…do a longer but fairly easy ride, with only one big climb, or do a shorter more technical & knackering ride, if im trying to improve my general fitness on the bike?

your opinions please!

Depends what your aim is. "improve fitness" is vague.

Each ride will make you a bit better at that kind of ride.

Id say it depends how hard your pushing.

Do the longer ride as fast as you can will surely be better than doing the shorter ride as fast as you can, because your on the bike for longer?

Just go as hard/fast as you can whenever you go out

ride as quick as i can -yep will do

in terms of fitness, im about 70% of the fitness i realistically think i can achieve, so just wondered is the shorter harder ride going to better than the longer/easier one.

there's about 6 miles of difference between the two im consider for tonight!

The key thing is how quickly you can recover and repeat. There's no point in doing the hardest, longest ride ever if you have to have 2-3 days off to recover. You'd be better off doing 2-3 slightly less tough rides in succession

you have to think about it in terms of heart rate…..the longer but easier ride will cause you to burn fat from your body and it will work the muscles a bit but not much….making you lean

the short intense ride will push your heart rate throught the roof so you wont burn as many Kcal or as much fat but it will build muscle mass and create strength….making you strong

enduro-aid, good points there. my aim for 'getting fitter'is to 'get lighter' so longer moderate intensity rides are probably better for me at the moment 😀

Long ride with short powerful burst's on uphills then easy riding to recover before next one 🙂

I always just ride 'as fast as I can' for as long as I'm out.

Technical stuff where you're coasting and manouvering the bike a lot isn't going to do as much to improve aerobic fitness as more prolonged pedalling effort though.

What al says… Fitness means nothing…

a longer ride will improve your endurance. a shorter but harder ride, i.e. hill work, will improve your muscle strength.

which will improve your fitness? define fitness first.

i would say improve your endurance then build on the strength. it makes more sense this way round.

You need a mix of both
I reckon start off with longer, easier to build your base fitness and make you lean
then mix in with short, faster, harder rides to build speed and strength.

I reckon going for long road rides is better than mountain biking for general fitness.

Do them both.

You get good at what you train for. If you want to be good at both short/fast and long rides, train for both. And you do get a very good all-body workout from technical downhilling IMO – I'm almost as knackered at the bottom of the hill as I am at the top!

+1 for doing 'em both. Mix it up, push hard then slow for recovery, then push again.

I like to do at least one long moderate pace ride and a short hard ride each week, more if I have the time.

The technical stuff will get you 'faster' on techy trails but not really any fitter.

And don't under estimate the need for days off the bike either. A rest day is just as important as the riding.