I was up at Pitfichie yesterday; failing once again to get over the rocky obstacles that the good people who built the trail kindly put there to remind me how crap I am, when I realised that part of my annoyance stemmed from embarrassment about riding the Five. Now it’s an old tatty Five and there was nobody in sight, but that didn’t seem to matter. Had I failed (as I always do) on my Trance it would be fine. The Trance is a fine bike for middle aged mincers to potter around on. But everything about the Five tells me that it is meant to be ridden hard. It doesn’t really make any sense otherwise and I realised that in all likelihood I’ll never have the skills or the nerve to ride it the way it was meant to be ridden.

So, has anybody ever sold a bike because they are not good enough to justify it?

MTFU

Just go somewhere easier and OWN those trails on your [whatever] bike

Slow down,(get some coaching with Jedi) ask your mates to watch and coach you, (get some coaching with Jedi) session each bit that scares you, (get some coaching with Jedi) observe gradual improvement, (get soem coaching with Jedi) tea and medals on the lawn.

I had a pootle round Pitfichie last night – surprised to see at least another 5 mountain bikers out in the dark. Were you out there sometime around 7pm?

As for the 5 – my first thought would be get on a skills course. There’s nothing on ‘fichie that you won’t be flying over after a few pointers from one of the coaches folk here recommend.

Stop blaming the tools. 🙂

Good riders can ride whatever bike they are given.

Focus on your skills, mindset etc and forget the bike.

You’re confusing your Five with another bike. Most Fives I see are under a middle-aged mincer.*

* I speak from my own experience. Not all Five owners are mincers. Other bikes are available to mince upon. 😉

I always watch the sweary northerners videos and feel thankful I haven’t got a Five and therefore no excuse not to ride the way they do.

Hardtails make mincing so much less of a let down.

Most Fives I see are under a middle-aged mincer.*

I resemble that remark 😳

Real middle-aged mincers ride Alpine 160s. Oh wait…

The Five’s primary target market is the middle-aged mincer, if it wasn’t for us they’d go out of business! It is your bike, it owes you nothing and the only thing you can do to let it down is fail to ride it. And anyone who judges you for it is a div (and will still be a div regardless of what you’re riding)

So, supportively- shut it 🙂

DOn’t worry – other than you, the only people who’ll think badly of you for this are arseholes

The less idea you have, the better the gear needed to survive your riding

It doesn’t matter whether you are overbiked, underbiked, a mincer or a pinner (that made me cringe typing that), as long as you’re having fun.

I haven’t yet been on a skills course, but I had more fun riding after getting a dropper post and watching a few youtube tutorials from Fabien Barel, Seb Kemp and a few others. Just a few easy-to-remember quotes (like chin-up, steer with your third eye, outside elbow up, etc) can help enormously to change habits for the good.

Visiting a pump track about 10 times also helped.

steer with your third eye

Snigger…

I had a fiver for four years and I have never been near to pushing the extent of its capabilities, I now have a blur which is similarly untroubled.Don’t matter .

I’m totally crap at the moment and riding a Five if that’s any consolation 🙂

Too much time off over winter, only riding my Tricross, normally just seems to take a ride or two to get back up to speed but I’m really having a hard time this year. Just need to get the hours in, keep riding and riding.

I used to be more embarressed on my Mojo, it was far too small for me and I found it impossible on uphill switchbacks or anything downhill. Looked like an absolute tool with a £3k carbon bike pushing it up all the hills, the Five fits me sadly so I’ve not got that excuse anymore.

I’m n ot middle aged and i’ve got a Trance so do i need to sell it?

roverpig – Member

I realised that in all likelihood I’ll never have the skills or the nerve to ride it the way it was meant to be ridden.

If you think that way, you’re never going to improve. Bit of coaching, bit of practice, few tips form mates, bit more have a go – you WILL get better.

Thanks. I guess I didn’t explain that very well (although some of you got it).

It’s not my lack of skills that’s the issue here really. Of course they will improve with time and there are various ways in which that process can be accelerated. It’s about riding well enough to justify (to yourself) the bike you are on. And, yes, there is a particular issue with the Five since it has a reputation for being ridden by people who don’t hake the skills to justify it.

I guess I’m slowly starting to understand what is meant by the phrase over-biked. The Five is capable of things that I’m not, which is fine I guess. More of an issue is that it isn’t really well suited to what I can do at the moment.

By the way, for those who know Pitfichie (and no, I was lucky enough to be able to get there while it was still sunny yesterday), it’s not the descent that’s the issue. I’m quite happy bouncing my way down. It’s the climb from the start of the Red trail to the triangulation point that frustrates me and in particular, the large groups of boulders that you are supposed to ride over. OK, you can ride round them and looking at the trail it would appear that lots of people do, but that’s cheating!

most of us are over-biked for what we do do most of the time

Just pull the stickers off and get of these on there:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raleigh-Bicycle-Decals-Transfers-Stickers-3-/321062132829?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item4ac0cb5c5d

Is it that rare though? I’m now riding a brand new Kashima’d up Five after working stacks of overtime last year and never getting out, my riding went to pot but I had loads of cash to chuck at it. I’m sure there’s loads of people in similar situations.

