What do you consider a “normal mountain bike ride”?

• Weekend day
• Drive 45m-2h to ride
• 4-7 hours
• 30-50km
• 800-1200m pedalable ascent, not technical, not much pushing
• Not much tarmac, climbing or traverse is ok, tarmac descents are bad
• Singletrack or old bridleway type descents
• Bit of a remote adventure feeling
• Good views

15-20 miles, probably 60-70% off  tarmac roads and the rest on necessary evil of tarmac (I’m in Derbyshire so tarmac to like up things is normal). Grovel up the hills, whiz down them – ideally with fillings a nanometer from being shaken out.  Rough or rooty, but not jumpy.  Big views where possible, as few as possible other people except my mates for the day.

“Get on bike, pedal it on stuff that is mostly off road.“

Tried to think up a clever answer, but couldn’t beat this.

My typical rides are from home 1-3 hrs 10-15 miles 2000ft ish, mostly on my own due to my days off being during the week but I often get distracted by trail tinkering and scouting out new ideas.

I love steeper trails but can’t ‘session’ the same features/trails over and over again so prefer to incorporate these lines into a ride.

Two of the local builders are building trails that are just too tight and steep for my abilities so I am trying to come to terms with this and enjoy the trails I enjoy rather than punishing myself 🙂

I miss group rides but not enough to go out on and evening when I can ride during the day. And Sundays is the only day of the week that we have as a family.

Occasionaly I find the time for a day/weekend out and don’t really mind if its something epic in the Lakes, a half day at Win Hill, Bike park, Tweed Valley, bike packing, as long as its shared with others.

Traws Eryri coming up at the end of May for a proper adventure with Simon.

‘Normal’ (every day) is a 2 mile commute which may involve about 750 yards of woodland climb, but is usually just a road affair.

Thursday night’s group ride by contrast involved a 30 min drive into East Devon, and was a mix of easy bridleways, road transitions, and unexpected degrees of lairy steeps / loose rocky & rooty singletrack that I’d never ridden at all before – 17.5 miles / 1725 feet of climbing.

Weekends tend to be more XC type from the door blend of bridleways/green lanes/ country lanes, or occasional trips to Haldon, with the family. But any time on the bike’s good.

Depends on who I’m riding with, Most Sunday rides tend to be ‘winch and plummet’ (cheesy term but describes it well) which aren’t big on miles but get plenty of steep climbs and descents in. Midweek more of a loop with some woodsy tech thrown in conditions depending. Don’t do big XC loops that often now TBH, but its just good to be out in the hills though either way!

A short blast at FOD, a long epic day on Dartmoor, shuttling runs in the van, lift access in the Alpes, BPW, pump-track riding with the kids, a potter around Haldon with my son, a short XC loop around Woodbury Common or a day on hired e-bikes lapping as much as we can at FOD.

All of those are a ‘normal mountain bike ride’ in our house.

Spoiled here in Aberdeenshire. So normal evening / quick weekend spin is about 15km, 700-800m climbing and typically looks very like a wee enduro course. Probably 1.5-2h on the bike and get in 4 or 5 decent descents. At a guess red-black level if anyone labelled them with roots, rocks, steeps depending where you’re heading.

Brilliant – except I’m 4 weeks into recovering from a broken collar bone and missing it – grumpy and miserable here.

My normal mtb ride is from my front door and then riding up to the trails at Beecraigs Country, either early morning or late afternoon/early evening and riding as much as I can in the time I have.

The trails may not be Tarland, Glentress or the Golfie, but there is enough to entertain me for an hour or two, and when ridden at pace can be very fun and tiring.

For me at moment, it’s wake up, still suffering with a cold, look out to see it’s cold and wet again and leave bike in garage for at least another week!

Im basically a wander around the scenery rider these days.  Multiple days even.

Living in Suffolk, my normal rides are between 1-3hrs, 12-25miles with a ‘whopping’ 250-500ft of elevation gain.

So I have the occasional weekend roadtrips to get my gravity fix,  with the nearest place being Peaslake at 2.5hrs away<!–more–>

I don’t think I really have a normal type of ride. I like lots of different types of riding, the variety is good 👍

I’m actually amazed by how many people’s normal rides are 50km+ – around here it’s almost impossible to ride anything over 40km without a staggering amount of climbing added to it (or very boring and careful route planning). I managed a 70km route last summer that had nearly 3,000m of climbing on it – I was cooked for days after that!

