• This topic has 35 replies, 29 voices, and was last updated 14 years ago by Ewan.
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  • Does where you live make you a better rider ?
  • beerbelly
    Free Member

    It must do been to peaks today for the first time and it's well rocky ridin that week in week out woud be ace

    racing_ralph
    Free Member

    yes

    Kramer
    Free Member

    Yes it is. Where did you go to?

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    grumm
    Free Member

    I dunno – I reckon I would have really struggled in the Alps if I wasn't used to riding rocky stuff in the Lakes regularly. I'm not that good at tight, twisty singletrack though, which there isn't much of round here.

    beerbelly
    Free Member

    Started at ladybower inn up to up to hope cross i think ? was a route out of MBR ended with decent back to pub wish my local riding was like that

    oldfart
    Full Member

    seeing the size of the little kids getting on the chairlifts at whistler i'd say YESSSS!!!!

    solamanda
    Free Member

    Depends if you travel around to other places and make best use of local terrain. I find local 'hard' stuff and practise it at high speeds on poor performance bikes (ie: jump bikes with poor tyres). Gives the feeling of riding a proper dh bike on rough terrain for when I do travel further afield. Usually the only thing I have to 'relearn' is how to deal with steepness. You can easily become a better rider with bad trails if you work on your weaknesses repeatedly.

    I live in a flat part of the country.

    Kramer
    Free Member

    Ladybower Inn, Hope Cross, down the Beast, Hagg Farm climb, Gore's farm descent, climb to Derwent edge and back to the ladybower Inn?

    A classic, even better if you throw in the Cut Gate. 😉

    beerbelly
    Free Member

    Yea and did the hagg farm descent was a great route will be back soon

    Rivett
    Free Member

    No, but where I'm from does.

    GSuperstar
    Free Member

    I would say 100% definitely affects your skill level. It's the same with most sports that aren't so 'mainstream'.

    I play competitive paintball, and unfortunately America has a ton more opportunities for kids than the UK does in terms of tarining facilities etc, and when you compare the skill levels due to this, America is far ahead.

    GNARGNAR
    Free Member

    Absolutely. The average BC native is vastly more skilled in every single way to the average uk rider. You did ask.

    Smee
    Free Member

    No.

    iggs
    Free Member

    Its not where you live directly its where you ride.

    Where you live does have an influence on where you ride obviously but its not directly tied.

    Variation is an important coaching principal. I.e. the more places and more different types of riding you do will make you a better all round rider. Living in a good riding location (I live on the edge of Snowdonia) actually makes you less likely to travel to different areas and so potentially less skillful

    rolfharris
    Free Member

    One thing you'll notice about a lot of Peak riders (myself included) is that the riding style is very "ragged"- it lacks flow or finesse to an extent, even in a very good, fast rider. They also like a lot of lines- I can look at a big wide trail like the Beast or Walna Scar in the Lakes and see a number of lines I might get accidentally bounced onto and I love it. In singletrack, I'm not so happy- I like to have a number of line choies.

    Also, when I first came to ride trail centres I couldn't do the switchbacks they all depend on for shit, because we don't have much stuff like that in the Peak.

    Riofer
    Free Member

    You need to ride Stanage edge plantation descent then Al, there is a nice switchback on that close to the top 😉

    Pieface
    Full Member

    Only if you have the right attitude – You could live in Whistler and still be a crap rider because you don't get out enough or have the attitude to get better.

    rolfharris
    Free Member

    ONe of my big regrets now I've moved away is that I've never ridden Stanage. Never ever ever. Lived there 18 years and not once did I ride it.

    BadlyWiredDog
    Full Member

    You get good at your local style of riding because you do it day in, day out. I'm a Peak local, and like Al says, you get a slightly ragged but functional aptitude for riding loose rocks, bouldery things and picking lines on wide, messy tracks. But, that doesn't necessarily translate to riding well on other terrain, my southern friends tend to have a smoother, more graceful style and float better through singletrack, then again, that doesn't help them much when it comes to surfing down potato ally 😉

    So it's kind of a 'yes, but…' from me.

    simply_oli_y
    Free Member

    kinda. but as BDW says, more a good rider at home style terrain.

    best to get riding lots of different stuff. that way you'll be good on rocks, roots, tight singeltrack to fast open tracks…

    devs
    Free Member

    Where you regularly ride will definitely have an effect on your skill levels.

    rolfharris
    Free Member

    In contrast to simply oli y you could end up like me- kind of OK on most things, but not a master at anything!

