[Closed] Are you any good on a bike - like REALLY?

I am a fuggin riding [b]god[/b] 😆

Not really. I got alright at jumping at one point but I no longer live close enough to any jumps to do it on a regular basis so I've lost it.

i'm ok but trying as ever to get better but loving it too

I'm rubbish at going left.

I am better suited to road biking as I am light and fit 😉

I think I've ridden to the dizzying heights of adequate.

Actually, I have it official, Andy Barlow described me as "competent". I should have got him to put it in writing

not really

I know everyone on STW is an undiscovered Absalon/ Peat/ Hill/ Reys/ Macaskill and talks a good game but can you really live the dream?

You're going to get a lot of polarised answers here. You've got plenty of fat mincers that think they're gods gift, and lots of really quite talented people that are pretty modest.

What is the benchmark?

What is the purpose of this question?

What do you hope to achieve from it?

Me... Mr. Average, can hold my own on a downhill (as long as it's wheels on the ground riding), passable technically, mid-pack (when I'm fit, otherwise towards the back) when it comes to uphills.

FWIW I ride bikes cos I enjoy it, I find it impossible to get even slightly competitive (other than with myself) when riding, as I know peoples abilities vary so much.

I'm a god in my own mind

distinctly average in everybody else's mind

i've ridden stuff a lot of people on here wouldn't even look at but scared myself to the point of becoming happy with turning stuff down. I'm more than happy to be more than happy with my riding ability without wishing to compare it to others i ride with.

I'm better than Hora, that's what matters.

What does "I can generally stay upright" class me as?

I'm better than I used to be and hopefully, not as good as I will be. Can anyone ask for more?

What do you hope to achieve from it?

Nowt much really. Just trying to establish the self-assessment of the average singletracker.

Mine - "surpisingly effective climber, if lacking in grace. Doesn't fulfil "on paper" potential on descents".

Anyway this Port Charlotte expression is quite something. WHAT!

Think I peaked about 15 years ago been going downhill ever since

Thought I was, then the illusion was shattered as I sailed over the bars on Roych Clough this afternoon.......

😳

but can you go left?

I don't even own a bike. I just come on here and pretend I do.

Considering I've been MTBing about 21 years, I reckon I'm 'Shite' compared to the likes of Peaty etc. In fact I'm non-existent! I'm 54, fat as lard so obviously ride a 5 & scared of hurting myself cos I don't heal as quick.
However, went out with a lad (who rides a Fireblade on the road) & has just bought (against my advice) a Marin Quake, & he thought I was a climbing & DH God! (Not surprised at that after I hauled the Quake up The Apedale Road & he pushed my 5)
Anyway, who cares as long as your'e smiling eh.

I'd say I'm probably below average as a rider. I know some proper fast, talented riders and I've learned a lot from riding with them, but realistically I'm pretty slow and technically inept. But at least I'm realistic.

Enjoyment=win.

Much like my climbing, I impress beginners. Then compared to a "proper" climber/rider I'm a bit...meh. But I love it so pfft.

Pfft outranks meh.

Therefore it's all good. I'm happy being mediocre at a range of activities (climbing, kayaking, road, mtb, mountaineering, mountain boarding) it's better than being mediocre at a single thing!

Technically crap, reasonably fit, 100% enthusiastic ...

... kinda like other areas of my life!

think i'm a good rider, technically i'm pretty good, climbs , downs, straights pretty good as well. I find myself going through stages though. Wont touch huge drops i used to do 3 or 4 years ago, but thats mainly because my bike choice has went from a full susser 5 spot with lyircs, 203mm discs etc to a full carbon h/t. I now prefer the 'carry on without stopping and ride everything at pace' compared to the ' size it up, ride it and repeat ' thinking i used to do.
Thats also meant my endurance and change of speed has increased but that could also be down to introducing road biking to my life ( which i love).
I could be better and always strive towards that but just now i'm quite happy with my performance on a bike, and the main thing being i'm loving my biking just now and would struggle without it.

In fact my other half asked me the other day. 'What would you give up, me for 6 weeks or the bike'. Honestly struggled with that answer. Help maybe !!!!!

I'm crap at hitting the ground at speed. Despite plenty of practice it still hurts.

On the plus side - I'm learning how to avoid this, and possibly more importantly, willing to learn all the time.

radoggair, always say the bike!! School boy error to even hesitate! Whether you mean it or not is inconsequential.

I ride an old 2002 Rockhopper FSR with a random selection of what i would class as good bits (XT, SLX, Hope, Stans etc). It's all 2nd had but all the strife lets me get and I have delusions of adequacy (possibly mediocrity) soon to be proven at the Weekender. wooooooooooooooooo!

