[Closed] 44% not interested in a uplift...eh?

[i]Is there something putting you off?[/i]

The type of downhills that I enjoy are best ridden on a bike capable of being ridden up the hill first. I can't see I'd ever ride down something that needed me to be transported to the top other than by my own efforts.

Maybe a lot of people cycle for the fitness? You have to earn those descents IMO!

and wwaswas +1

CBA. Plus it costs money.

Part of what I love about riding downhill is earning the altitude. In other words, I also enjoy riding uphill. I might hate going uphill more if I did have a "silly heavy bike", but I don't. I'd rather not waste my time sitting in a truck, I'd rather be riding my bike. That's why I said I'm not interested.

been there done that - got bored ....

99-07 downhilling

spent more time sitting in the truck than riding !

So most MTBers ARE interested then? 56%! 🙂

I'd wager that 43% of the people on this site would have a stroke at the thought of their mint condition pride and joy being bounced around against a load of other bikes on an uplift trailer. There is a wide range of quality in terms of trailer and the terrain the trailer is, err, trailed over.

If you don't want to pedal doesn't it make more sense to just get a motocross bike?

Not at all interested in it. Part of the reason I ride is to get away from crowds of punters. Even riding in trail centres you're on your own for most of the ride. The idea of sitting in a crammed mini bus while people faff about with bikes at bottom/top just sounds like hell on earth to me.

Now assisted uplift in the Alps - that's a different story! 😆

Seems like cheating to me. Foolish I know, but there you are.

APF

Uplifts are aimed at DHers, which I am not.

But I would like to have some sessions spending more time going down than up - simply to get the practice in.

I think the answer is self-organised car-shuttling days, but my mates are not interested.

Fun in small doses, but riding far from "real life" under your own steam is where it's at for me.

I like both, but you'll obviously get more decsents in with an uplift.
Saying that I ride to the top alot more often than uplift.

wwwas organic and traildog, the uplift day I went to you could have ridden to the top on the bike I was on, I normally ride everywhere, the uplift day tho was a very refreshing change. Getting tired from downhilling is a new experience (and downhilling all day can be tiring beleive me - not the same as pounding out a lot of miles, your legs are pretty fresh but your upper body generally isn't used to the abuse, mine certainly wasn't)

I'm not trying to convert everyone to downhilling, just saying it's another part of mountain biking and I'm surprised so many aren't interested in giving it a try.

from the loose group of folk i ride with, there are only two of us that have done an uplift day.

i know for a fact that 50% of the rest wouldnt enjoy it, they all love a good 'XC' descent, but that is the limit of their balls/skill. Most would say that riding down the same hill all day was as pointless as running a marathon round a 400m track

mtb is as much about getting out there as getting an adrenaline hit.

I ride Innerlethen one loop of the xc then the rest of the day doing uplift to work on my downhill technique

I am not interested. I don';t go to trail centres often, I like to do my own thing, the idea of a couple of minutes of DH run separated by waiting around for a bus just bores me.

D0nk - what soobalias said - I don't want to ride the sort of downhill that needs an uplift. I don't have the skills, don't want to develop them and the penalty for failure in terms of injury (for me) would be too high.

If I had a day availble for riding (which is rare) I'd rather do a 40-50 mile cross country ride (up, down and across) than 10 or so trips down the same hill.

I like getting out on my bike, away from people, away from stuff, under my own power reliant on myself.

Uplifts are for sanitised riding at a pre-built trail centre to ride a pre-built course. (or so I think)

Not for me, that is all.

edit: I would probably enjoy it however my time is limited and I have a XC bike so it's down my priority list

So why do nearly half here not want to even try?

Because I get a lot of my cycling pleasure from nailing a good climb.

And this (better put than anything I could think of)...

I don't want to ride the sort of downhill that needs an uplift. I don't have the skills, don't want to develop them and the penalty for failure in terms of injury (for me) would be too high.

i like chairlifts, but the poll was a bit vague so i assumed it meant cramming one's bike onto a tractor trailer and getting a lift in a creaky old coach, up what is not a particularly big scottish hillock, for lots of money. i have no plans to do that. if, however, i ever had the money for a trip away, i would happily get chairlifts up real mountains.

