Seems inversely proportional with me. Anyone else here have a harder time getting in the zone in terms of putting the fear of injury to the back of your mind when mountain biking, compared to say karting or motorbikes?

Stick me in a half decent kart and my mind goes completely blank – I’m much more in the moment. I reckon it’s the assault on your senses from the noise,acceleration and chasing others down….

Starting to think I should blow my money on karts instead.

Mushrooms and chess?
Ecstacy and Twister?

EDIT.
You’ve added the word perception to your thread title.
Thus rendering my post silly beyond measure.

There will be a reckoning.

Ecstasy and twister is good…

not done speed though

Shrooms were blarrrhghhh

sometimes, last ride after a couple of random crashes was a good example, first wet day greasy rocks and I just wasn’t with it in terms of riding properly. Holding back to much making things harder. I need a couple of straight forward runs to sort me out.

It’s also part of getting older and have recurring injuries – the physio told me to avoid crashing last week as it was the best way to heal 😀

Seems inversely proportional with me. Anyone else here have a harder time getting in the zone in terms of putting the fear of injury to the back of your mind when mountain biking, compared to say karting or motorbikes?

Yep.

Rode M/C’s for 30 years and had no problem going flat out anywhere, wet or dry – commuted in/around London for +10 years too – on big bikes too. Often crap myself on my MTB 🙂

I’ve never really driven a ‘proper’bike (a couple of 125cc on holiday) so can’t comment on that but, you’re right about a kart.

It might be because I’ve never hurt myself in a go-kart. Once you have, I’m sure you remember it. Plenty of MTB injuries that are always somewhere at the back of my mind though.

Another way of looking at it, is how much protective gear are you wearing in a kart/motorbike is it partly desensitized by a helmet with a visor, and on a bike with leathers and decent armour in them. If you wore the same on a mountain bike would you let go more?

I don’t think protective gear makes you go faster. Protective gear prevents against the initial impact and secondary injury’s as you slide to a halt, but it doesn’t protect against the twisting of limbs, that is often what causes injury, or even breaking of bones in the initial impact, e.g. Wrists.

For me confidence at speed comes with practice and familiarity with the trail. I managed to get out quite a lot last year and by the end of the year I was very confident on my regular trails and was ‘pushing my limits’. I have had a bit of a lay off through the beginning of this year and only just starting to string some regular rides together and I’m much slower and cautious at the moment. I know the speed will come as I get out more, the key is not to push too hard too early.

Anyway it all depends upon what you want out of the sport. Are you a ‘speed freak’? You can have fun on the trail without going at supersonic speed. Though I like going fast I’m not a speed freak and tend to get more out of getting technique right rather than busting the stopwatch. I’m the same with skiing. My mate just wants to point his skis downhill (preferably the steepest black run he can find) and get to the bottom first. It’s a constant race with him. I just let him get on with it and wait for me at the bottom. I find that approach a bit 2-dimensional. I prefer to take it a bit slower, enjoy making nice turns, heading for the softer snow or a more technically challenging bit of the hill and maybe popping a little jump – hopefully with a bit if style. I like speed but only to a point. There is no shame in admitting you’re not a speed freak and letting the speed freaks by on the trail.

Crashing motorbikes is fun but expensive.

Crashing mtb’s is fun but not expensive.

Crashing mtb’s is fun but not expensive.

Yep, really enjoyed the stay in hospital, the surgery, the scarring, the impact on my family….

❓

My most recent big crash I have no idea why it happened and that can be said for 90% of my crashes.
I am happily flying along when suddenly I find myself being catapulted forward left from the bike, always forward left and I don’t know why.

It’s the not knowing what I did wrong after a crash that really makes me not trust my bike will stay under me and erodes my confidence.
As I must be doing something wrong as always crash at speed and always the front wheel washes out ejecting me.

But it’s not long before I am flying along again and then subsiquently flying through the air again.
The only thing I can put it down to is poor technique when braking.

Young people are generally fearless by nature they had to be as when we were living in tribes we needed a warrior class to protect the masses from marauders, some one you could give a sword and say get stuck in sunshine and start hacking.
And this was the duty of the young because youth granted them the strength and fitness plus plus the stupidity not to realise the frailty of the human condition and say sod off I like my arms and legs where they are thank you. So what we call bravery is there to help garantee the survival of the collective at the expense of the few brave sods who don’t make it. If you are lucky you get to make it through these years you then become old wise and knackered.

Also scaredypantsness can be bought on through bad experience.
Sterling moss said before his big crash racing was instinct, second nature. Something he just did.
After his big crash he went back to racing for a short while but was never the same as he was constantly thinking about his driving and how he should be driving it was no longer automatic, so he gave up.

My money’s on he was thinking, better slow down eh, that could hurt if you get that wrong.
And generally his first concern was his safety where as before it would have been crossing that line first.

Crashing motorbikes is fun but expensive.

Crashing mtb’s is fun but not expensive.

You missed a bit:

Crashing motorbikes is fun, expensive and you can die.

Crashing mtb’s is fun, not expensive and you (often) can go to hospital.

You can’t really compare carting or motorbike riding to MTB. MTB takes a lot more physical and mental energy to do fast than either carting or road/track riding. No engine for a start, so speed comes easy. The terrain you are on is generally designed to be safe, so no nasty lumps, bumps and jumps to negotiate either. Motocross would be a better comparison and it busts you big time. Yes you have an engine but the tracks are really hard work and the bikes are heavy to move about in the air.

Like wobbliscott, i’m not fully convinced that more protective gear equals faster. It might to some, but i rode for a very long time with nothing and i wasn’t going slow. I do think that a helmet which blocks out wind blast and noise has a huge effect on how fast you think you are going though.

For me when going full tilt down a trail, I still ride defensively with fingers on brakes when passing side trails/openings etc, in case a dog/rambler wonders out. Dogs have a habit of stopping right in front of the bike too 😯

Done karts and mtb, no real experience of motorbikes to draw on.

Used to race karts when I was in my teens, had a massive off when a tyre parted company from the rim at ~60mph on a flat-out bend (125cc, 5 speed). Went backwards into the barrier hard, messed my back up pretty badly. Have a slight hunch as a legacy. Didn’t stop me getting back out there as soon as the docs gave me the all-clear. The difference is that karts are stable at slow speeds and the tracks are reasonably smooth so you can work up to the limits with comparative safety.

On the bike it’s easy to be riding along at a safe and comfortable level for things to turn nasty in a split second. Sudden drop/hole, especially on ‘natural’ rides. Takes me ages to get my confidence back after an off that results in injury.

Oh and karts aren’t cheap, even compared to mtb. Have a friend who still races (8-24hr stuff) and he goes through upwards of £10k a year.

I am a basket of trepidation & ineptitude for most things in life. Riding is the only exception.

Shinty? Nah, dangerous. Go Karts? Nah, dangerous.

50 kph or whatever through the woods?

AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN. If I could be as brave in life as on the bike, I’d probably be more successful.

My body’s a bit broken but my mind’s stranger than ever thanks to the adrenaline fuelled experiences the bike has given me. No risk, no reward.

Look at people like Matti Lehikoinen, just kept getting back up. Stopped eventually though.