I'm not much good. I have occasional flashes of competence but generally my mind comes down hard on them as soon as it notices. I should be better than I am, and I reckon I would be if I didn't let my mind get in the way all the time.

naturally i said the bike, although i now hide the garage key from her 🙂

on the basis that the best rider is the one having most fun, I pwn you all.

On any other scoring scale, I'm lower echelon. I can climb OK, by that I mean at my pace I can keep going and get up some quite difficult stuff, rather than fly up fireroads at light speed, I don't think I mince too much on the down, and I can clear a 6 foot gap. But I do it with a grin.....

I'm better than Hora, that's what matters.

Me too.

I just ride my bike and enjoy it. I don't care what others think of me because I'm too busy having fun.
I sometimes try to inject this fun element into my posts, but it often gets misread as being "know it all" in some topics.
Am I Bovvered? nope. I'm just goin to carry on doin my fing coz it makes me appy and stuff.
I do like to wind people up, but if they were chillaxed in the first place, it wouldn't be a problem.
Peace and love peeps.

No, I'm really quite mediocre at best. I'm neither ballsy nor co-ordinated so I tend to rely on a well set up bike to get me out of trouble.

The only ace up my sleeve is that I'm pretty fit, especially when you consider my age. I'm fitter than most guys fifteen years younger than me.

No idea. I don't know how heavy my bike is nor could I name the components off hand. I'm nearly 40 so by rights I must be pretty shit, but I think I'm still a 12 year old on my Aero Burner when I'm in the zone. And I still ****ing love it.

i am alright. Need and want to improve certain on aspects though.

At the moment I'm the worst here, with my broken arm, which came from me not being quite good enough..

Better than some worse than others.

Don't beat yourself up Realman, that's a part of riding. You'll come back stronger for it.
Been there, done that, riding much better now it's outta the way.
Still hurts, but not as much as when I couldn't ride.

I used to be a damm site better & more technically adept than I am now. Was on my bike every night after school when I was in my mid teens - could bunnyhop well, pre jump drops to transition with confidence, X-ups, mini tabletops & all that. No chance currently.

I'm as good as my race results.
32nd/169 overall solo at Mountain Mayhem, yet 132nd/135 on the Kenda Klimb.
I think that proves I can plod on at a steady pace for hours on end, but I'm crap on hills.

nope i'm c*!p at mountain biking,but will never give it up 😀 tis one of the most importaint parts of my life riding my bike (when the blinkin depression/laziness doesn't get in the way 😡

Reckon I'm as good as I can be given that I'll generally only ride twice in a good week. Doesn't stop me talking the talk or buying the kit though! 8)

Can't ride trail centres to save myself, tend to avoid them now as I usually come back with injuries or breakages, fast surfaces, berms and jumps just spell trouble for me...

Have pulled some epics in the highlands but none that have really demanded riding ability, just resolve in the face of terrible weather or em-boggened trails.

I'm as good as my race results.
32nd/169 overall solo at Mountain Mayhem, yet 132nd/135 on the Kenda Klimb.
I think that proves I can plod on at a steady pace for hours on end, but I'm crap on hills.

I'll go by my Mega results then. On the bottom side of average I guess.

109th out of a bit under 200 in the qualifier (fairly short course). Not a million miles from last on the full Mega course - just didn't have the stamina at all. Since then i've not ridden that much so I've got a fair bit worse.

Pretty crap in terms of bike skills - I can wheelie/manual/bunnyhop but not very well.

Twenty years ago when I started I was average.....I hav'nt got any better but eveyone else has got worse and now I'm now above average.

I mostly ride on my own, so out of who i ride with I'm the best 😉 However, if i was to aquire some riding mates, I'd probs be shown up as the poop rider that i am!

The paraphrase Alex Lowe from the American Alpine Journal: "The best rider in the world is the one having the most fun!"

I am a mediocre rider at best.. I'm not as fit as I'd like to be either

Cant jump or drop. TTfs have me slamming on the brakes like it is the end of the world

When it is dry and open I get scared and cant keep up with my mates

I am having the most fun in this weather when it is twisty and Slidy. Love the mud, and I [i]feel [/i] faster

edit. Oh yes fat and unfit too. Not surprising probably ride once/ month

Distinctly average

Same with snowboarding

Officially one of the least adept here.
Being crap at riding a bike is still a world apart from being a world class couch sitter

Ahhh sod it, who am trying to kid.....yes,yes I am really good on a bike 8)

I'm nowhere near where I was 7 or 8 years ago (which was pretty good, even if I do say so myself), but I dont think its a skills or fitness problem, I think it's as I've got older ive developed 'The Fear'. I'll be able to pick a line down the trickiest DH course, and I'll know the speeds I'll need to hit said lines but when push comes to shove, I struggle to muster up the cojones so I'll dab the brake, and end up on my ar£e 🙁

@tomhoward - it is true that your instinct for self preservation gets stronger as the years advance. Although I fell off for the first time in ages recently and it felt pretty good! I don't have brittle bones yet and although I shredded a tyre (kenda karma's - made of tracing paper) and picked up some grazes - I've ridden a bit quicker since then.

