the Bike Radar thread is here: Group Ride Sherwood Pines Sun 14th Apr'19 - BikeRadar Forum

There are some seriously good trail features and at least one of which will challenge anyone but the best riders. But every single feature of any note is rollable and avoidable. We had a 6-month pregnant woman turn up once and she got round OK by avoiding the ones where the consequences of failure were too high (for a pregnant woman). She was a good rider, but everyone breathed a sigh of relief at her common sense. If you can ride a typical red trail in the UK, then you can do this.

 

[Sherwood Forester]

I'll put it in the diary Steve. That'll make three old gits on emtbs.