Lost the urge to offroad ?

The opposite really.

51 and MTB inspires me more than ever. I'm trying harder things, riding harder trails and enjoying the lack of control and grip. Even today I was out in the slop playing and gapping a mate on tech stuff.

Don’t worry about it, do what you enjoy, if that’s riding on the road, then enjoy without regrets 🙂 or whatever it is you get enjoyment from, it shouldn’t be forced.

I have no desire to ride a hardtail anymore on rough trails as that can leave you feeling a bit battered! I do a fair bit of resistance training too which definitely helps so overall I feel a lot fresher after hard rides, I’m only 50 though, so not very old yet!

I’ve simplified bike maintenance; mudguards, a quick rinse, lube the chain and mech = done. Stuff seems to last longer than it did when I went to town on the cleaning front.

I'm the same Ton.

I have to hammer the naproxen after most bike rides on road, never mind off road now with my OA in my wrists. I'm also totally paranoid of coming off and damaging my knee replacement as I always seem to land on that side. Being larger than the average bear I tend to land with a fair wack too.

When I do do off-road (which I love) it's tame gravel riding and I'll just walk any particularly slippy looking tricky bits.

Unfortunately my riding buddy is in peak health for long rides and rough stuff, so we've become less compatible, but getting out on the bike is ace so sometimes I just stack up on the painkillers and do it anyway and suffer the after affects.

Yep. Mostly ride tandem now. Rode mtb maybe half a dozen times last year? Not sure I've been out on it this year...

I've not ridden offroad in terms of what i used to do in about 6 months now, had a slipped disc in my neck pinching a nerve and since it's got better i've just not been into going back, part of it down to self preservation, part of it down to just seeing how much hassle there is in biking these days, such as travel, maintenance, etc, etc.

I'm 65 (how did that happen?), and ride about 30 miles a day. Around 50% of that is off road (although a bit more when it's dry), and I mostly ride in the Chilterns which are a bit hilly. I still love it all, but I only really get a buzz when I hit the dirt. I usually ride a hardtail (for cheapness and minimal maintenance). I rarely wash my bikes as I've reached the conclusion that the water does more harm than good. I'm not particularly interested in bikes, just the riding. And I don't think about falling off until I do. I do try to keep supple by stretching after every ride and doing some yoga-ish exercises before bed. Don't ever really feel wasted.
Not sure what use any of that is, and we're all different, but that's my take. I'd say do what you enjoy and works for you. I try not to think about things too much these days, just be present in and appreciate each moment. If stopping for a coffee, or a chat, or a beer, or just to enjoy a view or the birdsong feels good then do it. Everything changes, everything will pass.

I drifted away for a while and went mostly road. Felt the urge again in 2019, bought a new bike and went early adopter on Covid which royally spannered things. Maybe rode the new bike half a dozen times in the following two and a half years. Fitness picked up a bit late summer and now manage to get out round the local trail centre or have a tracks day on the gravel bike a few times a month. At the moment it feels like the urge is there again but the legacy in terms of fitness and co-ordination is the limiting factor.

Exact opposite with me. Not interested in road. To boring and too many cars/stupid drivers who don’t care about you.
Probably also has something to do with being hit by a car a few years ago. What did I learn. Drivers don’t care about you. Neither does the police or the law.
All off road for me where ever possible. I’ll take the dirty bike and the off-road physicality.
It beats learning to walk again….

Don’t worry about it, do what you enjoy

Pretty much this. I guess a lot of people go out specifically for the terrain but I just like to be in the outdoors. Doesn't really matter to me if it's on-road or off-road, I just ride places I like to be. I see it all as the same thing and don't really distinguish between them. It's just riding bikes.

I'm not riding much road at the moment - maybe one ride this year. Although it's a quiet part of the world there's still ever present Amavan risk but it's mainly I'm just enjoying mtb and gravel more.

No mention of n+1 yet 🤔🔥⚠️

You can't properly explore a place by road only. The best and most interesting places don't have roads.

Explore.

I've been at this juncture a number of times, and then something has come along that has got me back into it again

My mojo comes and goes over the years.

Wait till the sun's out, you may feel differently

Was just flicking through my phone photos and this time last year I was mainly off road/gravel riding, and the bike looked pretty clean. This year I've spent the whole winter on the road keeping clean. And forecast for next week depressingly looks like more rain so will likely be road for a bit longer.

I find it a seasonal thing. Can't be arsed with consistently wet and muddy rides, so way less MTB in winter, and more road. But then summer comes round, trails dry out, can come back from a ride not caked in mud, and all I want to do is MTB.

