I actually chicken out on some technical bits and that is only riding on cannock chase – not exactly dangerous, I also have never managed the whole of the log bridge at Llandegla without getting off the bike cos I feel I am too high off the deck when I look down 😯 – so therefore a rambler I must be.

Scu98rkr makes a good point. Mrs and I get very different things from riding but we can ride together fine by taking different lines and stuff. I often say “wait here a minute, I’ve just seen something I want to try”, then, assuming I haven’t died, we carry on with the ride.

“I may send you up “the Ba$tard”.”
If that’s a nasty steep hill, then bring it on!

I’m a thrill seeker but mostly ride within my comfort zone. Once I push a new limit of my riding it very quickly becomes my comfort zone. I’m quite methodical and calculated in my riding so don’t push limits without an aim to make it inside comfort zone and proper progression. I do enjoy relaxed riding sometimes.

I agree entirely with GW regarding your own definition of comfort zone. I’ll often ride a trail slower but play around doing manuals, making the bike slide on purpose and chucking it about more. To someone else it might seem like I’m showing off but for me that’s chilled fun riding.

It can be by something fast or technical, up or down, or it might simply be the weather, length or pace of the ride but I don’t get a massive amount of pleasure from riding easy familiar trails at a gentle pace.

I don’t mind a bit of length and pace. In fact I seek out length. I’m actually going to make an effort to do shorter rides this year as I’ve found that unless I can get out for five hours that I don’t go out. With two young kids, that means I don’t get out as often as I should. So, some shorter local rides are on the cards this year.

Even on a trip to the shops I have to double over the speed humps or use a kerb as a stunt ramp.

Closely spaced speed humps or a motorbike tow in, djlover?

Ooh definitley thrill seeker or maybe I should say I ride for the buzz, whether thats an adrenalin rush from fast downhills/scary drops or an endorphin high after pushing it so hard for so long that I only just make it home and collapse in a heap as soon as I get in. Either is good, both is even better 🙂

Closely spaced speed humps or a motorbike tow in, djlover?

😆

I am a mountain biker not a thrill seaker anymore, I have done that & have decided that I am the wrong side of 40 to risk breaking stuff now.

I find it quite interesting the different ways people get their thrills & what does/does not scare people, I dont like steep stuff & try to ensure that my tyres never leave the ground or if they do then only by an inch or two … however I like speed. With the peeps I cycle with I often bottle stuff they will do but am normally the fastest down the moderately tricky bits where they are all hauling on their anchors, so I guess it depends on how you define things.

To me a top mtb ride needs 3 components, scenery, good company and a bit of excitement. what proportions these 3 are in can vary greatly but without one component it is not a complete ride.

An all day ride just on estate roads / forestry roads is a bit dull, if you never get the chance to see any scenery its a bit dull and no one to share it with is also a bit dull.

I guess I’m a bit of a loner, and do most of my riding solo, so will make do with 2 of those. Possibly even one depending on what you call scenery as I’m also happy to go out in the fog (though in that case the scenery is what you can see within your little bubble, and providing that changes I’m happy 😀 )

a top mtb ride needs 3 components, scenery, good company and a bit of excitement

our ride on Longridge last night had almost zero scenery due to thick mist, but fantastic (mostly) frozen mud riding conditions and brilliant enthusiastic company :o)

I raced MX, enduro and large road bikes when I wanted a fix. Now they don’t really do much for me. But mountainbike thrills? Unless you travel the world looking for big mountains I don’t see how that works (except for those easily excited maybe).

Mountainbikes are a good piece of gym equipment for me and I like getting covered in shit (which is discouraged in the gym).

I like the feeling of being anxious about trying something, finally trying it and then finding that it wasn’t actually as bad as you thought.
Then there’s the flipside that sometimes you try stuff and come a cropper but it is still enjoyable as you gave it a go and probably learnt something in the process.

There are a few sections at Cwm Carn that I always struggled with a yr or so ago. When I went the other day, I rode over some of them without even realising that they were the bits that used to concern me, other bits I couldn’t quite cleared but got a lot further than before and there was one or two bits that I couldn’t do. Nothing majorly technical but I seem to struggle on tricky uphill sections keeping enough momentum up and the front of the bike down.

