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OT: Silly question-is there much xc riding in Sydney to keep me happy if I move there for a a few yrs?
Well I live in old England but moving due to work and my GF is missing her Sydney (north shore?) home.
I ride xc and fear I won't find local rides like I do over here!
Should I just buy a road bike?
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Champ, road bikes are for pussies.
I have never ridden XC in the UK, so I can't comment about the quality of rides you enjoy there. Although there are plenty of "expats" in this forum that I am sure will post their own thoughts on the matter shortly.
But I ride XC here in Sydney every weekend (normally 1 ride each on Sat and Sun) and never struggle for a decent ride to go to. Most of the locations we use are all within about 30 minutes drive from my home, with some of the cooler locations within 1 hour of my house. I live in Hornsby if your gf can provide you some perspective.
The rides themselves? Read about them in the "rides" hotlink in the menu above. There are many fantastic XC rides here that will test any XC rider's skill. Effectively if you are not being pushed "skill-wise" on these rides, you're not going fast enough mate. Just go faster.
They all have nice mixes of firetrails (effectively like a 4WD track), sandy / hard-packed dirt / gravelly terrain, uphills, downhills, technical rocky roll-offs and drop-offs. For me, the technical rocky downhill trails are the most fun, and provide the best mix of speed, risk, adrenaline and fitness.
IMO you are worrying about nothing. You'll do fine mate.
Liam.
I'm a pom who's been here a fair few years and it's easy to be positive about the state of mtb'ing over here. The people are great, there's plenty of organised riding for whatever skill level or persuasion you are and there's a lot of trail.
However you almost certainly won't find much like the trails you're used to, which if I remember correctly involve loooong singletracks, forests, dampness and mud. Forget mud and dampness and meet sand and erm more sand... Also the trails might be lacking a little in length from what you get in the mother country. But theres always somewhere close by that feels like the middle of nowhere, and there's some truly great scenery.
To get an idea have a look at the maps section of this site and also for scenery have a look at the "Fat Hippy's" Blue Mountains site, just google "fat hippy blue mountain" and you'll find it.
"buy a road bike?" now that's a silly question...when you can buy a singlespeed 96er!
Ta,
Matt.