I've never used one, but it seems like an extrmeely useful thing for any budding DHers. Surely they could have announced this blinding idea of theirs mid winter when nobody was using them to get up hills, rather than the start of a new season

Seems silly considering all the guys in the back of the truck have body armour on and about to thrash down a hill. Why would they be bothered if they fell off a truck. Health and safety spoils everything now a days.

maybe they could ride up to the top?

strangely bikes go up hills as well as down them.

Indeed Steve, climbing's all part of the fun

There 45lb's 200mm+ travel DH bikes don't go up hills, atleast by the time they zig zag around and finally get to the top, there so exhausted they need a 30mins break.

Basically, uplifts mean you get about 4times as money runs in, in any day ( 12 rather than 3 )

Bloody Health and Safety, they stop DHing next, then they'll ban riding up stuff cause it puts to much strain on the heart LOL

( I normally drive the uplift, Quad bike with 4-5 slings pulling up bike with rider )

Anyway, any one been seriously hurt from a uplift ??


( Mate, went over the bars being towed, got caught up in the bike and dragged on his face, it ripped the helmet off and messed up his face pretty badly )

Ye i can pedal my bike up if i need to, but it burns all that fatty tissue off my heart thats keeping it warm, and think of all that extra strain. Chair Lift,Chair Lift, Chair Lift Chair Lift...........................

Too right to the lift idea.

I like riding up hills when I've got the right bike and in a suitably odd mood. But doing it on a DH bike is no fun at all due to the fact you generally don't have enough saddle height and the angles are haggard for anything but down.

The times I've been on an uplift its been scary as hell if you stand in a daft place. But then you're about to throw yourself down a DH course which is never the saefest thing to do anyway.

A few years ago there was lots of discussion on all the forums about man made trails and bridleways. One of the points put across was, if you are given a place specially built to ride on, you might be stopped riding in parts of the countryside, you might be restricted in your riding. I'd say this is the start of some type of restrictions. Restrictions imposed by lawyers, landowners or people in charge, not by us the riders using common sense. What comes next? Full face helmets and body armor being made compulsory? Training courses before being allowed to ride, (already on the go in Thredbo Aus and other places too). This is not a good development.

Its not so much the risk of falling out of the truck (which on most uplifts I've been on was really a tractor towing a trailer) as the risk of the truck ending up on top of you, either by tipping over or you falling under the wheels. Tipping over in particular is quite a risk.

Dylan - Towed uplifts are already illegal on FC land

The time is a bit off on this, the requirement to run minibuses will increase the costs and some course may prove inaccessible to anything short of a 4x4 in winter but the fact is this move was going to happen. Some existing uplift services are dodgy as anything......

Of course what we need really are cable cars.

I went to a Dragon DH uplift at Gethin today. We were all seated, separately from the bikes, on the back of a truck. The trucks were all speed limited and there was an appointed marshall on every truck.

This was all well and good, but the new rules have halved the number of bikes you can get onto a truck: There were 150 riders and only 20 were getting onto each truck, resulting in massive queues and a number of disgruntled riders.

The answer seems to be to lower the limit on the number of people who can come to these events, or else get more trucks in (though you'd struggle with more than the four we had going up and down those tracks). Neither solution seems to be particularly great.

Still, kudos for Jason Carpenter and co for organising and running it regardless - i'm sure a lot of people would have just thrown in the towel.

What goes around comes around. How many times do we hear (More on STW) of people who have broken a fingernail and want to know how much money is coming their way in compo.

Well that compo comes from insurance and insurance is a business that needs to make a profit. Only way to recoup that money is to put insurance prices up to the point where a) it becomes mega expensive and b) self insuring entities are scared shitless of consiquences of accidents.

Next time someone posts up about a bump etc cos the tripped over a kerb think of the bigger picture that will eventually come and bite yer arse.

Lets face it, we live in a "nanny state" these days. Our government thinks we can't be trusted to to look after ourselves without grazing a knee. Oh didums!!

Anyway I'm off to the Alps, lots of lovely bubble and chair lifts to take you all the way up.

Lets face it, we live in a "nanny state" these days. Our government thinks we can't be trusted to to look after ourselves without grazing a knee. Oh didums!!

The govrnment is only too aware of the Claim Culture we live in nowadays and are justifiably protecting their (And our own) interests.

How can we continue taking risks if we dont accept consequences. I think this is a good thin tbh. We ignore the bigger problem until it effects us directly. I wait for the next compo thread when everyone jumps on board for what bike they can buy with the payout.

It's lead by greed "I don't have any money to buy that 3 grand ransom but if I claim on my broken finger nail i will."

Hence Why the nanny state is being pushed towards us, as Hobo said the govenment has to watch it's back.

You have to work really hard to become educated now, and get a job at the end of it the really hard part, Cause the education system is in such a mess. But the govenment loves it that way cause then the puplic will just accept what every they put forward in a nanny state. Cause the public don't think they can do anything about it or "corrys on at that time and I can't miss it."

When most of the population have been brainwashed by the t.v. and are now so dumb and fat they couldn't get to the top of a hill pushing there bike. So the govenment try to get us out doing sports. but the only sport with minimal risk is running so it tries to clamp down on H&S to stop all other sports.

'only sport with minimal risk is running'

pah, i ran so much i injured myself. i haven't been able to run for longer than 2/3 mins for 2 years now.

ban it i say, BAN IT!!!

(tis a true story btw)

on a more serious note, i can see why they have done it. if a truck did topple over, or summit else, the owners would be fooked. they have to protect themselves in order to keep the service going.

still sucks though, for all those lard ass DHers ;)

Heard Innerliethen may be getting a chairlift

Stannah are gonna be replacing red bull at the not so extreme rampage

oh yeah, ban everything and wrap yourself in bubble wrap and stay at home and watch telly just incase you might hurt yourself.

Downhillers have already chosen to do a dangerous sport and are fully aware of the dangers and consequences. As long as people act responsibly and the authorities allow us to, then moutain biking will progress in this country which I'm sure we all want!

Downhillers have already chosen to do a dangerous sport and are fully aware of the dangers and consequences. As long as people act responsibly and the authorities allow us to, then moutain biking will progress in this country which I'm sure we all want!

The problem is your downhillers are people. In this country 'people' have proved that they have no moral inclination to accept the consequences. The first port of call is who is at fault. Even on these bike sites you get the threads about it so yours statement about them being fully aware, and accepting the risks is wrong.

I can now climb back up on my high horse as someone who pointed this out years ago when this claim culture started.

Downhillers have already chosen to do a dangerous sport and are fully aware of the dangers and consequences.

That's not the point, though. They're fully aware of the dangers and consequences of the riding bit. But not necessarily the transport to the top bit, which is outside the participant's control.