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funny how the brain gets in the way of riding. last night i decided i'd pump/jump over a rooty section going downhill... about 6foot long and very much on the down slope, pumped off the first root, landed smooooooothly clearing it all, lovely feeling 🙂
if that had been a 6foot gap drop i would've chosen a different line and avoided it completely, yet its the same technique, distance, movement and drop essentially.
despite knowing i could clear those roots over and over again, if they were cut away i'd walk round it every time 🙄
the mind is a powerful thing.
mtfu
Same goes for singletrack.
Riding along a 1 foot wide or less trail is no issue normally.
Put that same trail on the edge of a large drop, or suspend it in the air with boards and its a different matter altogether.
All mental games.
Riding along a 1 foot wide or less trail is no issue normally.
Put that same trail on the edge of a large drop, or suspend it in the air with boards and its a different matter altogether.
It's all about acceptable consequences of overdoing it. Riding 1 foot wide singletrack I'll give it 100% every time and expect that every now and then I'll have a wheel in the bushes. If I rode boardwalk like that I'd have put myself in a wheelchair years ago. I don't like having to hold back and for that reason high boardwalks and trails with big drops to the side really don't interest me.
😆 @ MTFU
i'm swooooning so hard right now
The consequences of coming up short on a six foot gap are considerably different to the consequences of landing of a few roots.
But I know what exactly you mean. It's all in your head.
i'm not moaning that my brains stopping me from doing a gap drop, as above the consequences are a big factor that would stop me anyway at the moment. it was more a comment on the technique being identical yet a completely different mind game 🙂
i was joking mate, I'm ok with drops and jumps, but give me something a foot wide, 2 foot off the ground and i wouldn't be able to ride it. Honestly though, the only way to lose the fear of gaps is to actually do some!
[i]despite knowing i could clear those roots over and over again, if they were cut away i'd walk round it every time[/i]
Then think of this:
" Fear, profits Man, nothing ".
HTH
😉
i was joking mate,
:d no worries, my reaction sounded more serious when typed than it did in my head!
my little project over the summer is to nail tabletops, did the tabletop with jedi a few times but yet to put proper effort into learning them again on my new bike on the local trails... hoping to grab a few long days messing around in swinley at the deerstalker etc to get them down 🙂
Out in spain the day I broke my arm the guide forgot to tell me about a ~6ft gap jump mid way down the track, it's not even really a gap, there's a takeoff, and a landing, and the bit inbetween is filled with big rocks, so more like a jump over a rock garden. If I'd known it was there there is no way I'd have ridden it! But after doing it once it was easy, I didn't even know it was there the first time, I just pumped off the lip and trusted the guide that he speed was about right, wasn't untill I clocked the landing that I realised there was a pretty bad penalty for coming up short!
my little project over the summer is to nail tabletops, did the tabletop with jedi a few times but yet to put proper effort into learning them again on my new bike on the local trails... hoping to grab a few long days messing around in swinley at the deerstalker etc to get them down
I'm determined to do the left hand line through jump gulley this summer, i.e. the drop, the big tabletop then the gap/hip
i'd ridden this bit a couple of times before, first time on the HT so pumped off the first root and rattled over the last 12-18" or so i'd guess.... knowing that even if i dont clear it it'll just be rattly meant i was fine throwing myself at it on the bouncybike 🙂
the more you pump off things, even little things you'd normally ride over/through the more confidence i find it gives me... learning the bikes timing (very different point to pump at compared to the HT!) and generally increasing how comfortable i feel bouncing off things. its fun to play 🙂
EDIT - too many spectators in the jump gulley for me personally... wish i could build my own little training area!
Mostly Balanced +1, spot on mate.
APF
EDIT - [s]too[/s] many spectators in the jump gulley for me personally... [s]wish i could build my own little training area![/s][b] more people to phone the ambulance when I crash[/b]
😆 its the self-imposed pressure by being in the presence of 12 year olds on BSO's who could nail the gully with their eyes shut that puts me off!
better to stand around at the side on an expensive bike looking like i could do it but am too cool to do so 8)
I play animal bingo in my head when riding.....
i think i scare off the animals with my shouting
"can you lot slow down!?"
"OH MY GOD I'M GOING TO DIE!"
"JO YOU ******* WHY DID YOU CHOSE THIS ROUTE!"
Nah, I like the kids at the gully. It's gives me sufficient shame to overcome my fears and really go for the jumps. If I was on my own I'd have no incentive to show off.
One of the kiddies even said I was "smooth" once. I don't [i]think[/i] he was taking the piss.
One of the kiddies even said I was "smooth" once. I don't think he was taking the piss.
He probably thought you were deliberately minimising the ammount of air to keep it smooth, not just being middle aged and past 'sending it'.
Yeah, squashing the jumps. You know - for [i]speed[/i]
That's my excuse too 🙂
i squash tabletops in that case 
I've been reading this with interest. Mental capacity and the ability to control your fears is an interesting topic for me.
The way I see this is:
When you are on single track on a thin ribbon of dirt no wider than say 8" and you are tracking well, focused on the ride, the way the tyres touch the ground and taking in the environment, then whether that particular piece of singletrack is exposed by a ravine to either right or left is of little consequence. You simply follow that narrow ribbon of dirt.
Having said that I never use the NorthShore ladders and ramps purely for that fact that ones I ride near are set in forests and invariably covered in green slime from the trees, there making them ultra slippy.
But I've never shied away from ledges, provided I've the focus I'll ride on almost anything.
Nice topic.
i'm not fantastic with heights so 'peripheral fear' as jedi put it plays a big part in riding for me...
riding down a narrow bit of single track on relatively steep hill surrounded by trees..... no problems.
riding down a narrow bit of single track on relatively steep hill with no trees/drop to the side or clear vision or surroundings illustrating the steepness..... loadsa fear.
i can ride along a road keeping my wheels on top of the white painted lines for ages without touching the grey tarmac either side, but the thought of riding 2ft wide woodwork makes my brain scramble.
consequences that i have time to build up in my head, and peripheral fear are my enemies. luckily i love riding so i dont feel i'm missing out by not riding such scaryness... i'm happy just being in the woods with friends 🙂
I get similar fears about narrow woodwork, but nothing too bad - I'm still reasonably comfortable riding it. Well, maybe not "comfortable" but I ride it anyway.
But riding singletrack with a drop to the side? I don't even see the drop for some reason, and ride as if it's not there (which it isn't, as far as my brain is concerned). I remember getting to the end of the qualifier of the Mega one year to hear my mates saying "Cor blimey! I right scared meself on that corner! You remember, that bit with the sheer drop to the side?" to which I reply "Er... no?"
Gaps are all a massive mind game, i find for me its very much a case of saying **** it and going for it! Turns out it doesn't matter if you come up a little short on the one i was worried about, even on a ht you can get away with it 🙂 now I've just got to get comfortable with the proper dirt jumps at woburn !