[Closed] Does anyone just ride a bike cross country anymore?

See the XC thread...

No, what you think of as 'mountain biking' is a dying art, unfortunately.

Yeah I do. I have an XC bike for exploring and getting lost in the countryside with, just go exploring the countryside. Then I have a FS bike that I use to have a go at the places I've made bite of that would be fun to go at with a FS bike, I also use this bike to follow routes that I download to explore the peaks.
Does this count?

I've been away from mtb for a few years

I'm 22

Can't be [i]that [/i]many, Shirley?

How many countries have you crossed?

Well never without strava as obviously the ride never even happened if its not on strava, but yes, most of my rides between nov-june tend to be just hopping on the 29er and riding a mix of gravel, dirt and road.

Edit: also done some mtb orienteering this year which is almost exactly what you describe, just going eyeballs out in the paincave

Yes. Me

I don't get the criticism? I just get on my bike and ride towards a hill most of the time and see what happens? Isn't that what it's all about? Adventure, nature, finding new things, exploring, testing yourself fitness and skill wise?

Yes
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Yeah, me too. Most of the trails I ride are the same as I've done the last 16 years. I'm considerably older than you, though!!

I don't get the criticism?

Neither do I. From the OP.

I live in the new forest area
Pretty much all of my rides near to home are pure xc - the others are road

My criticism if you will is that what is mtb for me anyway, seems to be dying out in a sense, it's a little strange.

Whenever I tell people that I do mountain biking, people start asking what trail centres I've been to for example, that trail centres are the new normal if you are a mountain biker

I don't get the criticism? I just get on my bike and ride towards a hill most of the time and see what happens? Isn't that what it's all about? Adventure, nature, finding new things, exploring, testing yourself fitness and skill wise?

I agree it's the same for me, I'm not so much criticising to a great extent with this thread, I am also genuinely asking who else rides like I do that's all

without: go pros, strava, gnarcore nduro, big tyres, little tyres, electronic assist, a marked route with a name,

Cross country is still the most frequent for me and most who I know, even with different wheel sizes and strava it doesn't mean it's not cross country

25 miles Tuesday night from my door on my Scandal 29, road, green lane, bridleway, open hill/common, bit of everything, over half off road, averaged 10mph nearly, almost 2000 ft of climbing.

Did it alone, spd pedals, no pack, no map, just rode and made choices as I went. Was around Kington, Herefordshire, where the rough ride was, used some of the trails they used to use.

Was brilliant, equally as fun and more rewarding than forest of dean (blue/red/dh tracks) on my soul today. Soul is getting hung up for a bit soon to try a fs frame for a bit, just to make rough stuff a bit nicer and see if I like it, will mainly get trail centre & more downhill use. I like to do a bit of both. Have to say bits of FoD blue are crap these days, it's a boring old trail anyway, but it's badly eroded in parts, surface is just juddery and not much fun on a hardtail when trying to stay with full sus riding friends. If I'm gonna ride a trail centre that feels man made I'd rather something smooth, swoopy and flowy, not rougher than natural trails, in a braking bump/washboardy way, with no views.

Hopton and NyA are exceptions, mostly natural, big views, feels like a proper mtb ride with some spirit of adventure and the obvious sculpted sections are ace, smooth, fast, fun.

FoD needs maintenance, gets ridden massively I know, but still, I'll be trying to ride some off piste if/when I go again.

It's like I'm into 2 different sports, I like both, but XC feels more 'proper' and what it's all about, there's no middle aged fat blokes in neon clothing on £5k carbon endyooro bikes being caught by kids in lonsdale trainers on an argos bso where I like to ride most. Black Mountains and Lake District are my favourite places I've ridden. Bit of everything.

Edit: should add I'm a bit spoilt for choice, location is bang on for mtbing, so many options within 2hrs, natural & trail centres, an awful lot worth riding within half hour of home too. So I can afford to be picky/critical, each to their own.

Me to +1 for xc, or just riding as I call it.

I think that as long as you're enjoying the ride on whatever you have it's all good. I get to the odd trail centre, same every visit (+ or - weather) but prefer the natural xc stuff but then maybe it's because I'm old (cough 45) 😉

James

Trail centres are too far to drive to for me. Gisburn 1 hour, Llandegla 1 hr 10 minutes. I'll go sometimes but there's no way I'd do every ride at a trail centre with that amount of driving involved, more like less than 10% of rides are at one.
Sometimes do rides that's a mix of trail centre and XC on the surrounding moors. Llandegla, Cragg & Lee Quarry are good examples of places where this is easily possible.

