Faerie Garden - Tokai Forest

[T-Bob]

Great thread and great advice. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and happy about taking some skin off next time I'm up in Tokai!

[Thor Buttox]

Hooch this is all good advice u getting. i remember my first time up in tokai. i was on the famous Bridge cycles loan stumpie. everyone was telling me that it was a great bike. my very first entry into the ST i didnt have the faith that the bike could make the turn and i went straight into the bushes. a few scratches and a damaged ego. but i kept on trying. today tokai is my playground. great thing about learning in tokai is that you gain great technical ability. u see it at the races. any small obstacle or water crossing every1 gets off and walks it. they dont even attempt it.

@DJR reminds me of my buddy, on the snake trails or Faerie cant remember, my buddy did some technical part, there was a nice women watching him. he cleared the obstacle looked at her then fell. when he dusted himself off, she told him " u made it but then u looked up at me, thats why u fell" we were in stiches after that.

Gees, even your accidents are more interesting than mine... we came to the small drop-off before the second little concrete bridge in Fairie Garden and there were two hikers smack bang in the middle of the path. My friend slammed on anchors and fell with cleats still attached off into the hole on the right of the trail. It's about a six foot drop. It was fairl worrying to see. The hiker said "Oooh hoekom is hulle op hierdie stukkie" and buggered off while I jumped down into the foliage. Thankfully nothing too serious.

[Hooch]

ha ha ha i'm following all the comments, they're very cool. And thanks to everyone for being so helpful and friendly

I've actually got quite a decent bike - Anthem 1. Its a guy bike (was too great a deal to turn down) and a little too big but love it to bits. Oh also i've only just got cleats so i'm still trying to work out that whole process - did have a couple of styalistic crashes at Hottentot Hollands over the railway line ha ha ah but all good.

 

i've also got a fear of downhill (comes from riding too many crazy racehorses and having some really bad down hill falls back in the earlier days) so now on a bike, i've realised i've got a steering problem in that I freeze on bends, corners etc which i'm sure is very amusing to everyone else - in conjunction with not yet perfecting the cleat release!!

 

i agree that practice, practice, practice is the answer - have to face my fear. I just think i'm lucky to be living so close to Tokai to be able to use these facilities.

 

If at first you don't succeed.............................. I'm going to frikken beat this

 

Thanks again guys.

[Kranky]

Glad to see I'm not the only one that thinks twice about that damn bridge in the wet

[marko35s]

Is this a good place to take a youngster (10 years old) to learn or are there other more suitable places?

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Is this a good place to take a youngster (10 years old) to learn or are there other more suitable places?

 

Faerie garden, yes. The initial bit as you're riding up it is VERY flowy and not at all technical. It doesn't really get that technical except for the bridge section (the dreaded troll bridge, as a mate of mine calls it - he still has to get over it from his fall there!)

 

It's got everything you need to teach your lightie some ST riding skills. Roots (can be ridden around) rocks (can also be ridden around) and switchbacks. It doesn't have any drops, and it's nice and smooth. If you want to limit his exposure to it, just do the bottom section until the wooden bridge, then turn around and come back down.

 

The other trail I would suggest for him is My Roots. It's also VERY flowy, and has 2 sections where he may be caught out a bit. One is just after the 2 big berms, and it's a big rock drop (you can't miss it) with a pallet lying down next to the rock as a "chicken line" - you may have to ask him to walk that section. The next one he may have to walk is just after that, which is a large left hand downhill turn. That's it. The rest is only technical if you're going fast.

 

Another would be Your Roots (just next to My Roots, runs parallel to the jeep track) and that has hardly ANY technical bits in it, if any at all. That's actually easier than Faerie Garden.

 

I think, though, the best thing is to take him along and let him know that he doesn't have to act tough or HAS to ride everything. Watch his body language to see if he's scared of a section and then let him walk it, have a look at it, and maybe just hold his brakes down there with his feet on the floor. It worked for all us lighties back in the day when we were unsure.

 

But remember to give him a helmet. Absolutely imperative.

[DJR]

Good advice from Mayhem above.

 

See if your youngster will wear knee and elbow pads. My older one is incredibly agile but my younger one initially struggled and got a bit scared. I bought us both pads but he was still hesitant to wear them. ("But dad, nobody else dresses up like that....") Then he saw the cool downhillers in full armour flying over the jumps and he started using the pads. With that the confidence went up and the skills skyrocketed. (My own too)

[marko35s]

Thanks for the replies guys.

My little one has a fairly well developed sense of self preservation and doesnt do anything daft without checking it out first.

