Inspired by the Delamere thread, I miss NWMBA Wed night rides. Once popular they just fizzled out to 2 or 3 of us (2001)
The Flintshire Challenge, a great end to the summer.
What do you miss?

I miss riding it up proper big hills like in the lakes and wales.

fingers crossed in the future I may be able once again.

A&E

Hopefully

Not being worried about crashing.

Big, all day rides with the Brighton MTB crew.

Proper hills

London is shit in the hills department

Everything I’ve not ridden for a few years and can’t muster myself to start again.

Bikes with 26″ wheels.

Bikes that were all the same size so i could swap parts across easily

the TBC night rides

DezB – Member
Not being worried about crashing.

This.

And I miss being injury free and able to ride what I like.

Junkyard – lazarus

Bikes that were all the same size so i could swap parts across easily

all mine still are. Being a luddite has advantages

Whistler. Don’t think I’ll be able to go back any time soon 🙁

stevied – Member
Whistler. Don’t think I’ll be able to go back any time soon

Oh this, I went in 2011, mostly as a giant F-You to the Surgeon who said I wouldn’t be able to ride any more in 2009, but I was still a wreck, massively unfit, nervous and sore, still had a blast though.

Fitter, stronger, faster now, but even the idea of finding a couple of grand and a week or so to go on a long-haul hol and leave the family behind seems laughable.

Other than Whister, trees.

I freely admit to being a trail centre mincer, but the trails I fell in love with 10+ years ago don’t exist any more, not like they used to anyway. Seems everywhere that used to like riding through a dark and moody forest over soft soil and roots has become a barren wasteland of naked rock surfaced trails between dead stumps

I really miss the old skool xc riding days. These days everyone I used to ride with is only interested in riding ridiculously steep enduro crap and wearing goggles with massive helmets. I crave the old days of singletrack rides across the NY Moors and Dales but it seems few others do.

Some folks that I used to ride a few years back but don’t now, as they’ve chucked it. My friends these days seem mainly to be folks I ride with, and a couple of proper old friends.

Being able/young/fit enough to do a 65 mile epic in the Highlands one day & a 32 miler the next.

Seems everywhere that used to like riding through a dark and moody forest over soft soil and roots has become a barren wasteland of naked rock surfaced trails between dead stumps

Aye, I know it’s all part of the forestry process, but last time I went to Kirro, did Cairnsmore of fleet, then fancied a lap of the red, binned it after 10 minutes, it’s totally changed in character since they cleared the larch out, barren and dull feeling.

Like Drac, everything: I can’t seem to fit it in around the rest of Dad Life.

Being able to singlespeed everywhere without my back going twang.
Throwing two bikes, a tent and a mate into a car and heading to France for a fortnight with no plan.
Being out on the hills riding into a gale force headwind full of rain with a massive, masochistic grin on my face.
Driving to the opposite end of the country for a weekend involving a ten mile ride and a drinking marathon that would probably kill me now.
Nailing some super technical French trails I couldn’t even contemplate now, and yelling out loud with euphoria when I cleaned the bits I could barely contemplate even then.
The Wight Diamond: every year spending it mostly drunk, riding to all the crazy golf courses and partying hard on Sunday night.
The ego-fluffing times when it all came together on descents.
Being on the Downs at dawn in a cloud inversion.

That sort of thing.

*stares out of window*

The challenge of a good climb and the thrill of a fast descent

Scotland.
I was up there before open access so limited in where I could ride and bivy.
Was up there last spring had forgotten just how huge the hills and mountains are. Proper bike country – apart from the midge.

Night rides..only average 2-3 per winter over the last couple of years ..it used to be every Wednesday without fail ..and some truly long epics at that .
I think the weather has had something to do with that ..the last few winters have been wet & muddy as opposed to hard packed & frosty..
Need to do another Northumberland bothy weekend too..with my regular bike buddies had an amazing couple of evenings on the last visit ..

Not a huge amount really.
I certainly don’t miss the endless amounts of cleaning, fixing broken things, driving 100 miles to ride 10 and the general amounts of faffing that any group ride invariably ended up with.

But I do miss the ability to get into much more remote places on much more serious trails than my CX bike can comfortably cope with.

Some folks that I used to ride a few years back but don’t now, as they’ve chucked it. My friends these days seem mainly to be folks I ride with, and a couple of proper old friends.

This too 😐

A couple of years ago if it was just 3-4 of us it seemed pretty low-key, these days it’s usually just the two of us, Mrs Jay calls him “my other wife” ha ha. No one chucked it in, some prefer to go it alone, some only come out when the sun is shining, it’s not too windy, not too cold, not too hot… I’m sure planets need to be aligned just right.

