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Hi, names Mike, I used to be into mountain biking along time ago. after getting my first car back in high school my Mountain biking, ice skating, skateboarding, and roller blading days were numbered. Further more I moved back to the US… Delaware, and that was the nail in the coffin for my 7% body fat as a teenager.
Anyways, many years have passed I live in Germany again and have been thinking about getting back into Biking. so i went out today and bought me a new Mountain Bike. something I could start out on. HM Snakehead. I really like it, took it across the street into the woods and on some trails for about an hour. it was a blast, but I can tell i am going to feel it in the morning…
I am also into photography so I figured what better way to stay in shape and get some of them outdoors photos. I live in a town called Bitburg, which is surrounded by valleys, forests and rivers to ride along. hopefully I can get my body fat percentage to go back down.
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Welcome to Singletracks, Cmike!
I myself lived in Mannheim from ’03 to ’06. Our regular riding-grounds were around Neustadt, Kaiserslautern, and Dahn. Basically the whole of the Pfalz was our play-area.
My first MTB was an HM FSL, which has been discontinued. Unfortunately, the FSL (& ’06 Moab from sold at Menco) was HM’s best mountainbikes. ’07 Moab’s are rehashed FSL’s, only with cheaper components. I did see some K2’s on sale at BikeMax that were just rebadged HM FSLs, but I don’t think they’re made anymore either.Since you live in Germany, I’d suggest looking into a Ghost or Cube full-suspension bike when it’s time to upgrade. Your HM Snakehead is a license-built NEXT bike, and you’ll rapidly outgrow it. Hell, if you’ve got the geld, go sink it into a Nicolai! 😼
My wife & I were also avid ruin explorers, and we crawled all over the German countryside looking for obscure and out-of-the-way castles/ruins which most tourists didn’t know about. We took lots of pictures as well, and they gave us reasons to do epic rides on our bikes, with a bonus at the end. 😀
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Welcome back to 2 wheels C-Mike. Funny, I rode a 10 speed everywhere until I was 16 years old. Cars and other interest took over, and did not ride consistently again until I was 46. Now you can’t pry me off of a bike. Glad you made the rebound (hopefully earlier than me).
Sounds like Bombadier has got you covered on all things MTB – German. I believe he has some good German MTB photos stored around here somewhere.
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"CraigCreekRider" wrote
Welcome back to 2 wheels C-Mike. Funny, I rode a 10 speed everywhere until I was 16 years old. Cars and other interest took over, and did not ride consistently again until I was 46. Now you can’t pry me off of a bike. Glad you made the rebound (hopefully earlier than me).
Sounds like Bombadier has got you covered on all things MTB – German. I believe he has some good German MTB photos stored around here somewhere.
Yeh, I did the 10-spd (circa 70’s Schwinn LeTour) thing as well for most of my teenage years. In fact, I didn’t get my drivers-license & first real car until I was 19, due to me being able to ride (or catch a car-pool) anywhere I needed to go. 10-speeds just tend to curtail those back-seat extracurricular activities…. 😏
After riding that Schwinn for 30-50mi daily (avg: 30mph most days) for close to seven years, I had some pretty awesome legs and a wash-board midriff that kinda made up for not having a car to make-out in. So the bike didn’t cramp my style too much. 😼I do have a ton of Germany pics around somewhere, and my wife has more. I’ll see if I can’t scrounge them up.
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well thanks for the warm welcome guys. I know the bike I have is very beginner, but I just need to find groove again. plus funds are really short as I am going through a divorce and literally starting my life from scratch… Hopefully moving into a new apartment by next month. so for the next year this bike will have to do.
As i mentioned earlier I love photography so i will be shooting a lot. The Eifel area has an abundance of trails, so I am really excited. my best friend just moved to koblenz attend college there. She wants to go riding tomorrow. So I will see how that goes.
I’m only 30 so I think I am getting into this at the right time in my life.
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Welcome to SingleTracks Mike. Glad to here you are back on a bike. I have just started riding again after a very long break. I pretty much gave up the bike when I was thirteen and got my first dirt bike. then I moved on to cars and girls at 16. After twenty some years later, too many extra pounds, and a divorce I decided that it was time to get in shape. Some of the younger guys at work had started mountain biking and were shedding pounds so I decided to give it a try. I tell you it was the best thing that I could have done for myself. I started off with a used bike off ebay and rode it for a year until I was sure that the riding was not going to be a quick fad for me. Then I made the plung and spent some real money. I did not try to sell my bike and I’m glad that i didn’t because my Fox shock is taking it’s second trip back to the manufaturers for repair under waranty and I would have had nothing to ride. But instead I got to take old trusty out this evening.
