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You don't need to shout at motorists because they do something silly - also applies when you are driving.
Rapha is quite good value for money
1x works well on a road bike
If you spend even the briefest moment caring about how how others will judge your clothing choice* or policing what others wear then you are wasting your precious few moments on earth.
*although I do get that there are many reasons why folk might feel uncomfortable in lycra - I just wish that there weren't.
Steel frames and forks are safer and better-looking than anything made in carbon fibre.
(edit, the Colnago C40 is the exception)
Noisy hubs are the work of the devil.
Coloured Hope components looks shit in any and every colour.
We all look like idiots to people who don’t ride bikes – doesn’t matter if its lycra or a full face helmet and storm trooper padding.
We don’t need half the crap bike journalists tell us we do. Most of the niches they tell us about can be covered by “going for a ride on a bike”. I may be 0.3 seconds slower than if I was on the ideal bike but it really doesn’t matter as I am not in a competition.
There is no such thing as a pain cave or similar, it is your garage and you are riding several hundred quids worth of kit in your garage because it is too cold to go outside.
I like the cut of your jib
Sometimes it is just too wet and too cold to go cycling "for fun". It is OK to look out of the window and say "ah, **** that"
Pro cycling was more exciting during the epo years.
Most mountain bikers you meet out on the hills are over competitive wannabes with small genitalia who constantly brag about their fitness and skilzzz whilst mentally comparing your bike to theirs.
Most people you meet at trail centres at the weekend are overweight van drivers on enduro bikes. The type of big watch wearing moron you would normally avoid at any other time.
You can have too many bikes
Sometimes it is just too wet and too cold to go cycling “for fun”. It is OK to go out anyway and appear bad ass
It's only water.
I may regret this when trying to change the BB30 on my CAADX after misjudging the increaced depths of a couple of fords yesterday.
The vast majority of cycling writing is simply a string of cliches
You only need 1 bike!
Fat bikes are actually, quite ace
Trail centres are boring
I miss getting properly lost now we have GPS / digi mapping
Mudguards are for the weak
Ditto for using a turbo trainer
Stems that are angled up make any bike look totally ****
That Steve Jones fella does my head in
Anodising is still totally cool (but with a certain amount of discretion)
Land access or rather lack of it is just wrong - we need an uprising
And deffo agrees on bar-ends - esp those Cane Creek ones
Only unicyclists understand cycling geometry...
Steel is real
Wool is real
So steel wool underpants are ultra real.
Steel isn’t even in the Top 3 materials to build a frame out of.
Whereas I believe it is the best!
That hand gesture with raised little finger and raised index finger....just cringeworthy beyond belief. Don't do it.
Ooooh, thought of another one
XC racing IS fun.
Only discovered this at the age of 51, after 15 yrs of mountain biking in denial.
1x12 with dinner plate sprockets is ridiculous. Nowt wrong with a front mech.
Dropper posts are just a fad.
29" wheels don't need 150mm forks.
Full sus doesn't help you go faster, the pedal bob slows you down.
My Mk1 Cotic Soul has great geometry and it can get down any gnarly trail with more fun to be had than on a "Skill Compensator"
Then last month I bought a Giant Trance 29er and I wish to retract all the above.
Gravel is about as exciting as dominoes.
Drop bars give loads of hand positions because none of them are actually any good.
Most MTBers wouldn't be able to feel the difference between a coil or an air shock if it bit them on the arse.
Building trails is as much fun as riding them.
The ciaran path is pish.
Ditto the Burma road.
Front mechs are dead.
29ers don't make you faster.
Froome was right, anyone over 8st does look like a nob in lycra.
Enduro is just an excuse to get everyone overbiked.
I inexplicably don't like ebikes, I have never been bitten or attacked by one but my prejudice remains.
On that train I always avoid sitting next to any aging pony tail and fixie types.
You look like a c**t on a Brompton. But I want one.
It is a pain in the hole being stuck behind a bike.
The reason cyclists come across as entitled is because we literally are entitled, it's a free country dick heads.
Carbon components don't break if you look at them wrong.
It's upsetting that road cycling is only pleasant in nice weather, as it requires less cleaning than MTBing
Oh and the Ciaran path being no good thing is definitely the opinion du jour, but it's a great ride.
"Stealth looking" bikes are boring.
People who rave about 29 inch (or any other) sized wheels, couldn't tell the difference between sizes in a blind test.
A blind test whilst riding is a bad idea.
