i have a garage full of bikes which i love. i've spent the winter getting them all ship shape, they gleam nicely in the cool light of the flourescent strips and the chains are all shiny and neatly oiled. the brakes all work and the gears are in top tune.
but
i seem to be taking much more pleasure in fiddling with them than riding them, i just can't get my arse into gear and ride the bloody things. case in point, on sunday i got home from work early, it was a glorious day so what did i do, i stripped and spring cleaned my road bike then hung it back up.
I've got three weeks off at easter and really need to get out and ride, one week is taken up with a week long cycle tour in northern Scotland but where should i go for the rest of the time to restore my mojo? Cannock is local, peaks is a must. where else should i day trip to, not majorly keen on trail centres on my own so fun and natural is the order of the day.
I enjoy tinkering as much as riding, it's all part of it isn't it? Admittedly I do struggle to get out as much as my brain says I should. But when I do it's mostly great.
Did a fantastic weekend up in the Yorkshire Dales and Lakes recently. Up and down Swaledale, a big loop around Skiddaw and Borrowdale all offer some superb rides (and they are just the ones I have done) if you can get there in a day.
the NW Alps!, if only it was going to stay as dusty and loose as it was on sunday, dust tans all round!
i'm not familiar with the NW alps RD, perhaps a guided evening ride?
Change up your riding?
I love riding round the city, when im bored of that i will go out into the country. If im bored with that, trailcentre.
For me its not so much the location as the riding. Try changing the riding.
Tinkering is good though
you shouldn't have to force yourself. its your leisure time, if it don't make you smile go do something else 🙂
If cannock is local enough to ride to then get yourself out with the promise that if you still can't be arsed after 10 minutes then you can go home and do something else that you would rather do. I doubt you'll be turning round. After the ride you'll then have the fuzzy glow from the endorphins or whatever the hell it is and be looking forward to the next time 🙂
lardy - i certainly do that, road/touring/cx/xc/AM/DH/FR. If it's got label then i pretty much do it!
Tony - i know i'm going to smile when i actually do it. perhaps a trip to the field of dreams is in order
Have you gone off cycling ?
one week is taken up with a week long cycle tour in northern Scotland
Not quite. 😉
Set yourself some targets ( bike events,riding in new areas,riding linked in with holidays) .
I find that if I have nothing planned there is more chance of slipping into can't be arsed mode 🙄
Of course you could just keep buying more bikes to tinker with ,then end up like some of these motorbike codgers that trailer things round shows (and almost never ride them). 🙂
yeah the tour is a bit of an anomaly but then it took lots of planning which is half the fun! Also have a week in the alps booked in the summer which is a good target
i sometimes feel like i like bikes and when i ride i love it but yet i don't seem to be able to motivate myself to get into cyling gear and get a bike out and get on it.
the cycling is easy it is the process of leaving the sofa and getting onto the bike which seems hard to me.
i think i am lazy!!
I have to try very hard not to go out sometimes as I tend to ride too much and over train.Personally I think it is far more fun riding in groups so tend to ride with my club(and other clubs) on the road and other groups off road as well. Also tend to have plenty of events/races lined up which are always a great focus. Do you enjoy competing or is it more the social side, are you in a club?
i'm not in a club. used to enjoy 24 hour events but since they got monstrously overpopulated we've stopped doing them. (also it always bloody rains!)
part of the trouble is that most of the people i used to ride with have moved/had kids/got divorced/turned into morons, we have no friends that ride locally and as my working hours are all over the place i would struggle to integrate with a regular roady club.
a lot of it does come down to the fact that at heart i'm a lazy lazy man 🙂
God your glass appears to be half empty, imagine if you couldn't ride due to ill health or injury, now stop whinging and just ride.
Get stuff on calendar to get fit for, bang some loud music on to get in the "up for it mood" then.....I've lost motivation just typing it... I'm as bad as you mate 😆
I didn't go out riding once last year but am pretty well back into it now, no harm in having some time out from it.
MTFU mate - as above thank god your not injured and unable to ride!
ride somewhere different - sometimes riding alone on your local trails can get very uninspiring!
just because you join a club doesn't mean you have to ride with them regularly - just join them when it suits!
where do you live?
near rugby
middle of everywhere, close to nowhere. only option this time of year locally is road riding. can only really ride offroad locally when it's frozen solid
thats it...you're southerner 🙄
you need to move up North mate - problem sorted 😉
rewski + 1
I do this: Sit down and for a few minutes, I try to imagine how I will feel when I develop a serious illness that stops my riding forever.
Live now.
sefton - we nearly moved to Stirling (Scotlandshire) last year but it didn't come off. I'm not from down here though, sheffield is home so don't go calling me no southern softy
my glass is always half empty, it's just the way i am. mind you isn't assuming that you ARE going to get a serious illness fairly pessimistic 😉
I try to do a bit of Fell running - when things get Horrible on the accents I always think of the old people who cant even walk properly anymore!
hey I never said anything about being soft! 😉 haha.
i went walking with my old man a few weeks ago and i WAS walking like an old person that couldn't walk properly by the end of the three days! I've actually been avoiding anything strenuous for a while as a result of damaging my knees on aforementioned trip.
Personally I'm often considering dropping the cycling bit and just taking up internet forum time wasting full-time.
I mean, life is too short not to just do what thou wilt........
P.S. I carry injuries and get on with it by managing or ignoring them. Full health is something you enjoy for a part of your life only. I plan on cycling until I die or am legless. Then I'll use a handcart........
