The premise:
I commute, do 20-30 mile road rides every tuesday/thursday and do club rides providing too much isnt on at the weekends, combined the mountain bike rides whenever i can.
The problem:
Commuting can take the life out of cycling, turning the whole thing into a drudgery.. its happened with my road bike and i'm fighting back, but i'm sure as hell not letting it happen with my mountain bike. I however, live in Norwich, and i'm really struggling to find a. anywhere new to ride (other than mousehold/one or two country paths) b. to get out at all.
any tips for riding more, trying those jumps you promise yourself you'll do next time, or just a secret ride in norwich? I hear rumours of an urban loop.. 😈 ? ta muchly!
my tip for getting out riding is to have a predefined loops from the door, road or off road that you can do for any given amount of time.
so for instance, you get in from work and have 1hr to kill whilst the missus watches a load of shite on tv, go do your one hour loop.
of course just getting out and riding is great but can go wrong if you have limited time
This ones easy.
Open front door, get on bike, ride bike, stop over thinking & analising everything!
on Monday get on the bus or use your car.
Esay.
You know how you like it when you are out?
Its never as bad as you might think.
It might be cold but once you get moving, its nice (ish).
I can't think of a ride that I was reluctant to go on that I regretted doing.
Drive to work more often. Plan one weekend away biking every month.
Don't let it become something you just [i]do[/i]- you've got to enjoy it, if you're not why bother? When I was falling out of love with motorbiking, I tried to force it- more rides, more trackdays etc- and it just beat out whatever remained of the fire. If I'd just taken a break and waited til the day I thought "I want to ride the bike" I'd probably not have gone off it so completely.
If the problem's that you do enjoy it, but it's just hard to get going, then riding with mates helps- it's easy to sack it off when you're going solo, less easy if you're letting others down. Taking away the excuses/barriers helps too- get the bike 100% ready, pack a bag the night before etc.
Hi maurizio, I'm local to you (just north of norwich) and usually ride at bacton woods but haven't been out much lately but aim too change this.
Have you heard of the iceni velo club, I've just joined the forum. They have plenty of rides both road and mtb of which I'm aiming to get involved with, especially the Wednesday night urban jungle ride.
Hope to see another stwer out in the trail.
Nice, thanks all! I'd got so used to the same old loops I forgot what it was like to take a map an just go explore, right, get back tomorrow then lets see what I can find!
Flip456 - yes, bactons great! Although im south east so normally I have to have the day to cycle there and back or the cash for a train.. But thats excuses I suppose- i'll try some night riding there anx let you know how it goes 🙂 also, yes, they're good, several of the guys cycle with them, but i've been offered (just now) a chance to join strada, so i'll see how it goes!
Thanks for the advice, now off stw and on the bike!