To cross pollinate threads audi and Santa Cruz are a bit more nespresso.

*sneaks away from the thread*

Nobeerinthefridge – Member
Golf club membership is falling and in Scotland where there are lots of clubs, 30% have closed.
You got a source for that? I live in an area that has more courses than ye can shake a stick at, and since the global recession not one has closed. Lots are struggling and have had to cut prices, but none have shut up shop.

Of the 4 in Dumfries 1 has closed and returned to farm land. I know from a committee member of another that it has been losing members and money for the past few years and is now in trouble. Others are advertising for members, something they’ve not needed to do on the past.
There are visibly more road bikers and I think there are more of ” us ”

Golf is cheaper than mountain biking, so if anything it’s more of a working mans sport.

OP how about you introduce an advanced skills test so that unless riders pass it they can’t buy a decent bike and are not allowed out on “your” trails ?

My local municipal course is 25 quid a go. Do that once a week, adds up to £1300 just to play. Then there’s all the bats and silly clothing to add on.

If anything I would think that the decline in golf numbers over the last few years has been to do with the reduction in disposable income rather than a swap to mtb.

I gave up mountain biking about four years ago so I’m not 100% sure about the current trail centre demographic.

The main issue for me is mountain biking used to be viewed as an extreme/alternative/cool sport, and it defined who I was; it was a lifestyle.

“brave” “daring” “fearless” “really something quite special” are just some of the buzz words that used to get bandied about by friends/family/co-workers when they were referring to me.

Unfortunately, it’s all gone down the swanny. Mountain biking is no longer viewed as it used to be. It’s no longer extreme/alternative; it’s no longer a lifestyle – it’s just “played at” by the middle aged men with Audis and Santa Cruz’s who can’t even do a bunny hop.

It’s galling really to think. I remember back in the day, I used to ride at Grizedale alot; I’d often pop a wheelie and wave if I cycled past a family with young kids. They’d love it, it’s not often you get to witness real skill “up close and personal” – I liked to think of myself as a bit of an inspiration for the next generation. I wasn’t on my own either; this was standard fare.

Nowadays though, what do they see? Someone who should know better, wheezing up a hill…..

“hey mister; do a trick!”

“I can’t sorry; I have yet to pass my skills course and I don’t want to have to call out the air ambulance again as I’ve never been so embarrassed in all my life”

It’s bleak isn’t it, it’s bad for the sport. Who is there now to inspire the kids? Where’s our next world champ gonna come from?

Golf is cheaper than mountain biking, so if anything it’s more of a working mans sport.

😯
Its really not as you have to buy clubs and then pay each time you play.

You can buy a bike for next to nothing – though none of us do this- and riding it is then free

You have to be trolling /trying to get a reaction here as that is just silly

Golf has that corporate feel.

Putting my Canyon in my Lexus and getting out in the hills is a different experience.

I’m back into my MTBing after a couple of years off. Encountered hardly any riders over the last 12 months despite multi-day trips all over the country – but, walking onto a campsite near a Trail Centre after a weekend in the hills with g/f, found it was mobbed with loud, middle aged gentlemen, their very expensive (and very clean) bikes loaded onto the backs of Audis and VW vans parked next to cheap, gay Wendy House tents. G/f thought it was funny.

There are elements in any sport that require a commitment of cash, that you get some fetishisation of that equipment, and in that way cycling (not just mountain biking) is just as prone to that as golf is, but you see it in sailing, triathalon, and so on equally as much.

There is a massive industry based solely around making us feel bad about the lack of spangly bits on our bikes, and an element of that is driven by jealousy, just check out the currency of videos promoted by the bike manufacturers driven by lifestyle, and location, and shiny kit…

T’was ever so, TBH

Audis and VW vans parked next to cheap, gay Wendy House tents. G/f thought it was funny

So is gay a description or are you making some kind do of slur based on that.

WHO CARES???

GO RIDE YOUR BIKE & STOP WORRYING ABOUT WHAT ANYONE ELSE THINKS…..

