When riding singletrack on a MTB you can see and hear so much more of what's going on around you. On a motorcycle you have to focus on your line or end up tagging a tree. I love playing golf for the environment as much as the game. It's like walking through a well manicured garden.
Trees don't make a noise before they jump out infront of you. Really. I loved riding my dirt bike over the local golf course when I was a lad.
Our local golf course was right in my buddy's back yard. We used to go out on the fairways when it snowed and do powerslides. Broke my collarbone the first time at age 15 doing them on my Yammie 175!!
Mountain biking is an awesome activity. Don't knock me but ATGATT goes for biking as well, those rocks still hurt bad even if only going 10-15mph!
We work together and pick clean lines. Just don't ask "where can you ride THAT"? Anywhere you can on that single seater, sonny.
:huh:huh You are compring the same distance 8 miles on both...not exactly a good comparison.. Try to ride a 6 hour enduro or a 3.5 hour harescramble...
sure, try riding 24hrs of moab! there is is no way you can seriously compare mtb to internal combustion engine riding. sure a long enduro beats you up, but cycling will kick you ass a lot harder. that's why you get passed by a pot bellied, out of shape old dudes on your hare scramble, but from what i have seen, although experience in mtb xc counts, you better be in serious shape to even finish. back to regular programing, biking is great, skills transfer, many great moto riders ride mtbikes and road bikes to get/stay in shape. ben bostrom raced in moab and did great, and i hear spies was going to do it, too. these guys really move in road racing. best thing about mtbiking- so many places its hard to ride your dirt bike on some nice trails, not everyone lives in utah or co. but you can have some quality mtbiking almost anywhere.
We are not near Moab but Ashford is about three towns over and there is a 24 hour race there, I know a few folks that race it every year..! If you are getting passed by fatbelly riders when you do your harescramble it is because they are faster riders then you....!!! Have you heard of Supercross.. in Daytona last weekend watch that race and then talk about fitness..most pro dirt bikers ride bikes for training.. I have a feeling you don't do much racing.. Biking is a great for fitness and like motorbikes it is about how hard you are pushing your self...like Swimming,running, etc...etc.... This sounds like a few folks I have met over the years..."How hard can it be to ride a dirtbike it has a motor".......:huh:huh......Yeah...OK....
I've done 22 24hr races. 23 and 24 will be this summer. Doing the MTB Marathon this Sunday and in two weeks the Dyfi [Mountainbike] Enduro. There is a 24hr [motorbike] enduro race in the UK but I don't have the mental strength to even enter it (that and it clashes with one of the 24hr mtb races I do every year).
I switched back last year. I checked myself into a hospital last year for depression. I was there for two weeks. I guess I gave up on life. Went through a lot of crap unemployment,divorce etc. I know I needed a change and part of it was exercise. Got myself a full suspension and jumped back on the trails. where I live I have a ton of trails to choose from. And they are mostly uphill (ha-ha) Anyway the first few days I sucked. I rode through the pain, the soreness but now I ride because I am addicted to it but also it's a release for me. it feels like I can pedal away the anger, frustrations, the bullshit that I can't deal with. I believe people ride for different reasons and I ride to "recover". The answer is yes for me.
Thanks bro. I still have some rough days but it's been a while that I used to either lay in bed for half the day or sit outside kind of zoned out. Many of dark nights when I didn't think I could overcome my depression hence my vacation at the hospital. I'm going to do a race in pueblo in 11 days. 35 miles of single track I am not a pro but wanted to have an early season goal for myself.
I'm 35 with a 2-year-old so yes I've gone from riding dirt bikes a lot with a little mountain biking to riding mountain bikes a lot with a little dirt biking. Before my wife and I had our daughter, I was practice riding twice a week and racing enduro on Sundays. Now I'm lucky to race two to three enduros a year and ride two to three times a month. It's really easy for me to get time on the mountain bike since I have multiple loops out of my driveway that can go from quick 30-1 hour rides to full on 2 and 3 hour rides. I also do a lot of night riding too so it's just easier to get more mountain biking in now. If I want to, I can ride 6 to 8 hours a week before and after work without my wife even noticing. It's not an either or thing for me and I still see mountain biking as a means to an end... I do it because it's more fun than running and the skills/endurance make me a better motorcyclist, but yes I am doing more mountain biking than dirt biking right now. I recently sold all my geared parts and bought a Trek/Gary Fisher Rig. It's a singlespeed 29er hardtail. I'm in a lot of pain on my rides but loving the simplicity of no gears.
That looks a lot nicer than the trails in Memorial park that snake along the bayou! I've been riding Mt. Bikes for the last 20 years off and on (I still suck at it). Just started doing more riding since I came out here to California. The trails are beautiful but the hills are a real mother for a fat arse like myself. I did a little over 15 miles at Henry W. Coe a few weeks ago, I thought I was going to die after all that climbing but the trails were truly epic. I can ride on flatish trails for 90 mins no problem but running a 90 minute hare scramble is more draining, but nothing is tougher than pedaling up long climbs. Oh yeah and Mountain biking can easily exceed the cost of dirt biking. One of the local shops wanted $3000 for a Niner Rip9 with the SLX group! I demo'd the bike for a weekend and it was awesome, and I ended up building up a FS bike but for less than 1/3 the cost.
Motor: Noise and trailer 1-2 hours to riding area Pedal: Silent and ride 3 blocks to riding area Motor: Engine blows up, open wallet and cry. Pedal: Engine blows up, I sit on the corner and drink a RedBull. Motor: Riding areas continually under pressure and often close. Pedal: Federal budget to promote riding is increasing. (See NYTimes article on bike economics this morning). It is hard to compare and contrast and the two activites complement one another perfectly.