Is mountain biking something best done as a group, or is there a certain singularity of experience to be had in the solo ride? Chipps and Hannah try to see things from all perspectives…
Hannah: Unusually for me, perhaps, I don’t have strong feelings about whether mountain biking is best done with friends or solo. I tend to think it’s just different. Riding with people can be great – but sometimes the challenge of coordinating weather, people, and a window of opportunity is just too much. Other times, what you have planned is probably best done alone, unless you’re absolutely sure you have the right person to tackle it with you. Having the wrong person along for the ride… now there’s something I can opine on!
Chipps: While I also don’t have massively strong opinions one way or another, I know plenty of people do. And my reasons for wanting to ride in a group or alone probably differ too.
One random quirk with 98% of bike journalists that I know is that we were all among the last to be picked for team sports at school. Being too slow, too weedy or too badly coordinated put us among the final few left among the touchline selection squad. We then discovered cycling and suddenly had a sport that didn’t need a dozen friends to be able to do it. It was something that could be enjoyed alone, or with a couple of (equally uncoordinated) friends. But once that initiation was over, I started to seek out others…
Hannah: Speak for yourself – I was that sporty kid at school! The only problem was that I was last to get picked because I didn’t have any friends, and high school is a popularity contest. These days, it’s more of a problem trying to fit in seeing everyone. A regular group ride can be a great way to do that – the trick is finding a steady pattern that fits around all the other demands of life. And then there’s all the people I only manage to ride with once a year or so – yet every time the stars align, it’s so great that I wish it happened more often.
Chipps: As well as being unsporty, I’ve always been pretty uncompetitive too. I’ll only try to beat someone if I think they’re taking everything far too seriously… I don’t enjoy group rides where it’s a race to the top and then a race to the bottom of everything. This appears to be the case on rides with all guys, all bike journalists, or when you’re the new/visiting person to a group ride. I’d rather spin at my own pace, even within a ‘social’ ride. If it’s a true ‘no-drop’ ride, then I’m happy to float around wherever I happen to be in the pack. If I want to go fast, I’ll ride alone or do a race. It’s probably no wonder I’ve not really ever won anything.
Hannah: I also have little interest in beating anyone, but I also hate the feeling of inadequacy that comes with being left behind. The downwards spiral of missed lines, slower speeds, frustration and exhaustion is definitely a ride-ruiner. Perhaps that – and a general sense of being a responsible adult – is why I often find myself taking up the sweeper position, nursing the rider with the mechanical, injury or just lack of experience, back home. Not that I resent doing it, exactly, but there’s definitely an element of play turning into work. And I really like my mountain biking to be heavy on the play.
Chipps: So you’re saying you prefer a solo ride, unless you know you’re as fast, or faster than anyone in the group, eh? Ahem! If we ignore that inflammatory comment and dip into solo rides for a sec, what motivates these for you? Are you all about riding to the top of the hill to catch the sun setting and watching it, wistfully, as it sinks below the horizon, leaving you about six minutes to get back down while you can still see something? Or… are you whizzing around the trails, flat-out, knowing that you’re not going to meet anyone on the trails and you have the place to yourself?
Hannah: Word twister! My favourite group ride is one where I’m just not quite as fast as the others, but they’re patient. It’s a great way to progress your skills and do things you didn’t think you could. Plus, if it goes wrong, there’s someone there to look after you, go for help, etc. Which brings me to solo rides – for me, they’re usually my chillout zone. I’m not going to be pushing my boundaries knowing there’s no one to look out for me, and at the same time I don’t need to think about keeping up, or sweeping – or coordinating a start time. Riding alone gives me the option to switch off. That said, I don’t always take it easy. My favourite solo ride is the winter epic, in deep snow. It’s a chance to test my body, my mountain craft, and my judgement without having to wonder whether my compatriots are OK. A long ride in summer can have a similar effect, but there’s something about being out there in the frozen wilds when everyone else is snugly at home that really makes me tick. What about you?
Chipps: I think that solo rides are probably my ‘un-chillout’ zone, in that they are where I like to test myself on the bike. Riding solo means that I don’t have to worry about the route, or the pace, or the well-being of my ride buddies. I can go fast and take in silly climbs. Or I can explore, get lost and have to backtrack through the nettles without annoying everyone, or I can go flat out, as fast as I can. If I’m riding in a group, I either feel some responsibility for route choice, or I’m at the back, making sure everyone’s having a fine time – so my mountain craft probably only comes into play on those group rides where I’m keeping eyes out for weather, group dynamics and energy levels. This comes pretty naturally to me though, which is why I’m probably more chilled out on a group ride.
Hannah: What I’m hearing is that we both enjoy the no-faff freedom that comes of a solo ride, but we deploy it in different ways – you like to give yourself a physical thrashing, I like the headspace. We both take on a responsible adult role in a group ride, but it doesn’t feel like a pressure to you. I suspect the answers to our different takes lies in how we live our lives off the bike – I am the responsible adult all the (sodding) time as I juggle kids and work on an endlessly rolling timetable, so taking a break from that is a pleasure. Whereas you’re pretty free and easy, so adding in a bit of time pressure in the form of flat-out speed challenges adds punctuation to a day. Maybe? Maybe it’s all horses for courses.
Chipps: It sounds like we kind of agree for a change. Or we’re disagreeing but coming to the same point. (Or agreeing but coming to different conclusions…).
Solo or not? What’s your poison? Feel free to disagree with us on the singletrackworld.com forum. And, as always, if you have a topic you’d like us to debate, just drop us a line at editorial@singletrackworld.com
