Purest form of cycling?

Since I got a cheap BMX for pottering up to the gym and back on, it has felt like the back-to-basics purest form of cycling I’ve done in ages!

No fettling, no taking 30 mins to get ready, no driving, just jump on and go…avoiding pedestrians on footpaths has brought back memories from when i was at school too!

lovely.

I’m not sure on the purest form but agree bmx is up there.
I bought one a few years ago to use at the skateparks when I take my daughter. What a shock it was. You instantly realise how much a modern bike does for you. A bmx obviously has no 160mm kashima coated forks, no rear suspension, no massive disk brakes. If you are lucky you may have a semi working back brake and don’t mention the stiffness. Its like riding a house brick. Anyone who thinks their carbon super bike with carbon rims is stiff has obviously never ridden or jumped a bmx.
What I realised pretty quickly that there is no bmx with built in skills compensation. If you cant ride bmx its not the bikes fault. This is evident when you watch a kid on an completely knackered halfords special backflipping etc.

For me I like the purity of a road bike. When the roads are quiet and all you can hear is the noise of the tyre on the road. At that moment nothing else matters apart from me, my bike and the road.

great reply.

I know what you mean about the bmx brakes, i took off the front one, and the back one is, shall we say, vague, almost went into a cars path the other day. Although a lot of higher end bmx’s don’t have brakes at all!

I’m gradually getting used to it, it’s fun.

Agree that on a nice Sunday, sunny early morning, hopping on the steel road bike with just a pump, spare and bottle is very cool too.

spin class.

Rigid singlespeeding in a hair shirt!

Track bike, everything you need, nothing you don’t.

Track.
The Zen of cycling 🙂

No fettling, no taking 30 mins to get ready, no driving,

Hah! That shit is not part of MTBing, don’t kid yourself!

Purest cycling is track cycling.

Track for me too

Track cycling needs a track, as well as a bike.
Hardly ‘pure’ is it? 🙂

Unicycling for me

Track cycling needs a track, as well as a bike.

Is there a form of cycling that doesn’t need a bike? 🙂

I’d probably say track too.

Hah! That shit is not part of MTBing, don’t kid yourself!

I’m not….don’t worry. 8)

Is there a form of cycling that doesn’t need a bike?

No. All cycling needs a bike. But …

Track cycling needs a track, as well as a bike.

recycling?

Track cycling needs a track, as well as a bike.
Hardly ‘pure’ is it?

Road cycling needs a road, MTBing needs a trail..

Point about track cycling is that the track is not a factor because every track is more or less the same. A track is simpler than a road or a trail.

I don’t know about purest per se but I’ve just bought a CX bike which I’m finding a revelation after years of FS MTB with big draggy tyres. In terms of the most efficient and quickest A-to-B bike CX probably wins I reckon (not as quick on-road as road bike but can take off-road shortcuts) and can pretty much go anywhere.
There’s something to be said for that and I think it approaches some form of cycling purity for me.

In terms of riding a bike I would agree a track bike is beautifully stripped down but not much use for getting anywhere other than round a track.

The purest form of cycling sport ? the purest form of cycling, is just simply riding your bike. Not using it to participate in a sport or pastime, but to just get on it to make a journey, no cycling gear, just normal clothing going about your business. Cheap efficient transport, that’s what bicycles were originally made for. It doesn’t really matter what bike, whatever you have to hand.

Commuting

Is it not Dutch-style shopping/commuting ride? You don’t think about the bike, but about where are you going…

Yeh, riding down the canal for a pint and a pork pie.

MTBing needs a trail..

well, we are in panto season,…

Oh no it doesn’t

Yeh, riding down the canal for a pint and a pork pie.

Is that a euphemism??

The hybrid I hired in Zakynthos last summer. Two wheels that could roll on tarmac or dirt and an island to explore in an unhurried manner.

Track is simple? The new velodrome in Derby cost millions of pounds so on a cost per metre of track basis far more expensive and complex than any stretch of road or trail. Also you need a car to get you and your bike there, so that’s not exactly simple and pure, then when you get there you need to have a licence and some skill to ride the track, so you can’t just rock up and ride. Then you need the right clothing, the right type of ‘energy drink’, helmets and assorts of other paraphernalia.

What’s more pure than getting on a bike, any bike, on your drive and riding whether it be on the road, a canal path or an off road trail?

Isn’t the sort of cycling those folk do, the ones that don’t know what bike they’ve got. They ride it to and back from work without a second thought. Basically just use them when required.

Purest form of STW bollocks? This thread 🙂

Wobbliscott – the question was ‘purest’ not ‘simplest’ or ‘cheapest’.

Track is definitely the purest form of cycling sport as there are no climbs, no peletons, no tactics, it’s just you and the other guy toe to toe, fastest man wins. As for parephenalia, everyone’s bike is basically the same so that’s not even a factor.

As for non-competitive cycling, well I have no idea what ‘pure’ could possibly mean in that context 🙂

molgrips… yeah your right.

Track is definitely the purest form of cycling sport as there are no climbs, no peletons, no tactics, it’s just you and the other guy toe to toe, fastest man wins.

Bunch track racing is extremely tactical. Even in individual pursuits, you can still use tactics – setting out fast in an attempt to bluff your opponent into trying to keep up for example.

The riding itself is pretty simple but the sport can be incredibly tactical.

If you start arguing that it’s about the branch of cycling with the least variables, like track cycling, surely that could then be broken down further…

(The purity of your thoughts may vary depending on your fellow spinners)

Just after I wheelie’d it…….big wheel up

Sportives

Family

…BMX for pottering up to the gym…

“Purest form of cycling” or waste of a perfectly good bike?

Arent the little kids on their Like-a-Bikes indulging in the purest form of cycling?

as their form of cycling is closest to the original dandy horse

and all this pedalling thing is just an unnecessary complication

Track is definitely the purest form of cycling sport as there are no climbs, no peletons, no tactics, it’s just you and the other guy toe to toe, fastest man wins.

As per Crazylegs, probably as a result of its simplicity track racing is incredibly tactical and strategic.

OK so I retract the tactical part 🙂

Purest? Anytime you’re out on your own, no sweating, no panting…just riding.

As fast as possible, dripping with sweat, panting, with wind behind knowing you’re going to get that KOM on that bridleway on the outskirts of town that nobody rides because it’s not gnar enough. Fycj yeah.

As long as you’re not on an E-bike or EPO, all cycling is pretty pure IMHO.