How Expert Are You? Take our MTB skills and experience survey.

Not sure the difference between single, double, triple diamond. Done plent of black trails but also plenty I have said no to!

^ agreed, I have no idea of what trail grades mean these days. Trail centres have blue/red/black but I suspect black at BPW would be more jumpy than I’ve been into for a long time.

If MTB is about skills over gap jumps and graded trails I’m a newb compared to where things are in Enduro racing etc. If MTB is about naturally technical trails where all-day reliability, on-sight riding ability and not spannering yourself somewhere remote is a skill, I do ok (happy to have ticked the Nepal box). Call me an old-school XC rider, I’m ok with that.

Not done, i don’t ride more than once a week.

Not done, i don’t ride more than once a week.

Same here, completed th survey but it wouldn’t let me submit. There mus be several people that only ride once a week or less?

I just ticked single black as I assume double diamonds upwards are serious stuff and not for old punters like me. I do know the lozenge system though, so black 3 lozenge has way more unavoidable features/ mandatory big air than black 1 lozenge which might be drops and easy gaps. But both are just black as black is the tech grade for most of it when you are not hitting features…I think.

I’ve added an option so everyone should be able to answer, I hope. And the points you all raise in the comments about ‘what is experienced’ is kinda the point 🙂

For it to be a true wheelie, you have to get to, and remain at the balance point.

And therein lies my issue with wheelies…

Neither I, nor my bicycles, seem to have a balance point 😳

“Dad Wheelie Club” – expect to see this on a tshirt soon.

Please @charliedontsurf… 🙂

I’ve added an option so everyone should be able to answer,

Now done .👍

The questions are a bit vague to say the least.

It only list bikes on trend ie no CX bike

Yes I have serviced a fork, but it was a rigid one. I changed a BB quite a lot when I was younger, but now cant be bothered buying the tools as the standards change every 2 minutes so dont bother now.

Yes I have done wheelies, endos, gap jumps in those 40yrs, but quite frankly as I get older I tend not to.

Are STW just wanting to confirm that STW is now just full of old farts?

For “What bike related qualifications do you have? *” how about including trail building/maintenance options in there too

but quite frankly as I get older I tend not to.

Opposite for me, I’ve got all that experience, damned if I’m going to lose it now that I have decent bikes

For “What bike related qualifications do you have? *” how about including trail building/maintenance options in there too

Depends what they are want to prove/disprove/sell . Maybe STW are not wanting to sell spades/partner with spade manufacturers?

I said yes to the wheelie question, now I learn people don’t count dad wheelies 🙁

Well, seeing as A) “dad wheelie” can be counted under the banner of “types of wheelie” and B) dad wheelies are the sort that are generally useful on the trail, even if they’re not cool, I stand by my answer!

Also, I suspect I could get down Hardline/Rampage a lot quicker than my local trails, but assumed the question implied “the right way up, relatively close to your bike, in one piece” 😋

Would love to see some stats on age of bike, wheel size ridden, number of gears etc.

Perhaps an annual STW survey would be am interesting thing to do….

Not sure the difference between single, double, triple diamond.

(for proper blacks, not things like MBR at CYB) In my head:

I expect that I can get down a black, there maybe something on the trail I’ll have to have a look a look at before doing it.

A double black diamond, I reckon I’ll either have to will walk around at least one thing depending on where it is – UK (outside Dyfi) generally aren’t an issue, I’ll take a punt on places like Whistler, as their build standards are pretty consistent.  I’d want to know what was coming up on a European double black as honestly they can be as sketchy as **** or tame with just one high consequence feature

Triple I generally won’t try, it mostly seems to be a warning that there’s huge gaps.

I expect that I can get down a black, there maybe something on the trail I’ll have to have a look a look at before doing it.

I fell off once at Laggan because I was so busy trying to read the sign warning of Black, Double Black, Certain Death ahead that I clipped something and went over.

From this I ascertain that my skill level is somewhere around “falls off even reading about the Black Run”.

🤣

Done, but

What’s the hardest level of trail you think you’d get down?

There’s no “Dunno, never ride trail centres” option

There’s no “Dunno, never ride trail centres” option

Never ? That’s interesting/weird/alien… Can i ask why ?

I now feel inadequate in riding frequency, level of trails & mechanical ability. Nice downer to start the week!

Double diamond to me is a beer.

Never ? That’s interesting/weird/alien… Can i ask why ?

You may indeed. I just don’t like them. Never have, right back from trying CyB back in the day (1996) when it first opened, and occasionally others since (Afan, Cannock, other Welsh ones who’s names escape me). Honestly, I can’t really explain why either, I think they just sorta feel contrived (which, duh, obviously, they are).

I’m not knocking them, I can see why people like them, I just don’t.

The forest of dean has just regraded some of its trails as double black diamond trails if anyone wants easy entry to the double black diamond club.