🙄

edit: 40+ Santa Cruz & Porsche owner been riding since 1997. Yes, my bike is clean because I spend a lot of money on it & I like to look after it. Problem for you? See if I care what you think!

edit edit: I’m really crap at golf…… 😳

Put simply, cycling now has a greater proportion of tossers with no manners and more money than sense than it did a few years ago.

Hope this helps.
🙂

This thread is littered with awesome little bombs; I’m going with 14 pages, 3 accusations of homophobia, 2 flounces and closed thread.

This thread is littered with awesome little bombs; I’m going with 14 pages, 3 accusations of homophobia, 2 flounces and closed thread.

Oddest xmas song ever

‘And a Santa Cruz on an Au-di’.
😀

I’ve been riding since 87 and seen a few changes. More money coming into the sport is always a good thing, if the rich folk think it’s the new golf that’s great, no problem here!

However – and I might be wrong here – has it become more expensive at the bottom end? When I started an entry level bike and a helmet (or not!) and you were set. I’m hoping that teenagers and newbies don’t get put off by the magazines and websites who do seem to show most people spending thousands on kit. And why does no one smile in magazine and website pics?

I like the money coming in, I just hope it’s not getting too “serious”.

Bravo Rusty. Bravo.

However – and I might be wrong here – has it become more expensive at the bottom end?

The entry level bikes are so much better than anything 10 years ago. Remember what 1k used to buy

It’s full of mid life crisis sufferers in their vw vans now,20 years ago they would have been driving around in their Porsche with some golf clubs in the back,its depressing seeing a fat guy in lyrca step out of a van a 20 year old surfer should be driving,i usually go over and give them a hug and maybe a penis squeeze.I’m not gay though.

Mikey,3 – lol!!

I’m hoping everyone has got the day they started on a mountain bike tattooed on their arse.

Like all outdoor activities mtb is/has been commoditised with everything that goes with that – the same way that climbing etc went (the growth in bolted routes) etc . My mtb for is just another means to get me into the hills for others its other things, willy waving etc.

What tyres for a deep sandy bunker?

Was just making a point, you can buy a set of brand new decent golf clubs for £200. Far cheaper than an equivalent bike. It’s by no means clear MTB-ing is cheaper than golf.

All the Audi hate makes me laugh too, it’s a Volkswagen (people’s car) with a few better quality finishing parts. It’s entirely consistent with a decent mountain bike brand and product placement wise.

Sport is more accessible, the kit is better, the knowledge is better so biking is more of a mass participation sport. Look at skiing on the narrow skis I learnt on in 1970’s skiing off piste was quie tricky. With the modern all mountain skis it’s so much easier so many more people can enjoy it. What’s so wrong with that ?

What if you’re a chubby middle aged guy of middling fitness with a couple of nice bikes and a van that used to be a chubby twenty something guy of middling fitness with a couple of nice bikes and a van, where does that leave you?

At what point are you supposed to stop doing the things you enjoy for fear of being judged?

Guessing this is a trail centre thing? I have ridden MTB for 25 years and can’t say I have noticed any difference where I ride but then I have never been to a trail centre and probably never will.

Don’t see many others on MTBs and the ones I do see don’t look like they have come from golf (or if they have they have tamed their trousers down a fair bit)

I played golf on a corporate type thing once. I was shit obviously but I did quite enjoy it (nice walk in the green, bit of a chat).
Back in the changing room, a proper golfist (who was playing behind us) looked at me and complained that it had taken him 4 hours to get around. Apparently “well that’s a big bag of tough shit” isn’t an appropriate response. I got asked to leave by the golfists club!

Some of the apparently skill-les middle aged men, fat or otherwise, with good or expensive bikes and cars may once have been young, thrusting, fast and fearless twenty year olds with endless energy, riding and driving acceptably inexpensive or old bikes and cars, with no more responsibility than attending a few lectures a week or finishing up their apprenticeships.

If you reach middle age and don’t have expensive things or haven’t made the decision to live out your dreams in lue of expensive things, then perhaps you should be more worried about yourself than others.

