I’m the opposite. I’ve got a carbon road bike that hasn’t been used in months, as I’m loving the MTBing too much. A big factor is who I’m riding with – I enjoy the company of my MTB mates more than my road riding buddy.

MTBing for me is about the lovely places, views and fun, whereas I associate road biking with fitness.

I do love the precision and speed of a road bike and I really enjoy riding in a pack. I might join a club as one last attempt at re-igniting my enthusiasm for it. If that doesn’t work I think I’ll sell.

So you’ve kind of proved my point really.

‘Kind of’ is not the same as ‘really’ now, is it?

I find new kit often gives me motivation when I’m a bit off it. Like WANTING to get out in the rain to test the new waterproofs, or the new mud tyres and so on…

New bike perhaps?

New bike perhaps?

😈

If you dont enjoy it anymore – dont do it. Do something else.

On the contrary, bored with too much road cycling and triahtlon and really enjoying the transition to mtb, But you guys are a different “breed” to triathletes and roadies, so I am still learning how to survive in this new culture!!

I though tri was riddled with rip-off pricing and confusing kit upgrades – but MTB is something else. As for “hidden trails”/ secret handshakes, well….. 😉

I have ridden my old Trek 6500 hardtail everywhere and it does me proud. My main concern will be if motivation can survive an upgrade – or will that be “top-of-the-market”?

My normal bike is out of action at the moment – Ive been fortunate enough to have several mates lend me a bike.

These have ranged from a Fixie, CX, FS, 29er, racing HT and a hardcore HT.

Ive had an amazing amount of fun on some very very different bikes.

Ive also learned that I like riding, no matter what bike Im on.

Ive had an amazing amount of fun on some very very different bikes.

Ive also learned that I like riding, no matter what bike Im on.

I wish I was still in that place 😥

I’m missing it at the moment. Nobody is driving anywhere interesting to ride, and I’m a bit skint so not driving on my own which means riding local trails (which are still a pain to get to) or getting out on the roadie.

I am enjoying the roadie more than before though, so it’s not all bad.

Him what is biking up da mountain is probly tired innit!

I’ ve gone full circle: mtb>roadbike>carbon roadbike and now back to mtb, plus road touring.

Road riding has a culture of ‘faster, longer’ which eventually turned me off, it became a duty to get the miles in. With mtb, it’s just more fun from the off, I don’t have a trip computer on my mtb handlebars whereas I couldn’t imagine a road ride without one.

“Variety is the Spice of Life”

What works for me:

I generally cycle from March to October. A mix of off- and on-road to keep it varied.

I do something completely different over the winter months and come back to cycling with fresh enthusiasm in the spring.

I found that when I cycled all the time a ride became less and less of a special ‘event’ to look forward to and increasingly just another part of my routine …

My two cents.. Go on a skills course, find out just how different they ride to the way you think you should ride or that you’ve become accustomed to.

I’m lucky in that I bought my current gaff precisely because I found it on a local trail at the edge of town, but back then it was all XC, then having again been lucky enough to visit Whistler just off season and see what was about to happen to the Ski Resorts of Europe and got some training at the hands of a slip of a lass whilst I was there on a rented outfit, my view changed dramatically and suddenly there was so much more to learn that I hadn’t even realised.

Then buy yourself a new bike, you know you’re worth it and start digging…

I mountain biked for 23 years before I reached this stage. At one time I was obsessed with it to the point of irritating my family and everybody I knew. Then it gradually began to pall as I grew tired of the scene, the posing, the fashion victims and the expenditure on transmission and brake parts. Night riding revived it for a while but then there was the hassle of getting in late, cleaning the bike and kit and changing in a freezing garage then getting moaned at for coming in late. Having to drive almost anywhere I wanted to ride was a pain.

Then I got a road bike and in 26 months I’ve ridden it 3800 miles and the MTB about 100 miles. I really regret that I didn’t take up road riding earlier because I’d have done much better in MTB races and trailquests thanks to being much fitter. My resting HR has dropped from 52 to 48 and I’m now fitter than I’ve ever been in my life. Tiring two week business trips to shitty countries in Africa are a breeze thanks to better fitness and stamina. You can road ride from your front door then come home clean and I’m on the edge of open country with minimal traffic. Road riding is so much faster and more thrilling than mountain biking. I just wish I’d taken it up earlier…..

Mud, it was fun once but now. I can take the road bike out go ride for four hours, go home, put the kit in the washing machine and I am done. If I go out on the mtb I am going to get covered in crap, the bike is going to need a clean, and bluntly I do not enjoy riding in thick claggy mud.