I know that the more I ride and the more i push myself (even just a bit) the better I will get and perhaps next time I go to Cwm Carn I will clear the whole trail with no bother.

I think for me it’s all about challenging myself and trying to always improve a bit. Whether it is getting fitter or becoming more skilled. Both of which I still have lots of scope to work on!
It’s a very individual sport but one that you can enjoy with many people. You get to see the countryside, hang out with mates, eat cake, drink tea, buy shiny gadgetry etc.

Over the years of mountain-biking, always last down the hill, climbing and most recently skiing, I have finally discovered that at the grand old age of 50 …

adrenalin is not my drug of choice

you’re a climber and you dont like adrenalin?!

I do like conversations, but prefer them in real life :). I went through a phase in my more youthful youth of attempting to have discussions on forums and found it very frustrating (head/brickwall), so try and steer clear now. But this thread caught my attention because of a conversation (heaven forbid, a real life one ;)) I had at the weekend….

…Someone, i think on this forum, described themselves as a ‘live, eat, sleep, breathe bikes’ person. I guess I’m one of those. If I wasn’t always pushing myself on my bike, then I don’t think I would have become that. So the mindset of spending loads of money on expensive bikes, but not pushing them and yourself to the limits, doesn’t make much sense to me. I can’t stop anyone from just pootling around the woods (and just being in the woods is another one of my reasons for riding bikes so can totally understand that), but if that’s all there was to riding bikes, I think I might have diverted my attention to something else by now.

I’m not sure but there used to be more stuff in my profile but haven’t checked/updated it since the hack I’m afraid. I didn’t expect anyone to know my gender, was just pointing it out so you didn’t have to refer to me as ‘he’ should the ‘conversation’ continue…

I like getting covered in ****

Oh dear. Are you one of ‘those’ kind of people?

It’s not hyghenic, you know. 🙁

the mindset of spending loads of money on expensive bikes, but not pushing them and yourself to the limits, doesn’t make much sense to me.

There’s more than one way of pushing yourself to the limit: messing about on jumps or riding a long way.

100!

i like (in no particular order);-

* going for a run out in the mountains and seeing spectacular scenery.
* having a laugh with mates, faffing about, eating cake, a bit of riding, comparing moobs & beers afterwards.
* being at the point of ‘help ma boab’ i nearly lost it there after sketching out.
* bottling out of something and eventually doing it.
* seeing one of your mates do something that they’ve been bottling out of.
* riding with someone far superior technically to understand how far away you are.

so i guess i’m both.

It’s not hyghenic, you know.

The best things in life rarely are 🙂

But mountainbike thrills? Unless you travel the world looking for big mountains I don’t see how that works

You don’t need a mountain to scare yourself. Or even a trail.

You don’t need a mountain to scare yourself. Or even a trail.

Yeah, I suspect hopping over that wall on a space-hopper is pretty scary too. You have to be pretty inventive to get a fix off a bicycle*. I lack the motivation to be inventive I guess. I’ve got motorbikes which can give me a buzz within 30 seconds of getting on. No imagination required.

Bicycles = outdoors, muddy exercise and social stuff for me.

*If I lived at the bottom of a ski lift I’d have a different perspective…

5th elephant – interesting. I find 30mph on a MTB at least as exciting as 120mph on a motorbike. So much so I have pretty well given up on motorbikes as going fast enough to get that buzz was going to put me in jail eventually.

if you have imagination you don’t need the motorbike :o)

I’ve done all sorts of biking competitively for about 25 years, ridden motocross and had fast sports bikes. I just like all bikes and seeing what you can do on them. Sometimes its a buzz, sometimes its hell (Strathpuffer 2007…)

Occasionally at work its necessary for me to run into burning buildings while everyone else is running out. Now thats an adrenalin buzz, but its not why i do it.

Bit old to be thrill seeker these days and having broken most of my bones at least once, i’ll leave that stuff to the youngsters.

But mountainbike thrills? Unless you travel the world looking for big mountains I don’t see how that works

I’ve traveled all over the Alps, riding some pretty dam hard/good singletrack and proper dh courses. I still find some of the UK dh tracks far more of a challenge and thrill to ride fast.