1. First ride out after replacing heavily-worn tires. 😀
2. First ride after new suspension bearings.
3. first ride in short sleeves in the spring
1st ride on a FS after riding HT for a few months.
4. hired a tandem with my girlfriend. Fun fun fun!
5. 1st climb on a h/tail after riding a full susser for a while.
6. Plucking up the courage to ride down/off/up something scary.
finally getting a bike with the correct size wheels for you 😛
Stopping to look at the view.
9. just loving the solitude of the countryside
10. Doing your favourite descent in the dry after its dried out after loads of rain/ cr@ppy weather.
seeing shy wildlife [i]in situ[/i]
Going singlespeed and wondering why you ever thought you needed more gears.
La Marmotte, oh you meant off-roading?
Singlespeeds. Pure and simple.
Being alone on a remote hilltop with nobody else around for miles. Wonderful!
deciding to go for a night ride at 23:30 when you get back from the pub having drunk five pints of cider 😆
Bluebells
n. first descent on a full suss after riding hardtail for ages.
bunny hopping your 1st doggers :lol
putting your summer tyres back on and putting the knee warmers away for a few months
Not quite feeling up to it then an hour later up on the tops with the wind in your hair (sic, not mine) all is well.
Watching your breath condensing on a clear but chilly late spring/early summer morning, and knowing that later on it might get quite warm.
that first, slightly nippy frosty morning ride of autumn. love it 🙂
sitting outside a pub with a beer at the end of a long hot ride
Realising that you're completely unhurt after what could have been a 'big one'.
First ride out on the tandem in over a month after a dissagreement with the stoker. 😯
The feeling of excitement just as you set off on a big ride 😀
1st ride out on the full sus after using the hardtail for a while 😉
(and millions of other things!)
The first sweeping singletrack section after a few weeks off the bike
The smell of pinewoods after rain.
Sitting around in your dirty kit for hours afterwards, drinking beer/tea, listening to choice music and reading old copies of [[i]*insert favourite magazine here[/i]].
getting to the top
almost having a massive stack, but somehow, superhuman instinct takes over and you wrest it back under control. then have to stop and wonder how. 🙂
It keeps me sane in a mad world.
Flying wide-eyed into a dusty corner, much too fast, and feeling the tyres (and your stomach) let go. But somehow they grip again and you fly straight out with expletives and a MASSIVE giggling grin.
realising it's infinitely more fun riding a bike than reading about riding a bike
The nicely tired/dead leg feeling after a really long ride.
Chasing a big red sunset home.
The tired legs, marginal dehydration and satisfied feeling from a decent ride in the hills...
The odd ocasion where the "**** it" feeling kicks in, and you ride something that's been scaring you for ages.
First ride on a new bike.
last descent, summer's evening, trail to yourself, sun setting through the trees and it just... flows...
i love this thread. i love riding bikes.
Getting to the bottom of a new trail or descent with a few choice mates and bursting into wide laughter at the adrenaline and wholesome sense if being alive and utterly in the moment.
The ensuing laughter when you fall off in some stupid way in front of all your mates and lie there unscathed but looking like a tit!
The scars on the inside of your elbows on a Monday morning
The climb you unexpectedly cleaned - "wow, I did that!"
Riding through the sunrise into work and then feeling your boss/work colleagues niggling comments just bouncing straight off you.
The camaraderie of biking with good mates. Hurting yourself on stiff climbs... scaring yourself on the downs, listening to your mind emptying stress all over a solitary moorland after a hectic day, night riding in total pitch darkness feeling like you are the last person on earth.... the list goes on
This thread needs pictures.
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That's a cake, by the way.
Competing to see who can get the most muddy.
I don't have the words, or at least can't be bothered to find them but it goes something like this.
[img] 
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Riding in the pissing rain , in your waterproofs, fleece and base layer but not hot or cold, with your ead down grinding up a hill , good for the soul
or nailing the techy bits on a flowing downhill in the summer thinking your steve peat
The sense of achievement and pride when you clear back a section of trail of weeds and foliage, and the enjoyment you get from being the first to ride it.
