Any Mountain Bikers on Here?
- Thread starter jbmccul
- Start date
1engineer
Moderator
Worthy was the wrong word. Important is a better word in this context. As you get older your goals change. Instead of training to beat a clock or a person you ride for fun and health. Health is much more important to an old guy than just about anything. Context man context.
Don't get me wrong I understand what you're saying, I just don't agree with it. I don't think playing the older and wiser card is justification for claiming your goal is the more worthy/important/correct goal. And this has nothing to do with being offended or taking it personal because I'm trying to defend racing or that training to race is a loftier goal than pedaling around a bit on occasion.
Personally I don't race to compete against others, I do it to compete against myself. I couldn't care less what position I finish in or how fast (or slow) everyone else has done. Perfect example - at the Boulder Peak Olympic distance tri, every year a handful of people stuff them self into the canyon wall doing 35mph on the bike, I slow down through those tight corners because 20 seconds onto my race time is not worth risking not being able to ride tomorrow. I ride bikes because I love it, I ride every chance I get when it's dry. When I sign up for a race though that gives me the extra kick in the ass to get up early and get a trainer ride in before work, to go a little harder on the climbs, and to clean up my eating to get in better shape. The better shape I'm in, the longer I can ride. The longer I can ride the more fun I have doing it.
You're holier than thou comments fall right in line with a pet peeve of mine that I saw all the time in the Ironman world. People constantly saying things like "You ran a 10K? That's cute, my morning run was longer than that" and "Oh you did a marathon, did you do a 2.4 mile swim and a 112 mile bike ride as a warm up before it?" People love to act like their priority, their goal, their opinion, is the correct one and the measuring stick that all others are compared against, and that's bullshit.
I'm digging the Santa Cruz
1engineer
Moderator
Can you not read man? Reading comprehension! Try it! Go back and re read the post again. "As you get older" is not NOW! You are not older yet!
Listen, as you get older (like I did and everyone does if they are lucky) times change, you change, your goals change. Get it? Of course you don't understand it because you haven't GOTTEN OLDER YET! Geez.
So to end this charade:
The only reason anyone EVER races anything is to compete and measure yourself against others. You can compete against yourself on a solo Sunday morning ride right? You race to compete, against a time, against other competitors, whatever. You race to compete against something. Now let me try it again: When you get older and you can't/don't want to compete, you ride for a different reason and that is health and fun. Get it? Not now but later! To sum it up - When you get old, racing MIGHT be a goal but a more IMPORTANT/WORTHY goal is to have fun and get/stay healthy. Why? Because when you get old in this sport you will never beat the younger guy. They will always be faster, stronger and have more endurance... just like you do now and I did 25 years ago. That's all I said. Heck I even wished you good luck. Don't make it more than it is. Again, good luck and enjoy the ride.
And no you can't necessarily do the same ride as a sunday morning route. For this race they get volunteers to shovel out some of the high alpine stuff which would other wise be snowed in. You don't have aid stations to support your food and drink intake, you don't have medical staff on stand by, you don't have roads closed to cars, trails closed to outside users, in the case of tri's you don't always get to swim open water clear across a lake when it's not an event with personnel in boats and kayaks, you don't always trails closed to 2 way traffic, etc. etc. etc. The way I see it a race is where I can push myself in a safe and supported manner harder than I would otherwise.
obsfsean
Junior Member
Damn I'm crushed.
BTW I know a lady who is 62 and started doing Ironmans 2 years ago. She's done 3-4 now and each time she gets closer to her goal of earning a spot in Kona. I'll make sure to let her know she's not doing it right and that's not a worthy goal for someone her age.
habanero
Senior Member
Honeymoon:
Can't believe I've been riding dirt for 25 years....some game, body, and balance changing injuries but still a heck of a lot of real good times and memories. Some of you have ridden longer than that and some not even born back when I started. Hope y'all are enjoying it as much as I have, no matter what your ideal ride is or whether you're slowly coasting down a wooded dirt trail to bombing the big stuff. There's nothing quite like the feeling of riding a bike off the pavement.
JRA
Can't believe I've been riding dirt for 25 years....some game, body, and balance changing injuries but still a heck of a lot of real good times and memories. Some of you have ridden longer than that and some not even born back when I started. Hope y'all are enjoying it as much as I have, no matter what your ideal ride is or whether you're slowly coasting down a wooded dirt trail to bombing the big stuff. There's nothing quite like the feeling of riding a bike off the pavement.
