Our local scene is chock full of magachuds. So there’s that to be thankful you’re lacking.
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I feel you. I’m slowly building back confidence that I feel like has been gone for way too long. I crashed a few times in late summer / fall 2018 and I’ve never gotten back to that level of riding I was at before those crashes.
2019 I only got comfortable at the bike park, but even then I skipped the most technical trails, only to end up crashing badly enough in August and again in September to keep me off the bike for most of fall and winter.
This year, I’ve done 90% of my riding alone, where I walk things I’ve ridden before and am afraid to try new features or jumps.
The only thing that makes me push myself is riding with others.
I just wish I could get the confidence back. Today, for a change, I actually had a really good day on the bike. My bike moved effortlessly through the air. I boosted jumps higher than usual and at high speeds. But despite hitting nearly every jump with absolute ease, I couldn’t make myself do a few jumps that I find intimidating… Just brake checked then… despite being only feet off my boyfriend’s wheel who cleared them with ease. Just so many mental blocks to still work through. Not to mention my horrible fear of drops. Can do a huge park drop one day, then too scared to drop 2 feet on my local trail.
I just want to believe I can do it,but instead I just imagine the worst case scenario and imagine myself crashing.
Give yourself some space. Ride road bikes or gravel paths to let your brain relax. The love for mtb will come back.
For me, having friends there is everything and I think when times turn around from covid, I’ll be ready to keep building back and hopefully find some new folks to ride with.
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Found some evidence my tires did leave the ground, behind the world’s largest watermark.
https://www.peakphotowp.com/p679012745/hec3f1066
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Was sitting in the lot at a bike park yesterday and suddenly heard “the democrats are trying to steal the election with coronavirus” talk radio blaring. Slowly turned around and saw some chud packing up his volkswagen with his DH gear. Good grief. He turned the volume down pretty quickly too. It was funny/sad.
And yeah the bro-ness of mtb scene, but I mean not just mtb scene–that also repelled me from road bikes–is pretty wack. The advertising and youtube advertorial stuff are just like… ugghhh. I’ve got some very lefty friends to ride with tho, except haven’t really ridden with them since covid happened. Have seen a couple at protests tho 
Also, ate shit a bit going through some roots and rocks just as I was thinking that I wasn’t going fast enough to not eat shit. Second ride on new drivetrain. I noticed something ticking with my pedal strokes as I rode over to hose the bike down after. Glad the SLX shifts really good because it is cheap enough for me to replace often lol.
I couldn’t really get my bike dialed in to try new stuff so followed my own advice and just tried to get some runs in. I did hit a drop that I hadn’t touched since last year (when I did it once and kinda just closed my eyes and hoped for the best).
I’m finally figuring out how fast I need to be going when I drop off things, which is going to open up a lot of stuff that I have wanted to hit FOREVER. Trade off was that either my arms were tired or I forgot how to do jumpz again. Almost set myself up for front flip a few times on jump trail while messing with technique. DARN.
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Sometimes the gnar is the trail, other times the gnar is the state.
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new jersey?
Windham. The evening before, we got about 3 miles up a “primitive bicycle corridor” when the skies opened the eff up. Epic ride down in a deluge with thunder and lightning, followed by hours drying out around a fire. Definitely was worth being tired the next day.
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Dear diary: lol my bike is goddamn wrecked.
Started pedaling uphill today and confirmed that I do indeed have a creak in the crank area every revolution or even every half-revolution sometimes ever since my last run (and run-in with a rock garden) at the bike park. Yikes.
Then tried to drop my seat and noticed that my dropper lever is almost detached from its mount, and in addition to that the cable has a crapload of resistance for some strange reason that I will have to investigate.
Luckily I don’t care about going uphill so I managed to lower the saddle and just left it alone.
I hit two new drops with my newfound confidence. One of them has been taunting me from the first ride on this bike a couple of seasons ago. I remember saying “man I’m never gonna do that” out loud. It isn’t very big but the ramp is a thick log set diagonally across the trail and it always just weirded me out. You kinda send it off the log by riding diagonally across it and then land on a bench cut section of trail that is often not very cut at all and also happens to point down at a pretty decent angle (which now as a genuine “mountain biker” I realize is a good thing for going off drops).
Up yonder between the trees:
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https://www.instagram.com/tv/CEb9JwAnGte/?igshid=jsy9e3hcskiy
I got a good chuckle out of this
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It’s the return of Enduro Wet Series featuring some spicy-AF switchbacks:
I’m looking into a new fork for my bike, the current one is trashed. My bike currently has a Suntour Raidon at 120 mm and runs 27.5x3 tires. My budget is somewhat limited so I have basically only been looking at used forks. Is this worth it or would there be better options to look at?
Transition dropped some newer builds but then i saw new PBJ colors and sizes.
I really wanted the chromag monk in a pretty color coz 460 reach, now transition is doing this color and extra long in 465 to make dj/lump track bike feel closer to ones trail bike. May still consider a frame swap if I am that enamored come February when they are in stock.
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I bet that thing is sweet. Transition definitely knows that style of bike. A friend of mine rode a Double as her (Santa Cruz) mini-DH bike for a little while and I remember fucking around on it and thinking it was one of the most fun bikes I’d ever fucked around on.
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Been looking for a cheap one to pop up for a bit.
Nothing wrong with that if you are coming from a Raidon.
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Check pinkbike classifieds.
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Anyone have a lead on those ribbed chainstay protectors that come on new bikes? All I can find are thin vinyl strips.
Ya I’ve been looking there too and I have a few that I have contacted people about.
trying to sort through all of the variations available on forks is a bit overwhelming at times
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Perhaps try to buy a replacement part for one of the new bikes. Transition site maybe? Seems like a fun DIY thing to do though.
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