Longer term, about 4 years ago I started another hobby that I'd always wanted to do (woodworking) and I rode less and less, down to maybe once a week, as I was doing other stuff. Last summer, spontaneously entered an event with a week's notice, and suddenly caught the bug again. Riding more often, more miles, more events, more goals.

The most difficult part of riding I find (mostly) is getting out the door. But once you do, it's always worth it.

i still have the riding bug.
since retiring i have ridden most days. managed 10000 miles in the last 2 years.
and to be honest most of those miles will have been on 50/50 mixed surface. road, gravel and canal side.
but looking back on my strava i cant see much proper mtb riding.
i even bought a fat bike to try and relight my fire. got poorly with my ticker again, so sold the fatty.
i will keep on at it, and see if i can relight the fire.

Sounds like you need an e-mtb ton 😉

Ride what you like, walk, run whatever ... you don't need to enjoy one thing or the other

Personally I detest any road and I'll go to long lengths and detours to avoid 1/2 mile or just push but that's me not you.

I am in my 60's and gradually returning to mtb'ing with a basic hardtail.
I have to echo SSS thoughts entirely on road cycling after a driver ploughed into me a few weeks ago.Now on the road i am more fearful and its a hassle doing detours to avoid roads i think are too dangerous.
Yes,there is more dirt to clear,both clothing and bike,when you are offroad,but i am less on edge.
Riding the red routes at Hamsterley gets the adrenalin going which really on the road can only be matched by Alpine type descents.
I can keep my fitness up by doing the climbs,which is not easy on a 14kg non ebike.
In iffy weather you do need to push yourself to get out but as long as i am not too cold the fresh air and quietness of the forests are worth it.

Similar here Tony, I have ridden my gravel bike the most in the last year, then road, then MTB. Similar age and various aches and issues and I have no desire to ride gnarly trails or trail centres anymore.

My plan is to try and ride a lot more MTB this spring and summer and see how I feel. It will be largely on my Levo SL, but I do need to ride my non-e HT too, as it’s only been ridden once since I upgraded all to AXS last Spring, and only been ridden a handful of times since I bought it a bit over a year ago.

If I don’t get the bug back I suspect the MTBs will go.

ton

i still have the riding bug.
since retiring i have ridden most days. managed 10000 miles in the last 2 years.
and to be honest most of those miles will have been on 50/50 mixed surface. road, gravel and canal side.
but looking back on my strava i cant see much proper mtb riding.
i even bought a fat bike to try and relight my fire. got poorly with my ticker again, so sold the fatty.
i will keep on at it, and see if i can relight the fire.

Unless you are in a rush to sell a/several bikes and you are enjoying it what does it matter to you?
Your answers to that question whether shared or just for you are either going to end up with you thinking "I'm not fussed I'm enjoying what I'm doing" OR a list of motivations

If you end up with a list of motivations then you can say "I'm going to ride some real MTB this week/weekend/whatever" rather than slip into what has become your default.

You can also then create a list of barriers to achieving it..

I consider myself really lucky to have three different groups I ride with, and some decent trails within 20 minutes in the van. Like Weeksy, my 13 year old has fell in love with it and can ride pretty much anything with more speed and style than I’d like.

I’m 49 this year, and maybe never enjoyed riding the steep trails in the woods more than I have for the past few years.

I’m definitely ready for the winter slop to end though, I’m completely fed up with washing bikes and kit after every ride - although taking a Worx Hydroshot to the woods has definitely helped over the past few years with reducing post ride hassle.

I reckon falling back in love with it takes one nice ride in warm spring sunshine, on a quiet remote trail somewhere on a well prepared/maintained bike (especially if you’ve kept half decent fitness on a bike in the meantime).

Doing the same thing repeatedly for decades will become boring. I'm 50 nearly and have been mtbing since i was 19. Some days i think i should find something different to do.

I try to mix it up with gravel, city riding, and longer trips. TBH a few health issues causing general daily discomfort has made the thought of injury from the riskier stuff i used to ride very unwelcome. So i find myself avoiding the bigger features (which means i lose my confidence etc.). Plus I've known people really screw themselves being weekend warriors. In fact one guy I knew died from a fairly small jump gone wrong.

So yeah, I have lost the love. Just can't think of what else to do. Cookery? Stamp collection? Twitching?

Kinda similar, find myself doing more road as it's less faff overall and the distance numbers are kinda addictive.

One of the answers is running a bike that doesn't need to be cleaned.

[img] [/img]

Hard tail with alfine hub and coil forks.