JRA
So after doing research, reading reviews, and talking to people I decided to go with Suffer Fest. I did "Downward Spiral" this morning and it was BRUTAL. I almost threw up twice, I might have puked in my mouth a little bit once. I struggled to get up the stairs to go shower afterwords because of noodly legs. That was without a doubt by far the hardest hour on a bike I've ever had. Maybe 2 months will be enough to get ready for my 50 mile mountain bike race afterall lol
Jimmy_D
Member
Ditto.....except that I've been doing it for closer to 30 years. I mentioned in a previous post about having done the Portal Trail in Moab and fearing for my life. We did it in 1988 on rigid mountain bikes with cantilever brakes (and the 3 of us rode pretty much the entire trail without dismounting). Here's a video of somebody doing it roughly 6 years ago. It gives you a pretty good idea of what it's like (it was much less traveled when we did it and not nearly as well defined, but the rocks weren't quite as exposed because of the lack of use). Very few people actually even knew about it back then.
Tamarancho? Headlands?
obsfsean
Junior Member
Yes, the Karate Monkey shot is in the Marin Headlands out by the Nike Missile Site. The Santa Cruz photo was taken on Old San Pedro rd. in Pacifica.
Jhelms
New member
Love CC and decent to a point - nothing crazy. Have kids, family and a lot that depends on me so stay generally safe 
Been riding most of my life, likely will never stop!
Current ride: 2009 trek ex7 19.5 - very very pleased with it. Shorter legs / 26er FTW :moon: Light mods, nothing major but setup exactly how I like.
- XT levels / calipers with avid 185mm rotors
- cateye trip comp
- recon 351 fork with Fox rp2
- 2.35rear maxxis with 2.3 forte front tire(s)
- Cateye trip comp (think it is an urban model)
- Forte bar ends
- No clips - just flats for me
- Changed to an 18spd with rock ring
Been riding most of my life, likely will never stop!Current ride: 2009 trek ex7 19.5 - very very pleased with it. Shorter legs / 26er FTW :moon: Light mods, nothing major but setup exactly how I like.
- XT levels / calipers with avid 185mm rotors
- cateye trip comp
- recon 351 fork with Fox rp2
- 2.35rear maxxis with 2.3 forte front tire(s)
- Cateye trip comp (think it is an urban model)
- Forte bar ends
- No clips - just flats for me
- Changed to an 18spd with rock ring
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This has been a crappy season so far. We've had precipitation 22 of the 25 days of this month so far. It's been the wettest spring in 20 years here so riding has been extremely limited.
Buffalo Creek is my favorite place to ride and Little Scraggy is my favorite trail in that trail system. It just got completed last year as an out and back from the main trail area to a campground, the next two years it's getting a section added to loop it back into the Colorado Trail.
My in-laws are in town so of course the trails are drying now so yesterday we took them out to Buff Creek to hike the Little Scraggy trail. It's such a well designed trail that with the exception of a couple climbs it's flowy enough to feel downhill in both directions despite being about 10 miles round trip with 1500ish feet of elevation gain. Because it's so flowy I have to much fun to really stop on the bike to get pics, since we were on foot I took a ton of pictures.
Buffalo Creek is my favorite place to ride and Little Scraggy is my favorite trail in that trail system. It just got completed last year as an out and back from the main trail area to a campground, the next two years it's getting a section added to loop it back into the Colorado Trail.
My in-laws are in town so of course the trails are drying now so yesterday we took them out to Buff Creek to hike the Little Scraggy trail. It's such a well designed trail that with the exception of a couple climbs it's flowy enough to feel downhill in both directions despite being about 10 miles round trip with 1500ish feet of elevation gain. Because it's so flowy I have to much fun to really stop on the bike to get pics, since we were on foot I took a ton of pictures.
Here's another trail we normally ride that we hiked with the family yesterday. This is a short one, it's only 1.1 miles but with around 700 feet of elevation gain. Its roughly an 11% average grade but peaks out around 22%. It sucks to ride it up but it's a blast to ride down. The trail system is kinda like the shape of glasses, the top main area of the trail has 2 one way loops that alternate directions once a month, with a 2 way connector section between them, then from the furthest out sections on each loop there is a link trail connecting it to the canyon roads on each side. This is one of the link trails.
From the bottom up
From the top back down - you can go HAM and rally the shit out of this trail (except for stopping to give uphill riders the right of way)
From the bottom up
From the top back down - you can go HAM and rally the shit out of this trail (except for stopping to give uphill riders the right of way)