“normal” or “proper”?

Normal: probably just going around the same old trail centre because its close, has a cafe, and we’re on a time limit.

Proper: Big day in the hills. Probably described as “XC” these days,  but on a bike that isnt a racing snake thats going to send you OTB as soon as it gets entertaining.

Some double track, more single track, a little road to connect it up. Earn the descents.

Dartmoor was lovely yesterday. First time out in ages.

Smashing tracks, Bike Parks, etc. doesnt count. Its got its place for sure, but its not a “proper ride” any more than taking a BMX to thes skate park is a proper ride.

Grey area on smashing tracks where you ride the ups, i guess.

Whatever a normal mountain bike ride is, I haven’t been on one for ages. Involves hillier places than my doorstep, lots of singletrack on the hills, in and out of bombholes, small jumps, small drops, roots,a few berms, bluebells, lots of twisty windy up & down singletrack amongst green leaves on  trees! Unless its winter.

What passes for a mountain bike ride for me these days is riding using urban features as obstacles, riding down steps, dropping off ledges, using walls as skinnies, whether on cliff tops or in parks, often involves a skatepark and farm tracks.

Riding my trail bike with my mates on a good XC loop taking in good singletrack for a few hours . Noting better than finishing and good ride followed by a beer .

Currently MTB rides for me are just pootling along local bridleways when I have a spare hour or 2 on a day off. Not sure I’d call it proper riding as it’s so flat and tame here, honestly I’d rather be on a road bike to cover more ground more efficiently! Occasionally get over to Northampton or Leamington bike park to at least make it feel like a “proper” ride with trails.

Back when I was riding more, my usual rides were sessioning the DH trails at Woburn, sometimes going further afield to FOD, Bike Park Wales, Stile Cop etc. Did the odd longer xc rides at Long Mynd but I don’t really enjoy covering loads of miles on an MTB, feels like too much of a slog and I prefer “bike park” style descents with jumps and berms. At least we have a couple of local options for that now, but I don’t think the jumps/trails are as well built as Woburn. Going back there feels like home and all the jumps feel right!

Oh, I love this topic. See, I’m with Hannah. I sum it up as the journey not the ride. I appreciate that’s a cliche but for me it’s been true.

I recently moved from the Tweed Valley. I worked at Glentress. The trails people traipse up to the area for were not for me. It took me a long time to realise it wasn’t my fault.

I used to work at a bike centre in Swaledale. Beautiful area but I was as happy along the valley bottom or a journey with views as haring down an old mine working.

People out on bikes full stop is the thing.

I stopped reading Singletrack because I didn’t find the articles where people traverse the Andes or Peru very interesting or relatable.

I’ve just read articles in the current issues on Bike Park Swindon, and the Yorkshire Coast. That’s the stuff I like. Relatable participation. Thank you..

From the door I have 4 rides.  Bits and bobs of local singletrack – just an hours play, Out to the pentlands and as many climbs and descents as I can be arsed with – very XC with great views.  50 ish KM and 1000+ m of climbing.  Then I have two “gravel” loops each of about 60km and fairly flat.  Tend to do one a week of them.  Very little road in any of those routes

Not been to the pentlands much recently.

I also use a bike to ride into the hills and camp.  Is that real mountainbiking?  Its a broad church.  🙂

I went on a ride yesterday right up into the hills, 10miles from the nearest village. Rocky. Fast. We carried over bogs. Pushed through woods. Rode some single-track. Ducked midges. Got some phat air on a rocky lump in the trail. Coasted back to the village on a 5 mile downhill.

Apparently it was ‘gravel’….

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*Ok, 10cm in the air…

1-4 hours ebike or all day possible on a proper bike from the garage door. Bonkers amount of trails locally if you know where you’re going. 3 hours today on the pedals all quality woodland singletrack then beer. Peaks , Wales,  Shropshire all an hour or so but can’t be arsed driving to ride unless I’m having a day off work and making an effort to go elsewhere. Definitely go other places less than I used to. Partly having 3 kids/ less time but also just cant be arsed driving instead of riding.