Northwind The Five’s primary target market is the middle-aged mincer, if it wasn’t for us they’d go out of business! It is your bike, it owes you nothing and the only thing you can do to let it down is fail to ride it. And anyone who judges you for it is a div (and will still be a div regardless of what you’re riding)

So, supportively- shut it

Thanks mate. That’s probably exactly what I needed to hear 🙂

overbiked is the most overused, meaningless statement on STW. Your bike is only capable of doing what you ask it.

I’m not quite Middle Aged and definitely not a Mincer, but I do ride my Five hard. It can take it, it just seems to want to go, and you let it, but you still feel safe and in control. I come from a Downhill background, so I do push my Five going down and it takes it. Maybe you get to an age when you are not impressed with all this fancy linkage (just seems too excessive to me) and want something simple and works very well.
How many people on the trails and the forum that have been riding for years, but have not had an actual lesson? Quite a few, so why not have a lesson or two, and hopefully that will help on technique.

Over biked? Definitely a case of over thinking…

Find some riding buddies who are better riders than you – that’ll bring your skills on / stop you contemplating your navel 😉

Get a 2.5″ Super Tacky Minion on the front then chant “If in doubt… flat out” while smashing the rocks into submission.

My excuses are.
In these circumstances remind yourself that you are riding today so you can ride tomorrow.
The grave yard is full of heroes.
Bikes get better,the trails more difficult but im just as crap as ever.
Oh and I’ve got a bad knee.

It’s about riding well enough to justify (to yourself) the bike you are on.

I used to think this a bit about DH bikes, but I don’t really GAF now.

Less thinking and more riding!

I don’t think anyone really expects the bike you ride to automatically equate to a given level of skill or ability, it’s just a bike. you see people with all sorts of ability on all sorts of bikes, it means nowt…

Like Toys19 said, get some coaching if you feel you need it, no point flogging the bike, Everyone has to learn at some point.

remember this (very posted, but very important imho:)

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=7ZmJtYaUTa0#t=72s[/video]

(sorry forum doesn’t let me embed to a time).

ride whatever is fun for you, if you’re not having fun on the five because you (aren’t feeling the ground, feel a prat), get an on-one steel hardtail or something. Either you’ll love the change or might just remind you why you bought the Five in first place.. 🙂

and yes, wtf is a 3rd eye!

Don’t beat yourself up about it,the Trance is just a better bike…………

and yes, wtf is a 3rd eye!

I think it’s in this one:
(it basically means twist your hips to turn)
[video]http://vimeo.com/41187732[/video]

I always thought your third eye was slightly lower.

the only justifying i think is necessary is can you justify buying it? if you can then why would you need to justify riding it or being good enough for it? if someone else thinks you are all the gear no idea then thats up to them. i honestly cant remember ever being more rider than bike. it has always been the smae way for me. i have lost count of the times i have seen others riding the same or lesser versions of my bike significantly better than i do. cant say its ever bothered me. good luck to em. im happy enough in the knowledge that i enjoy riding it. I dont care if someone else could ride it better/faster. if its simply a matter of the bike being able to do stuff you can’t then that will also almost always be the way. if it doesnt inspire confidence then that is a different matter. but seeing as you have the bike i would work on the confidence rather than worrying about the bike. the bike will go as fast or as slow as you let it.

There will always be riders ‘better’ than you.

Confucius say: “Judge ability by size of grin on face, not amount of fresh air beneath tyre”.

Relax and enjoy the ride. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Take up tiddlywinks.

The Trance is a fine bike for middle aged mincers to potter around on

Cheeky tuuat I’m certainly not middle aged and I don’t potter about on it!! (also ride a SS HT 😀 )

MTFU sugar boobies

What are Pitfichie conditions like ? I’d be going up Sunday once I get back from Austria….

I’ve always thought it would be best to have room to ‘grow into’ the abilities of your bike, our at least be comfortable with the limits.

The thing with telling yourself you’re not good enough for your bike is when will you ‘know’ that you are? I’d wager that every single bike owned by every member of this forum would instantly go faster put in the hands of a top pro, does that mean you’ll only be good enough when you’re at their skill/fitness level?

It’s only ever going to be self defeating thinking this way, try and move your focus to something more positive.

What are Pitfichie conditions like ? I’d be going up Sunday once I get back from Austria….

Not too bad. There are still some annoying patches of snow. But, considering how long it has been since we’ve had snow-free trails it’s not too bad and the forecast is for it to stay above freezing (at least at lower levels) for the next few days.

Thanks for all the encouraging remarks. Some people seem to be confusing skill with courage, which is interesting. I guess they are often linked, but in this case I wasn’t wimping out of going down stuff, I just don’t have the strength or talent to get up and over some of those big rocks.

It’s also interesting that nobody seems to like the idea of starting with a “small” bike and progressing to “bigger” bikes as your skills develop. Maybe that’s because of the difficulty of defining “small”, but I still tend to think that the Five is a bike for chucking down cliffs and I have to question whether that is what I really want to do. Not whether I could acquire the skills. Of course that’s possible. But whether that is really the sort of thing I want to do and if not whether I’d be better off with a more XC oriented bike.