So my advice is fall off. It's not so bad and once you get over it you'll lose some of the fear 😀

All I will say is that, of the crowd I currently ride with (aged 4 & 7). I'm the Daddy.

As somebody of the self critical persuasion, i usually consider myself to be bloody useless. However, every time we go on holiday, be it Spain or Alps, myself and my riding buddies are always the fastest, and usually receive compliments for how fast we ride from the guides. At FreerideSpain we were taken down sections that hardly anyone else was trusted to complete, and even last week at White Room we were taken on a very technical exposed track that the guide had only ever taken 5 other groups down due to the nature and difficulty of the track.

So our experience suggests we arent bad, however i still consider myself to be utter sh1te!

[i]I mostly ride on my own, so out of who I ride with I'm the best[/i]

Me too, Haven't really ridden with anyone recently. Well about 4 weeks back I rode with some mates who were on 160mm travel skill compensator's at Grenoside woods on the steel city DH course. I could happily keep up with them on my 120mm steel hardtail 🙂

Although, not sure if that's their lack of skill or my god like skill?

I think it's probably their lack.

Judging by my race results I am exactly average.

Compared to a fat knacker I am a riding god. Compared to a riding god I am a fat knacker.

What does "I can generally stay upright" class me as?

Not sure, but when you find out stick me down as well please.

Managed to avoid coming last in my agegroup in MTBO so far, always a chance that next week will end that run of course, but I go up an age group next year to the over 50s and they are a fit and mean looking bunch in a way that I am not.

I'm not bad, but not great by any stretch of the imagination. But who cares? I may not be a riding god, but when I'm on form I feel like one. That's what's important.

Imagine a gorilla that had been shaved and taught to ride a bike

He'd be better than me.

its about being happy.
if you aspire to be better then great, if you are happy where you are, also great

its the size of the smile that counts

I'm below average, but i could probably improve quite a bit if i went riding more. Some people have commented when following me, saying my line choice is good, i'm just too scared to go faster. Hate jumps and drops but i'm too bad at pumping.

I ride for fun and don't really think about this much, but I was pressed the other day and drew the conclusion that I'm a reasonably competent trail hacker. Of those I meet at the odd trail centre, I'm quicker up the hill than most and quicker down the hill than most. Of my regular group, we're all pretty similar, with me being a bit slower up hills and a bit more technically proficient.

I can't jump at all though, and since I'm just a trail hacker, I'm not terribly bothered that I can't.

We all look like we've only just come off stabilisers when compared to the pros though, don't we?

Absolutely hopeless. Dont really care about that fact either.

The older I get, the better I was ! 8)

gwj72, I did fall off, think thats part of the problem as it was a big fall and I broke a rib despite wearing armour. It's not put me off riding big stuff or hard/fast, guess it just takes a bit longer to get into a groove and I have to tell myself constantly to lay off the brakes! Having a group of riding 'buddies' egging you on helps!

i'd say that i was pretty good. i can get down most things on my DB Alpine that many riders can't or wont.

my technical riding is good. i like the challenge of getting down sections of trail that others get off and push.

i also like going uphill, but i'm not [i]fast[/i], more of a grinder. i figure if you've got a bike, ride it. besides riding is easier than pushing. same goes for technical sections.

was out last week in Freiburg, Germany. it's germany's bike mecca. i was more than holding my own on some of the more tricky, technical runs and some of the fully boys behind me were quite a way behind me by the end of some sections.

my riding progressed massively when i moved to germany. i used to ride 3-4 times a week with a group which included one nut - he was a bike coach for the DAV and really ****ing good on a bike - who would lead us off up the hill saying that "today we only ride down what we can ride up" or would spend ages with us sessioning sections and showing people the best lines. thanks Rapheal.

however, put me in a race and i don't think i'd perform well. tbh, i don't like the idea of racing.... much rather have fun than take it seriously.

edit: it's when riding fast, rooty, rocky sections that i lose it. my legs can't keep up. for that i'd need a FS.

I'm not very good in "technical" riding terms. XC speed? - nah.

I do like the fact that I twice improved dramatically over the course of a week in the alps (but those weeks probably doubled my annual mtb mileage so shouldn't be a surprise)

Deteriorate again afterwards of course, since I don't ride much. It's not the deterioration that's frustrating, just the relative lack or riding year-round. I also live in the new forest which differs from alpine France

I've plateaued at average. Over the last couple of years I've gotten better at particularly technical bits of local trails, but if I come across something similar on a new trail, it's like starting all over again. Slow, technical stuff seems to be my achilles heel. As long as everything is happening too fast for me to think too much about it, I'm good. Rolling up to something at 5mph gives my brain too long to weigh up the possibilities for carnage.

