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Seems a simple question but actually its not - not in my view anyway.
I had an excellent ride the other day in a dry Stanmer Park (Brighton) - feeling like a riding god, next week after a local downpour, same area, rode like a p****y.
Which got me to thinking about how you know if your a good rider or not.
Thoughts, observations welcome.
DC
It's fun.
If I don't fall off I feel like I'm doing ok.
Generally I mince along at the back on group rides though.
I can climb reasonably.
If I'm giggling to myself then I'm riding good 🙂
Doesn't matter as long as you enjoy yourself.
Strava!
Just kidding. It's measured by the amount of XTR/BOS/Thomson kit you can talk about in the car park.
If the day feels great your doing it right
For me it's when my riding is smooth and controlled. No "shit that was lucky" moments.
Also when I know that I rode as fast as I could - this seldom happens, usually, I get to the end of a trail and think "I could have gone much faster, less braking next time and relax more"
It's measured by the amount of XTR/BOS/Thomson kit you can talk about in the car park.
Damn it. I don't have any of that stuff. Confirmation if I ever need it that I am indeed shit.
The injuries get progressively less serious as you get better?
enter a race: if you do quite well, you're probably quite good.
if you do ok, you're ok.
if you're rubbish, you're rubbish.
if you're dfl, you're me.
I'm with awhiles - easy to get deluded about your ability if you always ride the same trails with the same mates. A bit of competition sorts the wheat from the chaff!
I did a dirtschool course and Andy said "You're obviously a competent rider". Not just competent, but[i] obviously[/i] competent, that's like getting one of the really big swimming badges. 1000 metres, at least, and that's millions of lengths.
Competitions don't make you a good rider!
When it just happens and you don't have to think about it.
Rode big dog and did ok - middle of the pack somewhere.
Rode my local loop just after a flash storm and minced around far too much for my liking.
Off to do some training end of this month so no doubt the instructor will give us an honest assessment.
Not too honest i hope.
DC
When you aren't holding me up 😉
All you can really do is compare yourself to the people you ride with. So ride with lots of different people and see how you stack up. If you're rubbish, the best thing to do is buy a niche bike and blame that 😉
If i'm riding well i tend to stay on the bike and have confidence to hit anything on the trail whether that be wild riding or trail centre black stuff (ie laggan etc) without stopping/crashing or checking it out first.
I'f i'm riding crap i tend to find myself lying on the ground feeling a bit dazed n' confused whilst wondering what is up with my double vision and why my arm is at a strange angle.
dunno, how do you know if your living life well?
No "shit that was lucky" moments.
I have two or three a ride at least...ooops 😳
I know I'm rubbish, so I don't care.
It depends on the sort of race.sonofapitch - Member
Competitions don't make you a good rider!
I knew my aformentioned ride was not going well when i was runnning down the trail with my bike coming behind me - never a good sign but easier than you would thing.
Still faster than timP though!
DC
my thoughts are the opposite to dans. the better you get the more you hurt yourself as the pace, drops, jumps, risks are all higher... says the 25 year old with 2 broken collar bones and a shoulder that sublaxed nearly 200x this summer. Living in Morzine is ace but doing physio in Morzine is less ace
alexxx i hear you - funny thing is i have hurt myself most when doing something silly at slow speed.
DC
Only uphill 8)
Strava!
Just kidding. It's measured by the amount of XTR/BOS/Thomson kit you can talk about in the car park.
Are you my boss? Lol.
If by "well" you mean "fast" then definitely Strava. Humbling to see how much faster some local riders are on sections that I considered myself reasonable at. In some ways I think Strava is better for this than proper racing because most of the segments are so short that skill/technique far outweighs fitness.
Of course having fun and staying safe are the most important things (to me anyway!) but everyone (secretly) wants to be the fastest don't they? 😆
Last week was great, but last night I hit just about every tree in Stanmer, cut my finger, shoulder and grazed my forearm. It was actually a bit embarrassing and I did feel sorry for the trees as have been there some time and didn't just appear.
Maybe next week will be a bit better...
DC all of mine were doing stupid little things. like as stupid as doing 30 off foot doubles and big road gaps then ruining myself on a 4ft hip jump. nevermind - live and learn! kinda... did i mention it was my 2nd collarbone? haha 😀
You feel a flow in your riding. Like you can feel that you're going faster than you can handle but you're [i]just[/i] holding on.
If by "well" you mean "fast" then definitely Strava.
Tis' a shame strava wasn't about when i was riding 4/5yrs ago as i would've found out whether i actually was a fast rider or was just deluding myself into thinking i was fast around trail centres such as Kirroughtree/Dalbeattie/Mabie etc...etc.. - all my old Garmin gps logs were on an old windows laptop i used specifically for this purpose as the garmin/mapping software didn't work on Mac's which i use(d). I can only remember my complete lap times as i never bothered about "sessioning sections" like folk do on strava.
Possibly better not knowing whether i was or not as i doubt i'll get that fit again due to other commitments in my life now and i'd just be peeved with myself for not being able to train as much.
it doesn't matter, so long as you had fun and enjoyed yourself.
Yeah.... you're quite right kevevs and there's no such thing in my opinion as a bike ride that is not "fun/enjoyable" but i admit i did try to always better my times using the garmin virtual rider setting unless i was specifically on a recovery ride after a weekend race.
You can import your old GPS data into Strava - been interesting to look back at my progress thanks to this..,
Tony Hawk, who is arguably the best skateboarder who ever lived (worms, can, open) once said that the best skateboarder in the world is the one who's enjoying himself the most.
Hmm, only prob wi this solution "guru" is the fact that after i lost my garmin in a crash i dumped my old laptop as it started to play up, i've used macs in one form or another since 1996 and i only bought the cheap dell laptop to use for my garmin data connection and nothing else so there was no point in fixing it.......sigh........sometimes i do the dumbest bloody things as all my gps data was on there.
Interesting thoughts - seems to be two threads emerging - strava / are you having fun.
Both pretty valid really!
DC
As long as you are not one of these...
Stanmer in the wet is veeeerrrrry different to fair weather Stanmer. Roots anyone? It's not as if you've got the room to slide about either in many cases. Everyone has to tune back into sloppy terrain for the seasons, maybe 'good' riders take less acclimatisation?
Riding your bike well (good control in varied conditions) leads to faster riding, the reverse not so much as you can only blag through awkward stuff so many times.
Ride with others, you get a feel of your individual riding strengths and weaknesses and can compliment one another developmentally. Or get really competitive, either works.
In order to ride better I'm focusing on finally being able to hold a manual. I don't think I'll necessarily get faster but will have a greater range of control of the bike. More control=more versatility=more fun!
I'll have a ride where it feels like I'm riding well, which usually equates to fast for the conditions, and Strava's a nice tool to see if my actual speed was similar to my perceived speed. Then there's also managing certain technical features better (or at all) and managing to do new things with old obstacles through improved skill etc. And as I'm rarely riding alone there's also the benchmarks of other riders.
I know I'm riding well when I'm hitting features at the DH track I've never hit before, style it up in the air and get the drift on. The 2nd two are applicable for XC rides too.
i have a weird perception of time.. maybe everyone gets this? often when riding well time seems to slow down, or i feel i'm riding really slowly. but strava might say otherwise (or not).
on bad days though everything seems to come at me really quick, like today, when i got hit by all sorts of branches and brambles, that i never even saw coming 😐
I passed my cycling proficiency test roughly 30 years (with no helmet, life without h&s was great!)which means I rode well........and i've definitely got better with age when it comes to riding a bike