"BB" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
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> On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 17:09:09 -0500, kantspel wrote:
>
> > Dan, you should organize a group ride in north GA or someting, I know
> > I'd do my best to show up. The trails there are great and it sounds
> > like there would be good entertainment value as well.
>
> Of course, if you were going to ride with Dan, it could only be for the
> objective of seeing who could "smoke" who as you "duel it out" on the
> trail. Fine, if that's what you're into. You could swap training
> calculation tips over dinner.
>
> Personally, I'd rather ride with people who just enjoy mountain biking.
> That's what the AMB get-togethers tend to be. The guys in the back don't
> have to hear word one about how what a "loser" they are or how their bikes
> are "shitty". And no one considers it "messing up the ride for everone
> else" to wait for slower riders.
>
Its amazing how the regulars of this NG like to define good riding and a
good rider...Just a few examples from recent posts:
*****It doesn't matter how fast you are... ( yet there is constant
commenting about how SS rider blew this guy's doors off, or equivalent speed
remark)
*****The guys in the back don't have to hear word one about how what a
"loser" they are or how their bikes
are "shitty". ( Yet the SS crew is CONSTANTLY trashing full suspension
bikes, they constantly trash Treks, and they constantly trash forks that
aren't their favorite brand). They have taken this so far as to suggest that
SS riding is BETTER than full suspension riding, and is a "purer" and more
fulfilling form of the sport---and somehow they are completely unaware of
the self indulgence they are cultivating.
*****They like to say things like "mountain biking is about having fun", but
then ONLY they can determine the PROPER way to have fun on a mountain
bike---its not even so much something they could define here, its more like
something they will "know when they see it" ;-) , meaning when they are
doing it themselves, it must be the correct way. Racers apparently don't get
it ( they are all wrong about how to have fun), people on Full Sus bikes
apparently don't get it, since they are riding a huge monstrosity that
destroys the true spirit of mountain biking ( even though hiking would be
even purer and simpler/more basic, and then finally MV would be their
friend); maybe its Trials Riders on SS bikes who are the chosen few who get
it---they don't care about how fast they ride, they don't train aerobically,
they are constantly doing stunts too technical for other mountain bikers to
do, so they can somehow "look" cooler or better---maybe this is really what
its about...OR, maybe its the Freeride crowd---but it would be freeriders on
SS bikes----again, its not about the speed, just the craziness of the
obstacles they can jump over, and since they might spend 2 hours in a
section of trail 100 yards long, distance training , speed and aerobics can
be ignored, hell, it can be made fun of.
******"Fitness does not matter, it mostly skills" was another recent
paraphrase, and of course, they continue to want to bring the "REAL" riding
to mean riding an "11,000 vertical foot mountain, where huge aerobic base
and high red blood cell count are actually far more important than skills
( if comparing intermediate skills to advanced skills). If "it" was really
mostly about "skills", then a trail with less than 100 feet of vertical
should be fine to demonstrate what REAL riding is all about...
I should probably work this up into another 20 of these, but I don't have
time right now.
Dan V
