I've sold all my bikes except a fully rigid 29er. While it's great in most circumstances, I can feel another full-sus bike in my future.
Ah, the old buying another bike to make things simpler excuse me.
One bike = complicated
two or more bikes = simpler.
@thisisnotaspoon I have a Chumba hx1 ,brilliant bike, looking at getting a singlespeed too, something to chuck around and not worry about cleaning, faffing with etc...
I just like riding, any bike, any place, any time. everything else is just distraction 😀
Fatbike. It's the way forward.
It's sod all to do with the bike, simpler, bigger, smaller, more tech... It makes no difference, as long as you're out on the trails and having fun. I didn't have any issue riding with a couple of mates on their titanium ultra light weights while I was going round in a full sus, they didn't either. We rode the same terrain, had the same grins and all had a pint after. Why worry?
You like riding your CX bike, that's great but don't imagine you've had some kind of spiritual awakening and rediscovered a pure essential true way of mountain biking that's more virtuous than any other.
I've never considered myself to be 'keeping up with the latest tech' either btw.
Ride. A . Flipping. Bike.
It's all good.
@thisisnotaspoon I have a Chumba hx1 ,brilliant bike, looking at getting a singlespeed too, something to chuck around and not worry about cleaning, faffing with etc...
Another HX1 then? I bought it on the strength of having the geometry I was after, an EBB for the winter and local trails, and headtube cable guides (why doesn't everyone build bikes with these, they stop cable rub almost completely!).
Simple. I've never tried to keep up with anything in the first place. I always choose to follow along behind picking bikes up in the sales, building things up myself and just sticking with middle of the road stuff that actually works.
I think the following are good ideas:
-gears. Ideally I'd have 10, but 3 x 9 works quite well
-suspension. It allows thinner tyres to be used at higher pressure. I rode a hard tail for 10 years but my body told me that I should ease up a bit
-Aluminium. Good compromise between stiffness and weight. Steel isn't bad either.
😆 @ the naivety of a CX rider thinking there's anything resembling either v. Steep or technical at the trail centre or WC XC course
I understand what you mean. I had got so sick of all the crap that goes with riding. I pretty much gave up for a few years. Last year, I went single speed , steel ht. it was ok.
This spring , the bug came back. Now I ride a ragley blue pig x. A very nice long travel trailie hard tail .
Blasting around afan argoed this weekend was fun.
It's good to change things up a bit.
Fat Bi 'king ? Your heading down the dunes by the bents too often these days
Fancy a bum tomorrow night? I'm free from 6
It's like watching rats trapped in a maze with no exit.
i don't understand this idea. riding different bikes is fun, but modern bikes are more fun (in general) than old ones. what you want, if you can afford, is lots of different fancy modern bikes :p more knobs and twiddly bits the better as long as you don't have to twiddle with them all mid-ride.
if i wanted simple i'd hold a front wheel in my hands, stick a back wheel up my arse and throw myself down a hill.
I could be up for a bum, depends on how much cycling I do at work. Was ****ed after today!
And I'll be bringing the Pug.
Not me I've just spent £750 on some forks . 😉
That's why you av to av lots of bikes,I love my x bike,I love my fully rigid ss ,I love my Xc hard tail. I love my long travel hardtail,I love my 5 inch Susser and I love my 6 inch Susser and I love my 29er hardtail
I just love bikes and motorbikes and I want a lot more
@ the naivety of a CX rider thinking there's anything resembling either v. Steep or technical at the trail centre or WC XC course
hey, it doesn't take much to feel steep & techy when your riding whats practically a modified rd bike. 😉
The xc in Belgium the other week certainly looked very steep & very technical to me 😯 (bet a down hill course wasn't to dissimilar to that 15yrs ago!
simply put - I've been doing a lot of local (west pennine) routes on the cx bike recently. the other day I did it on my FS bike thinking this is going to be a blast. And it wasn't, tbh it numbed some of the trails. that got me thinking the cx bike is ace but if I could just have some wider tires, better brakes and a more upright position it would be perfect.
don't get me wrong if I'm off to the lakes for example I'd probably only ever think about taking the FS as I'd feel out of my depth on a fully ridged mtb
the naivety of a CX rider thinking there's anything resembling either v. Steep or technical at the trail centre or WC XC course
I always thought a CX rider was someone who carried a bike round a muddy field. I have seen people doing CX races on mountain bikes (26" with suspension, no less).
Also, when I was in Texas riding round the local trails on my CX bike with folk who were riding full sussers, what were they doing?
Think you need to stop characterising who's doing what according to what bike they're riding.
I ride a rigid bike with a Rohloff hub all winter and pretty much any other time it's wet and muddy. I wipe the chain occasionally and chuck on whatever oil is lying around and change the hub oil once a year. I ride it every day off road to work whatever the weather and never have to clean it. It just works and it's always just ready to go. If I had to have only one bike it would be that.
A month ago when the trails were dry I was loving my 29er hard-tail.
Now the trails are wet and sloppy I'm loving my rigid Surly with big fat tyres.
Next month I'm hoping for a couple of days in Glentress to love my full susser.
If the sun comes out in the summer I'll love riding my road bike down to the beach for a swim.
Not sure if all that proves anything, but I'm happy.
Sefton - WC xc tracks are finally starting to become more of a test of skill than in previous years but don't kid yourself that they are anything like WC DH tracks were even 15yrs ago.. that video has an embarassingly large mount of lame if those are meant to be the worlds best riders.
BruceWee - You can't go "mountainbiking" on a cyclocross bike same as you can't go "canoeing" in a raft. I'm not saying you can't go the same places, it's simply down to the correct use of the verb. 🙄
You can roll your eyes all you want but you still haven't answered the question. If I'm riding my CX on the trails then I'm not CXsing. CX bikes were made for CX racing and more recently people have started using them for general purposes.