Sorry this is a load of bollocks. Is it not just as people who like mountain biking find what they enjoy more it get pigeon holed into a category? XC, enduro, downhill, yada yada yada. Do what you like and enjoy it, isn't that the most important thing?
When I think about it I ride mountain bikes in so many different ways, commuting, out with the Mrs doing mild trails like towpaths, XC, trail centres, out into the peaks finding challenging trails and enduro events.
Still all mountain biking, no one is right.

Yeah I'd say most of my mob riding is just heading out along tracks paths and seeing where things go. I don't have the time to drive for hours to a trail centre so spend time on maps Siddons out possible routes and link trails and heading out in the hard tail and trying them.

All these new developments are all good I think they have their place, but I just feel that they seem to overshadow what mountain biking is fundamentally about for most (I hope hence the thread) people. With a heavy industry and media push on the next best thing wondered if we still do that boring old (fun) thing

Not much to beat scouring the map, trying a trail head you've spotted before, trying to link bits up, the sense of adventure and the fact so few people do it and get to see the places and sights I do contribute massively to my enjoyment. More so than 'railing a berm', I push myself, go as fast as I can/dare on all rides, but it's not the speed that makes it for me.

People are riding bikes, in whatever discipline, that's good. I just don't like most people, so trail centres aren't my ideal environment. I also like the isolation on a big hill on my own, it's when I'm happiest

Need to ride the malverns.

There's quite a few on here that don't do the bike riding bit but are good at getting cross..

I do kind of miss just having an "XC" bike.

My C456 has gone from 100mm forks and 717 rims and 2.1" tyres to 150mm forks, 2 deg angleset and some wider rims with 2.4 front and 2.25 rear ans a dropper.

My 29er scandal was replaced by a slightly larger Solaris but then that got a 2 deg angleset, the forks are going up to 120mm and it has 35mm carbon rims and now a dropper. I have stuck with 2.25" tyres though in an attempt to keep it "XC".

It now makes general trail riding that little bit less special but when the going gets a bit downwards and rocky and slippy and unpredictable (don't really ride trail centres) the more "modern" trail set up does give you a lot more confidence and you just find yourself having to spice up general XC rides a bit.

I've had a battle with my Scandal, as many seem to have, but a 2.4 front tyre and wide riser bars have sorted it out for the type of riding I want to do with it, it was perfect for the ride I did Tuesday (described above). And should be good for bikepacking. Traditional XC riding is falling out of fashion/the limelight for sure.

Does anyone look at a map, pick a route, get their boring bike with regular travel so it can be pedalled up a hill, go out and ride in the rain/hail/sun/snow, enjoy just being out on the bike in any terrain, in any conditions, on any trail, without: go pros, strava, gnarcore nduro, big tyres, little tyres, electronic assist, a marked route with a name,

Yes and no. I woke up on Tuesday morning and decided I was going to go to the Lakes for day or so, I just looked an OS map and rode what I thought looked good and took in the sights I wanted to see. But I have to say the comment about 'boring bike with regular travel so it can be pedaled up a hill' is total BS. My 160mm travel 29er weighs 12.5kg and is probably the best climbing bike on rocky terrain I've owned.

Once a week, or at least every other week.
I can't remember the last time I put my bike in the car.
Every now and then I will see a track I haven't been down and just follow it.
Usually it goes nowhere interesting but occasionally I stumble on some trail pixie's hard work.

Yes I think I do, it seems the media in their attempt to sell ad space, have to talk about the next big thing and variant of a mtb, boost + sized wheels , 1x12 all advancements, but the end of the day we could all still be riding bikes from last year or 10 years ago.

For me mtb'ing is about a ride out with mates or a ride out into the wilds and only say hello to a couple of people.
Can't beat getting onto the Yorkshire moors or peaks and not seeing a building or person for miles.

