Haha it was like 500m from his house on the way! Yeah I reckon, screw the rear brake! :P
Hardout Cyclist
Haha it was like 500m from his house on the way! Yeah I reckon, screw the rear brake! :P
For whom the bell tolls
The reason i didnt start up a AU SMC when i was there was the fear that I would end up going on rides less experienced than myself, and that would lead to a situation like you are in now.
When you go on rides you need to make sure before hand that people can ride confidently on the open road. And also that they ride with people that are at a similar pace to them, and to make sure that they are under no pressure what so ever to try and 'perform'.
As much as the monday night 'learn to ride' may or may not work, i don't think it is the best way to learn. The best way is to have information fed to you in a structured way that allows you to take the information on board, fully explained, and then put it into practice on the bike. This is where RRRS comes into it's own.
With extra skill people will learn to ride better, unfortunately it is most likely that they feel they now have the ability to ride faster (which they probably do). The problem is that the increase in ability to handle a bike at speed is not matched by the ability to stop or perform an evasive emergency maneuver at that speed and they end up getting themselves into trouble.
I now choose to ride only with people I know, and at most with one or two people that I don't. I have the balls to tell someone they are riding like a fuckwit - as much as am able to accept the criticism and pull my head in.
KiwiBitcher
where opinion holds more weight than fact.
It's better to not pass and know that you could have than to pass and find out that you can't. Wait for the straight.
r4q2
It's simple....... most bins wins..... or is that win or bin.....
Harden the fuck up KB
Hey Macstar good thread.
The Course thing won't help the likes of people like Skidmark. When they have a need for speed it just takes time and stuff ups to slow them down. (the guy sounds like a immature cock so I take his comments with a grain of salt)
As for the rest of you guys binning it and claiming to be going slow. Get a push bike and compliment your motorcycling skills with it. Skinny tyres for one make your reactions a lot better and teach good cornering and braking skills. Funny watching my daughter last week in Rotorua work out pulling the front brake whist cornering is not a good idea. She is 7 and did it at 10km/hr on a offroad track on a pushbike. A newbie bike rider going 70k/hr and learning the same mistake on the open road - it doesn't need to happen.
I rode bmx since I was a kid and then raced mtb competitively for 15 years before getting on a motorbike. That's why I struggle with "you have to bin to learn how to ride comments". Its utter bullshit. I intend to never bin my bike and to use it as an excuse for the learning process. Its a record I intend to keep and it means more to me than getting a knee down whilst taking corners fast, stoppies and wheelies (actually stuff you can do on a mtb). I ride to the conditions and at what some would call the pace.
Gain some skills on two wheels without a motor and you will find the learning phase of riding a motorbike is a lot easier. Making all these mistakes on the open road, regardless of how you are riding is still crazy.
When the Wellington Adventure riding guys caught up with me out the coast when I was on my GN they were surprised that I had only been riding a motorbike for a couple of weeks total of my 29 years walking this earth. Fact was I had been on two wheels for 26 of them already and it wasn't a big deal having a motor pushing me along.
Doesn't make me overconfident because I get that on a pushbike. Its when we are pushing each other to go faster or jump further that someone bins it. But worst injury I have had was a face plant into some rocks in all the 15 years racing.
If you want a speed thrill, then hit a down hill at 50km/hr through trees and jumps and if that doesn't give it to you, then do it again but faster. Holding that edge on a mtb can be more than a buzz as doing it at 140 on a motorbike.
Xmas last year my kids got push bikes and we head off to Rotorua and Taupo a few times a month. Teaches you an appreciation for speed and the hurt it can cause. Our neighbors kids got 50cc motorbikes and were hooning around school. One went into the fence at full speed and he got off lightly. Which kids are learning the better skills (and fighting the obesity epidemic at the same time ? )
Big ups to the guys wanting to learn but the real newbies should be proficient on a push bike first, and the confident newbies wanting to learn stoppies and monos etc try them on a push bike first.
Hardcore Biker
yer, keep learning how the bike behaves, brake with both front and rear but remember that rear brake is certainly alot grippier than the drum gn oneOriginally Posted by Ragingrob
Although, I am proud of myself for being able to save the bail considering I've had no bin experience.And I plan to keep it that way!
Forum whore
i do agree, but it never even occurred to me that people haven't ridden a pushbike at some point... i mean, now you mention it maybe it isn't all that common for kids to spend a few years on a pushbike before getting a motorbike.... but where would they learn balance?
but i will note that learning to ride a motorbike on a dirtbike is a very good idea, as you learn alot of things that you don't learn on a pushbike as they are specific to having an engine powering a heavy vehicle with a clutch and power that keeps coming even if you aren't
both me and my brother started on dirtbikes after a few years of pedal power and we haven't had a "lost control/fucked up/too fast for skill/corner" crash between us in a combined 5 years on the road... and we're both bloody nuts
(have had two crashes; my recent bin due to not paying any attention/possibly sleeping and his 4wd incident where driver was at fault)
and btw, those kids will be fitter that a mountain biker if they keep up the motox - apparently two seperate studies of athletes both confirmed that motox riders had the best cardio-vascular fitness of any athletic sport, able to hold heartrates upwards of 160bpm for 30 minutes - which is scary quite frankly. apparently some guys could do 180 for that long but i'm pretty sure that'd kill you.
but don't beleive me? you try hauling 100kg of steel at high speed over rough terrain where most your suspension is ultimately in your legs and arms
oh, and assuming you're 26 or older, perhaps you've grown out of the "indestructible" mental phase that most 15-25 year olds seem to be in.... can't wait till my insurance company gives me a big box of skill for my 25th birthday
e mare libertas
That is not impressive.
