What Kind Of Rider Are You?
What Kind Of Rider Are You?
There are many mountain biking styles out there. While some like to sit and spin, others like to stand and hammer. I have done a lot of looking at how I ride a bike lately in my quest to become a better mountain biker. Through searching through my own mountain biking technique…I have come to several conclusions.
- I tend to pick harder gears and hammer it out.
- I ride heavier bikes than most of my fellow cycling addicts.
- My legs are perfect until mile 25 in the woods or 35 on the road…then things head south.
- I am more comfortable in higher heart-rates.
- I put a lot of trust into my large tires and suspension.
Ideally, to be a well rounded mountain biker, you would want to be comfortable in all riding styles…using them when needed.
My need to mash the harder gears really came to light during my newly found road biking. I found that I rarely ever left the big ring…at all. This directly correlates with my need to push bigger gears in mountain biking to power over instead of efficiently spin.
The characteristics of my riding style is a by-product of the type of riding that I enjoy the most…all mountain, super tech. It is also a necessity with higher rolling resistance of larger, more aggressive tires (2.4 even for xc riding) and extra weight I decide to carry around. There is a flip side to this that is self destructive in some ways. To truly increase my skill level to be better at the trails I enjoy the most, I also need to be proficient at the other styles.
Is the way I ride wrong? No…it is just the way I ride, but it does not work for all conditions…hence my quest at becoming better at all riding styles.
What Kind Of Rider Are You?
Time to take a look at your riding style. The idea here is to pick all of the answers that best suit how and what you ride. No right or wrong…just a poll to see where everyone else stands on the subject.
RSS feed readers…click here to enter your poll answers…
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Tags: mountain biking blog, mountain biking poll, mountain biking styles, mountain biking tips, riding tips, what kind of mountain biker are you, what kind of rider are you
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Unfortunately, I can check all the types, depending on the ride. Like you, I like to ride, and if that’s a 38# Bullit, a 28# assylum, a 27# Single Speed, or (weather forced) an 18# road bike, I’m OK.
I’m a couch potato for now!
but I ticked all, I hate labels!
when I do ride I ride with weels and everywhere, I’m passionate about riding and like to share the passion with other passionate people who just want to chill, not get caught up in stuff!
Re pedaling though I learnt through may years on road that cadence is important though!
But it has it’s limits in SSing and DHing or Djing/DSing there ya just have to hammer down, so why I ticked all boxes!
On ya TM though a good Cad can save ya legs for later, smooth on the hills flow on the downs, pick ya moes to rip, course depends who ya ride with, some riders just kill ya cause they like to wear ya down on the hills deliberately! lol
Enjoy the ride! nice article!
I’d have to say I’m the same as Tweety; Some days, if I’m feeling particularly masochistic, I’ll take my DH bike off for an XC ride. Other days I’ll be struggling to ride my XC bike to work (16km).
@TA @Tweety @adamcoop
In some form or fashion I would hope that we all fall under all of the categories…variety is always a good thing!
I’m almost in all points your opposite. I start at a cadence of 80 rpm all bikes, all terrain. I hate the boys competing who can get there the fastest – and have to take a break at the top for the next 20mins to catch their breath.
I play safe and walk.
I set my speed and stick to it – no picnic breaks.
I run into trouble about 2hrs into the ride but as I reach 3 I can go on for a long time.
Trust in the tires is good – confidence in skills is better. Otherwise (rarely)
Differences make us unique! Nice post.
Happy Trails!
I’m more of a weekend warrior than many of your readers. I chose sit and spin, because I rarely hammer. I save that for brief steep sections, an occasional break from spinning (it works a slightly different group of muscles and gives the bum a rest), or pieces of hilly trails where I know my brief uphill hammering will soon be rewarded by taking another downhill at speed.
My Marin is old (It was a cutting edge FS rig in 97)and does not have many original components left. I have broken most of them except the seat post and bar ends (yes I still love them). I would love to say it’s from my awsome hammering skills but in reality most of it’s from bad line choices and the ensuing crashes. I have no idea what a heart monitor does I use the old stand by that if I can hear my hertbeat in my ear I am pretty close to max heart rate. I look at climbing as paying the piper for the sweet fun of heading downhill and getting to pick another bad line!
I tend to hammer large gears, but have started to train in mid range gears to try and increase my pedaling wattage.
skipratts last blog post..it’s a state of mind