Does a mtb dictate your cycling behaviour ?

velomaniac

MacRetro Rider
I have many mtbs, I have too many mtbs but I dont care, someone has to have them. Each one is different and I think I ride each one differently despite me being the common denominator.
The most Jeckyll & Hyde change always comes when I drag out the Raleigh White Lightnin', my 1989 full on XC racer. I cannot, repeat cannot go for a quiet pootle on this bike. Within 100 yards I'm going flat out, aggressively attacking every hill, corner etc. This is the reason i dont ride it much, my old body cant handle every trip being a full on race :roll:

So do any of you have a bike that somehow makes you ride in a certain way that is not your norm ?
 
Hmm, my singlespeed is so light I constantly want to hop it over everything.
I have a similar problem to you with my Litespeed road bike...it demands I work harder.
 
Same here.

- My modern is a jack of all trades, master of most. It'll happily pootle along all day at a leisurely pace. However when I want to slice through city traffic at unreasonable speeds, it'll do that too.
Nice, but a bit dull at times.

- My Scott really wants to be a Grand Tourer. Put it on a canal path at 15-20 MPH and you can feel that it's in its element. It'll do everything else, but not as good as that.
This is the bike that suits me best, probably because I like doing canal paths. No traffic to worry about, no technical stuff, just blank out my mind and head for the horizon.

- The Sbike is an absolute hooligan. It will not drive slow, doesn't like to go straight and corners like a cat on Velcro.
Whenever I ride it, I start thinking "I'm too old for this" (I'm 35). It forces me to ride fast all the time, but I don't mind because I always get off the bike either with a huge grin on my face or laughing like a madman.

- The Laïti is a cruiser, plain and simple. It can go fast, but you just feel that it doesn't want to.
This one also forces me to adjust my riding style, and in this case I don't really like it. Then again it gives people the opportunity to follow the bike and look at it.
 
when i ride the pace, itsa usually slower than my modern, the kona has diasy's weeride on it so thats a go slow bike, the saracen was always trying to make me faster.

but........occasionally i go flat out on all the bikes.......i just check the paces welding more than the on ones lol
 
I think a bike can influence your behaviour - you're not going to ride aggressively on one you don't trust to turn and brake well, and are less likely to do so one that doesn't have the feel of being "lively". But - and this is a J-lo sized but - you'll be far more influenced if you have several bikes rather than one you use for everything.
 
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