This time of year drying clothes is a major pain.

Hang clothes, wait…

What’s the tricky bit ?

For me, I struggle to get properly motivated to ride anything, a lot of the time.

I do love road riding, provided I’m out in the Dales proper where the roads are quiet and the drivers are mostly friendly. Riding the more local minor roads on the edge of Leeds can be nice, too, but deliberate close passes by malicious drivers, which tend to happen at least once on most rides, are just wearing me down emotionally.

For mtb, I absolutely love a few hours of dusty single track or wild moorland tracks come summer (or the same when there’s a solid freeze in winter). I get so much more out of that than road or gravel riding. But in reality, most of the year isn’t like that. And I live in a rented flat, so cleaning and maintenance is a real faff.

I actually prefer mountain unning and scrambling to riding, but haven’t been able to do either properly since my late 20s due to endless injuries (I’m 38 now, and no better).

Luckily, I have a job in Switzerland lined up, so I’m hoping that reignites some excitment inside of me.

I have lost the urge to keep up with riding trails which ‘require’ ever longer travel, bigger brakes and a penalty for failure that my near 50 year old body doesn’t like any more. Something my lads were pushing me back into.

Riding back in beautiful places, winching up long climbs, enjoying the fun of a quality descent, laughs and giggles. That is still there.

I also have a growing thirst for getting back out on some longer trips – currently on pause due to all sorts of reasons, not least mrs_oab’s health.

weeksy

Hang clothes, wait…

What’s the tricky bit ?

When it’s raining there is nowhere to hang them or I go out riding and come back and it’s rained and everything is soaked again.

@jaminb I don’t have a garden hose, and my bike lives inside in a rented flat, which means it needs to be relatively clean, and also not soaked after a wash. I’d be less averse to cleaning if circumstances were different.

In my experience my road vs offroad vs fat arseing and not riding at all ebbs and flows as I age.

Right now I am loving offroad (quiet trails, long travel FS bike comforts the jarring) and not enjoying the road (traffic, boredom). This comes off the back of a period of expert fat arseing.

If you love the sport, you will get your mojo back. But if you have lost the love, don’t force it. You might find that your motivation changes. When I was younger it was about fitness, challenging myself and ‘training’. Now it’s more about maintaining a level of fitness, enjoying the great outdoors and the social side of things.

59, if I gave up MTBing I’d become out of shape (mentally and physically) pretty quick. I run a bit (to keep legs going for rugby reffing), but road riding is only for the commute for me, have no passion for putting the miles in on roads.
Most of the time I only do short local loops, or a few hours up QECP, but it’s just about enough.

The main barrier is i cant be arsed with the ride to the trails and on the odd occasion i do i can’t be arsed doing more than one climb when i get there. I’m contemplating getting an ebike but not 100% convinced that will change much

it definaly will as you no longer have the ‘cant be arsed’ feeling as going up is just as fun as riding down. i probably enjoyed teh ups yesterday more then the downs – just hilarious slipperyness, technique testing and a challenge – same as the downhills. but with teh eeb the climbs were actually possible and fun unlike on a normal bike where you would definately have been pushing.

that said if you are already having fun doing what you are doing on other bikes then there seem little point getting another bike.

Zero interest for muddy rides anymore as the cleaning of man/bike/clothes is such a faff. I used to but tennis is now a massive competitor to cycling, great fun and so much simpler.

I still ride from April to October though but zero interest for road riding, I really don’t see the fun in that.

@nickfrog I empathise, cleaning is such a faff with my housing situation, and it makes riding anything less than 3 hours not worth it for me, which confines mtb to once a week in winter (aside from those joyful, calm, minus 3 winter mornings)

I’ve taken to going to the gym, where I can avoid aggrevating most of my injuries, and which being at the end of my street is the definition of faff-less

Road riding though, for me it really depends where. If the hardknott pass were nearby I’d ride it every day

I’ve been mulling this over through the winter. My relationship with mountain biking is very different to what it was 30 years ago, when it was about adrenalin, fear, challenge (and exploring the outdoors in a new way).

The adrenalin, fear and challenge are long gone. In my mid 50s, I’m much fitter than I was in my mid 20s, largely through decades of riding bikes (without a motor doing the heavy lifting for me). Coupled with a more competent bike, I know I can get up and down most stuff in one piece. So riding has become habitual, but the excitement has gone.

Which leaves exploring the outdoors, preferably new places. My mileage is way down so far this year but I’m planning a themed trip for April (Welsh Marcher castles, Wrexham to Chepstow) that has me looking forward to it. ‘Planning’ in the loosest sense: just some places of interest that I’ll link up off the hoof, depending on the weather, the terrain and how I’m feeling. Really looking forward to the spontaneity of it, travelling on a lightly loaded bike, sleeping rough, not knowing where I’ll end up one day to the next. It’s been a while.

Maybe you just need a change of routine.

@legometeorology

Road riding though, for me it really depends where. If the hardknott pass were nearby I’d ride it every day

Sounds better than a hard knock life indeed!

…. but road riding is only for the commute for me, have no passion for putting the miles in on roads.
Most of the time I only do short local loops, or a few hours up QECP, but it’s just about enough.

I’ve no interest/passion in thinking about riding as “putting in the miles” as it were really (realising it’s a figure of speech).

I ride a bike to get places and I ride bikes for fun/relaxation/getting out of a toxic environment, I don’t really think of riding bikes as something to get fit as much as something that just happens as a result of riding bikes.

Obviously everyone is driven differently but I’d find it far harder to motivate myself in “must go out to get fit” over “must go out to relax/have fun”