Does Riding Make You Happy, Or Does Being Good At Riding Make You Happ

[sayshell]

all to be good its like practicing piano. back in the day I used to ride trials with a bunch of other tgsers and that was lots of fun I gotta admit. I agree with the cruising around thing. If your riding by your self trying to land some techy thing isn't fun at all but riding around doing high speed manuels and grass/curb gaps is really awesome. Riding down a mountain on a trials bike is also really freakin fun. So many wallrides, banks, rock gaps, hop gaps, etc... I think I have more fun doing that than most the mtnbikers, they basically just go in a straight line and brake.

[bikeperson45]

I defiantly ride for the fun. I've ridden mostly by myself for the past 3 years and if it wasn't fun for me to ride most days by myself on the same spots for that long I would have given up. Even just manualling around is funner then playing an Xbox for me.

[kaybs41282]

I'll always be crap at it but I get a lot of pleasure out of pottering on my bike, even though I know I'm not very good it doesn't matter.

[Luke Rainbird]

If you're trying to determine the answer "Street trials is all about the fun, and trials trials is more about trying to be better than others," or the vice versa, it won't work with this poll.

You have no way of determining if the people who answer "riding makes me happy" are the SAME people that answered "my bike has a seat".

Fortunately, whilst the questions don't link those people you can see who voted what and get the info from there

I ride a bike with a seat. I also ride a bike without a seat. I have fun on both, but probably more on the 24" purely because of the social and total mellow vibe.

[TheCaptain]

Yeah I love to bike no matter what, and as I've started with Trials riding recently It's given me a whole new perspective really.

Riding things and paths I wouldnt take a second look at before, It's great.

[Greetings]

I've got a question to the 24" crowd regarding fun. What about using a short low bb mod for street trials? They spin like crazy and they're incredibly playful to ride (well, that's coming from a stock rider). A few years ago I got a snapped short Lite back and built it up. Absolutely loved it. Currently if I were to build up a bike for fun, it'd be one of those mods, not a 24".

[TrialsIsHard]

I'm no good at riding tgs or 24", but I definitely have more fun on the 24.. even if I'm not doing any 'real' riding, just jumping up curbs and doing skids

[Luke Rainbird]

Thing is, on a mod it might spin easily, but they don't roll nearly so well as a bigger bike. You've also got the filthy steering with a long stem that makes it feel as though the entire bike pivots in the middle, which makes pretty much anything at speed feel like ass.

[Greetings]

Yeah that's quite true ^

[gary-mac]

Being with mates is the best part but also for me is improving and learning new moves/braking barriers!!

[Mark W]

Low BBs are also shat for doing tricks out of manuals, and for doing tricks out of wallrides. They're also easy to spin if you're moving pretty slowly, but once you start going faster I don't think you can really 'pop' spins like you can on a 24, at least from my experience when I used to basically ride 24"-y stuff on my old mod.

[sayshell]

I've got a question to the 24" crowd regarding fun. What about using a short low bb mod for street trials? They spin like crazy and they're incredibly playful to ride (well, that's coming from a stock rider). A few years ago I got a snapped short Lite back and built it up. Absolutely loved it. Currently if I were to build up a bike for fun, it'd be one of those mods, not a 24".

they are awesome, the main reason is because the stuff on the market is too weak and long. Shorter geo mods are the best idea ever. With a few small modifications you can make a mod super super street compatible and still have it great for trials. The market does not support anything on mods other than TGS which sucks... Their is literally only 1 mod fork you can use and it went out of production 5 years ago. Everything else just snaps. Is their a single 19" slick tire?.. nope.. The main problem is the mod frame... their isn't many good frames out there for street that can take the abuse of hard spin tricks. I have designed one and its really great, hopefully it will be mass produced so you can buy them for cheap.

[sayshell]

Low BBs are also shat for doing tricks out of manuals, and for doing tricks out of wallrides. They're also easy to spin if you're moving pretty slowly, but once you start going faster I don't think you can really 'pop' spins like you can on a 24, at least from my experience when I used to basically ride 24"-y stuff on my old mod.

hmm my current bike is 15mm lower bb than my old because simple frame. its a very low bb, lower than my friends bmx bb but it defiately wallrides and manuels great.

Getting the right mod stem matters a lot too, the main reason you don't get pop is cause the stem is too long and has too much leverage and the fork has too much rake and headtube is too shallow. Getting a steeper headtube like on my designed frame, lower rake fork, and mid sized steeper stem (trialtech sport) will fix all that.

I don't find the bb height matters that much. If you lower the bb but keep the same bar height then it will mess u up, but whenever I lower or raise the bb I also raise and lower the bars accordingly. These things are readily and easily available on the market for 24s and 26s. My friedns who are all bmxers can do literally every single trick on my mod that they can do on a bmx some even better. (they are all pegless) and now they are switching to mods. The question is does my mod ride trials well? I hope so hahaha, I can do all the standard trials stuff on it but I would like to see a pro test ride it sometime. Its only 19lb the entire bike. They should be able to ride it... dual rim brakes, 19" wheel, mod stem, etc etc its a pretty standard mod with slightly shorter geo.

Edited October 16, 2011 by sayshell

[Mark W]

For straight manuals and 'just' wallrides low BBs are fine, but I found that as soon as I tried to spin out of them a low BB just slowed everything down a lot and felt way harder. When I switched to the newer Fourplay I noticed it straight away, and in the end used some 'axle stoppers' to try and raise my BB height a bit. As soon as I did that it felt way better to do them. I personally found that a lower BB made my frame almost too stable, so for more flicky sort of tricks it just felt like you had to fight against it a bit. That could just be down to how I ride though, and people like different geometries so it doesn't really make one way or the other 'right'.