The forest of dean has just regraded some of its trails as double black diamond trails

There’s a trail at Thetford Forest called “The Beast” and, after riding a recce lap in advance of Dusk til Dawn many years ago, one guy concluded that the The Beast was nothing more than a mildly agitated squirrel.

It certainly wasn’t comparable to The Beast trail in the Peak District…

I just want my score! but it needs to be some sort of multi-axis thing like an incomprehensible Michelin tyre rating or one of those politics things, since you can be massively experienced and still suck.

As I understand it there’s a move afoot to basically regrade everything so there’s at least a slightly meaningful standard, and the sudden talk of double black etc like FOD are doingis part of it, along with them binning bloody useless Orange. It won’t work and it doesn’t seem to have much buy-in but I guess it’s nice to try. If nothing else it’ll be fun watching ChrisL’s brain explode next time we go to FOD and a trail he’s ridden dozens of times has been regraded double black diamond.

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/standards.png

Yes I have serviced a fork, but it was a rigid one.

genuine question, what did you service on a rigid fork?

@ossify Plummeting is a skill, well surviving it is!

The colour grading is difficult. Black at BPW, probably not. Black at FoD, yes…

Also a member of the dad wheelie club 😳

There was no option for **cyclocross bikes**, which I have two of and are my main ‘road’ bikes, but also get used off road.

Just say no to this gravel bike nonsense.

There was previously no option for ‘none’ under which of the following bikes do you ride more than once a week, but I see it is there now. Shame I’ve already done the survey.

I rarely go mountain biking more than once a week, because I find mountain biking really quite boring more than once a week. Same with road biking, I also find that quite tedious more than once a week, ha-ha, so it’s once a week max on any bike for me. Not a problem when I have 10 bikes to choose from. Multiple different sports activites each week for-the-win and absolutely no boredom, everytime, however!

genuine question, what did you service on a rigid fork?

with a sponge and soap water , maybe a little polish

When do we get the results?

One thing I think that affects (effects?) How you self apprais your own skill level is the people you get to ride with and if they are NOT pros. I think if you have ridden with people who are not pros but just good locals, unknown randoms but still very good it makes you realise where “intermediate” level really is.

The trail grading one is a nightmare. Its so inconsistent depending on where you are. And anytime anyone tries to lay down some “rules” for what they should be, it goes totally against some of the UK’s most famous trails.

I didn’t even know the UK had black, double black etc; I thought that was an americanism based on them not having red trails for some reason, so UK red = US black, UK black = US double black.

And then there’s the lozenge system which I quite like as it describes the jumpyness. A few places have combined the two, so now there is a colour technical difficulty, and a lozenge jumpyness rating.

I got to Q4 and didn’t know which to select. Shouldn’t the results of the survey provide the answer to that question?

Same. How would I class myself? No idea given there are no guidelines so skipped that and went on to see what other crap there was down there.

When did you start riding MTBs?
and
How long have you been riding MTBs?

erm…

Be interested to see what comes of this and whether there is some profound result that enlightens everyone as it feels very much a “we’re bored and its been raining so can’t be faffed to go and ride and take pics for an article so we’ll hash together a questionnaire instead”.

Done, but as mentioned nothing regarding tandems. So I put ‘other’.

Same. How would I class myself? No idea given there are no guidelines so skipped that and went on to see what other crap there was down there.

That’s the point, it gives an idea of what level you think you are at and what you can do, then the results give that x% think intermediate means you can do Y.

When did you start riding MTBs?
and
How long have you been riding MTBs?

erm…

Standard survey. It checks for consistency of answer.

I have 10 bikes to choose from

I hope you ticked “expert” on the spannering question! I’ve had 2 MTB for 7 years now and I think the time that both have been in working order at the same time can be counted in weeks

That’s the point, it gives an idea of what level you think you are at and what you can do, then the results give that x% think intermediate means you can do Y.

I struggle to see the point in x% saying they’re “expert” but when answering the more ability focused questions, turns out they’re experts at doing dad wheelies and 2ft gap jumps. So the point is to find out how many STWers have over inflated egos and no ability?

Standard survey. It checks for consistency of answer.

Honestly think it was meant as a test for consistency??? 😀

I don’t think I’ve ever needed to do a wheelie other than when I’ve been messing around in the street. It’s not exactly a vital skill when riding off-road.

I struggle to see the point in x% saying they’re “expert” but when answering the more ability focused questions, turns out they’re experts at doing dad wheelies and 2ft gap jumps. So

You may not but that’s seems to be what the survey is designed to do and the designers see value in This data. Different people see value in different information. I can value in that it gives an idea of what most people mean when they mean intermediate and also how the spread of that data is.

When do we get the results results table of biggest hitters?

@TheBrick – get yourself to Dyfi Bike Park and you’ll soon find out. Single black diamond was broadly at my limit based on a trail there called ‘Muddy Berms’. On that basis I didn’t attempt a double black diamond.