Gravity enduro's in vic?

snake140

Cannon Fodder
Hi all,

Been out for 6-12 months and now ready to ride again. Can't find much info on gravity enduro in vic. Any thing around this season?
 

Nautonier

Eats Squid
VDHS has a short travel class now. Quite a few guys on enduro bikes at round 1 http://vdhs.com.au
Says "160mm travel or less" on the website, does anyone know if that's front and rear or rear only? There are quite a few 160mm bikes around these days with 170mm forks (like mine).

Bit more to organise, would take more time and is dependant on numbers, but it would be good to see sub categories within the "short travel" section. Maybe the short travel contenders could also pedal up rather than shuttle? Or does Enduro really need to be a separate event?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to see more Enduro racing on steeper/technical, less pedally tracks (more like the EWS) with lots of climbing (2000 - 3000m per day) to access 5 -7 stages per day. I guess the limiting factor in Vic (or perhaps Australia in general) is that we don't tend to have lots of more DH-style tracks in one location other than Bright, Barjarg, Beauty and maybe Buller, but even those places would only offer 2 - 3 decent stages. Myrtleford used to be good, but seems to have been abandoned. Don't know about Nail Cairn Hill, isn't that NSW? Warrenbayne?

Can someone please run an Enduro event called "BBBB" using Bright, Beauty, Barjarg and Buller? I'll help with some trail building/maintenance :)
 
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snake140

Cannon Fodder
Yep I agree, i would love to see more proper enduro races on. Enduro class at dh round would be ok I guess but if dh is moving forward and running a better series I'd rather just race a dh bike I think. I know a enduro would be much more work for organisers though.
 

Stinky

Likes Dirt
Says "160mm travel or less" on the website, does anyone know if that's front and rear or rear only? There are quite a few 160mm bikes around these days with 170mm forks (like mine).

Bit more to organise, would take more time and is dependant on numbers, but it would be good to see sub categories within the "short travel" section. Maybe the short travel contenders could also pedal up rather than shuttle? Or does Enduro really need to be a separate event?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to see more Enduro racing on steeper/technical, less pedally tracks (more like the EWS) with lots of climbing (2000 - 3000m per day) to access 5 -7 stages per day. I guess the limiting factor in Vic (or perhaps Australia in general) is that we don't tend to have lots of more DH-style tracks in one location other than Bright, Barjarg, Beauty and maybe Buller, but even those places would only offer 2 - 3 decent stages. Myrtleford used to be good, but seems to have been abandoned. Don't know about Nail Cairn Hill, isn't that NSW? Warrenbayne?

Can someone please run an Enduro event called "BBBB" using Bright, Beauty, Barjarg and Buller? I'll help with some trail building/maintenance :)
Outside of the places that you have mentioned, it is tough to find a venue with sufficient variation in trails to get a full Euro EWS experience that can be safely managed in a race situation. As an FYI, the max climbing for a one day EWS is 2000m.
 

Nautonier

Eats Squid
Outside of the places that you have mentioned, it is tough to find a venue with sufficient variation in trails to get a full Euro EWS experience that can be safely managed in a race situation. As an FYI, the max climbing for a one day EWS is 2000m.
Interesting, I thought I read somewhere that they were getting up to 3000m on some days.
 

caad9

Likes Bikes and Dirt
The Victorian Enduro series that Ben Watkins was running a few years back was touted as being riding only.
This was enough to convince us that as XC racers, we'd be able to ride all day and be competitive on the descents due to less fatigue.
I believe it never even made it past round 1 or 2 as the complaints came thick and fast.

People wanting to ride an 'Enduro' race are the minority, that's the reality.
Also, to have an 'Enduro' event in that manner requires multiple days of riding/racing. I'm not sure that's a sustainable setup away from National level events.

Consider how the following looks for an average punter;

Knock off work Friday - Drive 2-3 hours to Buller/Bright/Barjarg etc
Saturday - Either drive 2-3 hours to destination then practice for 3-4+ hours or practice for 3-4+ hours
Sunday - Race 3-4+ hours then drive 2-3 hours home.

That's a monster weekend for your average enthusiast.
 
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