I'm a "none of the above" so didn't bother voting.
Wouldn't mind, but haven't got it planned for this year (or any other time) It would have to be a bloody long descent to justify it.

I like riding bikes offroad, generally in the countryside, under my own steam. I like exercise and earning the downhills; I don't like sitting in minibuses etc. I don't particuarly like crowds, or busy trails.

exploring is a big part of mountain biking for me, plus i'm pretty unfit, uplifts would defeat the trying to get fitter part of my riding also..

Only uplift i've ever done was a couple of times at wolftrax to get half way up, tbh it was a bit pointless i thought, only reason i did it was because i had 4 days of riding ahead of me, so wanted to take the first day easy..

In general most people are scared to try something perceived to be hard. I know plenty of very skilled XC riders, who on difficult descents clearly show good skills required for DH but they point blank refuse to try DH and list out various excuses. Some people can't handle trying something they might fail at and prefer their comfort bubble.

Regarding fitness, I'm poor at riding uphill but I can out walk (pushing a DH bike up steep terrain) or last longer on dh runs without a break than riders who are many factors fitter than me for xc riding despite being good dh riders themselves. DH require huge strength and upper body fitness.

organic355 - Member

"Maybe a lot of people cycle for the fitness?"

Hah. The physical demands of a full day's uplift are enormous, more than any XC ride I've ever done.

buzz-lightyear - Member

"Uplifts are aimed at DHers, which I am not."

Not neccesarily... Look at Fort William, sure there's the world cup route but there's also the red route (which is a black tbh but still, not a DH trail). Innerleithen has Make or Brake which incorporates the final descent of the red- the last uplift I did there had a young kid on a 20 inch bike doing the uplift with his dad 🙂 Not to mention a group of lycra-clads who joined us for the last run. FOD I'm told has a huge variety of riding.

And even at places that are more DH oriented why is there a big black line between "downhill" and "stuff I like"? I've gone and done XC descents with mates who'd flat refuse to go and do easier descents at innerleithen because they're DH trails and not for them. It's just riding a bike.

seosamh77 - Member

"Only uplift i've ever done was a couple of times at wolftrax to get half way up, tbh it was a bit pointless i thought"

Yeah, to be fair it's not very good is it. If they could drop you bang at the top that'd be more worthwhile I reckon.

Not all unliftable dh's are 'built trail centre/sanitised e.t.c' tracks.

"Hah. The physical demands of a full day's uplift are enormous, more than any XC ride I've ever done."

That's a good one!

maltloaf you speak from experience?

I don't have the skills, don't want to develop them

This is an attitude that simply baffles me. What's the point in doing anything, if you're going to continue to do it badly? Starting off crap is fine. Staying that way - nope! I love all kinds of riding, and all the different reasons for doing it, but riding the same old trails in the same old way, even if they were great trails would bore me after a couple of weeks.

penalty for failure in terms of injury (for me) would be too high

What jobs do you people do that means you're that afraid of injury? Even self employed manual workers, you'd have to do something pretty serious to not be able to turn up and do most of your job - I've worked on site on crutches before - an utter PITA, but it got the job done. Do you live life wrapped in cotton wool? Not drive anywhere in case you have an accident? Avoid crossing the road?

I don't do a lot of uplifts, simply because in the UK, the riding:sitting around ratio is all wrong, but the ones I do, generally do far more for my skills than any other kind of riding, and being fresh enough to hit each run absolutely balls out, is quite refreshing, when usually you're knackered from the climb and/or saving yourself for the nesxt one.

Hah. The physical demands of a full day's uplift are enormous, more than any XC ride I've ever done.

Damn straight. I've ridden Cwmcarn all day on my DH bike riding up and then running the DH track, and all day on the uplift just riding the DH down. Far more tired by the end of the latter.

That's a good one!

Trolling or never done a full day descending on a bike.

After a full day on the DH course at Cwmcarn I have been more knackered than a couple of loops of the XC trail.

That's a good one!