Getting up on top of the moors on an icy cold frosty day.
Barely holding it together when skidding on icy patches.
Getting up unhurt after a trip over the handlebars.
Getting intentional and stylish (relatively) air.
Sitting out with mates on the hill(mountain)side having a picnic.
the first ride after a spell of physio (i'd imagine - i hope so!) 🙂
The stinging nipping feeling in your legs after a hot days ride with lots of bramble / nettle leg interaction.
I know I'm always banging on about my vids, but someone on here once described [url=
video[/url] as summing up perfectly the joys of mountain biking!
hope you like it
stealing that one in a million sunny evening along with all the wildlife that's come out to play too (6 baby grouse and weasel with a mouse in its mouth last night...albeit on a road ride *shhh*)
knowing that all the mechanicals in the world are not as frustrating as a computer on a go-slow 😕
Following a ride yesterday evening, and as a postscript to this thread - funny how knotty, intricate problems are sometimes best worked out in yer head by riding knotty, intricate singletrack... 😀
A ride where your bike only has a thin layer of dust covering it when you reach the pub.
Yes, I know - some things are harder to achieve than others
The smug knowledge that the people who think you're wierd for riding bikes in the woods will never know what they're missing 🙂
Spotting a barely visible trail off one of your normal rides and taking it to find it leads to a superb technical descent.
Riding your bike down a mountain, stopping to have a beer in the tiny village in the bottom and having to show the bar man pictures because he doesn't believe it's possible! In fact that's a general feeling of having ridden a fantastic trail which you know nobody has ever taken a bike down before.
going out on my bike and suddenly a pine marten comes out of a hedge,stops in the middle of the trail,looks at me,then runs off into the undergrowth.by the way i live in wiltshire!!!no i wasn't imagining it,and it wasn't a mink(have looked at a load of pine marten pictures on the web,it was definitely a pine marten!!!)awesome moment 😀
The momentary silence when your wheels leave the ground
Lining your tyre logos up with the valves
Burning off your mates on a climb, and the jedi moments when you're blasting along trails and everything just happens without thought. Both are rare though.
Racing a kingfisher along a woodland river.
1) Getting back, knackered, to the car park and wishing you hadn't parked right at the bloody top. Then you know you've been for a good long ride.
2) Looking down at muddy legs after a night ride and thinking "this is a job for the magic sheets"
3) The pride from managing your first proper fart riding a fixie. Honest, you wouldn't believe how hard it is!
4) When the sun comes out towards the end of a winter's Sunday ride after its been cold and grey and rainy - you've had a great time, feel like a hero and you know that tomorrow at work they'll all be saying "wasn't it horrible - nobody would go out in that, we stayed in and got bored"
5) Coming back down Sherbrook Valley on a night ride and catching up/overtaking a group of bats who have no idea you're there, and nearly headbutting them up the arse.
Going out for a ride round town and knowing that you have enough bike to ride down the subway steps, jump off walls and rail the sneaky singletrack footpath linking housing estates 8)
Macinblack - Member
Racing a kingfisher along a woodland river.
*nods*
Racing a deer through the woods 8ft apart at 15-20mph
An owl guiding alongside me along a singletrack going gradual downhill for 100m plus.
A short ride on 'my hill' after work before tea - just the Singlespeed, the dogs and me.
Just cruising on my SS for a couple of hours.
Going outrageously fast, (for me that is) on one of my race bikes after a week or two of SS cruising.
Cleaning the big rock climb, only manage this one in 5-6 goes so a big deal1.
Finding new trails in places that you've been riding for years.
Being accompanied along a wooded trail by (what I think was) a kite.
Stopping for a piss while admiring the view at the top of an amazing descent
Swoopy undulating descents that make you hoot with joy.
Racing buzzards as you both choose the same forest clearing...
Just being somewhere wonderful that you got to on two wheels.
Remembering where you've been while:
a) bunging your kit in the washing machine
b) sweeping the floor where you removed / dislodged said kit
following a big wobbly arsed badger that won't get out of the way on a full moon ride.
not following a big wobbly arsed dogger that won't get out of the way on a full moon ride