    Pieface
    Full Member

    Road / MTB / BMX?

    Steve-Austin
    Free Member

    The roads in Kent seem just like the roads everywhere else i've ridden, so i guess i'm an all round good rider!

    B.A.Nana
    Free Member

    Like someone above says, it's not where you live, but where you choose to ride. I would also add that it is down to you and what level you want to achieve, not where you live.

    chakaping
    Free Member

    Really interesting thread.

    Been thinking about this sort of thing since I went to the Alps, where I found the steepness quite difficult to deal with.

    I basically didn't know how to ride terrain that steep, even on a DH bike (although I didn't really know how to ride that either).

    By contrast, my riding pals – who all live in the Lakes – were much more comfortable, even though we're not so far apartwhen riding together back in the UK.

    But on the other hand I don't have any long boulder-strewn descents with multiple line choices in Hertfordshire – and have taken to them like a duck to water in the Lakes.

    GNARGNAR
    Free Member

    The riding scene in a given area, the number of good riders around to ride with and push each other would also be a factor. Generally, (and it's a pretty big generalisation) I find the average rider who lives five or ten minutes away form decent trail network will be better than the one who's a three hour drive away.

    hh45
    Free Member

    Even on a road bike it may be relevant. Living in Kent you are perhaps more used to narrow, slippery, shaded, very steep escarpment lanes than someone from east Anglia who will have no idea about such joys. Someone from somewhere with big hills should be a better climber and descender, do a sportive in Italy and they climb and descend fantastically whilst the Brits tend to be noticeable by their inability at such things. IME.

    kinda666
    Free Member

    ended with decent back to pub wish my local riding was like that

    I thought it was Neil :o)

    aviemoron
    Free Member

    We're spoil up here!

    robdeanhove
    Free Member

    I'd say it's as much who you ride with and what the dynamic of the group is. I've lived and ridden in the North East, the Peak, The North Downs and now (for the second time) Brighton and the South Downs. I'm really lucky in that the group I ride with now is full of both technically good and just plain old fashioned fit & strong riders. Riding with these guys and trying to follow their back wheels has made me a whole world faster.

    It doesn't really matter how hard/easy the terrain is. If the terrain is "easier" a strong and good rider will just go faster until they reach the same limit of their skill. This is all within reason of course, a fire road drag won't tax anyone.

    Within the group it seems to be self perpetuating as we all try and stay with, compete with and beat each other but always making sure the back of the group never spits people out and regular re-groups at gates and lots of chatting are also the norm.

    Just my tow penneth, and something no-one has mentioned

    Beagleboy
    Full Member

    Where I live makes other riders better. It just leaves me with bigger and bigger scars. 😥

    Stirlingshire, where virtually every part of the county has a wee bit of Beagy DNA smeared on it. 8)

    JonEdwards
    Free Member

    As above its where you ride that meakes the diffence. I do a roughly even split of Surrey Hills singletrack and Peaks rockiness with a side order of Chicksands/Esher/Aston Hill playing around. That seems to cover most bases, along with soime road riding to keep the fitness up. It's rare these days that I come across something that I've absolutely no idea how to ride.

    It probably also helps that I have a fairly serious masochistic/self-competitive urge and am always trying to do things faster/harder/longer.

    CaptainMainwaring
    Free Member

    Definitely helps. If you are local to tracks that test the limits of your ability (fitness, climbing and descending) you will do them more often and therefore get better – practice makes perfect. Living in highland Perthshire I have lots right on my door.

    The other thing that really helps is riding with people better than you to push you to do things you might otherwise have bottled

    MrSalmon
    Free Member

    I'd say it does, even for road bikes as hh45 says- on the Dartmoor Classic people I'd passed on the ups were flying past me on some of the less open decents. Where I ride around Birmingham there's not much chance to practice on stuff like that.

    If I ride MTB in the Peak and I've not been for a while I find it quite hard both technically and fitness-wise- Cannock Chase and trail centres just don't set you up for that sort of thing IMO.

    Ewan
    Free Member

    Not really. I live in the south and ride the downs most of the time, when I go to the Alps I can nail most people / northerners. It's just about spending some time doing technical trails which can be found anywhere.

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