I love this so much, and no matter how many times I see it, it still makes me laugh, and with a heart full of affection. :D

I have this atm :(

Came off last Sunday and finally gave in and went to the docs on Friday. High dose antibiotics along with the R.I.C.E. atm. The worst pain is when I stand up from sitting…..OMG it takes my breath away!

Hoping the antis kick in soon as a week off riding has been quite long enough :cry:

Soya milk

Flats make me feel like I’m going out to play and have fun when I get on the bike. Clipless is, like, far more serious dude ;)

Flats definitely make me a better rider, because if I’m not relaxed and fluid my feet will be kicked off

Flats allow mid-air ‘oh eck I’m not gonna make that’ bails

Flats taught me about timing, compression and heels down

Anything involved roots, trees, tight gaps through trees or northshore

I should probably just ride above the tree line at all times….or maybe on the moon

Thanks for posting the linky geetee :)

I’ve been thinking about clipless for racing myself. After starting my riding career with clipless, then making the painfully difficult transition to flats (which, there is no doubt, massively improved my riding) I had no desire to return to clipless. However, I do believe there would be distinct advantages when racing….pedalling over the rough stuff, power off the start line, etc. I’m not a ‘foot-out’ rider and pretty much always keep my feet on the pedals even with flats.

Will struggle to return to the foot position for clipless though. Tried earlier in the year and not having the pedal right under the arch of my foot now feels very uncomfortable!

They have found the van that belongs to the detainee who was arrested on foot…according to the (questionable source?) the Mirror

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/april-jones-missing-man-arrested-1356246

*waits in desperate hope that this is going to not end terribly*

Hope this doesn’t turn out as badly as everyone fears and the little’un will turn up in good health and in one piece.

*hopes*

After riding the Diva for a fair few miles now, I feel like it’s probably worth giving a bit of a review, in case anyone else drags this thread out of the archives whilst trying to decide on a new machine.

Obviously this is just my experience/opinion and is based on my riding style and type of trails. I know there is likely to be many people out there who would review the Diva in a completely different light.

After much deliberation, I went for a 140 mm-reasonably-light build to run on all day rides and to blast about at trail centres, but that would still descend well. The bike does exactly everything I wanted it to, but is way better at technical climbing than I was expecting….and feels SOOOO fast. My list of excuses has now run out! It is an absolute blast to ride.

Fit: the fit of the ‘short’ is perfect for me…I’m 5’3″, short torso’d/long legged and hate being stretched out. In addition, I can really move around the bike a lot.

Suspension: when I first got the bike, I could not get it set up for love nor money. It was either blowing through the travel front and back, or skitting round all over the place. I knew I was likely to need the back tuning from speaking to others who run air can with the the 5, but wasn’t expecting so many problems with setting up the (kashima) forks. The ‘CTD’ feature just felt a bit gimmiky. I was very worried I had made a serious mistake not speccing a 160 mm up front, or going with coil.

In the end I had both the fork and shock tuned by J-Tech to add some mid-stroke compression. I cannot even begin to tell you the huge amount of difference it has made. Now the bike really feels like a rocket. I use all the CTD settings (and I’m notoriously lazy with stuff like that) and they all have a role for varying rides.

If you get the Diva, and want to run air, prepare to pay out to fine tune it.

Other stuff:

The bike came with a long cage XT mech, even though I specc’d a gamut chain device. The XT mech cracked in 40 miles. The failure was manufacturing fault and it’s being replaced under warranty, but it still seems daft not to spec a more appropriate mech when someone has paid to upgrade to a gamut. The long cage just flapped about. I now have a ‘zee’ mech on there.

I never really appreciated what ‘brake jack’ was until now….I am hoping it is going to cure my ‘dragging brakes’ habit. :lol:

You don’t always know when someone is the right one…..but you do always know when they are not

Don’t kid yourself she ‘may’ be right if, deep down, the relationship felt incomplete. If it isn’t full of fire at the start, then there isn’t a hope-in-hell when things return to normality.

Ha! Well I ride in a neck brace and you may expect that to help….but no.

Perhaps some kind of electrical shock device wired into my eyeline may be the solution – anyone fancy a go?

Agree with practising at speed. I can manage to look up when on cruise speed, it’s when I need to up-the-ante I struggle.

Will try the more ‘specific’ commentary. I can see that helping a lot.

Also agree that your subconscious brain takes in a lot without you realising. Sometimes I amaze myself at what I have managed to deal with when I haven’t even had chance to process the trail with the conscious brain. However, a lot of it is also trail memory, so practice on a single bit of trail actually isn’t that beneficial as I just learn the trail rather than learn to look ahead.

