My bikes evolved through the 90's into 8 inch travel downhill missiles, I took the next logical step and added a motor without ever riding a motorcycle. I feel it was a natural evolution.
Maybe road biking is being promoted, but mountain bike trails are being closed just as fast as dirt bike trails. That's thanks to the (elitist) Sierra Club + hikers + equestrians that have convinced the gov't to ban all mechanized travel from so many trails. Even trails that were created/improved by mountain bikers. It's very very sad.
I grew up riding dirtbikes....jr50 to kx250...I've also been paid to ride mountain bikes (barely broke even). Fat guys can be fast on dirtbikes...not so on mountain bikes. I can look at the field in a mtb race and pick off the guys who have no chance...but I've been beaten in hare scrambles by fat guys who are twice my age.
Sooo you can pedal a bike, But suck at riding motorcycles....is that your only point..?. I used to ride dirtbikes with a guy that was a sponsered mountain biker also.. we got sick of waiting for him and he could never hang with us....
IDK about Yater, but my brain goes kinda haywire past about 25-30mph. Slower and more technical stuff? Great! Bring it on. The nastier the better. Fast, open, swoopy stuff? Brain isn't useta handling all that info that fast. I blame 20+ years of bicycling. Lots of it off-road. I've gotten used to going X speed. Slower is OK. Faster is tough. M
You gotta come out west! The ascents SUCK but holy crap you can get screaming on some of the descents out here! You can easily reach dirt bike speeds!
That's exactly my point. I can bury myself physically to beat someone on a bicycle because they drop before I do.... But fat 50yr old dudes on dirtbikes kill me. Oh...I hit 48mph on my mountain bike during the ouachita challenge in '08. Finished 10th of 200. I've been fucking up lately, but hope to get back there.
Point being that you don't have to 'train' nearly as much or be nearly as physically fit to twist a throttle and hang on. Mind you I'm not saying there's no skill involved. We've all ridden off-road and know that there is. M
Ok forget about the fat dudes at the harescramble for one second.. Look at the professionals..!!!... do you see allot of fat guys racing motocross on TV...???....how about arenacross,supercross,endurocross..??..any fat dudes.??.. superbike,grand prix..?...No,anybody... still no.!! Just because some fat belly dudes enjoy the sport does not mean the sport is easy..Motocross racing and riding is considered one of the toughest sports in the world..
I hardly ever got to ride my dirt bike, so I kept milder d/s and sold the straight dirt two smoker and bought a better mtb...and now i get to consistently ride the trail we would love to ride on dirt bikes but can't, also i got even better at picking good lines and my conditioning is better. it was a good choice as most my dirt bike did was sit in the garage waiting for those few, all too few, times a year to be ridden. If I lived elsewhere, I would have kept it and stuck to it, the way it is, with the amount of time I have, it was a good choice. One more thing, get a good mtb, just like with enduro bikes, it will make it a lot better experience and things wont break (as much).
No, but that's who Yater's talking about. There's some seriously fat fcks around these parts. Many of whom are faster than I am off-road on a MC. Fitness-wise, I'll outlast em. Skill-wise, they're better than I am. M
That's my point. I started riding moto on a jr50 when I was 4y/o. Some guys are just really good on dirtbikes. I'm not. But I can rip on a bicycle...and if I'm in shape, it sucks for everyone else.
A couple of reasons why I (sometimes) prefer bikes to motorcycles: I was riding my dualsport on a trail through the woods awhile back and saw a bird flying through the tree tops, when I craned my neck to look at it, I hit some bumps and nearly crashed into the trees. A couple of weeks ago on my bicycle I was riding along a lakeshore in the suburbs and I saw a bald eagle sitting on the shoreline 30 yards away. I stopped, turned around and went back to take a picture, but the eagle took off when I was trying to get my camera out. Simultaneously with the eagle taking off, a loon started calling out on the lake. I would have completely missed the whole experience had I been on a motorcycle at the time.
I have seen more animals on my dualsport then walking or biking... it is nice and quiet so animals don't even know you are coming of course when I am biking they probably here me panting way before I get there..