History
Welcome to the Bigfoot Mountain Bike Club, we’ve proudly been doing daft things on bikes since January 1994. Like most bike clubs the main reason for starting up was so a group of like minded people could enjoy riding and racing together. Some of us whippets still enjoy the close, flat out racing of cross country, others prefer the huge jumps and big features on the downhill tracks. But most people? They just like riding their bikes!
The late Jason Hughes in the Lakes riding one of Graham's genuine Bigfoot brand bikes.
With the club being based in Gloucestershire the bulk of our riding revolves around Cranham Woods, near Gloucester, Standish Woods, around Stroud and the Forest of Dean. The areas we ride in have a wide variety of singletrack and downhill trails. Every year the helpful woodland trail pixies build more tracks so there’s always new stuff to try out.
Our members have a huge amount of local knowledge which is just what you need when you’re trying to find the very best places to ride. The Forest of Dean is full of trails which don’t mind a bit of dampness so it’s the place to be in the winter months, while Cranham and Standish woods really come into there own once things dry up.
We have two regular rides a week, one on Sunday and the other on a Wednesday evening – details of which are posted up on the homepage ride guide. If members fancy some company on other rides they are doing then they can post those up on the calendar too. Club rides will generally suit people with experience of riding off-road, although we cater for first timers and improver’s too with our regular introductory rides.
Sunday rides tend to be around 3-4 hours and the pace is set so that no-one gets left behind – we always aim to finish a ride with the same number of people that started it! If we have enough people then we’ll often split up into two groups to keep folks who travel at the same speed together. Night rides are usually a bit quicker because we’re all scared of the dark and don’t like being left behind in the spooky woods!
Club Trip to Coed-y-Brenin, age unknown, but old!
As well as these regular rides we also take a day trip at least once a month to ride somewhere a bit different. These can stretch to a weekend or longer if we get really keen and mean we get to ride in places like Wales, The Quantocks, Dartmoor and even the French Alps!
We have around fifty club members and are always looking at what people want from a club so we can grow that further. The type of rider we attract tends to be 25 – 50 years old and already have some off-road experience. But don’t let this put you off as quite a few of our regulars that started out as beginners now show us a clean pair of pedals. We aim to run at least one relaxed pace ride a month where people can come and try us out without worrying that they might be holding people up.
The types of rider already in the club include people who enjoy(ed) downhill and cross-country racing, plus those who’ve always just ridden for the fun of it. Many people prefer the relaxed atmosphere of a team Enduro race, where having fun is the most important thing – we still like to win though if we can!
Bigfoot crew circa mid 90's, note the Tioga disk wheel and AMP forks!
We’re very proud of our women riders who often place highly in both solo and team races. And we’d better not forget our self confessed ‘Old Gits’ who show that getting a few grey hairs (or even not having any hairs at all!) doesn’t mean that you have to slow down.
Like any club that has money involved we have a committee who meet up once a month to work stuff out and plan events. But you don’t have to be on the committee to come along and voice opinions or give suggestions for things you’d like to see the club doing.
Of course there are more benefits to the club than just riding, as well as monthly social night we build trails, hold Bar-B-Q’s and buy stuff with club funds that any member can borrow. We’ve got a pair of timing poles for recording downhill runs, a helmet camera, mini jetwash and easy up marquee all available to make your riding more fun.
We always encourage people to ‘try before you buy’ so if you fancy coming along to a ride you can get in touch via the contact form or email the membership secretary directly. We are a pretty laid back bunch so you’re sure of a friendly welcome, if you see us out on a ride or at a big event do come and say ‘Hi’.
Bigfoot Quantocks trip December '06