Riding The Hardest Trail We Could Find On An XC bike!

GMBN’s XC whippet Rich Payne has been tasked with the EPIC challenge of riding a triple black diamond DH run on his Orbea XC bike! Has Rich bitten off more than he can chew or will our multitalented rider beat the infamous Dyfi trails!? 🎬

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Can you think of a harder MTB trail? Let us know down below! 👇

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[bobbyhempel]

The limits of a good xc bike are your skill level and tire choice.

[dukeofspeed]

It reminds me of how mountainbiking used to be 15-20 years ago

[JayBirdPhotos]

Rich is absolutely nuts... no full face helmet, no gloves, no pads on the knees or elbows, and doing it clipped in!

[uwanallen]

The sketchiest part about this video was the helmet choice 😬😅

[MaadReapeR]

At the beginning I was like: "yeah, I would do it on my HT", but later it was more like: "I'm not sure if I could do it on my feet"

[field.palmer]

I would definitely like more XC content

[wjcbbike]

Get Blake down there on his hardcore hardtail

[themarauder]

Doesn't matter what bike you have, it's how you ride it that matters. I ride a cheap hardtail down trails that it's not designed to go down and while it's extremely uncomfortable for me, the bike takes the hits and carries on.

[mellissanash]

Would love to see a short travel trail bike(120-130mm) vs a long travel xc bike(120-130mm) on the same trails to see which is better. Like one modern xc trail and one AM/enduro trail. Even better if HT cause more HT content would be sweet.

[sigiroy]

Love this video. Shows everyday XC challenges and also proves that even pros just say no regularly acknowledging limits.

[YoramPomer]

Same thought as many comments before me - Body armor protection!!! Specially if you tell us all the time how crazy it is to go down this trail with a XC bike.

[trailrunnah]

It's funny, his XC bike has the same travel as my trail bike that I bought in 2013. More alarming than the bike choice was the near lack of safety gear.

[simondrew]

I’m an old bugger, when I started riding in the 90s we were all on fully rigid, steep angled bikes with narrow tires, narrow bars, long stems etc…and we rode down everything, the terrain never changes but bikes have got much much better.

[stevenh]

Sweet. Now ride the same on a mid-90's 26'er. The trails were pretty similar then, you just have to add more roots and rocks :D

[bartek.igielski]

The most hardcore thing about this challenge is that he is not using enduro/fullface helmet and don't have any body protection, even something as basic as gloves, knee pads and long sleeve.

[pierrebroccoli.]

XC bikes - light enough to carry down the track 😂

Yeah best to be safe.

[locusgaudi]

XC bike has an undeniable advantage -- it's light enough to be carried down.. and the rider is fit enough to do a lot of walking :)

[elguamo]

Enjoyed the video. As someone that rides a H/T on black and double black tech in Colorado I envy the full suspension you had. A couple of mods make a huge difference though, a 203 rotor on front and a dropper post. Oh yeah, I also have it setup as a 1x10. Makes those 3000ft. Climbs almost as much fun as the downhill.

[ultimateoutdoors]

Looks tough. How about some vids of veteran mountain bikers 60+ doing trails, downhill or X country? Ive recently started mountain biking at 67, but most vids I see on Youtube show young riders! My most recent X country trail I did was in the Peak District - bit pedestrian compared to Richs efforts but still enjoyable! .

[myusername]

Feel like this bike would do absolutely fine if it had bigger rotors and a different tire