Despite doing more road, it's all type 2 fun, unlike MTB which is much more in the now

When it is muddy and I'm horribly unfit (thanks covid and various other virus's) the MTB stays tucked up in the garage, and I do more road stuff (with a really friendly club).

I hope the urge will return, it does most years.

Only 46 here but done over by triple Covid. Fitness ruined, high blood pressure and lung capacity not great. Lost my mojo for riding completely. Only ridden a few times in the last year and feel utterly battered and tired afterwards. Considered selling the HT (only bike) and getting a short travel full sus. Don’t have the money though and thinking I’m best off selling the bike and putting the money away.

I'm 68 and I lost the urge after losing fitness through a knee replacement then an infection that hospitalised me then covid. Dragging my heavy unfit @rse round wasn't fun, and last year I didn't touch a bike for 3 months. Last December I was having the usual old man moan about "nothing to prove, creaky joints, no energy blah blah" when I suddenly thought "what would happen if I just stopped making excuses and got on with it like I used to?" Since then I made a resolution to ride 2 or 3 times a week till the end of March. Now I can feel some fitness returning, I've bought an ebike and can't wait for the Spring and summer so I can go on some biking adventures with my son

Don’t have the money though and thinking I’m best off selling the bike

What would you get for it? Probably not much to be worth the agro of sellingbit to out into savings. Keep it for when fitness improves! Think of it as saving for your fitness rather than finances.

48 here and dream of MTB but the best I get right now is riding over mounds of rubble on my hybrid commuter dumped on a disused road.

Probably get about £1k I think. Not a small amount of cash for me.

What @weeksy said

weeksy
Full Member
The opposite really.

51 and MTB inspires me more than ever. I’m trying harder things, riding harder trails and enjoying the lack of control and grip. Even today I was out in the slop playing and gapping a mate on tech stuff.

Its been a few years since i did much real mtbing.  The main barrier is i cant be arsed with the ride to the trails and on the odd occasion i do i can't be arsed doing more than one climb when i get there.  I'm contemplating getting an ebike but not 100% convinced that will change much

I have some urban singletrack i do ride but thats a few mins riding only

You should live in suburbia, you have to chase the decent offroad. Admittedly first proper offroad (with climbs) ride of the year out to the Surrey Hills. Absolutely exhausted after 4hrs of slip slop sliding for 70km but so much more rewarding than any of my local loops.

Don't understand the aversion to cleaning - 2 mins with a brush on the end of the garden hose whilst having a celebratory beer and ready to go again.

Don’t understand the aversion to cleaning –

Me neither.  I leave a muddy bike to dry and brush the worst of it off when dry if I can be bothered

Probably get about £1k I think. Not a small amount of cash for me.

Ah fair enough. I'd be lucky to get them for all of mine! Still think you're better off keeping it, they'll be even more expensive when you realize you want to go riding off road again 🙂 (if you think that's likely).

Hairyscary / Weeksy

ton and I are a decade older I think.  At 50 I was riding the hardest and best I ever had.  Now its different.

tjagain

Its been a few years since i did much real mtbing. The main barrier is i cant be arsed with the ride to the trails and on the odd occasion i do i can’t be arsed doing more than one climb when i get there. I’m contemplating getting an ebike but not 100% convinced that will change much

For me an e-bike is a total game changer on "can't be arsed" days.

Don’t understand the aversion to cleaning – 2 mins with a brush on the end of the garden hose whilst having a celebratory beer and ready to go again.

It's not just the bike though TBH. This time of year drying clothes is a major pain.

ton and I are a decade older I think. At 50 I was riding the hardest and best I ever had. Now its different.

I hear you, but in the OP, he didn't make any indication about age being an issue/factor in this, it was more a generic question i answered.

This time of year drying clothes is a major pain.

Hang clothes, wait...

What's the tricky bit ?

For me, I struggle to get properly motivated to ride anything, a lot of the time.

I do love road riding, provided I'm out in the Dales proper where the roads are quiet and the drivers are mostly friendly. Riding the more local minor roads on the edge of Leeds can be nice, too, but deliberate close passes by malicious drivers, which tend to happen at least once on most rides, are just wearing me down emotionally.

For mtb, I absolutely love a few hours of dusty single track or wild moorland tracks come summer (or the same when there's a solid freeze in winter). I get so much more out of that than road or gravel riding. But in reality, most of the year isn't like that. And I live in a rented flat, so cleaning and maintenance is a real faff.

I actually prefer mountain unning and scrambling to riding, but haven't been able to do either properly since my late 20s due to endless injuries (I'm 38 now, and no better).

Luckily, I have a job in Switzerland lined up, so I'm hoping that reignites some excitment inside of me.

