“Drop Rides” ? Is that really a thing?

I might mean potholing, not caving tbf 🤔

if someone doesn’t want to develop the skills to access the fun that can only exists off road

Have you ever watched pro roadies descending? Weird superiority complex.

I think the likelihood and opportunities of having fun off road seems greater

I think you lack empathy. You don’t seem able to appreciate how come something that you enjoy might be absolutely unappealing to someone else and vice versa. You and I might like zipping down singletrack, getting air here and there and railing berms or whatever, but if someone else sees absolutely zero fun in that, why would they put up with the mud, the unrideable climbs, the access problems and the general faff of getting to trails?

Most of this thread comes down to a lack of good faith in other people’s choices.

It does seem to, I think it’s 50% conscious trolling, 50% willful ignorance.

Lots of the comments are of the ‘outside looking in’ variety and/or interpreting a lack of cheery waves as “misery”.

I tend to acknowledge other strangers on two wheels whatever I am riding, and so do most of the ‘roadies’ I ride with. But we don’t get affronted when “blanked” which happens about as much with MTBists as any other sub-niche of bicycle user.

For those that feel they’re constantly snubbed by the lycra lout crowd some things to mull:

1- If they’re riding in a close bunch at speed, they might not prioritise validating some bloke going the other way on an MTB, they don’t hate you, they’re not miserable, they’re just trying to concentrate on not crashing into the back of Pete’s new cervelo.

2- If riding solo, they might just be a bit lost in their own thoughts, or simply a bit ragged from a big push, in that moment they are the centre of their own universe and you may simply not have been noticed at all.

3- Are you the problem? Do you hold strangers to the same expectation of instant engagement in other areas of life? Walking about town, do you nod and wave at everyone you pass and then ascribe any lack of engagement to deep rooted personality flaws? I get the whole “a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet” thing, but not everyone is as aggressively “social” and that’s fine, learn to let it go in the moment not harbour some deep resentment of a group you don’t really know much about…

As for the original topic, yeah, of course ‘drop rides’ are a thing and it makes sense, people have different fitness and expectations. If you don’t tell some the distance and pace and that you won’t be waiting for stragglers they’re not going to be happy when they do get dropped.

The thing to note is that if ‘drop rides’ are a thing, then naturally enough ‘No drop rides’ are also. In fact I’d say ‘No drop’ is the norm for the groups I tend to ride with, we just don’t need to use the term.

I posted earlier on the thread to defend the idea of road biking for fitness, and that on some rides folks get dropped. And I have done a few trips with mates – Belgian classics related and a few long days in the Alps, a few sportives inc Fred Whitton, which require getting pretty fit, which for me means riding for training. All of which is more sort of satisfying experience than laugh out loud fun. 

Basically each to their own. Presently I’ll be grinding across a moor getting wet and trying to avoid coming off on the icy bits. I’d not sell that too hard to anyone not into it. 

But mtb is a lot more actual fun than road. It just is. 

Most of this thread comes down to a lack of good faith in other people’s choices.

It’s more like the Ladybird book of Metaphysics. The one where someone painstakingly explains to Janet and John that internalised concepts like ‘having fun’ are entirely subjective. John likes playing netball. He enjoys it. Janet on the other hand, enjoys sky-diving and embroidery. John hates sky-diving, but quite likes embroidery and grudgingly concedes that Janet may have point, though no way is embroidery a patch on netball.

Then Sasha arrives, Sasha is a deceptively demure sociopath who enjoys nothing more than machine-gunning kittens and yoga. Eventually, as rational people, they sit down with a cup of tea – which they all agree is wonderful – and discuss who is ‘having the most fun’.

Apart from Sasha, who lacks empathy and is incapable of seeing anyone else’s point of view unless there’s something in it for her, they eventually realise that there is no objective measure for ‘having fun’ – not scoring goals in netball, not spending minutes free-falling, not even creating a perfect piece of embroidery without sticking a needle through your finger, because HAVING FUN IS SUBJECTIVE, IT HAPPENS INSIDE YOUR HEAD.

They all agree on this except for Sasha who machine guns the others and declares that she is having the most fun after all, though goat yoga would run it close.

