Enthusiasm is awesome! The main difference between a mediocre rider and very good rider is the amount of time they’ve put into actually practicing (doesn’t need to be structured but repetition is key). Often from a young age. often using multiple bikes and often riding multiple disciplines.
Do you reckon more folk actually practice these days?
Maybe you’re right. coming from a BMX background as a kid it was kinda the norm.

I don’t like really long, low and slack bikes. There, I said it. I want something that I can manual and hop easily, something that needs a little bit of input from me rather than letting me get away with stuff. I find it difficult to ride newer shape stuff ‘properly’ because I’m stuck in a BMX-through-small-hardtail rut. I’m quite comfy here (over the back wheel) though, thanks.

Gotta agree with you Kayla.
I can ride either. but long bikes (despite being faster in certain situations) simply aren’t as fun

burn (b-u-r-n!) the heretics!

I’d guess me n Kayla are probably too tough for you to approach us (first) IN REAL LIFE nevermind chucking us on the pyre. You’re probably burning your money trying to keep up with the latest latest instead of simply riding more and becoming a better rider anyway so just keep doing that.

Enthusiasm is awesome! The main difference between a mediocre rider and very good rider is the amount of time they’ve put into actually practicing (doesn’t need to be structured but repetition is key). Often from a young age. often using multiple bikes and often riding multiple disciplines.
Do you reckon more folk actually practice these days?
Maybe you’re right. coming from a BMX background as a kid it was kinda the norm.

I think it depends on your background. Everyone I ride with who used to BMX properly has great skills. I owned a BMX when I was little but I didn’t BMX on it, it was just what everyone owned and in the small village I grew up in there was no-one awesome to copy – I had no idea what was possible on a bike. Then I got a MTB when I was 9 and used to go pedalling across the bridleways of the midlands with my Dad.

It’s only since I returned to MTBing that I’ve learnt to hop and manual and jump and drop. I’m hopeless at gap jumps, can’t get my head around them. Struggle with steep takeoffs too. Happiest on natural trails. Love getting air when it’s a choice rather than a necessity – show me a couple of rollers a fair way apart or a smooth tabletop or a kicker or a rollable drop and I’ll send it.

Amongst later starters or those who’ve never done BMX or DH, I think there’s more of a focus on skills than there used to be, driven by the shift in what typical MTBing is. Yes, there’s still loads of old school riders bashing out the bridleway miles but trail centres are busy and uplift venues (especially the less gnarly ones like BPW) are super popular.

I think dropper posts have changed things too – when I returned to MTBing in 2009, everyone I met did their trail riding with saddle up or dropped fractionally (woods height). I read about lowering your saddle and tried it and loved it – so used to manually raise it for big climbs but otherwise leave it down. Nowadays the vast majority I ride with (and that’s a lot of people) drop their saddles and move about more on the bike (as BMXers and DHers have always done).

One problem with this thread is it sets me off thinking about my Zero AM – which is great but I do suspect it would be better with a bit less reach, a bit more BB height* and a slacker head angle – just like the new BFe. The only thing that wouldn’t swap straight across is the headset. It’s lucky the hassle of swapping everything across is putting me off! 😉

*This is nothing to do with the pedal strike** I had last week (small tree stump hiding in ground cover on a narrow trail) and the huge bruise on my left thigh from my inelegant landing).

** Don’t practise your pedal down / hip twisty / bike leany cornering technique on tight wet rooty natural trails at night – keep the thinking riding for easy scenarios…

Ah. My BMX background is from back when BMX first arrived in the UK not the later resurgence of BMX (some did continue through those quiet years but not many). We’re at cross purposes due to age but basically agreeing.
By 8 or 9 before I’d ever seen a BMX in real life I was comfortable hitting fairly big jumps and wheelying for miles on all sorts of shitty kids bikes and mate’s motocross bikes so probably had a bit of a headstart by the time I got my first BMX (around 11 or 12 I think). BMX slowly got replaced by Girls, Drink, music n drugs. That and being the only BMXer left in my town is why I stopped riding BMX in my mid teens. Didn’t ride an mtb until I was an adult but all the basic handling skills were still there so I wasn’t afraid of jumps, drops, manualling etc. A few months after getting my first mtb a girlfriends (keen cyclist) dad entered me in a mtb race. I didn’t have a clue. (I’d never even ridden in a forest. just urban woodland, Steep chutes, drops and shale bings (Huge steep quarry mounds). I didn’t even own a helmet and turned up in tracksuit trousers and a t shirt and a borrowed helmet. On the start iine each side of me were guys in brightly coloured lycra the most serious looking one of them at the front turned round and by weird coincidence he was someone I knew quite well from a group of friends who went to the same pubs and parties. He won that race. I came second.
All my very first mtb rides were with the saddle slammed. By the mid 90s I was riding or racing DH every weekend and XC during the week. but rode small (despite being 5’11”) XC hardtails with 80-100mm forks and 2″ risers and thought nothing of riding decent length XC routes without ever raising my saddle. (I still ride 4X bikes for XC to this day. only difference is one of them has a dropper. If anything dropper posts have made me lazier. Being old now my knees are probably thankful.

I still know a ton of mtb riders but rarely make the effort to ride with many anymore as I really can’t bear the middle aged, middle class mtb riding scene playing on a bike in the woods/hills has turned into. You know… fretting over every new bike part/accessory/clothing/tyre/suspension/wheel choice, Strava chat, Trail name top trumps, Trail dogs (They’re just dogs FFS) T5/6 lust (it’s a van!), coffee shops cyclist seem to need to be seen in.
I’d rather be outside doing cuttys and manuals in a tee shirt on a £200 hardtail (26″ and in small obvs) like kids do than in a cafe talking about SantaCruz’s and Enduro “events”.
I just don’t get any of that. I don’t even like coffee or cake. Why would you when there are still booze, drugs and Women? 🙁

Haha… sorry for going off on a tangent.
If that offends anyone they need to take a long hard look at themselves though. Not me.

I remember when all of this was fields. 😆

I agree with GWurgh up to the point about coffee and cake, that’s nonsense talk. Real men don’t drink Earl Grey, not even in a sports direct bucket.