He did get to go through most of Faerie Garden a week or two back with me walking behind him pushing a bike with the worst puncture I have ever seen (we rode down from Silvermine and my tyre literally shredded just before the 'My roots' entrance). But the fact that I was moaning and didn't want him out of my sight kind of ruined it a bit for him. Oh and he took one look at the bridge and gave me the *are you mental?* look.

He always wears a helmet and has the knee and elbow pads but isnt keen on them, and on past performance I appear to be the one in most need of them...

[Hooch]

So to everyone who offered great advice re Faerie Garden (FG). Today I went and did FG at least 8 times up and down conintuously until I couldnt see if I was on the up or the down of the track. Yes I fell at least 6 times, but at the end, i'd accomplished completing the whole track (with out bridge section) without falling off. As for the bridge, I did ride it but with one foot down and the only other part of the course I really couldnt do was the drop going into the bridge.

 

other wise, I feel very proud of myself and will continue to make FG part of every ride up Tokai Forest.

 

thanks again for all the advice and support!!! It works

 

Have a great long weekend everyone

[Thor Buttox]

So to everyone who offered great advice re Faerie Garden (FG). Today I went and did FG at least 8 times up and down conintuously until I couldnt see if I was on the up or the down of the track. Yes I fell at least 6 times, but at the end, i'd accomplished completing the whole track (with out bridge section) without falling off. As for the bridge, I did ride it but with one foot down and the only other part of the course I really couldnt do was the drop going into the bridge.

 

other wise, I feel very proud of myself and will continue to make FG part of every ride up Tokai Forest.

 

thanks again for all the advice and support!!! It works

 

Have a great long weekend everyone

 

I'm glad you persevered! (And had fun!)

 

If by the "drop to the bridge" you mean the one down to the bottom concrete bridge, just ride around to the left of the drop and come in from the less steep side... you'd be surprised how easy it is... and then you'll realise how slowly you can actually do the steeper one and how much grip your tyres have if you just relax, and don't panic with your hands!

Edited June 16, 2013 by Thor Buttox

[capediver]

That flipping bridge!!! I too have fallen there! Ran out of talent halfway across on my new steed, stopped dead and with NO release from pedals......whammo, slomo down sideways into the stream, still clipped in, upside down....lucky my diver training kicked in and I made it out by keeping my head above water! I avoided the place like the plague for a bit, but then tackled it over and over again until I made it over both ways.....uphill, stepping up and ducking under the trees after the bridge and downhill, getting up those roots after the bridge! Its all about the line!

 

So, as innocuous as it sounds, to the uninitiated, Faerie Garden can be filled with some ugly little goblins!

[DJR]

So to everyone who offered great advice re Faerie Garden (FG). Today I went and did FG at least 8 times up and down conintuously until I couldnt see if I was on the up or the down of the track. Yes I fell at least 6 times, but at the end, i'd accomplished completing the whole track (with out bridge section) without falling off. As for the bridge, I did ride it but with one foot down and the only other part of the course I really couldnt do was the drop going into the bridge.

 

other wise, I feel very proud of myself and will continue to make FG part of every ride up Tokai Forest.

 

thanks again for all the advice and support!!! It works

 

Have a great long weekend everyone

Great

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

That flipping bridge!!! I too have fallen there! Ran out of talent halfway across on my new steed, stopped dead and with NO release from pedals......whammo, slomo down sideways into the stream, still clipped in, upside down....lucky my diver training kicked in and I made it out by keeping my head above water! I avoided the place like the plague for a bit, but then tackled it over and over again until I made it over both ways.....uphill, stepping up and ducking under the trees after the bridge and downhill, getting up those roots after the bridge! Its all about the line!

 

So, as innocuous as it sounds, to the uninitiated, Faerie Garden can be filled with some ugly little goblins!

 

Haha! Don't worry dude, you're DEFINITELY not alone on that bridge! Mate of mine ended himself properly there, needing 15 stitches on his brow and another 3 on his lip... He just froze mid-way through, and went ass over kettle straight into a root off the high end of the bridge.

 

It. Was. Majestic! Wish I had had a video recorder there!

[(Deon)]

Hey Mayhem, you feel up to working on this bridge? Sounds like it should be s project in the not too distant future..

[DJR]

Where's this so called bridge in Fairy Garden? I ride the thing all the time and never noticed a bridge!

[Beattbox]

Where's this so called bridge in Fairy Garden? I ride the thing all the time and never noticed a bridge!

I think it's those some few planks over the little stream..