Ride all you can and be sure to post as many pictures as possible. Again, welcome and good luck on your rebirth to mountain biking.
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Hey I just came back from Germany last year (Ramstein) and I know a few guys still there that ride all the time. Winterberg, Bad Wildbad, Berg Frankenstein and more.
My forum has info on all of this with the user Larva being the one you need to contact.
Smitty
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I’d love to see some MTB pics from the Pfalz. Lived in Landstuhl for 3yrs (’85-’88) But did lots more road than MTB.
On a severly negative side – I was at the ’88 Ramstein Air Show Crash. That was creepy.
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"Beaker" wrote
I’d love to see some MTB pics from the Pfalz. Lived in Landstuhl for 3yrs (’85-’88) But did lots more road than MTB.
On a severly negative side – I was at the ’88 Ramstein Air Show Crash. That was creepy.
I have pics on my site, pretty much all of them are from Germany.
Yeah the crash was pretty nasty…I was stationed in the UK at that time. -
"Beaker" wrote
I’d love to see some MTB pics from the Pfalz. Lived in Landstuhl for 3yrs (’85-’88) But did lots more road than MTB.
On a severly negative side – I was at the ’88 Ramstein Air Show Crash. That was creepy.
Here you go…. I’ve got more pictures, but they’re on a harddrive that’s currently kaput. 😢
These were from the Neustadt a.d. Weinstrasse area, on Haardt/Weinbiet (a mountain, "Weinbiet" being a resteraunt at the top), & at the Wolfsburg ruins.
Weinbiet is behind the Wolfsburg ruins in this photo, at the top of the mountain. Trails start directly from the back of the ruins, leading either up a steep, rocky, many stair’ed climb along the ridgeline; or to the left heading around the side of the mountain, following the elevation contour on a fairly easy trail that starts rather rough, but evens out not far down the trail.
Heading the easy way is also the longest route to the top of Weinbiet, and if you desire, will snake all the way ’round the mountain, eventually ending at Deidesheim on the edge of the mountains/Rhine River valley. Going up the ridgeline is a tough hike-a-bike until you reach a three-way fork in the trail. One keeps going up, another follows the contour line around the mountainside, and the last heads back down to Neustadt.
About halfway to the top of Weinbiet, there’s a scenic overlook called "Konigsberg" IIRC. This area also has the rockgardens we’re riding on in the pictures.
The actual mountain is laced with many trails, mostly wide multi-use, but there is also steep singletrack & switchbacks interlaced with them.
If you’re standing at the Wolfsburg ruins, looking directly across the valley, there’s another vast network of trails on those mountains as well. These aren’t as busy or well-groomed as those on the Weinbiet, and are a bit more difficult.North of Neustadt, there’s Bad Durkheim.
While we didn’t extensively explore those trails, there is a large network in the mountains around the town and it’s two ruins; a monastery & the largest castle ruins (The Hardenburg) in Germany. Once at the Hardenburg, trails lead off in several directions from the castle, and there is a very good imbiss next to the place which has excellent wursts, flammkuchen, and deserts. Again, the main trails are multi-use and nothing is too crazy, but they are a little narrower and less populated than those around Neustadt.
We also rode in the Dahn/Nothweiler area, in the southern Pfalz.
Unfortunately, most of these pictures are on the broken HD. Especially around Dahn, there are hundreds of kilometers of trails. Many of them lead to the castle ruins in the area, and none are particularly difficult or purely singletrack. However, they’re 80% on dirt, and it’s worth putting together an epic ride to hit the castle ruins (AltDahn, NeuDahn, Drachenfels). Dahn itself is a nice little town that has a good selection of eateries, highly affordable gasthauses, and pubs. The red sandstone rock formations in this part of the Pfalz are another sight that must be seen, as they look as if they were transplanted directly from the American southwest deserts.
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Hey man here is a good site for some good trails in the Kaiserslautern area. http://www.mountainbikepark-pfaelzerwal … tour_1.php
Also I agree with looking for either a Ghost or a Cube while you are in Germany I just bought a Ghost AMR 7500 a little pricey but a very nice bike esp. for riding in Europe. Also if you get the chance the Garmisch area has some really good riding. Good luck man and if your ever down in the area let me know I’m always down for a good ride.
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also in the ktown area get with the RACC (Ramstein Area Cycling Club)…Dan Payne is a good POC he is on Vogelweh.
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