Inevitably I may have to ride a few roads, bridleway to get their. But it's all fun

Trail centres have their place, and sometimes I wish I rode them more, far easier tracks and smooth riding, yes you can go big on the jumps, but at the same time you can roll the vast majority,

Yes I do and so do all the people I see out too (although they might think they are doing some gnar tastic riding)

I think marketing has turned a lot of people from XC riders in to some niche so they can justify buying the latest best mtb (and justify it to the wife)

Well I'm just back from a ride, I took the normal bike, due to access laws I followed some trails up and down it rained a bit. I went up stuff along stuff and down stuff, I changed my mind halfway round and went another way tried to link something up and couldn't so came back. There was also some awesome jumpy flows singletrack in there that made the long grind up worth it.
Is that good or bad, I'm not sure.
https://www.strava.com/activities/683304105/shareable_images/map_based?hl=en-GB&v=1471758453
So here it is for approval 😉

All my rides are 100% XC, all year round in all weathers. I rarely see other riders and just ride off in any direction hoping I can get back. I use Strava but it is just running on phone in back pocket and only look at it when I get home.

Don't know where my nearest trail centre is but guessing it is at least 100 miles away so I am never going to go to one. Even it a trail centre was around the corner I doubt I would go as it would be full of those annoying mountain bikers getting in my way...

View this post on Instagram

(can we get and instagram pic linky thing please as this makes the next one liner lame if you have to click a link...
Do you even xc man?

My criticism if you will is that what is mtb for me anyway, seems to be dying out in a sense, it's a little strange.

Whenever I tell people that I do mountain biking, people start asking what trail centres I've been to for example, that trail centres are the new normal if you are a mountain biker

I've been riding since the late nineties and have never done XC; it's pretty much always been mucking about on bikes in the woods, building jumps, clearing runs etc.

We're incredibly lucky with the trial centres that we have, yes there are some dicks there but we now have lots of legitimate places to ride without getting whinged at etc. Try leaving your pre-conceptions at home - you may even have fun. I'm as happy mucking about at a trail centre as I am in the Peaks on 'natural' trails in Wales. It's just riding bikes.

yup me. bit of road to get to the woods, bit of dirt track, bit of bridleway, bit of rural road...I love it. I consciously ride a 3x9 because I love the big ring when I can, I love speed... the sort of rides I do cause a problem when inviting other mtbers out on my rides because all 'mountain bikes' purchased in the last 2 years are either 2x or 1x up front. They spin out easily on the road/track and are built for trail centres not for Xc, so they're not keen on Xc at all, rather annoying.

They spin out easily on the road/track and are built for trail centres not for Xc, so they're not keen on Xc at all, rather annoying.

Does anyone look at a map, pick a route, get their boring bike with regular travel so it can be pedalled up a hill, go out and ride in the rain/hail/sun/snow, enjoy just being out on the bike in any terrain, in any conditions, on any trail, without: go pros, strava, gnarcore nduro, big tyres, little tyres, electronic assist, a marked route with a name,

I do, but mostly on my CX bike lately.

Yes. I don't do anything but.

Does anyone look at a map, pick a route, get their boring bike with regular travel so it can be pedalled up a hill, go out and ride in the rain/hail/sun/snow, enjoy just being out on the bike in any terrain, in any conditions, on any trail, without: go pros, strava, gnarcore nduro, big tyres, little tyres, electronic assist, a marked route with a name,

That's exactly what I do. BUT, I most often use a fat bike to do it. Not sure if that ruins everything.

Am I a 'person who just rides across country' or a Fatbiker™?

muckytee - Member
...Does anyone look at a map, pick a route, get their boring bike with regular travel so it can be pedalled up a hill, go out and ride in the rain/hail/sun/snow, enjoy just being out on the bike in any terrain, in any conditions, on any trail, without: go pros, strava, gnarcore nduro, big tyres, little tyres, electronic assist, a marked route with a name...

That's the only sort of riding I do. That applies to almost everyone I know as well.

I'll take any bike anywhere.

Ok. I think the OP has the answer to their question. Tge truth is, the vast majority of "mountain biking" in this country is XC, it's just not fashionable to talk about it. That being the case, the media don't make much of it either. Neither should anyone make the mistake of thinking that forums are representative.

Pretty much only XC, or as others said...Just riding my bike lol

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It's mainly all just xc.

I don't really do trail centres. I don't do uplift.