Right then, more practice, more commentary, more chin-up, more heels down (they tend to be anyway as I ride flats)

Will try all the above…….again, and again, and again :x

Oh btw, I am regularly heard shouting at myself to ‘look ahead’ when riding so am already working with a running commentary. ‘hold your line’ and ‘don’t ******* brake’ are also common! :lol:

The ‘keep your chin up’ thing is interesting.

I have set my helmet light up but have caught myself having a problem with the light not being high enough on nightrides……except it is, or it would be, if I was looking right, with my chin up. So that acts as a good reminder. However, I still have to fight it. I know I am looking at the ground, I know I need to look up, so I do, then 20 seconds later, I am looking too close again.

I try and practice ‘looking ahead’ every time I go out on the bike, (and when I am driving, although I never have any problem with it in the car) but it just isn’t sinking in! Dropping outside foot on corners..that’s sunk in. Not braking on roots….that’s sunk in. Pumping the trail…..that’s kind of sinking in…but looking ahead? mostly not.

This is really basic stuff that I should be able to do by now! I am a reasonable rider and have decent technical ability, but just can’t consistently manage this one, basic thing.

It’s sooooo frustrating as I know it is the ‘glass ceiling’ in my riding ability at the moment and I cannot break through it. :x

I would definitely go with a guided tour from a kindly local like mboy if you can get one arranged. Lots and lots and lots and lots of brilliant trails here, but I have known people come to Malvern, ride nothing but wide gravel paths and moan that it’s dull because they just didn’t find the decent stuff.

Tony certainly deserves all the positive feedback he gets…..totally changed my riding :D

I really wanted to replace my Heckler with a small Remedy but Trek refused to supply my LBS with a demo bike.

So I went with an Orange 5 instead.

I would just like to say thanks to all who contributed to this thread, and to the coaches who got in contact (one of whom I am going to work with in the near future).

Talking to the STW massive have really helped. I made it to a race this weekend and had a brilliant time. Practice day was chilled, and race day was rather surreal in the sense that I totally enjoyed the whole experience and didn’t get nervous until about 2 minutes before I was at the start line….and even that was ‘good’ nervous, not ‘bad’ nervous.

Hopefully the sports psychology I am going to have will now help get me to some of the bigger (nationals, Pearce and WDMBA) races next year.

Thank you all :)

Construct a playlist of familiar music to play on the motorways, again studies show that singing along to familiar songs prolongs a drivers attention span

This is so very true. I drive a lot of miles for work (around 30-35 k per year normally) and really notice this. I like repetitive beats and often have various D&B podcasts on, but they worsen my drowsiness if I am flagging. Stick on some well-known favourites and it normally gets my brain back into gear.

725 mm on all mine

I’m sure that I would think you are the sort of rider I would like to emulate which makes it a shame that you werent at diva as I can imagine that others would learn alot from you especially having reached such a high standard in a short space of time.

That’s a very kind thing for you to say, but, to be honest, it’s probably untrue. I am not an amazing rider by any stretch of the imagination and anyone with enough drive could get to the level I have, if not well beyond. Like I say, I am not naturally talented at sport etc, and never have been. I’m pretty strong for my small size which helps, but that’s only because I work at maintaining a basic level of strength.

You are right, it is about perspective but actually the only real thing that matters I would think is how you perform against yourself and not anyone else and what about those people that arent as good as you whose perspective will be ‘that was awesome, I want to be rad like her’ don’t they matter more than the ones who may see you as mediocre?

No, they don’t matter more. Both opinions are equally valid…but also equally unimportant, or ‘should’ be unimportant. Yet I let both get to me and don’t really know why as I am pretty good at ignoring societal pressure in other areas of my life. I am my biggest critic though, no doubt, but then like you say, it’s how you perform against yourself that is the real issue…..and in races I never feel like I have performed at my best.

Winning is a funny old thing, I used to get enraged with myself for not winning … I remember my tennis coach referring to me as temperemental and I was only young at the time. Now I realise that the built up frustrations and stress were counter productive and stopped me performing well.

Indeed, this is why I started the thread in the first place. I guess because I feel I have potential to do well at an amateur level, but I’m never going to know how well until I can deal with the stress and actually get to a start line again in one (mental) piece.

Do you think you would feel more positive if you won every race you ever entered AND took the hardest lines?

Probably not. I’d wonder why I wasn’t good enough to do a 360 over the 60 meter canyon gap at Rampage :lol:

….at least I’m honest, eh?

