Confidence increases steadily until....

rollingscone

So I've landed in MTBing more less by accident after the 20 year old steel Raleigh my brother in law left in my parent's garage became my singlespeed city hack and I stated taking in loops of the Phoenix Park trails on my way home, later converting the wheels to ghetto tubeless and using it as a winter training alternative to road spins in foul weather until everything seized and it got too hard to source economical replacement parts (the frameset is currently await reincarnation as a Gravel-Stein by Harry Belafonte of this parish.

The bike was too big for me (at 6'3"...brother in law 6'7") and even after changing from Canti-s to more commuter friendly V- Brakes braking was never great.

Beyond the phoenix park trails and the Royal Canal I started to take in a bit of bull island (I suspect the sand may have been hub and BB killing) but always had the braking as an excuse not to try anything more technical.

When the beater MTB died right before the snow this year I was bereft and frustrated at the lack of an offroad alternative so I managed to get my hands on a Vitus Dee 29er (7 speed as the most discounted model and stripped off the gears and switched to XT wheels I had for my all rounder adventure road bike - which necessitated cutting down some chain tugs to keep the wheel from slipping.

Soon I started thinking about things beyond the park with even the cheap mechancial discs feeling pretty reliable with tubeless 2.35s, have stuck a set of risers on which helped a lot with comfort and handling and have finally received a set of hydraulic brakes off e-bay (not installed those yet).

The first time I tried to do something a bit more challenging I spun up to Masseys wood on the 38x18 but fouind that I struggled to keep going on those trails with that ratio so ended up changing to a 34x18 and riding/hiking up to Ticknock where I after some fumbling and with some help from this forum managed to ride ( and/or embarrassedly waddle over some rocky parts) Eursceptic twice and Metro 1 once.

The Eurosceptic experience was that I managed to roll over slightly more of the rock sections the second time but was still doing a lot of stopping and at one point getting off the trail to let a real mountani biker pass.

On Metro 1 I learned a lot (including riding berms for the first time) and rode over the majority of the rocky sections but still nearly came a cropper two or three times because of panicky/over cautious reactions and what I found was that my nerve rather than increasing as I got through more features successfully actually seemed ot be running out.

After stopping a few times I managed to talk myself into finishing properly (albeit slowly) but was totally exhausted nerve wise and couldn't wait to bail and head for home after.

Is this a normal kind of experience (I used to be a rock climber but had a traumatic exit from the sport which definitely impacts on my cycling confidence from time to time), do most people slowly build up their nerve over time or is being able to commit to every feature and laugh off small crashes the norm?

i definitely felt better a few hours after the spin as I processed what I'd gotten right and where I'd gone wrong, but still feeling a bit anxious about the next attempt.

bogmanfan

I think you're being hard on yourself to be honest. I'd be far from the most adventurous, and despite mountain biking for several years now it usually takes me a few attempts to work up to hitting drops etc. A friend of mine is the opposite - flies down trails we haven't ridden before. He crashes a lot more than me though.

Only thing I would say is that riding a rigid single speed you are really making life much harder for yourself. You'd be amazed how well even a cheap fork will soak up rough ground and encourage you to ride faster. And speed will carry you over smaller bumps and obstacles which will stop you dead when you're going slower. Also the single speed may mean you're arriving at the trails more fatigued than you would have if you'd been able to spin up the hill.

rollingscone

bogmanfan wrote: »

I think you're being hard on yourself to be honest. I'd be far from the most adventurous, and despite mountain biking for several years now it usually takes me a few attempts to work up to hitting drops etc. A friend of mine is the opposite - flies down trails we haven't ridden before. He crashes a lot more than me though.

Only thing I would say is that riding a rigid single speed you are really making life much harder for yourself. You'd be amazed how well even a cheap fork will soak up rough ground and encourage you to ride faster. And speed will carry you over smaller bumps and obstacles which will stop you dead when you're going slower. Also the single speed may mean you're arriving at the trails more fatigued than you would have if you'd been able to spin up the hill.

It's the MTB I can have. If we ever move to somewhere I can store it indoors I'd consider putting gears and a 120mm travel fork on it.

steamsey

I think bogmanfan is right, you might need to look at the bike. Get those gears back on there and maybe some 2nd hand forks. The Vitus Dee is listed as a City bike so you can't expect much out of it on the trails.

If you can afford it, I'd get a new bike but that's not always the best answer.

It probably shouldn't be so tough that you need to stop on something like Euroskeptic so I'd say this is not the normal experience.

The other thing to keep in mind is bottle. After your accident, you may be skittish. Takes many hours of MTBing to build confidence and get your bottle back so be patient in that regard. Normal to be unsure for a time after a bad crash / accident but you have to keep chipping away at that fear.

I think it's fair to say that people build up their nerve over time. You basically keep setting the bar higher and higher for what worries you - so things that used to freak you out, become nothing. It's a slowish but extremely rewarding process.

bogmanfan also makes the invaluable point that speed is very important - it carries you over obstacles and keeps the front wheel straight. More speed = more control as the faster the wheel rotates, the harder it is to knock it around sideways. The slower you are going, the worse, and more tiring, it feels.

Get straight back up there and give it another lash. Maybe practice some sections rather than focusing on entire trails - BUT I'd strongly advise sorting out the bike first.

Alkers

Try go on a beginner spin so you can learn pedal techniques for climbing and weight distribution for obstacles. It would be worthwhile re-riding a tough section to practise as opposed to riding new trail all day

Lemming

steamsey wrote: »

The other thing to keep in mind is bottle. After your accident, you may be skittish. Takes many hours of MTBing to build confidence and get your bottle back so be patient in that regard. Normal to be unsure for a time after a bad crash / accident but you have to keep chipping away at that fear.

I think it's fair to say that people build up their nerve over time. You basically keep setting the bar higher and higher for what worries you - so things that used to freak you out, become nothing. It's a slowish but extremely rewarding process.

bogmanfan also makes the invaluable point that speed is very important - it carries you over obstacles and keeps the front wheel straight. More speed = more control as the faster the wheel rotates, the harder it is to knock it around sideways. The slower you are going, the worse, and more tiring, it feels.

The other thing about speed is - as odd as it may seem - that sometimes you'll approach a trail feature slowly and because you're approaching it slowly you have more time facing into it and more time to think on it, and if you're not sure, more time for doubting yourself even if you've done something similar before. So all said, sometimes going that little bit faster makes for a case of "don't think, just ride" and you come out the other side thinking "oh, I did it! Well that wasn't so bad".