Back to basics
XTC2009
Posts: 115
I broke my foot a few weeks ago, so I'm off the bike for a while. I've been reflecting on my cycling year in the meantime and thinking about cycling in general. It's not been a great year. My MTB has only had two outings, and is currently sitting in the shed looking sorry for itself and in need of a major service. My road bike has fared better and is already kitted out for the winter rides that I will hopefully be able to do at some point, but I still haven't ridden it as much as I would have liked. I was finally doing something about that before my foot, gradually increasing my time in the saddle and getting stronger and fitter than I've been in ages. I was getting somewhere. With the realisation that I've got to start from scratch all over again it's got me thinking - do I really do the kind of riding I want to?
I used to love bashing around on my MTB at trail centres and doing MTB Marathons, but now I have a young family I don't really have time for the travelling involved with that any more and the trails themselves had started to get more extreme than I like anyway - give me flowing singletrack over a rock garden any day! So I turned to road cycling as most of my local routes are on the road, and got myself a cheap road bike. Too cheap it turned out because I quickly upgraded many parts to make it more to my liking. The problem I have found with the road bike though is that it is very often more like hard work than fun. I have to put in a lot of time and effort to get fit enough to actually start enjoying riding it. I'm always 'training', aiming to be able to ride further and faster. The trouble is I don't have enough time to put into getting to the point where I can go further or faster, so I end up stuck at the same level and frustrated with myself. If I'm realistic though, I'm never going to ride the Tour de France. And I'm never going to ride a World Championship Cross Country MTB race either.
All I really want to do is to ride like I used to as a kid. Just for the fun of it. My first bike was an old drop bar Raleigh, and I have this great memory of sneaking out on holiday on my own and leaving our caravan site behind to explore what lay beyond, and finding my way to a nearby lighthouse by just following my nose and seeing where the road took me. No route planning, no Strava, no targets or goals, just the ride. No energy gels or protein shakes. Just stopping off at the local shop when I got hungry. No sticking to one kind of road or another either. I want to recapture that feeling again. I'm not sure how though.
One way I thought was to get a multipurpose bike that bridges the gap between the two bikes that I currently own - and maybe replaces them - something with the speed of my road bike but capable of tackling some off road stuff too like my MTB. A cross bike or one of these new 'gravel or 'adventure' bikes maybe? Or is a new bike/replacement for my current bikes just a sticking plaster solution?
I used to love bashing around on my MTB at trail centres and doing MTB Marathons, but now I have a young family I don't really have time for the travelling involved with that any more and the trails themselves had started to get more extreme than I like anyway - give me flowing singletrack over a rock garden any day! So I turned to road cycling as most of my local routes are on the road, and got myself a cheap road bike. Too cheap it turned out because I quickly upgraded many parts to make it more to my liking. The problem I have found with the road bike though is that it is very often more like hard work than fun. I have to put in a lot of time and effort to get fit enough to actually start enjoying riding it. I'm always 'training', aiming to be able to ride further and faster. The trouble is I don't have enough time to put into getting to the point where I can go further or faster, so I end up stuck at the same level and frustrated with myself. If I'm realistic though, I'm never going to ride the Tour de France. And I'm never going to ride a World Championship Cross Country MTB race either.
All I really want to do is to ride like I used to as a kid. Just for the fun of it. My first bike was an old drop bar Raleigh, and I have this great memory of sneaking out on holiday on my own and leaving our caravan site behind to explore what lay beyond, and finding my way to a nearby lighthouse by just following my nose and seeing where the road took me. No route planning, no Strava, no targets or goals, just the ride. No energy gels or protein shakes. Just stopping off at the local shop when I got hungry. No sticking to one kind of road or another either. I want to recapture that feeling again. I'm not sure how though.
One way I thought was to get a multipurpose bike that bridges the gap between the two bikes that I currently own - and maybe replaces them - something with the speed of my road bike but capable of tackling some off road stuff too like my MTB. A cross bike or one of these new 'gravel or 'adventure' bikes maybe? Or is a new bike/replacement for my current bikes just a sticking plaster solution?
Wobbly Cyclist
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Comments
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I read the 'exploring like a kid' bit an instantly thought CX. That or riding fixed, hooning around on the track bike is a hoot but probably not suited to your local terrain.
Have you tried just heading out locally on the mtb and seeing what happens? Otherwise you risk adding another bike to the shed to collect dust.
I'd personally love a Canondale Slate for just hitting most terrains but they are ££££.0 -
I too remember riding all over Yorkshire as a teenager, usually with a mate, but sometimes solo. Often over 100 miles in a day, out to the coast, up into the Dales or over the N Yorks Moors. Even rode through the night once to see the sun rise over the sea.
But things were simpler then, my leisure time was considerable, and it was all my own. I could more or less do what I wanted whenever I wanted, and 6 weeks holiday in the summer.....
Now I'm working much of the time, and when I'm not at work I'm doing DIY, fixing cars, gardening, shopping, walking the dog, running the kids about and occasionally collapsing on the sofa in front of the TV.
I'm lucky enough to have 2 road bikes, one for the wet and one for the dry, and I try to fit in 2 evening rides of about 20 miles and a longer 30-50 one at the weekend. But I have come to accept that until I retire, that's about as much cycling as I can fit in while meeting my other commitments. I use the cycling to unwind a bit, see some countryside, and push myself a bit so I stay relatively fit and keep the weight off. I don't kid myself that I'm training for anything, or that I'm getting faster. In fact at 58 there's considerable evidence that I'm slowing down (damn you, Garmin!)
2 or 3 times a year I'll have a day to myself, and plan a longer, more leisurely day ride, complete with saddlebag, food and drink, map and camera. That way I can indulge in a bit of nostalgia.
And if I can stay fit and healthy for another 3 or 4 years I'm hoping we can afford for me to retire a bit early and then I'll be doing a lot more cycling...0 -
My friend and I were talking about this very thing - we're both old enough to remeber MTB 'backintheday' when it was just about being able to go anywhere, rather than whamming down the biggest DH or over the biggest double.
For me, I absolutely love my CX bike - armed with some time, a bridleway map, and a sense of adventure I feel like when I got my first MTB.
AND it goes on the road!Insert bike here:0 -
A road bike doesn't have to be like this at all. You can just go out for a ride somewhere and not worry about how hard/fast/the training aspect at all. Just go at a comfortable pace and enjoy the view just like when you were a kid.The problem I have found with the road bike though is that it is very often more like hard work than fun. I have to put in a lot of time and effort to get fit enough to actually start enjoying riding it. I'm always 'training', aiming to be able to ride further and faster.0 -
A road bike doesn't have to be like this at all. You can just go out for a ride somewhere and not worry about how hard/fast/the training aspect at all. Just go at a comfortable pace and enjoy the view just like when you were a kid.The problem I have found with the road bike though is that it is very often more like hard work than fun. I have to put in a lot of time and effort to get fit enough to actually start enjoying riding it. I'm always 'training', aiming to be able to ride further and faster.
why I love the CX bike (and the road bike) is that you can push it out of your shed and get going, but I never felt like this on the MTB - it always involved a car journey, which somehow made it more difficult.Insert bike here:0 -
A road bike doesn't have to be like this at all. You can just go out for a ride somewhere and not worry about how hard/fast/the training aspect at all. Just go at a comfortable pace and enjoy the view just like when you were a kid.The problem I have found with the road bike though is that it is very often more like hard work than fun. I have to put in a lot of time and effort to get fit enough to actually start enjoying riding it. I'm always 'training', aiming to be able to ride further and faster.
This. There are such things as 'recovery rides'. I think most of my rides must be recovery rides!0