Yep. The time of year has much to do with it.

derekrides may be onto something. My love of mountain biking did tail off a little after coming back from riding in Spain some years back. The riding over there was just on another level of fun and the UK never lived up to it. I do feel like I’ve got to a stage where I need to ride more, harder and with some training/coaching to get more out of it and thinking about this some more I got to the same stage with skiing. I have skied since being a nipper and that once-a-year ski holiday was the thing I looked forward to more than anything else. As I *ahem* got older, I found I couldn’t ski as hard as my ability would allow ‘cos I wasn’t ski fit.

It’s probably the opposite with mountain biking since my fitness is OK. I think I’ve peaked with my skills and without training/coaching or just lots more riding time I’m going to stay in this funk.

Tell ya what I am REALLY bored of is breaking bits on my bike. Tiresome.

If you took up road riding and started going out with a club you would suddenly discover a whole new set of skills. There’s nothing more thrilling than riding hard in a small group, doing through and off and absolutely mullering yourself to the limit of your ability… it’s fast, furious and quite dangerous too.

I’m loving my road biking more than eve

‘WELL THEN YOU ARE LOST !!!’

This whole thread reads like one long trip to the Dark Side !

For those complaining about distance or having to drive to the trails… we live on a small island FFS, where it should be considered a bonus to be able to drive for just 2 hours to get to a trail. Compare that to most of France, Spain, the US and any other big country where they have to drive for days to see a hill (or mountain). I remember someone on another thread complaining that they live in Cheshire and there’s ‘nothing to ride’. Cheshire is equidistant to the Lakes, the Peaks, North Wales, Shropshire, Lancashire and West Yorkshire. It’s the perfect base for endless trails.

Even if you’re not 2 hours to one of the popular jaunts, just buy an OS for your local area and use Google Earth and you can soon find a route diving in and out of woods, along some canals, round some back country lanes and picking up the odd cheeky footpath. I’ve got a route from my door in the middle of a housing estate (which is also at sea level) which I’ve now stretched out to 55k, 2.5 hrs in the summer 3.5 hrs in the winter. Loads of fun.

Get fitter. Go swimming or something else mid week. You’ll be amazed how much better your riding becomes and how much quicker you can go on the trails and it changes the trail completely if you can clear that climb of jump over that rock garden at hellish speed.

Don’t bother with the trail centres, or at least relegate them to winter or deluge rides, or when you just need a blast. What could be more boring than just riding the same centres over and over again. There are loads of natural trails out there that aren’t necessarily covered in crap or only passable in the summer.

Just some friendly tips but if you’re all beyond the brink and have already turned then so be it… it confirms my theory that actually MTB is in decline and there are less people out on the trails… leaving them all to me 😀

excitable1, you sound just like I used to once-upon-a-not-very-long-ago. I’m jealous that you still find it “loads of fun” and I hope I get back there again one day. In the meantime I need to stop worrying about it, do what I do enjoy (road riding) and then come back to the MTB in a few weeks/months and tell you lot how much fun I’m finding it 😀

I completely agree on avoiding trail centres. If you’re getting bored a small investment in an Outdoor Leisure map of your area will open your eyes to routes you never knew existed. I have only visited trail centres three times in 23 years and on each occasion I found them so boring, so busy with posers and so shockingly littered with plastic bottles and food wrappers that I ended up striking off into the country and getting lost deliberately.

Mountain bikes are for riding in mountains.

Thanks for the suggestions, but something I should add. I’m an “old school” mountain bike rider from the canti brakes and Biopace chainring days. Much as I (used to) love trail centres, my riding was for years all about studying maps, planning routes, reading guide books and having an explore. I’ve spent a lot of time hunched over the local OS map looking for inspiration and have come up with a number of local routes that take in bridleways, sneaky paths through woods, towpaths, back lanes etc. They just don’t do much for me any more.

Maybe I should rebuild my fully rigid 😀

The journey, the cost of fuel, the bills associated with your car.

If I lived next to a series of trails I’d probably pop out most days for a blast.

At a weekend with a nipper though it can take a good chunk out of your day for just 3-4hrs riding.

For what it’s worth, I think it’s completely ok to take break from MTB once in a while. Winter for me is no fun on the bike, you just can’t go fast enough in thick mud! It also trashes your bike.

For me Summer is the time for thrashing as much as you can, Winter a time for repairing/reflecting/planning. By the time Spring rolls along I’m absolutely itching to get out and about again.

If you worry about fitness for the dark times, get a turbo trainer or take up squash!