Race team logo emblazoned riding gear, whether lycra or baggies makes you look a right spunktrumpet.
There are only enough articles in the whole universe to fill 4 or 5 editions of any mountain biking periodical. These are then mildly tweaked and recycled adinfinitum.
Riding in the mud and rain is nowhere near as much fun as everyone would have you believe.
I miss Geex
Most modern full suspension trail bikes aren't actually that nice to ride on anything other than downhill, they pedal badly and have poor ride feel compared to nice all-round bikes from the past.
In my opinion (which may be weird, as I am weird) is that modern bikes outside of fully fledged XC bikes have not taken great leaps forward in actual proper pedalling ride quality - you know the actual type of riding where going uphill, covering distance are a big part of the ride.
Modern shocks are too good at sucking the bike to the ground for descent orientated riding and seem to absorb pedalling energy. Bikes are bloated in weight to handle 'youtube' riding- and this kills the climbing ability...which if you ride in the mountains is a big part of any ride.
Manufacturers seem to have forgotten that OldSkool thing of pedalling ride quality being an aim.....and is why we logically end up with e-bikes to negate all that.
It’s only water.
see, this what I'm talking about, I know it's only water; still doesn't make it any more pleasant to ride in does it? If you're going to pay me to ride; sure, hand me a rain cape. If you're doing it for funz though, I'll find something more constructive to do with my time thanks.
Manufacturers seem to have forgotten that OldSkool thing of pedalling ride quality being an aim…..and is why we logically end up with e-bikes to negate all that.
There is wrong, and so far off into the distance of wrongness that you simply can't be seen anymore. Manufacturers haven't forgotten it, they just (along with the rest of us) realised there's more to mountain biking than being just off-road road bikes.
People who use the word "Funz" obviously
"I reduced the air volume in my forks so I can run lower pressure for better small bump compliance".
Stupidest statement ever. No way can reducing the volume and increasing the spring rate give better small bump compliance.
Everyone who cycles on the road should have some sort of training.
There's some right bollocks spouted on this thread!
The rise in popularity of gravel bikes is because for some people a hardtail is the right answer, but most modern hardtails have such extremely slack head angles a gravel bike is more like a traditional 2013 hardtail before angles went too far.
What I'm trying to say (badly) is that gravel bikes are filling a gap in the market which used to be occupied by hardtails.
Fat bikes - sorry but everyone I've ever seen riding one looks cartoon daft.
Gravel Bikes - slower heavier less efficient / aero than a road racer , less than half the off road capability of a mtb - pure marketing bollox
Bikepacking - like touring in a caravan & bringing all your junk along but not having the comfort of room service , sleeping in cow dung under a plastic sheet with your SAS survival kit. Lunacy in the UK's climate
Basic road cycling skills / proficiency element should be compulsory to getting a UK driving licence.
Club / group road riding sounds about as much fun as dental surgery
Pro cycling was more exciting during the epo years.
God yeah. And even before
Hydro is not an acceptable abbreviation for hydraulic when talking about hydraulic brakes (or hydro breaks)! I don't think that's even controversial, but it never seems to be challenged.
The new Specialized Enduro is the worst looking bike of the decade.
Blackflag
Member
Most mountain bikers you meet out on the hills are over competitive wannabes with small genitalia who constantly brag about their fitness and skilzzz whilst mentally comparing your bike to theirs.
Most people you meet at trail centres at the weekend are overweight van drivers on enduro bikes. The type of big watch wearing moron you would normally avoid at any other time.
That's not really controversial, that's more contradiction and being a tit.
“Stealth looking” bikes are boring.
And they aren’t very stealthy...
Supinated grip gives superior handling on gnarly trails.
A bike without lugs is ugly
It’s already been invented. There is nothing new.
A few more:
Road cycling began before 2012.
Cyclocross really is just riding posh kit round a muddy field.
It’s not a race unless you pin a number on.
The drugs do work.
Being overbiked isn't a real thing.
Merino kit is not as good as synthetic
Helmets aren’t magic forcefields. They’re polystyrene and plastic I hats impact tested to 12mph. Think. Look. Anticipate.
Everytime I see someone in a GMBN top I think, you could have got a Fox or Troy Lee one for roughly the same price.
I love it when some clot on here describes a FSer as a skills compensator, but in the next breath waxes lyrically about how his 29er rolls over everything so bloody well. 😂😂😂
Catlike helmets are disgusting, and make my skin crawl. Think its trypophobia.