So, what do you call trail riding on a CX?
So, what do you call trail riding on a CX?
not sure...make one up "it might stick" 😆
hat video has an embarassingly large mount of lame if those are meant to be the worlds best riders.
don't be so sure, a lot of those riders come from all kind of disciplines. I'm sure they could do one lap with finesse & style. However its a race with a ridiculously hard pace, these guys have just raced to the top before having to come down again. they are the world best racers not riders that's fact.
I believe cx bikes where out on the trails long before mtb's where put together?
not sure...make one up "it might stick"
Mountain biking a CX bike is now called 'Doing Yer Maw'
"Coming mountain biking at the weekend""Can't, I'm 'Doing Yer Maw'.
dont think it will catch on I'm afraid! 😆
er.. "trail riding" 🙄 ! feel free to add "on a CX bike" if you want to come across as a knobber 😉So, what do you call trail riding on a CX?
RE: XC racing - Funny how some of them can ride the more technical terrain fine, you'd think to be bunched together like that they'd all have a similar level of fitness eh? 😕
I've always said XC racing needs to instigate rules against running and obstruction, that video proves my point pretty well.
er.. "trail riding" ! feel free to add "on a CX bike" if you want to come across as a knobber
I prefer Doing Yer Maw, tbh
Anyway, if I ride the trails on a cruiser can I call it mountain biking?
You honestly wouldn't 😉
You can call it whatever you want, but as I already explained in the last lesson you'd be wrong if you called it "mountainbiking" on anything other than a mountainbike, do keep up!
Ps. I've ridden "yer maw" many many times..
being chairlift accessed it'd be rude not to 😉
I know [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_mountain_bike_and_mountain_biking ]wikipedia[/url] isn't the be all and end all but it and I disagree with you.
My Maw's dead.
OK, she's not. She has a cold though.
CBA reading all that, quote whatever you deem wiki to be disagreeing with if you CBA.
I have no bikes
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bikes-stolen-in-crosshills-nr-skipton
Is that simple for you.
But on the other hand I will be getting my new Scott scale 20 soon, which is vey simple and light as **** 😀
Cyclo-cross eventually becoming a sport in its own right in the 1940s, with the first world championship in 1950. The French Velo Cross Club Parisien (VCCP) comprised about twenty-one young cyclists from the outskirts of Paris, who between 1951 and 1956 developed a sport that was remarkably akin to present-day mountain biking
The Roughstuff Fellowship was established in 1955 by off-road cyclists in the UK.[3] In Oregon, one Chemeketan club member, D. Gwynn, built a rough terrain trail bicycle in 1966. He named it a "mountain bicycle" for its intended place of use
Originally known as Klunkerz, these bicycles have been ridden off-road since their invention.
It does kind of contradict itself about the Klunkerz further down though.
Right, I'm off home. Another productive day at the office 🙂
contradictions you say, on wiki, well it is written by TJ isn't it? 😉
in the mid-to-late 1970s. At the time, there were no mountain bikes.
anyway... whatever year the term "mountainbiking" was officially invented still doesn't change the fact that to use the verb "mountainbiking" a mountainbike is required, feel free to make-up new terms like BMX-mountainbiking, CX-mountainbikin, invisible-mountainbiking or yer-maw-mountainbiking to share with yer mates, as said above, "it might stick" 😉Joe Breeze is normally credited with introducing the first purpose-built mountain bike in 1978. Tom Ritchey then went on to make frames for a company called MountainBikes,
It all depends on what mood i'm in
Most of the time i like to play on my 140mm FS bike
Sometimes, i like to ride on a rigid steel bike with 140mm forks
Other times, i like to play on my rigid steel bike with rigid forks
Generally, my mood is completely dependent on whatever isn't broken..... 😀
I find it good to go rigid every so often to improve my lines - as i get lazy with a big travel FS bike
Looks like a CX thread rather than a simpler form of mountainbiking thread..
Been riding simple mountain bikes all my life, I'm simple so it fits rather well with me.
But then again I'm itching to get a FS 29er so really I'm heading off the other way.
Perhaps needs merging with this thread [url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/do-you-have-a-hack-for-bashing-round-trail-centres ]Do you have a 'hack' for bashing round trail centres?[/url]
I built myself a rat bike recently; 1x9 rigid, ebay frame, rattle-can paint job, old wheels persuaded into a vaguely circular shape and parts from the spares bin.
I found it wonderfully liberating. The 'real' bike is several ounces of carbon lovliness adorned with Mr. Shimano's finest bling that won't even let me touch it unless I'm fully lycra-ed up. A joy to own and ride, but sometimes you want pie and chips, not a Michelin starred meal.
The rat bike has several advantages :
You can't wreck it - it comes fully pre-wrecked
It gives you a perfect excuse for riding like an arthritic granny - "course, if I was on my real bike, I would have totally nailed that"
Low maintenance - just blast it with the pressure washer when it's so coated in mud you can't tell which way up it is.
I can hop on the rat and be out the back door into the mud at a moments notice, just pausing to put the cycle clips on my trousers. If I did that on the dream machine it just wouldn't feel right. Somedays I feel like pretending I'm an XC riding god, somedays I want to pretend to be a 12 year old boy messing around in the woods.
What? drinking/sniffing glue, looking at skud books and fingering girls (if you were lucky)?
😀
All I need now is a well thumbed copy of Razzle and a packet of ten No.6 and the jobs done
I have a road bike and a 6" trail bike. I love riding both. I also love reading about tech and seeing what my riding mates splash their cash on. I then go and seek out cheap - but still good - alternatives. I then do everything my mates do but with a smug feeling that it's costing me a third of what they're spending.