I respect your honesty, I guess we're all like that sometimes. I've been off the bike for best parts of 6 months due to injury, god have I missed riding, it's made me appreciate good health and having the freedom that riding can bring. You don't know what you have until it's gone, I was just trying to point that out.my glass is always half empty
And I'm a southern softy and proud of it.
"mind you isn't assuming that you ARE going to get a serious illness fairly pessimistic"
Perhaps! I'm hoping to keep riding bikes into my 60s - if I make it to my 60s I will have outlived both my parents. So I'm not optimistic about living to old age. Without wishing to depress you further - sh1t can strike at any time out of the blue.
BTW. If you really get pleasure fiddling with bikes in your spare time, have you considered starting a sideline in affordable cycle repairs?
waderider - injury is not a soft excuse, i was told to stop by my doctor. As someone who has been managing frequent crippling back pain for over 15 years i'm well aware of when to ignore and when to listen to my pain.
Sounds like you need to:-
1. Get into the bike fettling more seriously - book yourself onto a Cytech or other bike maint course and *really* get into it.
2. Without changing out of your jeans and trainers, and not wearing a helmet, get on any of the bikes and just amble off, really slowly and absorbing the sights around you. Gto to the pub and sit in the beer garden. then amble home.
I find fettling far more appealing than riding at the moment too. So much so I've mostly built a bike I probably won't even ride, having spent hundreds on bits. Riding is fun, but not as fun as cleaning, fitting and polishing little bits.
coffeking that is tragic mate.
but i have to respect your ability to admit it and not give a toss what anyone thinks. 😆
I agree with you absolutely. Especially point #2. I am myself coming off a year of injury and found it very difficult to get back on the bike. What changed things for me was when I first climbed on without changing my clothes or doing any other sort of faffing, and just jumping on for a ride. Maybe it's because it reminded me of whan I was a kid, but it was just so refreshing to rediscover the simple pleasure.
Now I commute everyday on my bike, and although I have to wear a suit, just throw on my helmet and go... no further gear; no further fuss. And so everyday now, even if I look goofy in a suit on a bike, I love what I'm doing.
ok, just got the wife to put my lights on charge and tonight i'm going to actually RIDE my road bike, whatever the weather. I probably won't ride to a pub though, i'll have a beer whilst cleaning the bike when i get home.
I will add that although not off the bike through injury long term, my work dictates that for long periods of time i am not home enough to ride and when i am i'm generally too knackered to consider it, especially in the winter
but i have to respect your ability to admit it and not give a toss what anyone thinks.
Sad thing is I am overweight now and actually NEED to ride lol. I'm sure my mojo will come back some day soon. Until then, coffee, biscuits and spanners.
Nowt wrong with tinkering - I've built my last three bikes from scratch - massivley rewarding thing to do.
My advice would be to register for an event, enduro or sportive, you need a target to aim for. This'll make you get out and ride.
I understand the attraction, but I'm the opposite, I find any kind of bike maintenance tedious and beyond my abilities, I don't have or want all the tools. Happy to spend the money at my LBS and just enjoy the riding, when I'm not injured.
I hope it works out for you.
rewski - I am lazy when it comes to maintenance (largely because my limited "bike2 time needs to be riding time), but I do wonder if those who are into maintenance over riding are hamstrung by having perfect bikes - the bike is so good and built just right that any ride on it is bound to be disappointing. Ergo, cycling becomes disappointing.
MMW - changed my mind. Pack in any sort of maintenance and just ride around. 😀
but I do wonder if those who are into maintenance over riding are hamstrung by having perfect bikes - the bike is so good and built just right that any ride on it is bound to be disappointing. Ergo, cycling becomes disappointing.
While I used to work as a bike mech at a shop, and I'm an eng so I love things to work correctly, I'm not too worried by having a perfect bike. I'm riding,amongst others, a 2003 NRS with play in the bushes and '99 forks with play in the bushes. IT's just built into my brain - I'd rather design/build/create something that works perfectly than ride something averagely.
My favourite bikes at the moment are my road bike (never needs fettling, looks and works fine every time) and my singlespeed which is almost the same. But I'd still prefer to fix my NRS than go for a ride, it's called laziness I think.
Frequent Singletrack posters don't cycle as much shocker 😯
What you need is some rediculously difficult peaks trails (the kind of sneaky ones not many folk know about) to get you spitting and swearing again.
You are prob just bored of what you ride. Let us know if you fancy hurting yourself in the peaks or saddleworth (North of the peaks) at some point
Anytime MMW, bit of a trek from rugby though
thanks RD
bland - i come from the peaks so know most of it, my views on cheeky trails are also well explained in the past on this forum 😀
No no no you are all wrong.
OP, the answer is blindingly obviously
You need a new bike
I felt like you too and couldn't even be arsed to fettled the machinery.... went out today on the road for the first time this year - middle gears jumping and needing tweeking all the way but BRILLIANT views of Snowdonia and buzzards, a heron (up a hill?!) and curlews.... Coffee, treacle and ginger cake and a chat at Conwy Falls (always up to the mark) and then a spin home - 70km and 900m climbing with knackered gears but it didn't matter 'cos the riding was great - I just stopped fiddling and went out on a nice breezy day.
Puts the wind back in your sails - might do it for you too?
Will sort teh gears too now 'cos I like a fettle.
I'm the opposite. Can never face maintenance: went out at the weekend for first off-road ride of the year on a bike with no rear brake, leaking forks and creaky BB.
But I know what you mean: if I'm struggling for motivation I get a map, find somewhere I haven't been before and just go for a pootle, road or trail. The sensation of swishing along effortlessly soon gets me back into it. Nine times out of ten I don't find anything special but at least another corner of my mental map is filled in and it's great just seeing somewhere new, even if I never go back.