Coffee is disgusting.
Everytime I see someone in a GMBN top I think, you could have got a Fox or Troy Lee one for roughly the same price.
How is this controversial? It's either false that a gmbm top costs more or less the same or it is false. I don't get the controversy?
Don't buy grey bikes, life is quite grey enough.
Black and white are just shades of grey.
Cycling is a rubbish way of getting from A to B.
(That is why most of my rides are from A to A.)
Boost is bullshit and just the bike industry screwing us over, 150mm rear already existed so why the f@(k did we need 148mm, turns out 110mm width was right the first time with 20mm, so why did they make 15mm 100mm wide.
20mm boost is the ultimate pisstake, why didn't they do it that way in the beginning.
A Transit is just as good as a Transporter.
Bikepacking is just touring with a marketing budget.
The brick, isn't this supposed to be a non judgemental post, your pedantic snidiness is hardly in the spirit. Grow up killjoy.
26” ain’t dead.
Mountain biking in England seems to be taking on the business model preferred by the golf industry. In many (or less) years from now we will have as many small trail centres/bike parks with bike shops and cafes attached as there are golf courses, golf shops and club houses now.
Well put endomick, there's always one.
Merino kit is pure sh*te.
Cold in the winter, warm in the summer. It may wick slightly better than ordinary wool but who the hell wears ordinary wool kit anymore? Nobody 'cause it's sh*te too. But only slightly more sh*te than Merino.
For the average STW member, the larger the cumulative value of the total number of bikes owned the more they sit on this forum compared to actually riding said bikes.
Gears and suspension are for the old and frail.
Stompy
For the average STW member, the larger the cumulative value of the total number of bikes owned the more they sit on this forum compared to actually riding said bikes.
Ooh, that stung. 🙂
Fat bikes are for snow or the desert.
A trail designed purely for a rider to use as a fairground ride is not what mountain biking is really about. Trails formed over hundreds or even thousands of years are the only true mountain biking.
27.5 is virtually dead.
😉
Fat bikes are for folk that are slow as **** and need something to blame
snow or the desert.
FTFY
When out riding you can tell a lot about a person when you first meet just by their choice of components and attire
I wouldn't want crowds of cyclists meeting daily outside my front door either.
Gravel bikes make loads of sense, in the north Americases. Here they are the tartan zip up slippers of bicycles.
Trail centres rock.
Arguing on the internet is not going to change policy on anything ever.
I have no problem with QR hubs/wheels. Can't see the point in big axles.
Change my mind.
Team Sky or whatever they are called this week have been at it from the get go and when they are finally exposed they will make Lance Armstrong look like mother Teresa!
Quite cathartic this eh? With the lack of the usual biting back?😆
CX is for people who are shit roadies but too wet to try MTB. Enduro is where mediocre DHers go to die. Roadies are belters.
1. The Rules are real and vaguely matter.
2. eBikes are fine if they have flat bars. Otherwise they're just cheating.
Merino kit is not as good as synthetic
that’s not controversial, it’s true. Marino is awful. Where else in your bike would you choose a heavier, worse performing and less robust alternative for more money? Especially in a damp climate!
Old bikes are not retro, pure, simpler, more raw, etc, they're just more shit. Modern bikes are just way more fun. (Mostly because they are way more flattering, but none of us like to admit that)
It's ok to be a bike snob
Cycling as activity is getting "better".
No it isn't , there are too many people. In the good old days you could go out all day and never see a bikie. The woods weren't trashed by people who want to leave their little urban ghettos , go to the countryside and recreate their little urban BMX parks. Vast car parks weren't there draining vast numbers of environmental polluters. You could walk all day and not see a tyre track let alone a maze of them .
The cycling world wasn't full of self labelled rebels all wearing the same uniform.
Cyclists were clever enough to work more than one derailleur at the same time and didn't need suspension and electric engines to compensate for lack of talent or fitness. They had enough fitness to use gears that work properly.
Cyclists didn't spend a fortune on junk food or over priced coffee.
A silly bit of paper doesn't mean that you are able to teach and who the hell needs to be taught to ie a bike in the woods. Your dad does that on day one.
A bike was for life, all you did was stick on a new tub occasionally and clean all 5 sprockets on the block.:)
Shimano Dual Control (flappy paddle) shifters were great but Shimano did mess up with the reverse rear mech; they worked best when combined with a normal rear mech.