Hi, If you're new to the channel, I'm Marie 😄
I'm nowhere near a professional mountain biker, not do I consider myself especially skilled, but I do like to show places to ride and things to do as part of my journey, in the hope that some of you find it useful 👍

With that said - many riders new to MTB will probably be borrowing a bike off either a trail centre or a friend - and there's nothing wrong with that.

What you may be missing out on though, is some of the latest gear and frame design, which is where a DEMO DAY comes in handy 😎

So, we went and pre-booked some bikes on a demo organised by @wheelbasecycles, held at Hamsterley Forest in the North East of England.
They brought a whole load of brands along, including Focus Bikes, Yeti, Nukeproof, Ibis, Trek, Whyte, Mondraker, and Kona.

It's a great way of trying bikes out - maybe you're just interested in a different wheel size...

We snuck in a 4th ride - this time, Mathew put me on and IBIS Ripmo AF (and yes - I did have to ask what that meant!)...
The sizing felt pretty good to me, as did the way the bike climbed, which was really nice - it had a LOT of traction without feeling as if I was being held back.
It's actually a really good idea to try any bikes you might be more interested in at the end of the demo day - if they are still great after hours of riding, and when you're tired, then you might have found a contender!
I really liked the very low stand-over hight and how long of a dropper post I could run!

Going back down on the Ripmo - well, it's not going to be the bike for me.
out of all the bike on the day, the Ripmo was the one that was trying to jump - which as you know is not exactly what I like.
It felt very 'poppy' to me, which I'm pretty sure will be great for some people, but unfortunately it's not what I'm looking for ☺️

We had a good time trying out some 29'ers (currently on 27.5), and managed to bump into a few other YouTubers, including @BOTG_Adventures - which was awesome, though we didn't get to ride together 😭
He has an analog bike, now, so I'm sure we'll finally get to go👍

Hope you enjoy, and see you out on the trails!

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