I certainly don’t consider myself rubbish on a bike because I came mid pack at Diva, I think I did splendid and I don’t mean that in a ‘hey look at me, how good am I type way’, I mean it in a way ‘my place in life is not to be a pro DH racer but actually I did the best I could in poor conditions and achieved something I’d not done before’

You see, I’d like to be just like you are and admire your attitude so much….and well done! Diva Descent would have attracted ladies who already have enough skill to be confident to attend such an event (no matter how it was marketed) so I suspect all the women there had a lot of skill on a bike. :)

Put it this way, Jo is much better than I am and I’m brilliant! Well I can do the Chatel road gap if that’s any benchmark.

From riding with you Jo I can say that when its just riding out with mates you are a very positive person, you talk about how much you loved the little drop here, or how fast you can go on trail X etc etc. But at the races you change, you focus on what went wrong, what wasn’t right, mistakes you made, how terrible it was etc etc which is usually totally different to how everybody else saw the run.

It’s like a Dr. Jekyll and Mz Hyde!

I am so not better than you Sammy! I just ride more often I suspect so get to know the trails. If we both rode the same trail for the first time I’m betting I’d struggle to keep up.

I’m pretty Jekyll and Hyde away from the race course as well sometimes if it’s a high skill/high pressure environment. Actually I know I am a frickin nightmare to ride with sometimes and am eternally grateful that people still come out with me. I have great mountain biking friends.

Jo – I can highly recommend both the MacAvalanche and Fort Bill DH Enduro events by NoFussEvents. They sound like your cup of tea.

Think of them like marathon DH bike events…

I was so knackered after Fort Bill, I was staggering around the car park talking gibberish. Lasted the full 6hrs too…. brutal!

I have seriously considered the Fort Bill enduro, as the one thing I am good at is hanging on and hitting stuff when absolutely knackard (9 solid days of DH in the Alps proved that this year)

However, I would want a visit to see the course first rather than just turning up on the day….I know it’s brutal, I need to know just how brutal. I can learn a short-medium length track ok in a practice day, but something like Fort Bill is going to seriously bite if you don’t know it at all.

Yeah, Cath, thats the one! she ripped it!

I’ve just come back from 9 days in the Alps with Cath, she ripped it up there too :D

There was some pretty inspirational riders there and what I liked was there was a big mix of ages and actually alot of the real pinners were not just young rippers cos if I do have a slight hang up about my abilities it is around age in that, I would have liked to have started DH and racing and mtb in general alot sooner (I am 32 now) but actually my life has taken its course for a reason and whilst ever I can pedal I will! Plus the maturity of being 32 in a riding and race environment has its benefits…lol!

Try being 34, and starting mountain biking at 29. I wouldn’t change anything about my life, none of the bad times, except for that one thing. I wish I had the opportunity to do it as a child.

I don’t believe that you are hard wired wrong and I do believe that you have the natural talent and fitness. I guess sometimes we need to look at ourselvs from other peoples perspectives to realise how good we are at something. For example, if I saw you ride not knowing anything about your mindset what do you think i would say about your abilities on a bike?

It’s all perspective isn’t it? You may think I can jump really well because I can clear some big doubles on my big bike….but if you ask someone who can do no handers they would say I was a mediocre jumper with no style who can barely hip, can’t whip and definitely looks down far too much.

When you talk about wanting to push it as hard as you dare in races, why is that?

Complicated…probably runs too deep to discuss on a public forum.

Have you been injured before, I’m guessing so if youve raced/ridden alot, has this changed your mindset any?

Yes many times. Concussion, badly damaged shoulder (it was probably partially seperated by I never went to A&E – took ages to recover), broken thumb, full wrist rebuild last year.

The broken thumb incident happened early on in my riding life (just over a year after I started out) and had a MASSIVE effect on my mindset….took a long time to get over (definitely over a year or more – and I had soooo much support from my riding buddies to get me through it) it because it scared me to realise how far the consequences of injury can reach. It was the first time I had to have an operation under general, and it had a huge affect not being able to drive for work for five weeks. It may seem like a small thing, but a thumb break is pretty serious as if it isn’t fixed, you may not regain full use of your grip which can make even simple every day tasks a real challenge. As it turned out, I got 100% of the movement back, but I can’t lock the joint properly and even now can’t change gear on the bike with it. I kept having flashbacks to the operation and recovery (I had a bad time coming out of general). BUT I did get over it. I ride bigger now than I ever thought I would because it forced me to analyse my riding which was, before the accident, clipped-in-and-out-of-control.