I've been more bolloxed from a single run down Cwmcarn than I have from doing the entire Skyline. Really, it's a different kettle of fish. Ones a long steady burn, the other is absolutely everything you've got top to bottom.

downhills taste better when earned.
and when you are a big old fat ****er............boy do you earn them 😉

[i]What's the point in doing anything, if you're going to continue to do it badly?[/i]

the type of riding I do I do reasonably well, not brilliantly, but enough to get me by. I don't 'do' jumps and choose not to ride trails that include stuff that is jumpy.

[i]What jobs do you people do that means you're that afraid of injury?[/i]

The only time I tried to do jumps I fell off my bike and broke my hip. My daughter was 3 months old and me being off work and unable to help out with our daughter and around the house much for 3 months put a huge strain on my wife.

I have osteopenia (early onset osteporosis), falling off badly again means I'm likely to snap rather than bend (I broke a rib leaning over the side of a chair a few years back).

I ride within my limits on trails I know relatively well. I'm happy to do cross country on stuff that's unknown but exercise caution.

I don't want another big break - at 45 I'd have hip replavement if I did that again and I'd rather keep my own joints for now.

As I said, for me the risk/reward ratio of full on DH is too high. I accept for others in different personal situations it isn't.

As I said, for me the risk/reward ratio of full on DH is too high. I accept for others in different personal situations it isn't.

But you could injure yourself just as easy on technical XC descents or fast single track.

Think Northwind may have a very good point there, perceived comfort zone "I'm not a DHer" etc. Harder than any XC might be over egging it slightly, but i only did 1 day of DH-mince-lite so what do I know, but as I said earlier it IS hard work.

In answer to some of the above...
*Some people don't like trail centres, fair enough but some trail centre trails are a lot of fun - don't limit/blinker yourself.
*"It's cheating" dead right but some old TdF/roadie guy said gears were cheating didn't he?
*Getting away from it all - yep I see your point but I like riding suburban trails too doesn't make it a lame ride coz it's close to civilization.
*Poky little minibus, other people, faffage etc - I went to Ae, uplift service was good, very little waiting or faffage and the other guys (mostly DHers but some other XCers like us on an awayday) were all friendly. The 2 trails were a lot of fun with multiple lines, well worth a few goes down each, all rollable too, no do or die bits unless you wanted to.

Not trying to belittle your arguments, I don't even disagree with many of them, just offering a counterpoint.

I just saw it as another thing to try, I'll try most things bike related.

[i]But you could injure yourself just as easy on technical XC descents or fast single track[/i]

maybe I should say 'perceived risk/reward' then?

I feel better able to justify an injury as a result of 'just falling off' on an xc ride (I damaged a tendon in my knee a year or so back quite badly) to both myself and my nearest and dearest than I would saying 'well it's so gnarly you can't even ride to the top but I'm going to give it a go and see how I get on' and then coming a cropper.

It's a choice I've made and I'm comfortable with it. It may mean I never achieve all I might as a rider but, for me, it means I might carry on riding until later in life and that's more important.

All this XC, DH, FR is all bolloks its all riding, on mountains/hills/offroad I presume, so if mr lycra clad on his carbon super light XC bike goes downhill its not actually downhill? Because he is on a XC bike. I only have a "silly heavy bike" now and use it for everything, granted it has adjustable geometry, can adjust rear travel between 7 and 9 inches make the head slack or steepish and Boxxers up front. Fitted a dropper post and Hammerschmidt to make the up bits slightly easier and if it gets too steep get off and push. I get sarky comments from people on trails like that things a bit daft or over the top for these trails, I say #### em I like the look of big bikes and Boxxers and when when things get steep and big I have the tools for the job, and the 20kg doesent bother me I just look at it as extra exercise, 99% of us are not racing against the clock most of the time anyway.

People who like riding bikes in "Not paying money to spend half their riding time in a minibus" shocker.

a 20 kg long travel bike - that must be good for the highland hikabike sections. 😉

Donk, how is Si these days ?

This is an attitude that simply baffles me. What's the point in doing anything, if you're going to continue to do it badly? Starting off crap is fine. Staying that way - nope! I love all kinds of riding, and all the different reasons for doing it, but riding the same old trails in the same old way, even if they were great trails would bore me after a couple of weeks.

Unless you're too scared? Starting off crap is fine (etc)...

Downhill has as much overlap wit XC as it does MX. They're all different sports. Not everyone does all of them.

how is Si these days ?