revtothelimit - motorbike forum

But you can't beat cocking your leg over your bike, rollbag on back seat and having a few days away with your mates.

Dodgy knees wrote: Mon Mar 01, 2021 6:58 pm But you can't beat cocking your leg over your bike, rollbag on back seat and having a few days away with your mates.

Very rare I've been able to or even ever done it.

Dodgy knees wrote: Mon Mar 01, 2021 6:58 pm But you can't beat cocking your leg over your bike, rollbag on back seat and having a few days away with your mates.

I haven't done that since the early 90s, the mate I used to go away with died in a bike accident in 1995, we had some great times camping in the Peak District

I totally get it. I'd rather ride my (cheap, old) MTB than my motorbike. I've tried an eMTB and I liked it but I'm fine on the old pedal pusher.

I still like motorbikes, I think I'll get another at some stage. But for now owning or riding one's not really for me; and that's fine.

Potter wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 3:19 am Time of year innit.
Wait until summer and hopefully you'll be able to go for a ride on your motorcycle through the moors, pull over, have a brew and enjoy the day, then you'll probably find you really enjoy it.

In 2019 I just went off for the day on my old 500 and rode through the north moors on a spectacularly sunny day and I distinctly remember thinking that life doesn't get better. I parked the bike and just had half an hour sitting there absorbing it all.

I go through fazes, in the 90's it was track days, in the early 2000's it was MTBs and I did all the stuff you're talking about now, then my MTB mate moved down south so I got into running and road cycling, then track days again, then MTBs again (I went and bought an Orange), then motocross, etc. Then desert riding, then trackdays again, lol, it just goes round and round.

Right now I'd give up my bike any day twice over to go sailing. It's where my heads at. I have a lot of stress at work, covid is a bastard and I need the silence and tranquillity of sailing on a beautiful ocean where problems don't seem to matter so much.

EMTB? Yeah probably, if I was in the UK and my mates/boy was doing it, I could see that ticking a box for me, you just need what you need.

deffo, for all these johnny-come-latelys Me and Crust have been at this MTB lark for nearly 15 years now

Potter wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 8:26 am If I had a go now I'd be a 'born-again' MTB'er

Loads of that about and i can only see it as a good thing, people coming back to it is just awesome to me. I love seeing them finding the simplicitiy, the silence (well, not with fucking ebikes there's not) and the fun of being out.
Part of it for me is the ability to ride in all conditions. Partly because i class mud as part of the game, but also due to self generating heat you don't get as cold as you would on a motorbike.

Unlike some, i also enjoy the spannering. The time in the garage is almost as well spent as time out on the trails, plus you get the instant benefit of it, with MTBs you can really feel differences, be it a gearing issue you sort, or a suspension tweak, a new saddle, new brakes, you feel them in so much more detail than on a motorbike and the reward is instant.

Then throwing in the pleasure of doing something outside your comfort zone, well that's tough to beat. I know i've said it more than once, but on a motorbike i can't find or push limits, i just got 'my speed' but on a MTB i can session things, i can try new things, push new limits. I can do something i look at and think is impossible, OK, not straight away, but over the course of a day or 3, i can push the limits on time and time again with incremental gains to get to something i thought was first impossible for me.

One of them was this jump at Swinley skills area. It may not look massive to many here, but this one really pushed me on and the elation on the day i completed it, well, it was something else
Swinleyjump3 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2020-01-11_12-38-14 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

The landing is about the distance of the stump that's cut down and as you come to the jump it looks MASSIVE !!!! Even though to many people it's a baby jump LOL....

Weeksy, ride a dirt bike in thick mud and the last thing you'll be bothered about is getting cold, it's much harder work than riding an EMTB in mud.

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:30 am Weeksy, ride a dirt bike in thick mud and the last thing you'll be bothered about is getting cold, it's much harder work than riding an EMTB in mud.

I've got absolutely no interest in riding a dirt-bike, just none at all. I'm not sure why, but it just doesn't appeal to me.

weeksy wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:34 am

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:30 am Weeksy, ride a dirt bike in thick mud and the last thing you'll be bothered about is getting cold, it's much harder work than riding an EMTB in mud.

I've got absolutely no interest in riding a dirt-bike, just none at all. I'm not sure why, but it just doesn't appeal to me.

They're fun on an MX track, but for trail riding I'd rather use an EMTB, a bit like a tarmac bike is fun on a track day but a bit dull just riding round on the road.

weeksy wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:34 am

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:30 am Weeksy, ride a dirt bike in thick mud and the last thing you'll be bothered about is getting cold, it's much harder work than riding an EMTB in mud.

I've got absolutely no interest in riding a dirt-bike, just none at all. I'm not sure why, but it just doesn't appeal to me.

Part of the fun to me is the exploration. No other vehicle will go where we go.

Yorick wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 1:26 pm

weeksy wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:34 am

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:30 am Weeksy, ride a dirt bike in thick mud and the last thing you'll be bothered about is getting cold, it's much harder work than riding an EMTB in mud.

I've got absolutely no interest in riding a dirt-bike, just none at all. I'm not sure why, but it just doesn't appeal to me.

Part of the fun to me is the exploration. No other vehicle will go where we go.

And the same here, due to restrictions of byways and BOATs no other vehicle is allowed in a large number of places we ride too, the seclusion, the views, just being outside in the middle of nowhere basically.

weeksy wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 1:28 pm

Yorick wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 1:26 pm

weeksy wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:34 am

I've got absolutely no interest in riding a dirt-bike, just none at all. I'm not sure why, but it just doesn't appeal to me.

