I regularly swap between a carbon road bike, relaxed alu road bike, 100mm 29er HT, 140mm 26er HT, occasional 140mm FS and have now chucked in a 180/160 freeride style bike back into the mix – DH bike may be broken out at the weekend too.

I seem to have have lost skill level on each bike, slower on the descents on the roadie, lost confidence on the HTs and couldn’t seem to get the FS off the ground at all today, adapted to HT jumping style!

So, question is, has my confidence just taken a knock and I’m generally not riding well or does swapping between bikes result in struggling to adapt? I know in the past it has taken a bit of time to adjust between the bikes but not to the same extent it seems to be at the moment…..

I tend to find a few days out on the road bike does wonders for me on the MTB. You’re probably just having an off day.

i don’t think so but it does take me time to adapt to each bike… Didn’t use my Hemlock at all for about a month, and when I jumped back on I just couldn’t figure it out, almost went over the bars twice on the first descent. But soon got back to normal.

Ride my different bikes has improved my riding! I ride the 100mm ht singlespeed makes me much fast up and down on the trail bike and the dh bike. Sorry can’t comment on the road that’s not for me.

Need to push the performance envelope of each one…

Ride the roadie like a crosser, ride the HT like a susser, ride the FS like a roadie/ht.

I suspected that switching should really improve riding skills as it always seemed to in the past.

Really need to work out what’s happened, done loads of miles this year and although the fitness is up (most of the time) the skills are definitely off.

Nearly got flung off over quite a few of the jumps/drops at Inners today as I just wasn’t riding the way a big FS should be ridden.

Will maybe head out tomorrow for a completely relaxed session, maybe at the GT freeride area and try and get back to basics.

Yes, IME. But perversely, it can help too.

When I first got my FS, I was amazed at how fast I could go and still feel OK. Some of that speed went back to the HT. Conversely, a period riding the FS encourages lazy handling which shows up when riding the HT. So maybe they are complementary.

But here’s the rub: the two bikes handle very differently, in climbing, cornering, pumping, precision and trail feedback. So the first ride after switching is usually pretty rubbish. From that PoV, constantly switching makes it hard to practice anything new.

That probably doesn’t help 🙂

But here’s the rub: the two bikes handle very differently, in climbing, cornering, pumping, precision and trail feedback. So the first ride after switching is usually pretty rubbish. From that PoV, constantly switching makes it hard to practice anything new.

This is Bollox! I often ride 3 or more very different bikes in the same day and instinctively know which I’m on so it takes second to adjust, not a whole ride.

funnily enough I was talking to a 9yr old today who told me it took him a few days to adjust to riding his mtb after using his BMX, kinda sounds like you’re probably about his level of skill. doesn’t really matter which bike you pick, just keep riding them all more and as your skills progress you’ll feel less out of your depth when you ride any bike.

short-term i find it can mess with your skills a bit but long term i reckon its good to mix it up a bit.

i think that while you are riding with ‘skills aren’t there’ in your head then you are psyching yourself out. ive been doing this a fair bit recently and was finding it really frustrating. i didnt get to spend much time on the bike last month other than the odd hour or two on the dirt jump bike and it has been like pressing a reset button. ive got over all that ‘eek scary’ thinking and got back to giving it some through the rough stuff. plus i re-learned to jump like a goddamn mofo 8)

When I only owned one bike and rode it in all conditions on all sorts of terrain i was far more in tune with the bike. I really could tell the difference that changing the tyres or reducing the pressure had on the bike. With multiple bikes all with differing setups I never quite gain that same level of familiarity and consequently probably don’t exploit them to quite the same degree. I don’t think it’s actually ruining riding skills but I am pretty certain that I got more out of the one bike than I do out of the many.

i was riding mtb yesterday then went to corby for a bmx session. its like breathing in riding bikes 🙂