UK "flow" biking.

[Gyre]

I love XC & I particularly love XC in the slop. A positive part of the experience for me is getting covered in shit, nothing says decent shift like having to hose down the bike & me at the end of a ride. I guess that makes me an outlier of some sort.

More power to you! Stuff like that makes me very glad I live in So Cal. I'd hate to have to maintain a bike in those conditions.

 

[Rahr85]

Ride what you enjoy, as long as it is legal don't worry about what anyone else thinks. I do all sorts of riding an enjoy each of them for what they offer, but there's no time to be wasted beyond that telling anyone else what to do.

 

[Gary]

GF wishes

 

[GrahamPaul]

Yes, I have cross country skis in the garage.

Sounds like my garage. Described by one of my mates as my "cave of broken dreams"

 

[R120]

Sounds like my garage. Described by one of my mates as my "cave of broken dreams"

I definitely have one of those caves too!

 

[Shinn]

"mountain biking" began as a marketing term coined by a bunch of cali stoners making their own bikes to race down dull featureless fireroads at fairly high speeds.
The meaning evolved and left the cali mountains 40 years ago.
Do keep up at the back.

It's called repack hill on mt tamapalias (not spelled correctly) in Marin County. I lived in the area for a number of years, much of the "classic" single-track from those days is gone now, or at least it was 10-15 years ago. I guess the land owners became tired of others having fun.

 

[Shinn]

I rode for 20 years then didn't for 10 or so, two years back at it and find the flow trails quite enjoyable but was confused by them at first, many of my local-ish areas have both flow and hand cut trials which is nice for someone like me that grew up on old school single-track (and road racing) can have both when I travel to those areas.

I've never ridden a lift with my bike, but plan to in the near future when I get back up north again. I remember years ago when living in Colorado joking with friends during a 10 mile grind to the top that we - wished the ski areas would open the lifts during the summer...

 

[Gary]

It's called repack hill on mt tamapalias (not spelled correctly) in Marin County. I lived in the area for a number of years, much of the "classic" single-track from those days is gone now, or at least it was 10-15 years ago. I guess the land owners became tired of others having fun.

Yeah. Meanwhile all over the UK we were also riding our geared cowhorn handle bar bikes off road up and down hills occasionally racing each other.
The only original thing about Charlie and the rest of those Cali stoners story is coming up with the name.

 

[Shinn]

Yeah. Meanwhile all over the UK we were also riding our geared cowhorn handle bar bikes off road up and down hills occasionally racing each other.
The only original thing about Charlie and the rest of those Cali stoners story is coming up with the name.

I don't doubt that one bit, but can confirm that much of the sought after single track in area became illegal to ride due to trespassing.

Luckily I moved there for work - and mostly to be closer to the climbing in Yosemite of course....

 

[Doomanic]

If there isn't a banging descent after a hard climb then I've just ridden the wrong climb.

Yesterday I rode the wrong climb; long boring slog up a fire road to get a banging view of Snowdon followed by a long boring, but fast, descent on a fire road. Dull, dull, dull.

 

[Gary]

Go faster!

 

[Doomanic]

Go faster!

fast

Speedo was showing 41.something at one point. It was still dull.

 

[simonk]

Speedo was showing 41.something at one point. It was still dull.

Blindfold?

Wouldn’t have been able to see the speedo though I suppose…

 

[Doug Stampfer]

I love XC & I particularly love XC in the slop. A positive part of the experience for me is getting covered in shit, nothing says decent shift like having to hose down the bike & me at the end of a ride. I guess that makes me an outlier of some sort.

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View attachment 63193

Funny if you had your bike that dirty around here you'd get black looks - rooting the tracks up is a big no-no

 

[RustyMTB]

Funny if you had your bike that dirty around here you'd get black looks - rooting the tracks up is a big no-no

 

[dobbyhasfriends]

Speaking as an old-skool "get out with a day pack and explore raw countryside" biker (which, BTW, emtb-ing has expanded and enabled massively in terms of distances and terrain capability), YT videos of those in-the-woods "flow" trails and their near-cousins bike park jump trails, to me, have started to look identical to each other.

Although there's nothing wrong with fairground rides per se and I'm not trying to diss them, I think that that's exactly what they are.

They're so distant from anything that could be described as "mountain biking" that the activity should really be called "Flow Biking" as a matter of course, don't you think?

Discuss.

I get it. my experience has been as follows.

riding 20+ years, when I started there were no real sculpted trails where I was, trail centres were a new thing and I went to Coed Y Brenin and Aston Hill in the early 2000's but the trails were still pretty 'natural' as I remember them, rarely a sculpted berm to rail etc. so my experience or riding is the same as you, take a large backpack and clear off for a huge ride.

so when I bought my first ebike about 18 months ago, I had taken a long time off to play rugby and I thought everything would be the same.

so I bought the bike and rode the local forest and the Brecon Beacons, all natural stuff but I started watching youtube riders and wondered what it would be like so I went to Cwm Rhaeadr which is a red trail designed and made by Rowan Sorrel (bike park Wales) and I didnt enjoy it, it felt really weird in a way that I couldnt describe, perhaps I just felt that I was restricted to one line on singletrack when I was used to taking any route I liked in the natural terrain..
anyway, fast forward a bit and I gave it another go and enjoyed it way more, I really wondered why and I think its the bikes.
the bikes are so much more capable than the last one I bought in 2002 and this means that to feel as endangered as I did before, I had to ride harder stuff, which means, getting it into bike parks and trails designed for them.

so basically, on my current bike im a far faster (not better) rider than I was before and then you need to find more challenging trails or its simply a boring ride.
bikes have changed so it makes sense that mountain biking itself would change..
blah blah blah

 

[Gary]

Weird. Who said anything about hating.

I said "hating OR dismissing "
Your entire first post is dismissive.
And YOU asked us to "discuss". That's what my reply was doing.

Yeah. Weird AF

 

[BOTG]

I can't think of anything more tedious than mile after mile of bridleway, regardless of the scenery. I like a nice a view as much as the next old fart, but if I'm on my bike I prefer it to be whizzing past.

I've been riding since the late '80's and that's what mountain biking has been about for me since then.

Very few XC rides are miles of endless flat boring Bridleway. Not in my experience over last 12-15 years. You have to plan and mix it up. Love me some xc. Gnarlu up and dh, fast road sections, moors bridleways. /b\

Iv just ridden Hope Valley and Jacobs ladder, plus 4000+ft week before, So is that XC or MTB? its both they are in essence the same to me.

 

[Doomanic]

The bike’s in the shop this weekend so I took the dog out for a run by the river. If it’s not too gnar for you #bridlewayboys I’m happy to share a gpx of the route, just don’t get too upset if you can’t match my pace…

Gratuitous dog shot…