By now all the other children have died of boredom and gone home.

THE END

But mtb is a lot more actual fun than road. It just is.

Depends. Everyone is different and finds different things enjoyable.

I find them different kinds of fun, but I wouldn’t give either of them up in favour of the other.

BWD says it well

I think a lot of this is about not understanding the others point of view.

Near me there is a road that is very twisty then has a long straight ( 3 miles?) then back to twisties – thus if you are on the road on your bike you get a solid stream of cars accelerating up to 60 + mph on the straight bit – but its narrow so close passes are common.  Alongside the road in a belt of trees is a really nice gravel cyclepath .  One time I am riding along the nice path not having to have cars come past my elbow and looking at the trees and the view.  A group of roadies come past on the road – literally having a constant stream of cars overtaking them.

I’m enjoying my ride much more that I would enjoy theirs.  My guess is they wouldn’t enjoy the nice cyclepath despite being car free as they could not go so fast.

I find their attitude weird but I bet they would find mine weird

I am lucky enough to have 7 bikes, all very different. The experience of riding each of them is very different, from the rigid steel 26″ singlespeed to the road bike with carbon everything and Di2. I’d be really hard pressed to say which is the most fun – it depends on my mood, the weather, the company or lack of it, and the conditions under my wheels. All bikes are great and we are all free to do whatever sort of riding we want. Chain gangs are great, even if you get dropped, cake rides are great even if you are gluten intolerant. Even desperately unfashionable xc rides are great, especially on my shiny race hardtail. Just get out and ride.

I think you lack empathy

I’m not sure if some on here are lacking empathy or just trolling, to be fair.

I’m not sure if some on here are lacking empathy or just trolling, to be fair.

Who do you mean? Don’t be shy, I can take it.
I appreciate I may sound like trolling. I still haven’t said you couldn’t have fun on a road bike. Just that it seemingly happens less often than off road, by and large.

I totally accept that fun is essentially subjective, hence the example of S&M which is a lot of fun for some. But it would seem that off road, there are more numerous opportunities for cock ups, trees, brambles, slides, cased jumps, farmers, mud etc.

I am not saying shit doesn’t happen on the road but surely we can at least agree that on the road, there tends to be less hazards (I didn’t say none of course, like potholes).

Surely we can also agree that there are less cars off road, which is not really offset by the presence of stray dogs and ramblers 😂

To me both those objective facts help the fun factor.

if someone doesn’t want to develop the skills to access the fun that can only exists off road

Have you ever watched pro roadies descending? Weird superiority complex.

I was responding to the poster who said he didn’t like MTB because he wasn’t confident with jumps and stuff. Nothing wrong with that.

No complex at all.

FFS it’s just good old Devil Take The Hindmost, we used to do it all the time. The penultimate rider would just shout “I’ve had enough ” .We’d turn around and mosey home back the way we came sometimes picking up dropped lads on the way back and laughing about the pain . Sometimes you were a winner sometimes you were the victim of a ribbing that’s now called banter, you played if you wanted to , and if you didn’t it was all the same.

It’s more like the Ladybird book of Metaphysics.
(…)
THE END

Lovely prose but a lot of words that only amount to a sophism, at best.

I was responding to the poster who said he didn’t like MTB because he wasn’t confident with jumps and stuff.

That was me, and if that’s what you took from that then … Wow. I bloody love mountain biking, but I ain’t a drops and jumps type. To be honest, you seem so focused on the white knuckle type of “fun” that you can’t see other types of fun exist. I love doing a 100km Sunday ride, especially on a warm sunny day. Good chat in the group, opportunity to take a turn on the front and get some power down. Sausage and black pudding butties at the half way cafe, and a nice cruise home, all shared with people I enjoy spending time with. Not once do I think “ooh this would be so much better if the corners were nadgery” or like I’m missing out on sessioning a 200m bit of downhill 20 times!

Steve you had mentioned “massive jumps and drops” indeed. Which I don’t think I ever mentioned. They come in all shapes and sizes, at least off road.

They don’t need to be big to be fun.

