Stanmer in the wet is veeeerrrrry different to fair weather Stanmer. Roots anyone? It’s not as if you’ve got the room to slide about either in many cases. Everyone has to tune back into sloppy terrain for the seasons, maybe ‘good’ riders take less acclimatisation?

Riding your bike well (good control in varied conditions) leads to faster riding, the reverse not so much as you can only blag through awkward stuff so many times.

Ride with others, you get a feel of your individual riding strengths and weaknesses and can compliment one another developmentally. Or get really competitive, either works.

In order to ride better I’m focusing on finally being able to hold a manual. I don’t think I’ll necessarily get faster but will have a greater range of control of the bike. More control=more versatility=more fun!

I’ll have a ride where it feels like I’m riding well, which usually equates to fast for the conditions, and Strava’s a nice tool to see if my actual speed was similar to my perceived speed. Then there’s also managing certain technical features better (or at all) and managing to do new things with old obstacles through improved skill etc. And as I’m rarely riding alone there’s also the benchmarks of other riders.

I know I’m riding well when I’m hitting features at the DH track I’ve never hit before, style it up in the air and get the drift on. The 2nd two are applicable for XC rides too.

i have a weird perception of time.. maybe everyone gets this? often when riding well time seems to slow down, or i feel i’m riding really slowly. but strava might say otherwise (or not).
on bad days though everything seems to come at me really quick, like today, when i got hit by all sorts of branches and brambles, that i never even saw coming 😐

I passed my cycling proficiency test roughly 30 years (with no helmet, life without h&s was great!)which means I rode well……..and i’ve definitely got better with age when it comes to riding a bike

smiff : I used to feel something very akin to that perception of time, for myself it was most apparent at my local trail centre Kirroughtree as i didn’t have to consider what route to choose or take into account how conditions changed underfoot as it was always the same hardpack surface, always the same turns, always the same rock sections that were imprinted in my subconsious. I could ride the full red & black trail flat out after a red warm up and have no actual recollection nor a true awareness of riding entire singletrack sections of the trail, apart from heartbreak hill obviously as that was a bitch on the ss no matter how i felt – i was definitely aware of grinding away at each pedal stroke up that hill as my lungs tried to climb out of my chest and the taste of lactic acid used to make my back teeth hurt and leave a metallic taste in my mouth but in a perverse way i enjoyed the hill as i knew i was giving it 100%, absolutely nothing left in the tank so to speak. I’ve rode the trail hundreds upon hundreds of times at the very least so i guess it was easy to fall into the so called zone that folk talk about, my mind was so comfortable with what i was doing along with my muscles and position on the bike as I’d rode it so many times, in so many different conditions, over so many years since Chris/Andy/Bruce & Co built it that i often arrived back at the car park in a kind of daze and shock or confusion as if awakening and thought…… “Christ!….I’m back already?….wtf?”. Those rides were something special and few & far between though. I needed a clear run as it only took a rider in front to shake me from that zone especially if i had to wait till i could pass them safely or back off till they could pull over and let me pass which slowed me down and seemed to knock the fluidity from my riding, that’s why i rode at odd times and hours of the day.

I never rode the McMoab section on my laps as the slow and somewhat stop/start….. balance…get position – pedal stroke, stop, balance get position, stumble…fall on arse…****…. etc..etc.. knocked me out of where i was in my head so i preferred to blast on by it, well…… blast on by as much i could whilst spinning furiously in 32×16 but going nowhere fast 😆

I’m just getting back into cycling after a few years away from it so i hope at some point in the future to be able to come close to experiencing that feeling again as it was so surreal and usually left a lasting feeling for hours or even days afterwards….they were always my fastest laps and my heart rate monitor showed an almost linear profile on the computer varying within 10 bpm for the entire route bar the obvious climbs where the so called 220 minus your age proved to be a fallacy – according to that i was sometimes only 6 years old.

When i got that feeling i knew i had ridden well and it seemed to instil a sense of quiet wellbeing inside me, it’d be so nice to get to that place again but if it doesn’t ever happen i’ll be happy enough just to get back out riding as it’s been long overdue.

LOL… TimP

When you aren’t holding me up 😉

Darkcyan, if you feel great and enjoyed your ride than you’re riding well in my opinion. We all have a bad ride now and then where it just doesn’t click, and the adjustment to mud when the trails get wet in Stanmer Woods takes longer than one ride! (takes the whole winter for me then it’s dry again!).

I clipped a couple of trees in Stanmer and washed out on a loose corner on Tank Traps on the Thursday night ride, just one of those rides I think, still finished it grinning ear to ear though which is what it’s all about.

The skills day we’re booked on will give you a yardstick to measure by if you really want to know how good you are.

For me it’s about a few things:
1). When riding it is having a sense of ‘flow’ – sounds a bit silly but being somehow part of what I am riding and not ‘thinking’ about it – just feeling it… My thoughts take a back seat.
2). After a ride, it is the satisfaction of feeling I have done my best and enjoying the feeling of mastery. Having great conversations with my bro about how it went and what we could do next time etc…
3). The knowledge that I am still growing as a rider – trying new things, riding what used to be (for me) unrideable, developing my skills, capability and confidence.

J

Wise words JamJ1974