I have never ridden a proper mountain bike
MaxwellBygraves
Posts: 1,353
This isn't a piss take or a poor attempt at stirring - I have never ridden a proper mountin bike or ever ridden off-road. Brought up road riding, live in an area that is pretty flat but I am now intrigued by mountain biking.
Genuinely, whats it like and how does it work? I am ashamed to say I literally know nothing. :oops:
Genuinely, whats it like and how does it work? I am ashamed to say I literally know nothing. :oops:
"That's it! You people have stood in my way long enough. I'm going to clown college! " - Homer
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Feel I should elaborate - in road riding, I have built up my fitness to ride with a local club, participate in sportives and now enter races. By 'how does it work', I meant what are people aiming for, and how does this compare to road riding."That's it! You people have stood in my way long enough. I'm going to clown college! " - Homer0
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Most people that mountain bike do it for fun and purely for fun, so its quite social too. For a few people, there is a kick to winning race and there are races for various disciplines. There is a big differnce in bikes when you go from supermarket bikes which were never intended to be taken off road to a proper hardtail that will handle anything.0
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How it works is simple.
It makes you feel 12 again. It's huge fun and personally after a sweet bit of single track or a fast descent my face hurts from smiling so much.I wear Lycra because I like the way it feels0 -
Depends on what your ide, if you just ride fireroads then it's like roadieing, but when you get onto the singletrack, then the fun starts.
Example from my bunch, I'm the one in yellow mitts and crazy coloured jersey.
http://vimeo.com/11812835And now you know, and knowing is half the battle
05 Spesh Enduro Expert
05 Trek 1000 Custom build
Speedily Singular Thingy0 -
It is good fun and also hard work, you find yourself aching in places you've not ached in before, as "off-roading" involves a lot more body english than riding on the road, IMHO.Tail end Charlie
The above post may contain traces of sarcasm or/and bullsh*t.0 -
From the effort point of view it's much more modulated than casual road riding - so very intense climbing efforts using more balance skills (controlling fore-aft as well as side-to-side) then crap-yourself descents where "flow" is everything and the only route to survival.
The weirdest thing though - if you go out with a group, they'll keep stopping to regather and chat ! :shock:0 -
a lot more hard work than road riding but more tons more fun
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Mountain biking? It's gnarly. Dude.Ben
Bikes: Donhou DSS4 Custom | Condor Italia RC | Gios Megalite | Dolan Preffisio | Giant Bowery '76
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ben_h_ppcc/
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143173475@N05/0 -
The vid sums it up really, no cars, no idiot drivers, good countryside and a chance to scare yourself silly every so often, then realise your actually better at it than you thought, while having a laugh with a load of similar people and then inventing some pub tales each weekend0
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sloboy wrote:The weirdest thing though - if you go out with a group, they'll keep stopping to regather and chat ! :shock:
Last Sunday our group was out for 5ish hours in the snow, and we only spent half of that time actually moving I think our best has been 4 hours riding over 7 hours of being out 8) And now you know, and knowing is half the battle
05 Spesh Enduro Expert
05 Trek 1000 Custom build
Speedily Singular Thingy0 -
Recently bought a seriously good MTB here, to see what the fuss was about. I've had an old rigid MTB for ages, which was fun on the fire trail "roads" but utterly terrifying elsewhere off-road.
New one is a blast, but I found out on Sunday (a) how much I have to learn about riding it and (b) how much of a chicken I am.. Out with a friend, also a noob on MTB, and we'd stopped on the trail, wondering whether we should attempt to ride down a steep rocky bit, walk down (and therefore back up!), or turn round and go back. While we deliberated, there was a noise from the trail behind us, some guy yelling out "You guys ok?" as he flashed past down said piece of rocky steep hill at warp factor 12, out of sight in seconds.
Gobsmacked, we turned and went back...
Try it, you WILL enjoy it.Open One+ BMC TE29 Seven 622SL On One Scandal Cervelo RS0 -
Troll0
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jim453
Troll? Yeah, look how wound up everyone is!
To the OP: try it. Go to a demo day, or see if you can rent a decent bike from a trail centre. It's a lot more fun than road biking, a lot more sociable, and most people do it for the fun of it.
There is no 'point' to it, unlike how lots of roadies talk about training and PBs, most MTBers just do it because they enjoy it. Plus it will make you smile! I've got a roadie and an MTB, the road bike is fine in a "it's better than sitting at home and nice to be in the countryside" kind of way. But a decent MTB ride is completely different, it's the kind of thing that will have you, (what the americans call) "whooping and hollering" with a massive grin on your face.
There are lots of different types of MTBing, from XC racing (roadies with slightly nobbly tyres) to the average XC/trail centre rider who just does it for fun to competitive DH riding (for mentalists, expect high speeds, huge jumps and pointy rocks! ). 0 -
bails87 wrote:jim453
Troll? Yeah, look how wound up everyone is!
To the OP: try it. Go to a demo day, or see if you can rent a decent bike from a trail centre. It's a lot more fun than road biking, a lot more sociable, and most people do it for the fun of it.
There is no 'point' to it, unlike how lots of roadies talk about training and PBs, most MTBers just do it because they enjoy it. Plus it will make you smile! I've got a roadie and an MTB, the road bike is fine in a "it's better than sitting at home and nice to be in the countryside" kind of way. But a decent MTB ride is completely different, it's the kind of thing that will have you, (what the americans call) "whooping and hollering" with a massive grin on your face.
There are lots of different types of MTBing, from XC racing (roadies with slightly nobbly tyres) to the average XC/trail centre rider who just does it for fun to competitive DH riding (for mentalists, expect high speeds, huge jumps and pointy rocks! ).