They don’t need to be big to be fun

You need to have jumps to have fun?

I am not saying shit doesn’t happen on the road but surely we can at least agree that on the road, there tends to be less hazards (I didn’t say none of course, like potholes).

All the most serious cycling injuries I’ve seen have been on the road. It’s much more dangerous than MTB riding.

It might come as a surprise to you, but for the vast majority of the population more danger does not equal more fun.

It’s much more dangerous than MTB riding.

I dunno…my Instagram feed seems full of mountain bikers crashing into things 😄

but surely we can at least agree that on the road, there tends to be less hazards

No, you are incorrect (and not only in your use of less rather than fewer)

It might come as a surprise to you, but for the vast majority of the population more danger does not equal more fun.

I can’t see that anyone suggested that it did. And this is exactly why I ride my mountain bike rather than doing the club ride if the weather is poor – it’s much safer.

Lovely prose but a lot of words that only amount to a sophism, at best.

Mountain biking GOOD!!! Road biking BAD!!!! Bah, blah, blah… You want to try high altitude mountaineering. It’s the only way to have fun. Unless you’re scared of being wiped out by a mahoosive avalanche or a yati, blah, blah, blah… etc.  Stop with the tedious trolling eh :-)

All the most serious cycling injuries I’ve seen have been on the road. It’s much more dangerous than MTB riding.

IMO you’re far more likely to crash mtbing, but the rarer road crashed tend to be more serious.

Indeed, I’ve heard of far more people killed road riding.

YOu would really have to work it out “per mile” to give a true idea but my guess would be more road riding.  also how many of the “road deaths” are utility riding rather than leisure riding

If someone doesn’t want to develop the skills to access the fun that can only exists off road,

Maybe you should develop the skills needed to access the fun that only exists on road? Like a bit of fitness and the ability to follow a wheel. And ride cleanly/well enough that someone else would be happy following your wheel. Then you can work up to the hard stuff.

XC racers are no different to road cyclists, nor cyclocross.

Weird, physically i used to weigh about 5-6 kilos more when I did an MTB focused season than a road focused season. Also, none of my work shirts fitted round my neck and the 6 pack would appear about May/June.

It’s funny, reading the last page I’d say lots of you seem to see the “objective measure” of fun as either being on the limits of ability/control (off-road) or being on the limits of aerobic/anerobic capacity (on-road). You all appear to know both types of fun can be found in alternative flavours of bicycle riding, but are a bit too entrenched to fully admit it…

I propose that there is now only one true form of cycling ‘fun’, where both the desires to tumble gracelessly off the side of a trail and the need to cough up a lung from ridiculous exertions can be satisfied, and that is the bastard child of MTB/Road/CX that is Gravel.

Riding the wrong bike all the time is the only right way to have both type 1 and type 2 “Fun” ;) everything else is just out of balance it seems…

You need to have jumps to have fun?

No one said that, have they?

No, you are incorrect (and not only in your use of less rather than fewer)

I guess you might be right what with cars/traffic, which are sadly often outside of the riders’ control, even with the best defensive riding, which in itself limits fun.

As for the poor English, apologies and thx for pointing it out, it’s still a second language for me, at best 😂

Anyone that did a Saturday morning Nirvana cycles Mtb  ride over the last 20 years fully understands the concept of getting dropped if you couldn’t keep up in a mountain bike ride. They earned quite a legendary status for a while. And yes they were a lot of fun. 

I did a road group ride on Saturday am. Got dropped as I was the only person who waited for another rider. This was at the furthest point out on the ride and the guy I waited for did not know the way home and would have really struggled into the head wind back. As it was he sat on my wheel for 35km. Bit pissed off none of the others showed any sense tbh. It’s not the group I usually ride with as I am coming back from a big crash. Bunch of numpties if you ask me, obviously the faster ones lack the testicular fortitude to ride in a faster group.

Bunch of numpties if you ask me, obviously the faster ones lack the testicular fortitude to ride in a faster group.

Sounds like my local club, best avoided

I feel like this is one of those “drop threads”, where the leading argumentative posters drop the main theme just to carry on arguing… about anything :-D