That is my judgement, for what it is worth 😉

Was just making a point

was just explaining why it was wrong,

you can buy a set of brand new decent golf clubs for £200. Far cheaper than an equivalent bike

The cheapest I saw were £200 and I doubt that makes it decent but you can buy a BSO for that money. It then costs money to play golf unlike cycling so its unlikely its cheaper.

http://www.americangolf.co.uk/golf-clubs/package-sets?srule=priceasc&sz=12&start=12

It’s by no means clear MTB-ing is cheaper than golf.

Well you claimed golf was cheaper it seems you are accepting this is not the case. Maths degree isn’t it ?

I have ridden MTB for 25 years and can’t say I have noticed any difference where I ride

Definitely busier where I ride and in winter and at night as well

I assume cheap lights are part of that but its pretty rare to do a ride without seeing another rider at some point – though I only saw two on the last one.

So one minute we’re trying to encourage more people into the “sport” and the next, we’re annoyed that some have nicer bikes than us and complaining that the trails are busy?
Envy is an ugly emotion.

I am not trying to encourage anyone part of the joy for me is to do things away from other human beings

Thats harder to do when more of them have the same idea 😉

I assume the golf thing means its trendy and the type of person who does the latest thing is now doing cycling and in 5 years ,or whenever, they will be doing whatever it is then

FWIW I dont mind on the road as there will be people there anyway….see I am a giver 😉

So one minute we’re trying to encourage more people into the “sport”

Not me, like Junky a lot of my rides are solo to get away from other people. Only people I encourage to cycle/Mtb are my kids.

I remember around 5 years ago I was chatting to a well known skills coach. He thought back then that MTB was the new golf, as in it was being taken up by affluent the “middle classes ” with plenty of disposable income and these people were his target market.

I’m not a middle-class man and I don’t drive an Audi so I don’t know or care where I fit in. I just love riding my bike. Most other MTB-era that I encounter are friendly, so who cares about their income or what bike they ride?

I had to snigger about the accusation on page 1 that Mike is always posting on here so how can he have time to ride? The fact that you are noticing that someone is supposedly always posting on here, suggests you are doing the same! 😛

Junkyard – lazarus

FWIW I dont mind on the road as there will be people there anyway….see I am a giver

Rumour here is you push back 😯

Ok OP, I’ll bite.

Should all newcomers to the sport ride heavy steel rigid bikes with road geo, canti brakes and skinny tyres for a few years before they are allowed to graduate to an Alu hardtail with elastomer forks and v brakes, then after proving their worth on that, be allowed a short travel f/s with discs and only the best of the best of the best being allowed the best kit of the day?

It is odd, but it does seem that then only snobbery in mtb is inverse. I can count on my thumbs the number of times I’ve heard folk on bling bikes sneering at those on less shiny machinery, whereas it seems like every other week there’s a thread like this, or when a mag posts a review of an expensive bit of kit online thee are always folk commenting on it being too expensive and not for real riders. I’ve had a fair few snidey comments about my bike vs my ability (or lack thereof) to ride it.

Is it the same in other sports?

is it the same in other sports

Yes, loads of other sports. (Sadly)

It’s a real arseholes view of things, but sadly it exists in many different sports.

Of the 4 in Dumfries 1 has closed and returned to farm land. I know from a committee member of another that it has been losing members and money for the past few years and is now in trouble. Others are advertising for members, something they’ve not needed to do on the past.
There are visibly more road bikers and I think there are more of ” us “

Counting very quickly, I can come up with 27 golf courses within 20 miles of me, granted some are struggling, but not a chance that any will close. Unless the council sell off land from the municipal courses, but right now they are making far too much money and keeping quite a lot of people in jobs.

the old Audi driving/ Santa Cruz riding stereotype is so old

you do know its nowadays its

T5 Driving Fatbike Riding, thats where its at

JY I spend more on MTB-ing than I ever did on golf. Golf clubs don’t need maintainence and my Nike clubs cost £200 and I hit them just as well / poorly as I did the £1000 Calloways I tried. You also don’t tend to have a summer/winter/holiday set of clubs. A significant amount of the golf I played was as a client or host for business so free, in fact that’s why I took up the game as there where so many business opportunities. I’ve never heard of a corporate invite for mtb which is definitely a good thing of course.