Agree with most of this - I do both, but some roadies (I suspect the ones you mean that talk about training and PBs) are driven by compeition, the desire to compete and beat others. Some off roaders have this mentality too, its just a different shaped bike, and route surface. Personally I have never got this "them and us" thing as I do both, badly!0 -
I sold my old bike that I built up a few years back. I wish I could hand back the £800 quid I sold it for to get it back!
I love road biking, but mountain biking is so much more fun!!!!
I think that is what divides the two. MBing is genrally done for nothing other than fun, road cycling normally starts as just fun, then gets all serious!0 -
I'm an mtber who does a bit of road riding for the fitness, the endorphin buzz and because I'm a closet masochist.By 'how does it work', I meant what are people aiming for, and how does this compare to road riding.
Aiming for? Fun...
Mountain biking is not being stuck inside on a turbo because it's snowing, but going out to shred pristine white singletrack at night with your mates and to share a hipflask whilst doing so.
Mountainbiking is about getting 6' further up that technical climb and feeling like all your birthdays have just come together.
Mountainbiking is forgetting that you're a squishy bag of gooey bits on a spiky metal and rubber thing and just flowing the trail, seemingly with no conscious input
Mountainbiking is not being bothered about being beaten on an easy climb in a race by a dirtroadie as he'll crash on the first singletrack corner and never be seen again.
Mountainbiking is the joy of getting to the top of the hill and knowing that the best is yet to come.
Mountainbiking is sessioning the same 50' of trail for an hour or more so you can get that tricky corner pinned, feet up, both wheels drifting.
Mountainbiking is the sound of roost landing in the bushes and rocks bouncing off your downtube.
Mountainbiking is being schooled over the jumps by a bunch of 10 year olds who cheer as you clear the entire set for the first time, then in return showing them how to set their gears up so they don't skip.
Mountainbiking is about being found by your mates upside down in a tree, then getting heckled about it for the rest of the ride.
Mountainbiking is about doing a bunny hop into the biggest puddle you can find and soaking all your mates in revenge for the heckling. Then hoping you can ride faster than they can.
Mountainbiking is being more knackered from a 4 minute DH run that had maybe 20 pedal strokes in, than the 4 hour chaingang the previous day.
On your annual alpine holiday, mountain biking is about being desperate to look at the amazing view, but knowing that if stop concentrating for a millisecond on the amazing trail you are attempting to ride, you're gonna die horribly.
On the same holiday, mountainbiking is about screaming off the last descent of the day, straight onto the bar patio, "dix grand bieres s'il vous plait", then sitting there for the next 2 hours amid piles of stinking body armour, covered in dust grease and a fair bit of blood and bullpooing with a bunch of guys you've only known for 3 days but who are now your best mates.
Mountainbiking is about polished summer singletrack, waving summer corn and Mint Sauce skies...
This Is Why
...and a couple of vids that sum things up nicely for me:-
Lakes
Wales0 -
8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
That should be a sticky somewhere.And now you know, and knowing is half the battle
05 Spesh Enduro Expert
05 Trek 1000 Custom build
Speedily Singular Thingy0 -
JonEdwards, you have summed it up very well! That should be a poster, as would go well in most shops!0
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Heh heh, if you enjoy a nice descent on a road bike, you'd freakin' LOVE a good descent on an MTB!
I get such a laugh out of MTBing, I find it more social, as someone said, it makes you feel about 12 again.0 -
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Homer J wrote:
Noooo!
It's the MTB forum.
They're all odd, dude!
They wear shorts over their padded shorts over their underpants.0 -
Right - I'll post from the other side of the fence to you JonEdwards
I'd never really 'done' mountain biking - only messing around on mates bikes when I was a kid 15 to 20 years ago. I've always been a roadie through and through as I love the feeling of rolling fast over smooth tarmac (well it used to be smooth!) - and growing up on the Isle of Wight and with a dad in the local cycling club it was what I was brought up doing.
About 18 months ago I got a reasonable hard tail Focus on the bike to work scheme - I'd always wanted to try mountain biking and the opportunity to commit myself to it cropped up.
Prepare to take pretty much everything you've learnt from your years of road riding and forget them!!! It's a completely different mindset to anything you've been used. If you're offroad ignore any kind of distances covered on road as it's completely incomparable to the rough stuff - 15 to 20 miles can become a serious workout instead of a quick training ride! The biggest problem I have is the bike moving around beneath me - years of road riding conditioned me to the feeling that any kind of moving around is going to be terminal. This isn't the case on a mountain bike, and the bike sliding inches around is not a problem at all (most of the time). I still tend to tense up when it happens though, which just makes things worse - I think I really need to start falling off more so I don't fear it happening! I also have the problem that once I do start sliding around I look down and around to see whats going on, then not going where I want!!! I've found that my best, most controlled, rides have been in the dark when using a decent light - then I keep the light pointing where I want to go and stay upright, loose and quite controlled. Same routes in daytime and I'm crap lol
I really enjoy the small amounts I've done and want to get out more - if you want to set about learning a whole new world of bike craft I can recommend it.
PS - apparently the muddy and grassy lanes are a lot softer to land on than tarmac - it's just getting your brain to comprehend that falling off and landing on them is ok that's the problem!Has the head wind picked up or the tail wind dropped off???0 -
Thanks for all the replies. I think road biking will always be my first love, but when I come into a bit of money reckon I will give this mountain biking lark a go "That's it! You people have stood in my way long enough. I'm going to clown college! " - Homer0
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Definitely get used to falling off, mtb is my first cycling love but i ride plenty of road as well and in 3 years have only fallen off once (clipless moment at traffic lights :oops: ), mtb on the other hand i fall off most rides, if your not falling ten your not trying hard/going fast enough is one school of thought. But it is most definitely a lot of fun.0
