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[Closed] Gravel bike has ruined mountain biking

roverpig · 2020-08-19T14:52:00Z

OK, I was never really a "proper" mountain biker. My response to adrenaline is much more flight than fight so descents are only fun if they are in my comfort zone. But I really enjoyed my FlareMax. Its capability on the descents made that comfort window wider than any other bike I've ridden, which increased my fun and it was a fine place to sit and spin out the miles enjoying the view, which is what I like most. Then, last autumn I got fed up with driving somewhere to ride around getting me and the bike covered in crap and then shivering in the car on the way home. So I bought a gravel bike and started exploring routes from my front door. This was just going to be a winter thing, but then lockdown hit so it went on through spring. But I always expected to jump back on the MTB as soon as it was permitted. The problem is that now I can I find that I'm just not enjoying the MTB like I used to. Yes it can still be fun on descents but riding down stuff that I know I'm going to crash on sooner or later just seems even more stupid than it did before I had a few months away. The main problem though is that it just feels so sluggish compared to the light stiff gravel bike. I've always enjoyed the climbs at least as much as the descents but it seems to be sucking the fun out of them. I'm not sure it's really got that much to do with the bike. Any full suss MTB with decent trail tyres is probably going to feel sluggish compared with a carbon gravel bike on 38mm slick tyres and anything less capable would just reduce the number of trails that I could enjoy riding down. Actually I'm not sure there is an answer, I just felt like a moan. To make up for it and since there didn't seem to be a weekend riding pics thread this week, here are a couple from last weekend :) [url[url

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13thfloormonk

Posts: 11886

Full Member

Our early MTB adventures were probably more gravel than most of my recent gravel rides!

Long tarmac drag to Barcaldine Forest from Benderloch, big fireroad loop around the reservoir, 2 minutes singletrack excitement, long tarmac drag home.

It blew my mind when some guys from Oban came to Beinn Lora and built a bona fide steep rooty monster of a DH track, it was like a different sport!

Edit: although I was using canti brakes back then and am still using cantis today, so some things never change!

Posted : 22/08/2020 11:43 am

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