Last year I washed out on the way into a gap jump and went over the edge (it was a big edge) and pretty much destroyed my right wrist (dislocation, broken scaphoid, torn ligaments and also torn ligaments on my left wrist)….was told it would be 4 months off the bike and possibly never get full use back. But you know what? It was fine. The op was fine. I was fine. The wrist is almost fine, if not as bendy as before. The time in cast was probably some of the happiest times in my life – everything slowed down, I got to walk everywhere, work couldn’t ask me to work all hours and run around on site after site after site because I couldn’t get there. I got to appreciate so much more because I had time to. I was back on the bike riding in the cast within a fortnight and straight back on the DH bike hitting big stuff again when I was cut out the cast. Working through the issues associated with the thumb break had totally prepared me mentally for when it happened again.

sorry for the questions, but i really find this subject fascinating, I have often mentioned to my riding buddies how interesting it would be to be hooked up to some sort of machine whilst riding which could read our states of mind and whether we are using positive or negative self talk oh and to see whether the 4 C’s are working – commitment, control, confidence and concentration!

Haha I think, if the machine was reading my mind, it would probably malfunction :lol:

Glad you had a good time on the Diva Descent. I think you are talking about a riding friend of mine Cath who came first at the NW Champs and who did exceptionally well (came 6th) and also had a great time. :D

I would say that I was gutted not to have booked in when I heard about it, but, to be honest, I just didn’t want to stress out everyone as I know I have to deal with my reactions to racing first. Like you say, it’s a social event (particularly when ladies get together!) but I never feel like being social when I am stressing about times, the clock, the competition.

I wish I was more like your husband, cool, calm and collected. But I am not by any stretch of the imagination any of the above. If you could get a personality transplant then I’d be on the waiting list….but as it is, I have to deal with the one I have. Like Suggsey says above – some people are just hardwired wrong and being passionate and heated and driven does have it’s benefits. Like the fact I even ride a bike as the first time I got on one it scared the bejebus out of me….but there was no way I was giving up. I am neither naturally gifted, or naturally fit. I have to work every single step of the way at every fine detail to make any improvement, but I do just that. It is amazing how far sheer-bluddy-mindedness and money can get you in a sport even when you have no natural talent.

caning yourself to get a better time or hit a harder line or getting to the finish last but intact to ride the next day

Sensible non-biased opinion I give to someone else in the same position = the latter.

But the truth for me is that it is the former, definitely the former. If I am at a race, then, atm, I’d want to push it as hard as I dare than come away feeling like I could’ve/should’ve gone bigger/done better.

Unless my van gets fixed I’m likely to be stuck in Malvern for the entire BH weekend – so give me a shout if you want a tour (and you don’t mind a steady pace!)

Ok, going back to the original question…the answer I would like to give you would be option B. In fact, I think I have been kidding myself that is the situation for a long time.

But when it is laid out in black and white like that, then, with all honesty, it would be option A. Definitely option A.

Does this make me a bad person?

Oooh good question Sammy, good question.

Could I have another option – came last and had a good time?

Will the pressure of racing force you to hit harder lines/delay braking longer, therefore progress your skills as a rider (way more than any ‘training course’ could do)

Yes. Yes and definitely yes.

There is also more to it, it has become a mental challenge for me to beat! It will make me stronger if I work out how to deal with the issues.

I have other reasons too, but I’d rather not discuss them here.

Are you thinking too much into it all, and getting worked up over nothing? (Sorry to be blunt!)

Story of my life :lol:

Thanks Suggs – I know what you mean, but I’m kind of ‘over’ the exploration process. I have many reasons for why I am the person I am, what I want is positive, practical solutions on how to work with it to still get the best out of my riding.

lgb, is downhill racing the first sport you’ve competed in? If not, did you feel the same way in those situations?

No it isn’t. I have run competitively and powerlifted.

Did I feel the same way? Not when running, because I am truely atrocious at running so it was only ever a personal challenge, not a competitive one for me.

Powerlifting – yes, most definitely so. Again pretty high pressure environment to perform at your max perfectly for a very short space of time. Only competed once and, despite the fact I could have easily got into nationals (powerlifting suffers even more so from lack of female participation so it’s easy to qualify), I just couldn’t bear the thought of competing again.

Have your podium places had any positive bearing upon how you feel the next time you race?

No, negative I would say, because it’s almost felt like the expectation from friends etc that I would perform gets greater and then I feel more external pressure….as well as the pressure from myself to do so. I have people predicting my placing before I have even had a practice run and it’s daunting. Even though I know it shouldn’t be.

Mayby try a different approach? Instead of thinking your way out of it (analysis), just do it (exposure), and accept the nervous feelings. Does it matter if you go flat out or or not perform to your very best ? See if this reduces the fight or flight feelings (nervousness) you seem to be getting.

