Your type of riding? And why?

cgarossi

Just wondering what kind of riding people do here. Im not sure if theres been a thread of this kind before, sorry if there has.

For me its XC/Trail riding. For a while the only thing I was interested in was riding race style bikes over XC courses since thats what I grew up with, having lived right next to events like the Malvern Hills Classic and now the Mountain Mayhem events. Although I still love XC riding I have turned to more trail riding after deciding to get my Trek Fuel EX8 (my first full suspension). I've not looked back as it does provide the best of both worlds (for me anyway) theres a good trade off between all day comfort and confidence with riding cross country with ease.

I reluctantly sold my Scott Scale bike the other week and was genuinely upset to do so. It didn't get much use and I really needed the money. A couple of days after I sold it I was looking through the magazines to see if I could find some hardtail bargains... maybe im just addicted to a good hard tail too?

I've been mountain biking since I was 15, i'm 32 now. Even though its been on and off I've always had a passion for good bikes and good riding. I don't think I'll be giving up anytime soon.

You can find me regularly riding at CwmCarn on my Trek along with my mate who has a Cannondale Prophet (with lefty fork). We're planning on some wild riding next year, possibly in France or Spain.

wordnumb

My style is riding for fun. If the riding becomes less fun than the pub or the library I go to the pub or the library instead.

It's good to ride fast, but that ain't the be all & end all. Absent-minded xc probably best describes my riding.

.blitz

cgarossi wrote:

Just wondering what kind of riding people do here.

I started MTBing to get in and out of the Scots mountains so that's what I do best. I 'practice' on Cannock Chase but I get over to wild Wales whenever I can. It's two-wheels-on-the-ground-at-all-times, involves walking and there are zero technical features but it's my kind of riding

Hercule Q

I ride for fun which is everything from DH to XC sometimes i wanna go fast sometimes i wanna go technical. I dont see the point in sticking to one specific style. Plus it makes you a better rider

Beardface

I generally try to ride anything in front of me.. I usually fail though!

But if I had to stick with one, it'd be XC/Trail. I'm close to the Surrey Hills/Army ranges, so tthey're my training grounds!

But, I used to be into DJ quite a bit, until I realised that faceplanting isn't really considered a trick.. :oops:

ride_whenever

am riding.

Love to get lots of air, piss about jumping, but also love technical climbing.

Anonymous

anything and everything. I ride up real actual mountains - sometimes unsuccesfully! I ride XC trails, I ride quarries, i ride DH.
Only thing I don't "do" is dirt jumping, but I guess that's because I never found any decent jump trails near where I live, or anywhere suitable to build them.

jayson

I would just say i ride rather than put myself into a box or category, the only thing i dont do is jumping cos im neither brave or skilled enough anymore.

CycloRos

I'd describe my ideal riding as epic XC, lots of miles, grunting up the err... up's, blasting the down's and grabbing some air time is sweeeet

I really have a thing for not riding the same place over and over again, there's so much out there to explore and it helps keeps things fresh and exciting.

cgarossi

I've been looking at downhill bikes with lust and awe lately. But I just cant afford one at the moment. Which is why I chose a bike that can satisfy both needs, if not to the very extreme.

tightbarsteward

I live in the lakes so i ride whatever is in front of me. Wide variety of terrain from moorland to rock gardens. I even like riding up nearly as much as down.

I dont do dirt jumping either tho I suppose Whinlatter is about as close as I get to it. Dont do the trail centres very much tho. I'm more drawn to the natural stuff and riding up real mountains. isn't that why we ride 'Mountain Bikes?'

Anonymous

riding mountain bikes is no reason to avois trail centres though. I consider trail centres to be the equivalent to race tracks for cars.
It's good fun to drive a sports car along twisty mountain roads, but it's also good to take them to a track day occasionally. Same thing with bikes.

The Northern Monkey

anything goes for me... as long as i'm on my bike i'm happy!

cgarossi

I like trail centres for what they are. An easy way to just get out and ride some good trails and in the company of like minded indviduals. Its good to meet people with the same interests and enthusiasm. I have the Malverns on my door step and Brecon an hours drive away so im spoilt for choice.

rhyko7

i ride quite a nice variation, living in south wales its easy to do so

the BMX comes out a lot in the summer-tho normally gets me injured early on
i ride my BMX on dirt jumps and pump tracks in the summer most days when its dry and indoor skatepark and pump track between once and 4 times a month in the winter,

the mtbing
i ride a lot of trail centres in the summer and winter mostly cwmcarn as its very close to me, i ride natural stuff too (mostly wentwood and some forrest of dean), also a mix of canal and rodes to get where im going if i feel like a long ride.
also ride bit of DH-some tracks friends/locals have built which dont really require a DH bike.

not really sure what people class as free ride nowadays but other than the little bit at top of cwmcarn i dont really do much of that.

nicklouse

I ride

weeksy59

i have the downs/ridegway etc all within 100m of my front door. We mostly only use the Ridgeway as a direct route to single track.

so XC singletrack is my preference and common ride. I'll do the odd trip to Swinley/Afan but it's rare.