The worst ones though… you know the type, the sort you get stuck with at parties because “Jamie likes bikes” he’ll yarn on for 30 mins about Whister this, or Danny Mac that, but you know his bike is laying dirty and rusting since the last time he threw a leg over it for an hour three and a half years ago. I mean, the Faux Surfer I understand, the Gower is full of them, but the Faux Mountain Biker, why? Mountain Biking has never been cool – the closest we get to cool is a 30 second clip of Rampage on E4s Rude Tube.

Crashing, after breaking my arm 3x in two years I’ve got such a massive phobia (probably justified, I reckon it would snap like a twig again) of coming off that I dab a the earliest opportunity rather than riding it out. I’m not slower than I was, or any less inclined to jump etc, it’s just a bit more binary whether I ride something or not, if I feel a wheel start to go on an off camber I immediately unclip rather than see if I can power back up the hill again, or I only do jumps I’m 100% sure I can land rather than the 50/50 ones that would actually get me to progress.

The only part of my 21 years on mountain bikes that I miss is the Polaris Mountain Marathons, especially the summer ones where you didn’t have to carry kit or camp above 1000 feet in a wet windy field. We did two or three in the North York Moors, which were the most amazing rides ever; I remember miles of dry swoopy singletrack through forestry and scrub, superb scenery and great campsites.

My brother and I did a winter event in the Cheviots in the early 90s where everybody slogged on foot up a big hill in un-rideable wet slush, tempted by two high-value checkpoints. I worked out that we were going to be late back and my bro and I had a huge public row by the trail with other riders smirking as they passed but eventually I persuaded him that at that speed we were going to run out of time so we turned round, bagged a few easy checkpoints near the overnight camp and came in with a few minutes to spare. Almost everybody else came in horrendously late and lost a stack of points to time penalties while we, by guile, ended up coming 13th overall in Seniors.

I miss having a bike I enjoy riding, but hopefully get that sorted soon!!

Riding all day, then hanging out in the pub afterwards or having takeaway, a movie and a sleepover at a mate’s house.

Oh, those Brazilians, you know? Circa 1970? Broke the mould. Theory out the window. Free expression of football cycling. Uncategorisable. Is that a word? It is now! You know? Far cry from small boys in the park, jumpers for goalposts. Rush goalie. Two at the back, three in the middle, four up front, one’s gone home for his tea. Beans on toast? Possibly, don’t quote me on that. Marvellous.

Time really and adulthood are the things that get in the way. The weeks I would spend 5 out of 7 days off-road and the other 2 commuting to my part-time job…

I still feel like a big kid out on the bike – that’s not changed!

The holiday I was on just a few weeks ago – oh how I miss those dry dusty trails of CO/UT/AZ

Not much to be honest.
Messing about in the woods? Nobody seems to like doing that in our group. Always the need to press on.
Grass roots companies coming up with crazy ideas.
Feeling like you’re welcome on the hills 🙂

In general, even though I’ve been mountain biking since 1988, this is the best time to be doing it. I’m having more fun on a bike now than ever.

That feeling of accomplishment having ridden up a really big hill quickly or up something steep. Not something I’m likely to regain the ability to do. Riding the ebike is great but I don’t get the accomplishment feeling going uphill.

I make a big effort to get out into my local woods with its compacted trails (Bristol), which thankfully I live only about 10 minutes’ ride away from.

With kids, crumbling parents and a job – I do feel really pleased that I’m usually out in the woods at least once a week. (Plus loads of commuting and some road and touring). I even did it today!

But, I do miss *mountain* biking. I have such happy memories of exploring the Brecon Beacons and the early trail centres in my late teens and early twenties. Now, I’m fortunate if I get to a trail centre twice a year.

To be fair, it’s within my gift. I recently rode for 3 days with an old friend, although it was road touring as he doesn’t do MTB – and many of my newer cycling buddies and / or events are road-based…

The time to do more of it.

Da Cotswold Massiv.

It actually got pretty massive at one point. The sport seems to have moved on though, folks want rollercoaster trail centres not bridleway bimbling.

Having ridden pretty much the road iron exclusively for the last 12 months, I didn’t realize how much I mussed just dicking around in the woods with my mates until just recently.

In contrast to the more serious club rides, messing about on the mtb is about 90% piss taking and 10% bike riding. So, it’s the craic with my mates that I’ve missed, although I can’t say it’s any different to what it’s always been.

The two things I miss the most….

1. The right line
2. The landing

😕

the perma-smile that hurts your face after you smash a tricky fast downhill section! Always had this at Afan, great place to ride!

JMc

And reading through the Stiff et al ads innthe mags, comparing best prices for latest bits..