This was my plan for the year. Exactly what you say above. Get used to the racing environment, deal with it and it would get easier like everyone kept telling me. Exposure didn’t work as I soon found out, that for me, it mattered massively whether I performed at my best. Then I just kept getting really stressed on race days and unable to interact with people properly causing me even more stress as I would feel guilty for being in such a state over something so meaningless as a bicycle race! *bangs head*

Thanks Joe. I’ll look into it when I’m back on a proper computer and let you know if I can’t find it.

Chipsngravy – yep this I also know….however I am pretty good at dealing with my highly-strungness after years of practice in most other situations. I won’t give details of my history etc but one thing is for sure, I have been through far worse than not being able to get to the start line at a race. Which I guess is why it’s so frustrating that I can’t work out how to deal with something that is essentially pretty minor.

Thanks for the replies all.

Suggesy, you may be right, but then, as JoeG points out….MTFU may not work at all (thanks for the linky Joe, I know others who will fin that useful).

To be fair, I have tried, and as you know, I am not one to give up lightly and have had quite a journey to get to where I am now already….but self belief is never something I have had a lot of. I know this is going to make me sound awful, but hey ho, it’s the truth….on every race I have turned up, took one look at the competition and thought, holy crap I’m going to be last, which is the worst feeling in the world. Even though actually, in every case, it has been very much far from the truth.

I guess I would like to be in a place where I could turn up, look at the competition, think, “oh ‘eck these are fab riders, I’m probably going to come last, but WGAS….I’m going to have fun anyway and still race, and enjoy doing so”. I think this may not be possible for me though, and I hate myself for being so competitive. Tony has said don’t race the clock, or the competition, race the trail. I have tried, but I just can’t get my head around it.

Trekster….no I can be driven to unacceptability in pretty much anything. Thanks for the incites – hope you do manage to keep riding round/with the pain. It must be frustrating as hell.

Why do you want to pay a sports psychologist if this is really what you think?

Because I can
Because it’s something I want to do
Because I would like to see just how far I can take my riding with the ability/time/money that I have

All good DH racers are not just very good riders they are also very confident of their own ability.
You at the moment sound neither.

I don’t want to be a good racer. I just want to be one. It’s more about being able to enjoy the journey and experience of seeing how far I can take my riding.

I’m not a bad rider btw – but I would trade the fact that I have podiumed on every race I have actually got to the start line, to have enjoyed every one instead.

I have a brand new Orange 5.

But I’d have much rather been on my HT today.

I have covered a fair few miles on a set of 29er 140mm 34’s I miss having the tuning I am on trail hard setting, there are 3 different setting for trail and am finding that there is not enough compression it dives through the travel and has bottomed out on tabletops and drops. I am still playing with psi I am up to 80 though and that seems allot to me.

Jury is out

Is the jury still out for you now?

I am finding similar myself.

Stile Cop doesn’t count though! It’s timed practice not racing as we know ;) and I have always come first AND last, because I’ve been the only girl on the couple of occasions I have made it to a Guild day.

But again, it’s not so much about the riding/skills, it’s about the fact that I really want to become a ‘racer’ but just can’t seem to get my head around it.

That brings me back to my initial point, if you are trying to get serious about it you need to train in an organised fashion and not only go for a ride.

This actually hits the nail spot on, right on the head. I am more than capable of organising my training, riding sections until I perfect them within my ability, dragging the bike to the race course as soon as I hear which one it will be and picking lines until it’s too dark to see them anymore. The training/racing practicalities are not the issue.

What I want to do is be able to ‘just enjoy it’. Enjoy the process, and making the best of what I have, but without getting ‘serious’. I guess if you ask most people what my problem is, they would say ‘she just takes it too seriously’. Actually, anyone unlucky enough to meet me on race day would probably say a lot of other stuff as well, mostly unrepeatable.

I am highly strung at the best of times, racing normally tips me over the edge. I’d love to be one of them ‘cool’ people that everyone likes to be around, who just deals with stuff and never seems phased. That’s never going to happen, but it would be nice if my highly-strungness would stop getting in the way of me achieving anything.

chiefgrooveguru. Agree with that for sure.

Btw, Tony has much more belief in my abilities than I do, I wish you could get a pocket wind-up operated Tony to pull out at crucial moments :lol:

Oh wow, thanks Andy :)

We were at Stinchcombe last week…..I’m from that way originally (but didn’t ride then). How awesomely spectacular are some of the trails? We had VERY much fun!

Truely awful read all the above. You are very brave and should be commended for spreading the word so close to such a terrible time.

Hugs for you and your family.

…and get a local to show you round :)