I’m an “old school” mountain bike rider from the canti brakes and Biopace chainring days. …..my riding was for years all about studying maps, planning routes, reading guide books and having an explore.

Same here. I started in 1987 when it was all full-rigid and canti brakes and trail centres hadn’t been invented. All I can say is: try a road bike; you’ll get as much pleasure planning the road routes as you used to with the off-road.

Not to be a party-pooper, don’t forget winter days on a road bike can be a wee bit hairy as well.

If its raining, gales etc over winter I think I’ll be karting, swimming, sauna etc more this time round.

I’m all too aware of slippy winter roads on a road bike. I did a big (for me) ride last weekend and some of the hills were VERY iffy, especially the back lanes covered in cow poo. Great ride with fab views though, and 3500ft of climbing in 35 miles.

Mmm, karting… 😀

I wasn’t complaining. Exactly. But on a tight budget £20 quid of fuel is quite a lot…

I’m an “old school” mountain bike rider from the canti brakes and Biopace chainring days. Much as I (used to) love trail centres, my riding was for years all about studying maps, planning routes, reading guide books and having an explore. I’ve spent a lot of time hunched over the local OS map looking for inspiration and have come up with a number of local routes that take in bridleways, sneaky paths through woods, towpaths, back lanes etc

That’s it, that’s me… totally get all that (it’s like a bloody wrote that, bit spooky really).

Just don’t get this bit…

They just don’t do much for me any more

… you were my brother. They said you would bring balance to the force, not shroud it in darkness !

lol @ excitable1

I hope the same doesn’t happen to you pal 🙂

stilltortoise – Member

I can’t see myself getting too many “yes” responses on an MTB forum, but I’ve found that mountain biking isn’t giving me the same “whoo hooo!” that it used to. It came to a head at Kirroughtree back in September where I just wasn’t enjoying it as much as I remembered…and I remember absolutely loving it (especially the long, sunny days in Spain).

I’m loving my road biking more than ever, but I just can’t get inspired to get kitted up for a mountain bike ride. I’ve never been bothered about cold, dark, wet night rides either, so I’m just not sure what this funk is about.

Anyone else??

come out with me stilltortoise! we should go ridge riding in the dark see if that doesnt get you going again!

i drift in and out. I like late autumn for riding – now the leaves are down but don’t like when they start falling (more pyscological i think – it feels like you’ve missed the summer)

the faff factor for me is that a mtb ride means a few hours otherwise it wasn’t worth the time – it’s 30 mins each way to the trails by bike but will take easily as long if put the bike in the van. that means 3 hr ride minimum. road biking is a bit easier as a 2 hour ride frrm home can be lovely.

Alright Dave, I’d forgotten about our unfilled unfulfilled ridge riding 😀

You around on Sunday?

They just don’t do much for me any more.

don’t do it if you don’t enjoy it. find something you do enjoy (bikes or not).

I remember when i used to spend a few weekeday evenings over a map/ memory map looking at a 30 m section of bridleway that i’d never ridden down – plotting a 2 hour route to get out there and 2 hr back – i’ve ridden most of the stuff thats local to me (probably not true – actually) and i just don’t do that anymore.

I hope the same doesn’t happen to you pal

Never, I will never to turn to the Dark Side. I am a mountain biker, like my father before me !!!

I am a mountain biker, like my father before me

(strictly speaking it was after me not before me seen as I got him into it (at 63 !) rather than the other way round)

I have a kit in a saddlebag of everything I need that lives on the bike, I do check it over – takes 30 seconds.

Same here.

Have to admit there are days when getting everything sorted pre-ride is a bind, but once I’m out then all is well. Packing/driving/unpacking does sometimes do my head in too. Hence why I usually ride to the trails – 45 mins each way (into the Surrey Hills) offers a good warm up and more miles in the saddle. Other than that there are plenty of decent enough routes (road and off-road) on the doorstep.

Would get a CX and road bike if I could justify it. Could be a while though.

Mountain biking woudln’t be mountain biking without the faffing, it’s what makes it enjoyable, especially as we all seem to do it

Road biking is just too damn dangerous for me, i’ll stick to hucking of drops and over doubles thanks 😉

to be honest though if you are boared of the same old routes, definitly do them at night makes it a completly different ride and if you are boared of that, do the trails with a shit commuter light – sure you’ll go slower but it definily gets the adrenaline going

stilltortoise – Member

Alright Dave, I’d forgotten about our unfilled unfulfilled ridge riding

You around on Sunday?

im only around sunday afternoon this weekend? or can go at 5 ish when its dark so no body is around??

email me if you want buddy 😉 ive found some more great stuff over the forest way!