Eranu

Definately wheels on the ground XC for me. I do ride singletrack with jumps/berms etc on a regular basis but my wheels are on the ground 99% of the time. I don't think gravity would allow me to do jumps even if I wanted to tbh

clodhoppa74

mainly wheels on the ground xc for me. i can't walk without a stick (or any real distance) so my bike gets me out and into the countryside, up the moors and around. it's my lifeline to sanity.

grumsta

I suppose my riding fits pretty well into the fake marketing hype term of 'all-mountain'

I ride XC routes, but I like to get two wheels off the ground as much as possible. Climbs are generally endured to get to the descents which I try and ride as fast as possible.

MacAndCheese

Mostly XC but working on AM skills a bit as well (but only for the last couple of months). Not very good at jumps or drop-offs yet, but I'm working on it. I ride mostly solo and am lucky to live on the middle of the South Downs so ride whatever I fancy on any given day!

Northwind

"mountain biking".

Oh, OK, that's no good any more. In that case, "Proper mountain biking" I like jumps and purpose built trails and that but my heart's at home on teh sheep paths or picking my way through woods where there's barely even a path and you keep getting sticks in your face And steep techy stuff seems to join up with that too. I like jumping well enough but when I started riding, if you did a 3 foot drop you'd be killed Either on impact, or by your mum when you took your smashed up bike home.

But I'll try my hand at everything, bikes are bikes and riding's riding. Except XC racing, because that's punishment for something you did wrong in a past life, and downhill racing, which is punishment for something you did wrong in THIS life but helps you get into the next one faster.

tightbarsteward

Northwind wrote:

Except XC racing, because that's punishment for something you did wrong in a past life, and downhill racing, which is punishment for something you did wrong in THIS life but helps you get into the next one faster.

Extremely well put!

supersonic

When I first got into MTBing I would put myself as a 'farting about' rider - get out, ride without a plan, hang out with mates, do some trails and jumps, whatever took our fancy.

Not as strong as I was, so tend to do more XC based stuff now.

GHill

Northwind wrote:

"mountain biking".

+1

CycloRos

GHill wrote:

Northwind wrote:

"mountain biking".

+1

The problem with that is it covers a heck of a lot of styles (and I reckon there aren't many folk that do them all). Plus I dare say a large percentage of UK riders have never touched a mountain on their "mountain bike"!

lawman

i ride xc/am mostly, but i used to ride bmx and have dabbled in trials on a mates bike. i've done a few xc races, for no reason other than being rather competitive, but tbh id love to ride dh more, no world cup tracks that require a million inches of travel bu the stuff you find in the peaks and stuff. basically cut out climbing with an uplift, and then lots of singletrack and dh, the only reason i climb atm is because nuneaton doesnt have a chairlift

GHill

CycloRos wrote:

GHill wrote:

Northwind wrote:

"mountain biking".

+1

The problem with that is it covers a heck of a lot of styles (and I reckon there aren't many folk that do them all). Plus I dare say a large percentage of UK riders have never touched a mountain on their "mountain bike"!

I don't agree, obviously. I prefer the view that there's only really two styles, XC and DH. Apart from some BMX hybrids, everything else revolves around ambiguous marketing terms.

CycloRos

Does dirt jumping fit into XC or DH? nope. what about Slopestyle? er nope, trials? nope. All of these types of riding are done on "mountain bikes".

I do agree about the marketing fluff around things like "AM", "extreme XC" and "singletrack", complete tosh!

supersonic

There is a difference between an XC bike and a DH bike though - and ones in the middle of them.

I think some of the marketing tags can be useful to narrow don't want you want, but many do overlap.

lawman

i think all these tags are useful tbh i mean anything with hardcore written in its description is great for me cos i tend to be pretty hard on kit and stuff so i while i ride xc i definitly think a normal xc bike would stand up to my level of abuseive owner ship, but i think how a bike is classed is more to do with geometry and tubing tbh