Even if it's 15mm lower than your Because, that's still a +50mm BB which isn't particularly low (I guess it is compared to the mega high BB people use nowadays, but my favourite mod frame that I ever had was a +55 and that felt fine).

[Julius Czar]

I've been riding for almost four years now, and i don't see myself getting any better than I am now, not in an "I'm too good to get any better" sort of thing, I just don't see myself progressing any further than I am now in riding, but it doesn't stop me from riding at all, I prefer to ride alone when i want to try something out of my comfort zone, I just feel I can concentrate more with just me, my music and my riding. But I don't think I would have started if I didn't have my friends with me, taking an interest in the sport as much as I did at the time, and now they've all given up and moved on because of cars, jobs etc. I've just adapted riding around my job amongst other things, but I still don't see myself selling my bike and giving up, its just what I've always done, it's what everyone seems to know me for, and I still enjoy it as much as i did when i got my first trials bike, IMO if you cant ride alone and enjoy it, you don't truly enjoy just riding, but some people are different.

It's now a lifestyle for me, I wouldn't be able to just stop, I enjoy riding in any shape or form.

[sayshell]

yeah it might be how people do things. My bike spins out of manuels amazingly, it would be really fun to swap bikes sometime. I rode an inspired but I didn't really know how to set up the geo properly cause it was the only 24 I had. I have no clue what is a good bar height and all that so I just went off feel, but thats a bad idea cause "feel" is just what your used to and that could be basically anything. From what I found about 24s is they feel A LOT more in control. Doing a big drop feels sooo much safer. 24s also spin so much better than 26" but I still found the 24 to not have enough manuever for my liking. This is why I think a 22" bike would be the ultimate bike. Perfect balance of manuever and control. Mods are a a bit to little control, and 24s seemed to have a not quite enough maneuver.

Of course you can go big on a 20" its not fun you have to land perfectly where as on a 24 you can hop down a big ledge all day long and land horribly without it being scary at all. I rode my friends inspired recently and it felt great, I can do most the same tricks I can on my mod but it takes a lot more effort. 24" makes more sense than 26" to me. You gain 40000 tricks and loose like 2 inches off your maximum height hop.

Edited October 16, 2011 by sayshell

[murph82]

Can't answer this. Can't say i consider myself good at riding but improving or making something that tests me pushes the enjoyment button. I've enjoyed rides with mates and on my own with headphones in. They seem to be the times i improve the most so in some ways enjoy them more. I now ride a bike with a seat.

Think the question should be changed to do you enjoy riding or do you enjoy it more when you've made something you feel is an improvement? Or along those lines

[Ali C]

I have been riding for nearly 16 years and it's aways been about the fun.

I used to enjoy comps and the challenge they gave, now I enjoy going a little faster and riding in a different way.

The change from comps to street is pretty big. The enjoyment of being good didn't really come into action because my street riding wasn't great when I first swapped, so if I only rode because I enjoyed being good I would have shot myself in the foot and never changed in the first place. The same thing happened when I went brakeless, I was really crap for a few weeks, but I enjoyed it more than ever.

I think the conclusion is I enjoy the challenges riding puts forwards and overcoming them is a great feeling. I have plenty more I want to learn so I can see me enjoying it for a while longer.

[ben_travis]

It's got to be a bit of both, however I opted to say because it makes me happy to ride!

I know from experience I get really crabby, and a little downbeat if I don't get out on my bike for a while! The past week whilst I have been letting my back recover has been excruciating. So I went out on the roadie instead! I think I'll probably head out on mountain bike this weekend if the weather is crap!

I guess what I am trying to say is that Id imagine that if you have a number of bikes (not just trials) you tend to ride for the enjoyment of riding! Where as if you have only a single type of bike (just a trially as an example) then I reckon you are more likely to be in it for getting good!

The above comment is from personal experience btw! I only got a non trials bike a couple of years back and have only properly got into using them over the past year or so! Prior to that I went out to get good and thats hindsight for you!

[bikeperson45]

I agree with that. I have a hard-tail mountain bike and I like going out on that every now and again just for the change, still seem to have as much fun rolling around on that as I do on my trials bike.

[dave33]

It's got to be a bit of both, however I opted to say because it makes me happy to ride!

I know from experience I get really crabby, and a little downbeat if I don't get out on my bike for a while! The past week whilst I have been letting my back recover has been excruciating. So I went out on the roadie instead! I think I'll probably head out on mountain bike this weekend if the weather is crap!

I guess what I am trying to say is that Id imagine that if you have a number of bikes (not just trials) you tend to ride for the enjoyment of riding! Where as if you have only a single type of bike (just a trially as an example) then I reckon you are more likely to be in it for getting good!

The above comment is from personal experience btw! I only got a non trials bike a couple of years back and have only properly got into using them over the past year or so! Prior to that I went out to get good and thats hindsight for you!

i also went for makes me happy to ride,

but what i mean is i enjoy improving the most,

thats why i have a road bike, "26 bike with no seat a "20 bike with no seat a full sus mtb with seat and a motor bike with a seat/muddguard..

im alot better on all of them now than when i first got them and enjoyed every second.

but my road bike is the most comfy to ride out of the lot because its beast.