The last half-marathon I did, I was wearing a HR monitor, and I ran at 170-180bpm for two hours.
Cyclists will typically ride at 160-190bpm for several hours at a time for an endurance race.
Not that it's not good exercise, but I'd say that MXing giving you better cardiovascular fitness than running, cycling, rowing etc is bollocks.
kiwibiker is full of love, an disrespect.
- mikey
Forum whore
really? well then that figure of 180 must ave been ligit.... i thought the mechanical limit of the heart was 180 so thought it must've been 160.... you tried riding a dirtbike seriously for MX or enduro? if not, you have no idea... any other dirt riders going to comment here?
That is not impressive.
The last half-marathon I did, I was wearing a HR monitor, and I ran at 170-180bpm for two hours.
Cyclists will typically ride at 160-190bpm for several hours at a time for an endurance race.
Not that it's not good exercise, but I'd say that MXing giving you better cardiovascular fitness than running, cycling, rowing etc is bollocks.
Moped rider
I dont know bout the heart rate thing but i can say that i learnt to ride when i was 4years old and have ridden since then. I have raced MX competitively and my riding equates to more that 25 years worth on my own and i can say that in my own mind that, going for a ride on a Mountain bike or BMX is a damn site more exercise to me than going for a trail ride...I mean go for a 2 hour cycle ride....and then try to make you MX tank of fuel last 2 hours NON STOP at a PACE that KEEPS your heart rate up there.....Pffft..
Sorry man im with Jrandom on this one.
I rode to a friends house in the rain, he asked me if times were that tough, I said you wouldnt understand and if you did understand you would not have asked me that.....a ride is a ride....
e mare libertas
Have you tried riding a mountainbike seriously?
I've raced the Karapoti trail loop on a hardtail MTB. Tell anyone that it's just as much work on an MX bike as an MTB and you'll get laughed at. I've see plenty of soft-looking middle-aged sorts and young kids happily heading out there with motorcycles who'd die if they tried doing that 50km under their own steam.
Not saying that riding motorcycles fast offroad isn't hard work, but, come on.
kiwibiker is full of love, an disrespect.
- mikey
yes Sir!
you have to learn from the bins.
yours and other peoples.
like ive been reminded the importance of actually tipping into the corner 3 times since uni finished.
go to the track and get used to doing stuff at 5x the speed of road riding.
SHARPEN UP
Forum whore
Hmmm, I do both and would still rate MX more physically demanding...
e mare libertas
Oh.
Well, all right then...
kiwibiker is full of love, an disrespect.
- mikey
Forum whore
firstly, do some enduro man! you aren't riding hard enough
me and my mate will go to a trail ride or a bike park and be the first on the track and the last to leave... even the bikes struggle to keep up with us - we start running low on petrol, coolant and cable ties by the end of the day
yes, to be fair, pedalling is hard work, and yes i have tried MTB but it was mostly downhill after the easy ride up the hill, and that was back when i had a pedal bike so i was used to it
gotta hand it to you guys though, i find mtb scary being on such a light, narrow bike... i just never trust the tyres
MX i find is really hard on you for 30 minutes, and enduro is slightly less hard-out but for alot longer and by the end of the day, once the adrenaline wears off, you can hardly move, let alone load the bikes back in the van
it's weird - you're going flat tack over whoops and all sorts, can feel the muscles in your legs and arms burning but the adrenaline keeps you going.... then you crash and have to pick the bike up, drag it out of the ditch, and try to kick start the damn thing and it's flooded! it's when i'm kickstarting i realise my heart is pounding so hard my whole chest can feel it and i'm puffing so much it's not funny... bike starts and i'm off again
get back to carpark - skull a litre of watered down fruit juice and head out again
and then spend the next day shuffling round like an old man
which is weird because while i can keep that up for a personal record of 8 hours riding the bike with 10 minute stops for fuel every 2.5 hours, there's no way i could keep that up running or cycling without the adrenaline
e mare libertas
'Proper' downhill MTBing is for people with the reflexes of a 12-year-old and too little imagination to be scared of death.
Shudder.
Cycling tends to be mostly about going uphill. Try pedalling 500 nonstop vertical metres at a 10% grade over a rocky, muddy trail.
If you can make it to the top without getting off and crawling or stopping to vomit, you're a harder man than most.
kiwibiker is full of love, an disrespect.
- mikey
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