Part of the fun to me is the exploration. No other vehicle will go where we go.

And the same here, due to restrictions of byways and BOATs no other vehicle is allowed in a large number of places we ride too, the seclusion, the views, just being outside in the middle of nowhere basically.

Sorry. I meant that it was physically impossible for any other vehicle to go where we go.
Some mental terrain here

Yorick wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 1:30 pm

weeksy wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 1:28 pm

Yorick wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 1:26 pm
Part of the fun to me is the exploration. No other vehicle will go where we go.

And the same here, due to restrictions of byways and BOATs no other vehicle is allowed in a large number of places we ride too, the seclusion, the views, just being outside in the middle of nowhere basically.

Sorry. I meant that it was physically impossible for any other vehicle to go where we go.
Some mental terrain here

and again, the same here Although arguably i guess dirt bikes could get to some if they were allowed

weeksy wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 1:33 pm

Yorick wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 1:30 pm

weeksy wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 1:28 pm

And the same here, due to restrictions of byways and BOATs no other vehicle is allowed in a large number of places we ride too, the seclusion, the views, just being outside in the middle of nowhere basically.

Sorry. I meant that it was physically impossible for any other vehicle to go where we go.
Some mental terrain here

and again, the same here Although arguably i guess dirt bikes could get to some if they were allowed

Aha. So we both enjoy the peace and quiet.

It's awesome getting to the top of a new volcano and knowing very few folk have been up.
These modern enduro bikes are awesome. They do what my trials bike could do 20 years ago.
But with 50 gee gees to climb mental ascents.

Potter wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 8:26 am
I had a Raleigh Bomber with cowhorns, the original MTB
I've also still got my Diamondback Topanga that I bought some time in the 90's, I put early Rock Shox on it and hit the new downhill courses being made in The Lakes.

If I had a go now I'd be a 'born-again' MTB'er

Call that an original MTB ?

As a yoof a group of us built a track in the woods, in and out of an old sand quarry. We built our own MTBs from scrap bikes scavenged from the local tip, they rarely lasted more than a couple of laps because there was a big drop of about 8 feet into the bottom of the quarry.

Old beaten up bikes were the original MTBs, fancy stuff came later.

It's the accessibility of riding a mountain bike that is the best thing for me. I've said it on here before but where I live on Cannock chase there is loads of decent riding right on the doorstep. If motorcycles were allowed on the chase I would have something like a KTM 250 exc and probably walk past the mountain bikes every time,but they aren't so a mountain bike is the next best thing, even more so now I have an ebike.
I enjoy the odd day out on the motorbike and use it for the trip to work when the weather is good but I much prefer off road riding, but there aren't any green lanes within an hour or so of here .
Too many cars, cameras , potholes etc on the roads for me nowadays to properly enjoy the roads and a day out to Wales with the lads is followed by a couple of weeks worrying a NIP
might drop through the letterbox.

Cousin Jack wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 2:30 pm

Potter wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 8:26 am
I had a Raleigh Bomber with cowhorns, the original MTB
I've also still got my Diamondback Topanga that I bought some time in the 90's, I put early Rock Shox on it and hit the new downhill courses being made in The Lakes.

If I had a go now I'd be a 'born-again' MTB'er

Call that an original MTB ?

As a yoof a group of us built a track in the woods, in and out of an old sand quarry. We built our own MTBs from scrap bikes scavenged from the local tip, they rarely lasted more than a couple of laps because there was a big drop of about 8 feet into the bottom of the quarry.

Old beaten up bikes were the original MTBs, fancy stuff came later.

We used to raise the bottom brackets and get the local garage to weld or braze them back up, we used to make extended forks by curing the bottoms of a one pair and sliding the legs over before welding them up, and our favourite in the days before changeable chain rings was to Nick the crank of a kiddie trike, cut of the chain ring and weld it to adult pedal arms ...motox handlebars packed out with old coke cans... etc etc

Gedge wrote: Thu Mar 04, 2021 1:15 pm We used to raise the bottom brackets and get the local garage to weld or braze them back up, we used to make extended forks by curing the bottoms of a one pair and sliding the legs over before welding them up, and our favourite in the days before changeable chain rings was to Nick the crank of a kiddie trike, cut of the chain ring and weld it to adult pedal arms ...motox handlebars packed out with old coke cans... etc etc

#
We also invented the throwaway culture.

One evening scavenging, three evenings bolting bits together, one evening riding, throw it all away and start again.

Welding? That was serious stuff, at 13 we didn't know about welding.

Cousin Jack wrote: Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:26 pm

Gedge wrote: Thu Mar 04, 2021 1:15 pm We used to raise the bottom brackets and get the local garage to weld or braze them back up, we used to make extended forks by curing the bottoms of a one pair and sliding the legs over before welding them up, and our favourite in the days before changeable chain rings was to Nick the crank of a kiddie trike, cut of the chain ring and weld it to adult pedal arms ...motox handlebars packed out with old coke cans... etc etc

#
We also invented the throwaway culture.

One evening scavenging, three evenings bolting bits together, one evening riding, throw it all away and start again.

Welding? That was serious stuff, at 13 we didn't know about welding.

We had a friendly neighbour that we would pop in and get him to do stuff ... I think anything to get rid of us out of his workshop ....