I do riding my bike outside

No I don't want to waste my time looking for good terrain to ride when I can go to a centre and ride/push up then bomb down and repeat until I'm tired.
If I had an e-mtb I would probably go out exploring more, but my main bikes don't really lend themselves to this sort of riding.

Like dibbs, I mostly break out the Bridalslayer these days to go for the same kind of rides I have done for the last ~25 years.

Unplanned, mostly offroad, just pick a direction and go, often on my own; bridleways, NCN, cheeky singletrack, bit of road...

It's not particularly riveting stuff for anyone else, so I don't tend to give blow by blow accounts on here or anywhere else online about my rides, and I doubt many others who do the same sort of stuff would bother either.

I have dabbled with various other forms of bike riding, and continue to do so, it's all part of the rich tapestry of cycling...

Obviously as a millennial OP you are probably used to seeing the popularity of the things you like reflected in website traffic and Facebook posts, it's not always the case though, lots of people ride bikes and seldom bother to tell anyone else about it online or off...

It doesn't mean MTBing is dying, perhaps the opposite and that the way people recently used the Web to report every minor detail of their existence is dropping off, people are roo busy having lives to report on the fact that they have a life.

So No more breakfast photos, "social self marketing" posts about going to the pub with your mates or telling the world about your last trundle round rural Surrey... Sounds quite good TBH.

cookeaa - you forgot to mention GoPro, surely a major influence in the perception of what mountain biking is these days. Having sold the world a lifestyle dressed up as a piece of consumer electronics, YouTube is now full of ordinary riders trying to carry off steezy moves for their latest sick edit.

FWIW, I quite liked that Cannock vlog that was posted recently. Something I felt more reflected reality for most riders.

I ride the same trails (plus new ones obviously) now that I was riding 20+ years ago on a rigid steel bike. Now, I generally ride everything on a 170/160mm carbon bike. It's a better bike all round, has climb switches fron and back, plus it gets used on much gnarlier stuff too. It's just bike riding to me though...

cookeaa - I'd agree with that, I expect people to post their riding online, people post what sandwich they are having for lunch so I'd definitely expect a bike ride. I don't post because I can't be arsed and who cares anyway... Glad to hear others have the same attitude.

I've just bought a new helmet one of it's features is a go pro mount - sick! Let's be realistic I'm not Sam Hill.

I was on a training course and mentioned I do mountain biking the course tutor goes on to tell me about various trail centres and how good they are.

At the railway station with my bike buying a ticket and the bloke at the ticket desk tells me he's just got into mtb and asks what trail centre I'm going to, I was going to Marsden to ride up to Black hill...

This and few other things I started to worry that I wasn't gnarpooning my sled

Next year Audi release their "get me to a trail centre now" App it is supported by ads from Santa Cruz and orange

Garmin will also release their "fat middle aged bloke down scramble the air ambulance app" to make it less effort to be recued

We don't really do all Mountain because we don't have any mountains, one of those we all got banned from only the ramblers got us to agree to their terms so it doesn't actually look like a ban.

The rest of us mere mortals who are poor just plod around going across Moor and woodland as we always have

I'm an enduroist and I go enduroing on my 160mm gnarpoon enduroist rig. Even when I'm enduroing a nice Sunday enduro loop in the flat local endoroist's countryside with my OS enduro map I'm enduroing it to the max.
What's your beef brah?

Yes of course. I am addicted to maps, dreaming / planning routes. I did two xc rides wih a lot of road a few weeks ago on my enduro/am bike as thats the bike I had with me and the terrain available.

Posting about xc rides isn't that excited and there isn't much media / marketing benefit in showing people riding along a flat bit or going uphill

If you've been away from biking you might have missed that enduro got popular because it reflects how people like to ride the amazing modern bikes we have now.

There's been a lot of marketing around it, but it was a genuinely grassroots thing.

I think more people than ever are now getting a map and heading into the hills on their bikes, it's cooler than riding trail centres anyway.

No I'm not old either I'm 22

mid fifties and I do - are you sure somebody hasn't lied to you about how birthdays work to save money?

xc rides isn't that excited and there isn't much media / marketing benefit in showing people riding along a flat bit or going uphill

But Shirly, you've got to come down some day from up there?

