Realisation that I’m crap at mountain biking.

Now I know that there are levels of difficulty in everything and appreciate that only a tiny percentage of mountain bikers will have the ability to ride at Red Bull Rampage, but I can’t help thinking that even regular black trial obstacles are tough for me to clear and in reality I don’t think I actually enjoy the sensation of being scared riding stuff. I like the challenge more that the actual sensation. I’m finding that I’m enjoying the technical climbs and blue flow descents more. Even a pan flat gravel/cx ride is more enjoyable than riding at the Golfie.

Maybe mountain biking has just got too gnar these days, well for me, or maybe I’m just getting older and more fragile.

Not sure what my point is really, maybe I’m just feeling sorry for myself after yesterday afternoon’s off from a sniper root (shooting me down), resulting in a lovely bruised and sore thigh.

Maybe time for a new bike, one with electric assist.

Reconciling what you really enjoy about mtb vs the marketing blurb about constant radness can be tricky, but it is all in your head.

Take what you enjoy from your ride experience and be damned the rest, because the rest of it doesn’t matter.

I’m not sure how an e-bike is relevant. Won’t that just encourage/require more radical riding?

I’ve never been much good at MTBing and don’t care. I enjoy riding on fairly straightforward trails. I’d rather get off than fall off.

Just ride stuff you enjoy. You’re better than 99% of the population, don’t judge yourself against professional athletes.

You don’t necessarily have to do stuff that you don’t enjoy.

Sometimes it helps, if you don’t enjoy a particular type of obstacle or type of trail, making yourself do it can make it easier or at least make you relax more when you’re riding it. Being comfortable and relaxed usually makes -whatever it is- easier. Practice makes perfect and all that.

You have to want to do whatever it is that you’re doing though. I don’t think forcing yourself to ride stuff that you don’t want to ride is ever going to work. Making yourself do something just because you think you should be able to do it isn’t going to go as well as making yourself do something that you want to be able to do.

So long as you’re enjoying yourself when you ride then it doesn’t really matter what you ride.

I used to be way too scared of steep trails. I’d just freeze and come to a stop, get off an walk/ slide down. I know they’re something that I’m capable of and something I want to be able to ride. The more I make myself do it, the easier it gets.

More importantly for me I think is that making myself ride stuff like that reminds me how capable the bike is, how reassuring the suspension/ tyres/ brakes are. With confidence in the bike, riding scary stuff gets easier.

I can’t ride narrow stuff on a steep traverses. Just too much worry about clipping the side and tumbling down. I’d love to be able to but realistically, it’s never going to happen and I’m comfortable with that.

I’m crap at biking too, bit still love it. Just ride what makes you happy!

I’m still rubbish too as the scabs on my 64year old knees will testify!

Just ride what you like, not what everyone else is riding.

It’s too easy to be drawn into a ‘gnar’ culture in MTB, but they who have most fun win….

I realised this thirty odd years ago when my then 10yr old passed me and disappeared going down the Beast on a rigid Kona while wearing velcro trainers and baggy joggers which were his normal school uniform!

Maybe time for a new bike, one with electric assist.

An ebike on blue flow trails (or any flow trails imo) is not as much fun as a proper mtb

I didn’t think ‘mountain biking’ was defined by tech/gnar/skills progression etc anyway. It’s no more about that than open landscapes, fitness or the path through the local woods imho. We get more tech trails because bike companies keep building more tech into the bikes. If all that was what people really wanted there wouldn’t be gravel bikes.

Struggling with a black trail (trail centre or bike park) is emphatically not being crap.

The problem is the world of MTB we see through the media/social media is skewed by an imbalance of more skilled people because it makes better content.  This is entertaining but with the wrong mindset also dangerous.  As a parallel think about the way perception of body image has long been connected with what’s in the media as desirable/attractive.

Biking is a passtime, a passion even but it is not less valid for being a cycle tour of East Anglian back roads vs. the ability to hurtle down the Fort Bill track.  The question is not how gnar are you but are you doing the riding you want to do and enjoying it.  If your skills don’t match what you want to enjoy/ride then it means more practice, coaching and support.  If they do there’s no issue that an attitude shift won’t resolve.

I’m probably not as crap as I feel at times, just feel like I’m going through the motions a bit and finding technical riding a bit of a chore. It’s probably no coincidence that my general fitness has recently taken a bit of a dive.

I’ve never actually had any mtb training, despite the general trail difficulty getting more over time. Maybe I should book some lessons.

Some great and humorous responses above. Cheers.

MTB is a broad church and not every mountain biker likes/enjoys/is proficient at all aspects of it.

Over time features have got harder, steeper & gnarlier. What we thought of as radical on rigid bikes with rim brakes in the ‘80s are now nothing on a long travel full sus.

I gave up the gnar after fracturing my arm, dislocating my shoulder & ripping my rotator cuff apart in a crash on a relatively small drop off. Now far happier on XC rides, bike packing & riding blue flow trails. I’m now in my 7th decade and don’t bounce or heal as well as I used to.

Just do what makes you happy and you are confident doing.

Yea, I’m in the same boat OP. All confidence is gone because of it, but, I am slowly coming round to the fact that it actually doesn’t matter. I love the Golfie for example, but I’m a NY NY/Right Side Clyde guy. Happy to do the ‘easier’ trails there. And you know what, when I do, I love it. I also realise that not being fast doesn’t matter either. Remember that trails are more technical then they used to be, well at least there are much more of them. My favourite trails are not the steepest or the most difficult.

Gnarr is NOT compulsory .

Less .. nae limits, more.. know your limits ;-)

My problem is slightly different, but I feel it’s closely related. As I get older, I find black trails more and more difficult. So perhaps at one time, there are trails I would have ridden. But I’m finding myself a little more cautious at 56, because I don’t want to break anything else.

I was riding in the Portes du Soleil this summer and came to the horrible realisation that I’m not really a black-trail-type-of-rider. I’m more a red trail rider. Sad face emoji.

The most fun I had yesterday at Tarland was the new blue.

Way more fun than the black or even most of the red….