I have lost the urge to keep up with riding trails which 'require' ever longer travel, bigger brakes and a penalty for failure that my near 50 year old body doesn't like any more. Something my lads were pushing me back into.

Riding back in beautiful places, winching up long climbs, enjoying the fun of a quality descent, laughs and giggles. That is still there.

I also have a growing thirst for getting back out on some longer trips - currently on pause due to all sorts of reasons, not least mrs_oab's health.

weeksy

Hang clothes, wait…

What’s the tricky bit ?

When it's raining there is nowhere to hang them or I go out riding and come back and it's rained and everything is soaked again.

@jaminb I don't have a garden hose, and my bike lives inside in a rented flat, which means it needs to be relatively clean, and also not soaked after a wash. I'd be less averse to cleaning if circumstances were different.

In my experience my road vs offroad vs fat arseing and not riding at all ebbs and flows as I age.

Right now I am loving offroad (quiet trails, long travel FS bike comforts the jarring) and not enjoying the road (traffic, boredom). This comes off the back of a period of expert fat arseing.

If you love the sport, you will get your mojo back. But if you have lost the love, don't force it. You might find that your motivation changes. When I was younger it was about fitness, challenging myself and 'training'. Now it's more about maintaining a level of fitness, enjoying the great outdoors and the social side of things.

59, if I gave up MTBing I'd become out of shape (mentally and physically) pretty quick. I run a bit (to keep legs going for rugby reffing), but road riding is only for the commute for me, have no passion for putting the miles in on roads.
Most of the time I only do short local loops, or a few hours up QECP, but it's just about enough.

The main barrier is i cant be arsed with the ride to the trails and on the odd occasion i do i can’t be arsed doing more than one climb when i get there. I’m contemplating getting an ebike but not 100% convinced that will change much

it definaly will as you no longer have the 'cant be arsed' feeling as going up is just as fun as riding down. i probably enjoyed teh ups yesterday more then the downs - just hilarious slipperyness, technique testing and a challenge - same as the downhills. but with teh eeb the climbs were actually possible and fun unlike on a normal bike where you would definately have been pushing.

that said if you are already having fun doing what you are doing on other bikes then there seem little point getting another bike.

Zero interest for muddy rides anymore as the cleaning of man/bike/clothes is such a faff. I used to but tennis is now a massive competitor to cycling, great fun and so much simpler.

I still ride from April to October though but zero interest for road riding, I really don't see the fun in that.

@nickfrog I empathise, cleaning is such a faff with my housing situation, and it makes riding anything less than 3 hours not worth it for me, which confines mtb to once a week in winter (aside from those joyful, calm, minus 3 winter mornings)

I've taken to going to the gym, where I can avoid aggrevating most of my injuries, and which being at the end of my street is the definition of faff-less

Road riding though, for me it really depends where. If the hardknott pass were nearby I'd ride it every day

I've been mulling this over through the winter. My relationship with mountain biking is very different to what it was 30 years ago, when it was about adrenalin, fear, challenge (and exploring the outdoors in a new way).

The adrenalin, fear and challenge are long gone. In my mid 50s, I'm much fitter than I was in my mid 20s, largely through decades of riding bikes (without a motor doing the heavy lifting for me). Coupled with a more competent bike, I know I can get up and down most stuff in one piece. So riding has become habitual, but the excitement has gone.

Which leaves exploring the outdoors, preferably new places. My mileage is way down so far this year but I'm planning a themed trip for April (Welsh Marcher castles, Wrexham to Chepstow) that has me looking forward to it. 'Planning' in the loosest sense: just some places of interest that I'll link up off the hoof, depending on the weather, the terrain and how I'm feeling. Really looking forward to the spontaneity of it, travelling on a lightly loaded bike, sleeping rough, not knowing where I'll end up one day to the next. It's been a while.

Maybe you just need a change of routine.

@legometeorology

Road riding though, for me it really depends where. If the hardknott pass were nearby I’d ride it every day

Sounds better than a hard knock life indeed!

.... but road riding is only for the commute for me, have no passion for putting the miles in on roads.
Most of the time I only do short local loops, or a few hours up QECP, but it’s just about enough.

I've no interest/passion in thinking about riding as "putting in the miles" as it were really (realising it's a figure of speech).

I ride a bike to get places and I ride bikes for fun/relaxation/getting out of a toxic environment, I don't really think of riding bikes as something to get fit as much as something that just happens as a result of riding bikes.

Obviously everyone is driven differently but I'd find it far harder to motivate myself in "must go out to get fit" over "must go out to relax/have fun"