Have developments in MTB'ing made you a better rider?

[makster]

I have met Letmetalktomark and he does look like that.

Well, at least he's happy

 

[ferrus]

4"+ of ineptitude filtration help to smooth out a bad line choice. Real skill shows when you can ride a rigid bike, spotting the smooth line, just as fast. To get back to the question, modern inovations make life better sometimes. Yes, disk brakes are brilliant when it comes to a wet muddy ride. They don't make you a better rider just a rider with more choices.

Exactly.
I see loads of guys these days just steaming through with no finesse at all. A rigid bike forces you to develop handling skills and trail awareness. OK, modern bike potential might improve your skills so that you're even better on a rigid, but if suspension's all you've known it's easy to miss out on the basic technique stuff and just be clumsy.

 

[Neil]

4"+ of ineptitude filtration help to smooth out a bad line choice. Real skill shows when you can ride a rigid bike, spotting the smooth line, just as fast. To get back to the question, modern inovations make life better sometimes. Yes, disk brakes are brilliant when it comes to a wet muddy ride. They don't make you a better rider just a rider with more choices.

Exactly.
I see loads of guys these days just steaming through with no finesse at all. A rigid bike forces you to develop handling skills and trail awareness. OK, modern bike potential might improve your skills so that you're even better on a rigid, but if suspension's all you've known it's easy to miss out on the basic technique stuff and just be clumsy.

+1

And I know the normal argument is that suspension allows you to ride stuff that's either tres difficult, or not really possible on a rigid bike - but to be completely honest, I'm not interested in such extremes.

Being able to handle a rigid bike through trails is an art, and makes you feel connected with it. So it may be easier, perhaps faster, perhaps more extreme, or perhaps de-skilled with suspension, but then I'm not trying to make an omelette.

 

[BarneyRubble]

I think that having learnt my skills over the years from a fully ridgid early 90's MTB, to my 5" Ellsworth today has made my riding evolve. When I ride retro it is a different game all together, trying to connect nice flowing lines and preserving momentum, whilst avoiding the bigger drops (at speed anyway). When I ride my modern bike it IS more extreme. I can go faster and use the skills honed on the retro bike and through 20 years of riding off road to push myself and give myself a bit of a fright occasionally. I would still kick my own arse up a climb on the retro steed v the modern, but I would sure as hell make it back up down a rocky descent where I can brake later and take bigger hits.

Different era's, different disciplines.

This argument is a bit like saying that learning to drive in a classic sports car with no driver aids like traction control or ABS will make you a more skillful driver as you will learn to test the limits of grip and the brakes. You will have more finesse, but that doesn't mean that a pleb in a Nissan GTR couldn't whip your ass round the ring!

 

[MJN]

But it does mean that those plebs that turn up at trail centres on their 5/6" FS machines can't even get close against you on your rigid singlespeed,up or down hill
I guess in terms of rider training starting with a fully rigid bike teaches you how to ride,then you can progress to front then full suspension rather than those with big wallets who just buy the latest wonder bike and expect it to come with a bucket of talent.
The only problem with all this FS technology though is when you get sick of maintaining all the pivots and having to send shocks away for servicing etc,then you regress and hopefully all those old skills are still there

 

[BarneyRubble]

The only problem with all this FS technology though is when you get sick of maintaining all the pivots and having to send shocks away for servicing etc,then you regress and hopefully all those old skills are still there

Amen to that! Nearly £100 for a shock service, £80 for forks, £50 for bearings etc etc. I love my full sus, but find myself riding it less because I don't want it to wear out!

 

[MJN]

Mine's on e-bay,to be replaced by a hardtail

 

[captain8track]

re:

well I rode a full sus in 94, it was a single pivot design and it worked just fine. I just got offered a better race bike and it was a rigid one with xtr, and I wanted to try it. It was a lot faster due to probarly more of the psychology of the thing. rode hardtails thru the 90's and FS with the boxxer/dho in the 4x discipline (dual slalom back in the day) and that bike had around 4" of back wheel travel. bought a santa cruz superlight last year which unfortenly was a tad to big for xc. full suspension climbs better when it's really gnarly and it goes faster downhill. the hardtail is faster because its lighter and well faster on the dirtroads.

more travel in front and discbrakes doesn't affect my time on a track whatsoever in the dry, but well offcourse a disc upfront is better in the wet but otherwise I¨m not sure.

If you are a experienced xc hardtail rider u could go even faster with an FS but if you are not, the fs will make u sloppy and cause a lot of punctures.

That being said I¨m going to try an FS bike next week, but Im not sure I will favour it over my Kona retro bike. it¨s not a single pivot as Im used to so hmm...

 

[Tad]

No, I've never ridden a modern bike, the developments have all passed me by.

 

[TheGreenRabbit]

No, Im still shit