When I used to play Doom, I never considered playing a level on anything other than ‘Ultraviolence’*. I wasn’t even sure who the other difficulty settings were for – who the hell would play the game on anything other than maxed out demons?
So it is with mountain biking. I have a full sus bike, I love it – partially because I’ve had it 14** years so its earned its place somewhat, and partially because its awesome at flattening the trail. Which is the problem. Whenever I take it out I get the feeling I’m cheating, if I clear a section or a drop or jump or whatever I can’t mentally tick it off as an achievement until I’ve gone back and done the same thing on my hardtail.
I realise that this stance is pretty arbitrary as of course I ought to be using a hobby horse or whatever but my internal niggling voice is happy with a hardtail and I don’t want to give it other ideas as that is the path to rigid fixed gear oblivion.

So to all you 170mm travel wonder machine owners – how do you find riding trails on ‘I’m too young to die’ setting 🙂 ***

*I know there was a ‘nightmare’ difficulty setting and sometimes I would play this but I wasn’t happy with a level until I’d got 100% kills and secrets so this was another mental arguement.

** yes really 14 years – Turner RFX bought in 2001 and still kicks ass.

*** this is mostly tongue in cheek, people can have fun on all sorts of bikes, your going faster blah blah blah. Still I look at you and think ‘Not too rough’ setting eh?

partly my mortgage, partly self-preservation, partly my family…partly my bollox.

MTB riding…and keeping your internal monologue happy

It’s not difficult – I just go for a massive poo before I go out, then my inner whatsits are absolutely fine. Doesn’t everyone?

When I used to play Doom

computer games are for nerds

worst/weirdest post ever

Tuts. You should be doing these drops and jumps on your hardtail first….without the prior knowledge gained by clearing them on your fs.

Think of it as playing the game on hardcore first, then heading back to the level for a speed run.

‘Not too rough’ setting

Rob likes it rough, but then sometimes Rob likes it gentle.

It all depends on the mood Rob is in.

Ride bike fast, because riding bike fast is fun. Ride tech stuff, get scared, repeat. Repeat until no longer scared by pretty much anything. Job done.

You should be doing these drops and jumps on your hardtail first….without the prior knowledge gained by clearing them on your fs.

I acknowledge this as valid – don’t tell my subconscious.

All I can say is that if the best simile you can think of for the relative challenge riding bikes is playing Doom on different difficulty settings, you probably need to play less on your Nerd box and ride your bike more…

keeping your internal monologue happy

Seems unlikely that a Computer game fan hasn’t found out about masturbation yet…

A bigger bike is a good excuse to ride bigger trails in my view.

Hey who said I’m not a nerd! I’ve changed a lot since my video gaming youth. I’m now a systems software engineer. Yeah thats right I’m an engineer so I know stuff about bike stuff and suchlike.

I’d like to think I can ride most stuff on either my FS or rigid HT.
However, I went to an uplift day at FOD orange DH trails just before new year. TBH the first couple of runs I felt a bit out of my depth, but once I settled into it I was fine.
Sometimes you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Im glad I did as it reinforced my belief that I can ride “most” stuff with some sort of finesse. The fact that there were no crashes or off and only 1 refusal seem to back this up.

OP needs a SS fat bike with undamped boing to spice things up a bit

Since playing Doom way back when and finding it a bit addictive , I’ve long since stepped away from games.

Since having both knees dislocated , a broken ankle , more than one near death by drowning experience and a helicopter ride to hospital, I’ve long since stopped playing anything at OMG level.

So does being 54.

My 140 / 100 travel ‘trail’ bike allows me to overcome a lot of what my addled brain and balls suggest otherwise.

I’m currently contemplating a 160/ 140 bike to assist in placating my perception of gnar.

That said, I have a nagging urge to grow up properly and buy a Cotic Soul, man up and chill out .

😳 😉

Sometimes you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
In all seriousness I need to find time to take the full sus somewhere new to ride, I’ve so little time these days that I’ve ridden the same loops over and over so I prefer to take my hardtail otherwise I could ride them with my eyes closed.

Much like Doom, I find riding long travel FS bikes much better multiplayer.

This is an issue that has nothing to do with mountain biking. Your saying you are dissatisfied with your own performance. I read a brilliant thing about this some where. Chef works for years for a Michelin star and once he has got it he thought they weren’t much of an achievement as he’d got one. That sort off thing

All I can suggest is looking at ways of having fun acknowledging and your own achievements.

Tongue in cheek

I’m impressed you can do any of this without tapered forks and 650b

LOL @ ampthill. My spesh is now approx 12 years old, so its good to know both it and it’s rider can still do some hardcore stuff if they want to.

Im looking forward to heading back to FOD when its dry and dusty this summer.

Is it worth thinking that maybe you have used the correct tool for the job, as there is places I clear with my fatbike I wouldn’t dream of chucking my cross bike through, it should clear it, but why beat yourself up.

Easy solved. Sell your FS. If you can ride everything on your HT, it won’t be missed and your batshit mental OCD inner monologue will be at peace.

Whenever I take it out I get the feeling I’m cheating, if I clear a section or a drop or jump or whatever I can’t mentally tick it off as an achievement until I’ve gone back and done the same thing on my hardtail.

You aren’t riding big enough drops and jumps.

I know if the trail I’m riding is too hard because I stop enjoying it. If it is too easy just go faster…

Easy solved. Sell your FS. If you can ride everything on your HT
To be fair this would be the most sensible thing, but there are odd occasions (very occasional these days) when I get to ride somewhere like a DH track that it comes into its own. And I would get f-all for it anyway so its worth more to me as a backup bike.

your batshit mental OCD
of course you can’t claim a line unless you’ve nailed it three times in a row with no fails…

You aren’t riding big enough drops and jumps.
Yesss this is true. Sort of. Drops anyway, jumps with a downslope I don’t get why you need a full sus at all unless they are cut up.
This topic started off as light hearted but you’ve hit the nail on the head really. The people I ride with aren’t interested in this kind of riding, so I’m normally on my own if I want to “push the gnar”. Dropping 7′ on a hardtail is fun, but the same on a full sus soon becomes boring. To get the same thrill on a full sus I’d have to go much bigger whch then introduces more risk and as I’m on my own I start to question it. And thats if I can even find anything bigger – which is difficult. Anyone else near Southport / Ainsdale like to seek out this kind of stuff?

Steve, liking the doom theme, shame you can’t hit F6 at the top of a scary drop and if it goes horribly wrong hit F9. (Quick save and quick load)

Oh, and while I’m still thinking doom, is it because your FS is basically like going through doom with a BFG? Only its a BFB, personally I preferred the pump action shottie, for everything, even the cyber demon, something like 50 shells to die…

Steve, liking the doom theme,
Cheers. As a result of this I loaded up my old Ultimate doom CD rom onto a windows 7 machine last night and after a bit of bodging to get them to work started playing it again. Only this time I am doing each level starting with only the default handgun and not carrying any weapons over. I once tried to complete every level using only the fist, but this was a bit extreme and I failed :-(. I did beat that rocket launcher demon with just a fist though which was actually pretty easy as he takes ages to turn around.
Oh god, what have I become…

Oh, and while I’m still thinking doom, is it because your FS is basically like going through doom with a BFG?

Yess! yes it is. exactly. See above.

Yeah you know when you’ve played too much doom when you align your bikes with the weapons, I suppose a bike equivalent of a plasma rifle would be the best all rounder, but for me it would have to be a modded pump action double shotgun. My PC is now lacking speakers so it has to be an Xbox arcade offering, difficulty is ramped up by having to use a blooming gamepad instead of a keyboard and mouse.