The older I get, the better I was !

Same here. Had a good few years of racing at top end of Sport/middle of Experts in MTB and floating between 2nd and 1st Cat on the road, a few podium places, things like that. So in terms of "racing" I guess I was (10 years ago) pretty good. In terms of actual riding, technical stuff etc, not so good.

Fast forward a few years and I've lost a lot of fitness and my technical riding is still average at best (and plateau'd there due to a couple of bad crashes which now mean I very rarely push my limits) but I do still enjoy it. I'm trying to get back into racing a little bit but it's quite frustrating sometimes knowing what I used to be capable of and not being able to get back to that level.

I love the contrast between these threads and the ones where everyone is averaging 24mph on their commute using a knobbly tyred hardtail... 😉

I consider myself pretty sub-average, mostly as I don't ride as much as I used to, when I was pretty average. Most group rides I go on there's folks that can ride faster then me, take more technical lines under more control and style than I can ever muster and can jump/drop stuff that I wouldn't contemplate, and there's (fewer) people slower then me, who cant ride the technical stuff and are impressed by my pathetic jump/drop ability.

The main thing is we are all having fun, which is what its all about for me 🙂

I would consider myself as pretty good. Uphill not so much as I a, just not the biggest fan so I grind away, although I can get up most things even if pretty slow! Techinically for a girl i'm excellent, DH I would say I'm pretty good, can do steep and fast just not big drops, they really aren't my thing. The quicker the better and berms now they are my most loved thing in this MTB world. I've been riding since I was 13 and as a kid I was very good for my age, Welsh junior MTB champ and Welsh Junior Cyclo-cross champ (including beating Nicole Cooke twice!). I love riding in Morzine as my skills improve dramatically shame we don't have anything similar over here to ride on a regular basis. At the end of the day I'm super happy with my skill level and just love riding my MTB.

No, I'm awful.

I cycle with all the grace and elegance of a hippopotamus climbing a drainpipe.

I'm good enough to put a smile on my face, and I ride for smiles.

I like it when I learn new things or ride better... I get an even bigger smile.

I'm reasonable, I'm not as fast as when I was 20, those 15 years of drinking have taken it out my max effort quite well! I'm able to keep plodding along though, kind of mid to high tempo and keep there for hours. I can ride down pretty much anything but not with the most grace or style, plus I'm shit scared of big jumps and drops. I'm getting better again though, learning how to ride a full sus and doing lots of miles. I fnd that a couple of says round antrail centre helps massively, let's you release the brakes and get used to how the bike feels at speed. Round here (bath) unless the ground is completely dry and you're in the zone, the hills are to freaking steep to let go and hold on!

I'm shite. My AC joint agreed and decided to divorce my shoulder yesterday in the peak. Bikes ok tho.

Since we lost all our local jumps and little downhill tracks I've got worse technically, but much fitter from riding XC.

im gettin worse with age but i can still do wheelies 🙂

Good enough that riding makes me smile and lets me get out on proper trails confidently. Because of this i'm riding more frequently which in turn is leading to improvements which leads to even bigger grins, smiles and giggles every time a new or trickier section of trail is ridden successfully. Might not ever be the quickest but the enjoyment factor is enough for me 🙂

im 37 been riding all my life (racers/bmx until i was about 17 when i got a bomber for those ITK and bought a new MTB approx every 4 years or so as the tech developed) and considered myself a good rider. unwittingly i must have got lazy with age. a young lad (novice) with a second hand 2005 patriot has joined our mob recentley and is asking why we dont do 'this jump, drop, line' etc on locals i have been riding for years.......... the little shti........ thought i was a good rider but ive never even seen these lines/jumps/drops until porkpie (nickname as thats his trail snack) has pointed them out. his enthusiasm and my new bike (2011 orange 5 with ccbd :D) have encouraged me to up my game and im starting to hit bigger stuff that i have condemend as silly in years gone by,,,,,,, after the boy showed me it could be done i tried a 7 ft drop on one of my locals the other week that i have rode past for the last 4 years thinking fkthat
given the chance you can always progress to the next level.
it just hurts more as you get older 😀

Really... I don't care, but I try to have fun.

If I stop having fun then I'll be utter crap at riding.

I usually cycle by myself cos I didn't like holding up the chaps i rode with. So that makes me crap, but I enjoy myself. I have too many bikes, mainly unrideable, but I like tinkering with them. I'm bad at that, too.

As a plump peasant in my late 50s' I'm happy that I go out at all.