route difficulty please explain!

[HaydenWilson]

Hey all! i have recently started to seriously enjoy my mountain biking and would like to eventually get involved in free-riding. I went today and found out that my bike is not at all suited to it and is likely to break soon. i have been doing a number of trails and they all have different colours assigned to them according to difficulty. what do they mean and what colour trails should one stay off if you only have an entry level hard-tail mtb? Just want to save my bike until i can afford a better one! i am currently doing things like down the side of melville koppies in joburg and some jumps (About 4-5 foot) and blue routes at rietvlei farm. any advice would be amazing

[Zeps]

Well at Rietvlei I think :-

 

Yellow - simple route - good for beginners and kids

Green - 'normal' route - good for average riders, some technical stuff included (I don't always agree with them but anyway)

Blue - Advanced route - some pretty technical stuff and advanced technique required

Black - For nutters only! Use with care at your own risk with protection?

 

This is only my opinion though ....

[Mojoman]

What bike do you have?

[HaydenWilson]

I have a stock standard giant rock.

 

What bike do you have?

[Scooterza]

I have a stock standard giant rock.

 

Wow! That must be hard to push around. Why don't you upgrade to a large log?

[HaydenWilson]

or a big tree! but essentially i am trying to find out what the limits of my bike are and what is considered as safe to ride with an entry level hard-tail.

 

Wow! That must be hard to push around. Why don't you upgrade to a large log?

Edited October 26, 2010 by jonquil

[MildlyWild]

in my experience you can ride any trail you want to on any bike, but stay away from big jumps/drops/similar if you want to avoid breaking a frame, rims or components quickly. then upgrade when possible.