I’ve been riding almost exclusively on the roads for the last year or so, with just the odd off-road blast. Recently I’ve got really inspired to ride mountain bikes again. I attribute this to a broken collarbone from a road ride which gave me plenty of opportunity to fantasise about riding off road again. To top it off I then had my (mountain) bike nicked so now I REALLY want to get off road again.

After a mountain bike hiatus, what stuff has motivated you to get out there again?

I hadnt seen my willy for a while.

😆

Too much road riding. Got to the point of having to ‘force’ myself out the door

Then I realised that I could actually be having fun and keepping fit by mountain biking. Was helped along by the new weather proof trails in Bristol allowing winter off road rides not to be a total slog

Endless road miles get boring after a while.

Plus it’s nice to ‘scare’ myself a bit sometimes. ‘not good’ is an understatement of my off road abilities. 😉

It’s an addiction, the missus would rather I went out and left her all the housework rather than watch me go through the endorphine withdrawl equivelent of the DT’s (usualy involved grumpiness and large ammounts of chocolate)!

I have this weird desire to enjoy my riding while people aren’t actively trying to kill me. I find the whole concept of riding on the road for pleasure, completely inexplicable. Its mud and puddles all the way for me!!!! 😀

truth be known, I love coming back covered in mud, I think it reminds me of the first ever sliding try I did in the cold wet mud, my crisp ironed school rugby kit destroyed in one glorious muddy moment haha.

Being on a bike, in the wild OFF the beaten track is just way more fun than bashing out the road miles.

I find the whole concept of riding on the road for pleasure, completely inexplicable

I can tell that’s a Binners comment without even seeing his name against it 😀

I find it completely inexplicable that someone who enjoys riding bikes can’t see ANY appeal in riding on roads 😉

At the minute I don’t have any motivation for it! Usually comes back after a few weeks/a month of being off it. Enjoying road and bmx at the minute, mainly enjoying not having to drive anywhere to have a good ride.

I ride mostly on my own, and enjoy the solitude of mountain biking off the beaten track. Nothing better than heading of into the peaks and just forgetting about everything else and just living for the moment.

mainly enjoying not having to drive anywhere to have a good ride.

This, x 10, is the main reason I focused on road biking, Anyway, this wasn’t meant to be another “is road biking ace or not?” thread. I’m just interested in what gets people back on their MTB after having a break for whatever reason. I find it amusing it took a broken collarbone and a bike theft to fire me up again

stilltortoise – fair play. I do commute on the road, but I’m very selective about which roads I use. I think my reluctance to head out on the road is a result of being knocked off twice, in incidents that were pretty scary, and the end result could have very easily been a lot lot worse

Oh… that and the fact that I’m surrounded by absolutely fantastic trails 😀

Sorry yeah don’t want to start a roadie debate again! I guess the last thing that motivated me to ride my mtb was the opportunity to ride somewhere I hadn’t for ages, and with people who I hadn’t seen for over a year 🙂 It was a good day even though my riding was shocking.