Now I’m not saying that everyone has to be a riding god to get any enjoyment from mtbing – I’m sure even the most basic riders have a lot of fun on their bikes…

However, it strikes me that some ‘lesser skilled’ riders use their niche bike as an excuse for their crapness.

For example; a rigid singlespeed is never going to be any good as a mountain bike, so no-one expects its rider to go anywhere particularly quickly (well maybe up a smooth hill). Therefore the bike can effectively be blamed for the rider’s poor performance. Add a fixed wheel or some stupid bars & you have an even more unusable contraption – then everyone applauds you for just making it along the trail & your mincing goes unnoticed.

A bit scared of that tight, exposed switchback? Get a 29er & no-one will ever expect you to ride it again.

Can’t do drops? Bin those suspension forks & you’ll have a great excuse not to learn.

You can see where I’m going with this…

😈

Nice attempt, i’d give this trolling attempt 7/10. 😀

ime it’s the ‘niche’ bike riders that are adamant that they can ride everything that the other riders can…

a rigid singlespeed is never going to be any good as a mountain bike

oh dear

7/10? A bit obvious for that.

I nearly got overtaken by a niche rider on a rigid singlespeed at Glentress. I was on a Commencal MiniDH at the time so some of these niche riders must have some bike handling skills. I put it down to local knowledge and the fact I had never ridden that bit before. That and the fact a MiniDH is far to much bike for glentress anyway. I’m just making excuses now… err hangs head in shame.

jclaw, are you a riding god like me….

filthy,

mibbe thats cos glentress (while fun) is pretty smooth, and much more fun on a race bike/rigid type thing than it is on a trail/big bouncy bike… anything longer travel takes more than it gives down any descent there.

Ah, it’s that time of year again when the mighty jeycloth is bored of UK weather and can’t wait to get back to shredding the gnar in canuckyaland, so resorts to not very subtle attempts to wind up thin skinned stwers.

How’s tricks John? :-p

(ps having spent 2 weeks last summer riding with some singlespeeders* who absofugginlutely whipped my ass on a daily basis on big alpine descents, SS does have it’s points)

*In the loosest sense of the word – SSes with 170mm forks, 2.5″ tyres and 8″ brakes, and they maybe got pedalled for 5 minutes a day – usually the climb up to the pub at the end. 🙂

mibbe thats cos glentress (while fun) is pretty smooth, and much more fun on a race bike/rigid type thing than it is on a trail/big bouncy bike… anything longer travel takes more than it gives down any descent there.

couldn’t agree more, thats one of the reasons why I sold it

a group of us ride sherwood pines every wednesday and (Anthony) the fastest amongst us (by a long way) rides a rigid single speed, bugger!

Ah those on-one riders. Soon we’ll have shedfire ones too. Should be able to pick up some cheap second hand on-ones for commuting though as the they all follow Brant.

Ah, it’s that time of year again when the mighty jeycloth is bored of UK weather and can’t wait to get back to shredding the gnar in canuckyaland…

How’s tricks John?

Tricks are good thanks Jon. How about you? I fled the UK early last year & haven’t been back since. I might have actually got some riding in over the winter if I’d been at home though. Oh well, snowboarding is fun 🙂

I agree with the OP. I often think that those endowed with below average bike handling skills have a higher propersity to foray into the niche bike market.

I have several bikes – I’m rubbish on all of them. Singlespeed is probably the next one I’m going to be rubbish on.

But I have fun on all of them

And here’s a pic of someone being crap and using his bike as an excuse. 😯

photoshop innit dude…… 😉

My bike handling is rubbish, but I don’t have a niche bike (well I suppose I do ride the CX on proper off-road stuff, but not very often). Should I get one?

Wheres the next photo of the rider with his wheel stuck in the sand going over the bars?

SSS – That just looks plain wrong, cleary having bar ends is his downfall there, with uber wide 2.5″ rise DH style bars and a 30mm stem he’d clean that easy

He is being crap in that pic singlespeedstu… a real rider would have dropped it not rolled it !

looks steeper than it is…………………..

No photo of the wheel stuck in the sand as it’s a 29er wheel and rolled out of the transition no problem. 😆

i do have a picture of a crap rider on a none niche bike though. 😉

Singlespeedstu definately was NOT using his Niche bike for being crap last weekend ;o)

😆

I do not think a rigid singlespeed is any slower than a fullsus having ridden Glentress with one on my tail, however that was only on one section and the full sus made it down the 3 sections from spooky wood in rapid succession (no stopping between sections) whereas the guy on the rigid stopped at the bottom of the first section which left in my mind the thought that his armpump was that bad he wanted a minute or two.Feel free to give thoughts or disagree.

😆 at SSS In my defence, I got better after that

You couldn’t really have got any worse though could you. 😉

WGAF

I’ve got a rigid SS, a hardtail with 160mm forks on and a 6″ travel full sus. I’m crap on all of them, I even have ‘can’t ride for shit’ tattoo’d in Ogham on my leg. So what’s it to you?. I’ve been a crap rider for the last twenty one years, but at least I ride my bikes and get some fun out of them.

I like to think that my crapness transcends any bike I ride

I only own 1 mtb,

does that make me in some way more awesome,

so awesome in fact that Im affaid adding niche to my arenal would simply cause other trail users to bow down to my speriority an worship the ground i skid on?

Everyone I know is fast as regardless of ‘ought let alone a bike

*punctuation* please

Some ( and I mean a tiny fraction ) of these uber niche / quirky bikes are definately owned by riding gods.

However they often inspire silly ideas in the er… many not so godly riders. Even I’ve been the recipient of the occaisional “you’re not going to ride that trail/jump/drop etc on a hardtail!??” followed approximately 3 minutes later by “god I really need to buy a hardtail etc”.

At the end of the day it’s all about having fun. I can think of plenty of trails where a rigid would be more than ample or even quickest, I just cant afford/justify/dont/need one.

“Soon we’ll have shedfire ones too”
I thought they’ve yet to gain themselves (the bikes) a brand name yet

Given the sales of downhill only bikes are surely in a minority compared to MTBs bought by the ‘ordinary’ MTB masses (however much of a tool they may or may not be), would that make DHing a niche?

I often think that those endowed with below average bike handling skills have a higher propersity to foray into the niche bike market.

there’s no shame in being below average 🙂
somebody has to help inflate the riding gods ego’s and make them look good.
best to enjoy yourself and not worry about what others think. IMHO.

I’ve ridden with some people with a reputation for nicheness and can quite comfortably say that they’ll piss over most non-niche (including me) riders I know. I think one of them rode some kind of ride down the middle of North America last year on what the OP termed a niche bike.

I have a niche road bike, and a marin, and I lost all my skill anyway MrSmith 😆

Most folk on non-niche bikes are very average.