Singletrack magazine, day two 10th March

Today I got a chance to get out and ride some of the local trails on one of the budget bikes in for testing; a Diamondback Response. Normally when I think about cross country riding I imagine people riding on flat smooth trails at a leisurely pace.

I quickly found out that that isn't how people ride cross country in Yorkshire. The ride was made up off long uphill slugs followed by steep technical descents littered with huge rocks. On downhill bike this would have been fine but with very little and very unresponsive travel I really had to pick my lines.

I now have a huge amount of respect for cross country riders. Especially ones from up North. The Diamondbike wasn't the best bike for the trails but to be fair it wasn't really designed for this type of riding. And neither am I.