If you've been away from biking you might have missed that enduro got popular because it reflects how people like to ride the amazing modern bikes we have now.

cookeaa - you forgot to mention GoPro, surely a major influence in the perception of what mountain biking is these days. Having sold the world a lifestyle dressed up as a piece of consumer electronics, YouTube is now full of ordinary riders trying to carry off steezy moves for their latest sick edit.

For my sins I own a helmet camera and have indeed recorded unimpressive trailcentre bimbling...

The Key word is of course 'edit' for every 100 hours of riding most mortals do there's probably less than a minute worth reliving, let alone sharing with YouTube trolls. So what you see online is the "best bits" of those that can be arsed to record their riding, maybe 0.1% of the riding that's recorded, which in turn is probably 0.001% of all the MTBing being done, it's a skewed, unrepresentative sample of a much bigger picture.

As for people's unsolicited tails of gnarr and trailcentre adventures, it's not unheard of for people to at least try these places, the comics promote them, they're easy to find and slot in with a busy life, it's general common ground for lots of people who own MTB.

I find when I get talking "cycling" in general with most people, 90% have something different in mind to what I am into, it's no biggy, they're just "Normals"...

Living this side of the Chilterns I've Woburn on my doorstep with varying levels of trail difficulty, plus 15miles to Aston Hill, 15 to Dunstable Downs and Ashridge Park. If I go out and do a 70 km ride through Woburn to Dunstable and back I'd class that as XC as I've done more bridle way than gnarly trails. According to the missus I just went out for a ride on a bike.

Isn't the categories based on competitions and its marketing down to us mortals?

I have some sympathy with the OP. When I started riding off road (in the 80s) it was just about exploring. Then a series of ever more capable bikes meant that it became more about challenging myself to ride ever more technical descents as fast as possible, leading to a few trips to A&E and increasingly longer spells off the bike, as I got older and took longer to heal.

Then this year I got a fat bike. Originally just to use in the winter but it's also helped me rediscover the joy of just exploring. Something about the go-anywhere tyres encourages me to check out those trails that I've looked at in the past and thought "I wonder where that goes". The answer is usually nowhere of course. Yesterday's ride culminated in a hike across a bog and then up the side of a mountain, through waist deep heather with the bike on my shoulders and my own personal swarm of flies for company. Still a great day out though 🙂

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For me (another who started in the 80's) I just ride offroad. Sometimes it simply towpath stuff, other times proper mountains but it's just about being offroad for me.
Again sometimes on my 29er ht and others on my fatbike.

http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#6/-3.58154/55.23529/blue/bike
and if you take a look at your local area you will be able to see how the local "XC" trails are being ridden

I go exploring all the time, that's never about segments or gnar etc. Just enjoying being out on the bike.

Despite having grown up in the Beacons, ridden in the FOD since the late 90's and always been inquisitive about where paths lead I'm still finding new stuff in these places and new ways of linking them up. I also do the trail centres regularly and enjoy a few uplift days though the year but I generally do whatever I feel like doing at the time. Sometimes I'll do a bit of exploring and a trail centre in the same ride, FOD is my current 'Quick lap of the red/blue then go a-wandering' place. Love the way some trails disappear in the summer growth only to be revealed in the winter and others do the opposite. Even found the remains of one of the old DH tracks I used to ride a few weeks ago, purely by getting lost!

South Pennines here; loads of XC, all-year round and always more to find (even after 15 years trying).

Like many who've responded I guess it's not visible on social media - but plenty of folk out (though many fewer in the winter).

Bike improvements have helped of course, but you don't [i]need [/i]the latest gear. (I'd like transmission that isn't worn down by liquid sandstone tho). And I've not seen a fatbike round here yet.

In short, whatever you ride is fine, so much choice now is great. I started long, long ago on heavy steel frame road bike, side-pull brakes, cottered chain set and 5 gears riding around the streets of London. Could not get enough of it, and still can't.

I live right on the Trans Pennine Trail, that's an off road route from Southport to Hornsea. I like dropping onto that but I do a bit of general Google Earth research beforehand too. I enjoy being able to just get on my HT, and go exploring off road. I went up to Winscar Reservoir the other week, ended up being a 52 miler. I do also enjoy the odd trail centre though to be fair and thought Pines was a lot better the other week than I remember it being.
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About enduro and XC, enduro seems like what mtb was in the late 80s and early 90s before XC race was a focus. It's new as a race event but not as a way of riding, all that's changed there is that bikes got more capable and it got re-branded.
If you put less importance on what you call it, I expect most riders are still riding XC in some way.

