Hi,

I have mbla assessment on Saturday and we have a home study exercise to complete.

One of the questions I dont know the answer to.

Explain the difference between single speed and cross country mtb events.

Ive gone back to the assessor for guidance and was told to think about the bike.

Anybody help me?

Single speed, sprockets, number of……

Oh dear

Thanks

Hi Goodgey, seems perhaps you are either A) A young whipper snapper B) Really over thinking this C) Not that interested in any nicheness or competitive elements of MTBing and just enjoy being on the bike. I know people who have taken the courses who instruct or guide in other sports and have good leadership and navigation skills and can ride a bike but would not have the knowledge of people on the forums.

My advice is to go to the British Cycling website as they have definitions of all racing disciplines (Cross Country).
Google single speed bikes and then single speed events and it will all make sense.Try and talk to some other riders (older/younger) when you can and read some mags. Then you keep up with innovations, trends, trails and events.

Hope that helps, all the best.

Single speeds – riders are a little bit “different”. They will have beards, tattoos, perhaps even have some facial jewellery. They wear baggy loose clothing and will be seen at post-event village halls smoking “doobies” and drinking niche beers such as Aldermans old fart.

Cross- country racers – skinny, lycra wearing (quite often Rapha or Colnago outfits) clean shaven and wear mitts instaed of proper cycling gloves. Bikes will deffo have bar ends. Like to eat a lot of pasta, and swear a lot when you slow them down as they aim to take 10th place.
Oh aye! – they dont drink beer, smoke doobies or fart in public – and never approach before a race, as thay can be quite intense

Does that help?

This is the night before a single speed race (Hamsterley ssuk 2006)

<img src=”https://farm1.staticflickr.com/56/160199606_c11d198a2f_z.jpg&#8221; width=”640″ height=”480″ alt=”biff pole”>" alt="" title="" class="bbcode-image" />

This is the night before a cross country race event, a pre race pasta-party 🙄

ps – wtf has happened to flickr?