wheelhot

Well, today was my race and I didn't get to finish it , It was a 4 lap race with god knows what distance, I feel its 5km+ but people say its only 3km which i dont believe because the track is much bigger then my previous race with is 3km per lap. Either way I didnt manage to finish the race because of my right arm and my helmet.

Anyway the downhill is very interesting, see the pic attached, Its blurry so Im going to explain it, the black lines are downhill. The black lines in a red circle means super steep. Anyway I tough of asking you guys yesterday how to master that downhill but since the forum is down, I didnt manage to post it. Anyway I managed to go down that downhill at a slightly lowered seatpost then usual but my helmet is too big which cause I cannot see where I am going . Oh yeah and I felled tooo much time yesterday which cause my right arm to hurt if i push my bike uphill. The track became tooo slippery which make going to uphilll impossibe.

Im sooo sad

wethepeople

I've had that problem before with the helmet.

That why I dont wear one unless i'm at a ski hill or a freeride spot and when I do it's a full face, I know the local trails well enough I dont use one. I know it's stupid but I dont really care.

FreeRidin'

Ya riding blind never has a good out come. Sucks you could not finish.

Umm whats the point of the picture you attached?? I thought it was going to be a pic of the terrain.

LowCel 

Bummer. Hopefully that will be your last dnf though. Better luck next time.

wheelhot

thanks guys. I cant take the pic of the trail because it was very muddy so trying to get the side picture of the trail is almost impossible. Anyway if you see in that pic, its a rough estimation of how the terrain looks like. From the top of the hill you will see a sort of drop off but its actually isnt. Its a super steep terrain that should only be tackled at high speed (i use my rear brake only during the competition) but too bad after that section my helmet blocked my view, so too bad I cant see anything :'( .Nway thank guys

MattP.

Let us know when you kill yourself!

Jameson

Isn't it cool how humans survived riding bikes without helmets before they were "invented"? Isn't it even cooler how small children drove around in cars with much less safety equipment without using car seats and then grew up to freak out about necessary safety? I wear my helmet constantly after watching my Dad have to learn to talk allover again after a spectacular crash , but really, how did the human race survive?

wethepeople

I never wear a helmet when I BMX, and thats alot more risky then on my mountian bike.

Weeks

yeah i miss the good ol' days when a simple infection meant death. i meanm we're a bunch of ******* now! people got along just fine without regular bathing and antibiotics and with leeching. **** advancements man.

wheelhot

Lol, anyway I was wondering, is it natural for my Shimano Acera to erm actually get stucked at a certain gear after passing mud and water? And is Studs really make you able to walk on mud because im constantly slipping down while climbing up (not wearing a proper mountain bike shoe) and some guys practically carry up their bikes and walk up like nobody's business, I mean its only 2 studs at the front and it made the shoe stick to the ground perfectly although its very muddy.

Anyway the downhill part, here is the options, the first one is to ride down, really scary if you are standing there watching because from the top you will see a dropoff but you cant jump because there are more dropoff but it is rideable. As you ride the dropoff you will realise that its a super steep downhill. Thanks to the internet I managed to be brave and bring my butt realll way back which make me able to clear the hill. ,

another option is to walk downhill which will make you slide down during the dropoff and mostlikely you will get your hand twisted if you are holding the bike while going dowhill. Heh

mtnbiker66

Hang in there,the more you ride stuff like that the better you'll get at it. No shame in walking as well. You're doing great.

Jameson

Yes, the Black plauge most likely killed less people than riding helmetless. Super fact finding. Boy, is my face sure red.

LowCel 

Nobody here can really tell you how to ride it. Some people will take the left line, others the right line. Some will go straight through while others walk. It's just the nature of the sport. You know your limits and your riding style. If you think the risks outweigh the gains then walk it. If you slip get back up and walk some more.

I do have one piece of advice though. Don't even think about entering another race until you have a helmet that fits you properly.

schnee

PS - 'humans' (plural) survived, but many of the specific ones didn't, many of whom should have. Put down 'The Fountainhead' and read something that teaches you some compassion, maybe?

santiago

We survived as kids but how many didn't? How many more would still be alive if they wore helmets or were buckled in?

Dannihilator

+1,000

Jameson

Oooooh, kay, I've never read the fountainhead, not my type of book. I wear my helmet and my children wear them, they also use child seats. I stand behind my comments 163 thousand percent but I will concede they were poorly written. The words I type on this forum are all consistent with a winning formula I developed long ago.
40% Humor + 60% Truth = Readable Material ( ALL spelling and Grammer are approximated)
i was only trying to state a mild disdain for the freakish level of safety paranoia running rampant. I did not convey my message to the masses and have been suitably chastised in a semi public internet forum....It's a damn good thing I was wearing my helmet.

wheelhot

Thanks for the tip low cel, actually my parents wanted to buy me a new helmet but a Bell or a Giro helmet in Malaysia costs around RM300-500 so I feel its too expensive to buy a good brand helmet

Almost forget, do you guys suffer the same Rear derrailleur unable to shift problem when you race track is very muddy and wet? Or is it because my Shimano Acera is a low end Rear Derailleur?

LowCel 

Everyone has problems shifting in mud from time to time, just the way it is.

As for the cost of a good helmet, if your brain isn't worth the money then don't buy a decent helmet. There is no excuse to not have a safe properly fitting helmet.

wheelhot

heh, good point, didnt think of that one. Haha, well its because most people tell me that there is no difference in buying a expensive helmet, it will still break after a fall. So I was wondering, what is the advantage of getting a expensive helmet like Bell X-Ray?

santiago

Bell used to have a slogan I believe that read, "Buy a $50 helmet for a $50 head." It was obviously meant for motorcycle/motorsport pricing, but you get the idea.

LowCel 

The biggest advantage of the more expensive helmets are comfort, weight, ventilation and style. Most $50 helmets work just fine. In a recent consumer reviews article a $60 (or so) helmet was actually rated way above a lot of the $150 helmets in terms of safety and durability.

Whether the helmet is expensive or cheap is irrelevant in your situation. If the helmet doesn't fit it doesn't matter how expensive it is. It won't do it's job.

wheelhot

thanks, hopefully Bell X-Ray in malaysia costs cheaper then my Eggbeaters SL (RM100-200)

junkyard

I think that it is tough to make a comparison of today's safety standards to those of, say, 25 years ago. The sport has changed drastically. One of those changes was, quite simply, the birth of mountain biking. Another would be the speed that is now being carried by mountain bikers. The types of terrain being tackled is another consideration. Etc. My point is that the evolution of the sport lends itself to how we approach safety.

cryptid01

+3.14159