XC bike still here and XC routes ridden.

Enduro is just for fatties who can't ride up hill. Otherwise it's just XC.

In most other European countries and the US XC is still huge and even wearing baggies is fairly rare.

Enduro is just for fatties who can't ride up hill. Otherwise it's just XC.

Of course! I've just come back from a great solo XC ride, you should have joined me 🙂

vickypea - that is something I should do, go riding/exploring with other real people

mikewsmith - Member 
Enduro is just for fatties who can't ride up hill. Otherwise it's just XC.

Loving the work dragon, you hear all week?

No, he puts his fingers in his ears Tuesday to Thursday.

Aye, often. TBH, it's just not as good as the more technical riding I prefer, but it's still good. Bottle cages, jumpers for goalposts... Getting the fatbike's brought back a lot of the pleasure too as it opens up different sorts of fannying about. Good simple unchallenging fun, it has its place.

But if it was a choice between XC rides or bashing out world class descents at the golfy or thornie or somewhere and then winching back up and doing it again, then XC can piss off. But why would you limit yourself to only one thing?

I do . Lovely cross country powderpuff bimblecore for me.
On a mtb or cx.

XC is the same as 'trail' isn't it?

Me and all my mates do lots of "XC". I hadn't realised it had become unfashionable until I needed to replace my 29 HT xc bike. Basically very little choice between low-end and £5k race rigs.

I have an enduro bike as well, and do go to the odd trail centre,but sometimes on my ht, to be honest it would need to be pretty serious before I'd bother getting the enduro out.

As someone else who started in the late 1980s, it's all just mtbing to me and everything else is just marketing bs

Lovely cross country powderpuff bimblecore for me.

Sounds like my off road riding! More of us about than I realised.

Me...same riding I've always done. Marketing teams have decided to give it all names so they can sell more stuff.

The bike companies have to take a lot of the blame - prospective MTB buyer walks into shop and is confronted by a bewildering array of kit, most of it completely OTT for what most MTBs get used for. They get talked into buying a 35lb full-susser lump when a hardtail would do the job (but they're not 'cool') Ironically, sales of gravel and adventure bikes are booming because they're probably better suited to the majority of XC riding.

Adventure bike?

My HTs are cool 😛

I have no idea what gravel bikes and adventure bikes are (cyclocross bikes with racks for panniers?)

I just like getting out on the bike & exploring,I don't think they've found a marketing niche for that type of stuff.
Most of my 'Off Roading' is around Rivi with 100mmm of travel,same trails as I've been riding since the 90's.
I'm on a weeks holiday this week so I'll go for a couple of days at trail centres.Llandeglla & Antur Stiniog,but I've not been to Degla for a couple of years & I've only once before been to Stini.
Last years holiday was a week in Les Arcs but next time I'm in that part of the world I want to do some of those WWI Italian military roads.
Not very Rad or Gnar,just enjoying exploring places on the map..

Salsa Cuthroat is one example, but WTF with the suspension corrected fork - gimme a rigid fork of the right length and geo, not some MTB hatchet job!

XC ride, 170mm bike, cos it's a great all-rounder. Full face because I broke my face on the same ride 10 weeks ago.

Riding evolves, bikes evolve, kit evolves - it's still riding cross country though...

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Along with most of the respondents on here, non trail centre riding is basically all I do. I went to the Forest of Dean last weekend, the first time I've been to a trail centre for a year, could be another year before I go to another TC.

We were talking about trail centres today, occasioned by a chat with someone who'd nipped round the North Face in Grizedale Forest, they've evolved along with MTBs. TNF was suited to the bikes of the time but is now more suitable for an XC race, things have moved on. (He was on an HT as it happens - if you are called Andy, were on a Bfe and are on here it was us you were talking to by the shop)

Trail centres are to biking as climbing walls are to climbing: going to the Lakes and going the climbing wall is missing the point!

All the time, 90%+ of the riding I do. Incidentally outside of marathon xc endure is the most "going for a bike ridest" format of competitive mtb going really