Time for a break......

[Andy R]

After a few less-than-inspiring rides recently, I've decided to give this bike riding a rest, for a while at least. I've been getting out a few times a week but lately it's just felt as if I'm doing it because I should, and not because I really want to. Usually I can salvage something from every ride (great views, mastering some technical section, good company, whatever) but recently that's not been happening.
I feel as if what skills I ever had are turning to crap, I don't think that I'm as fit as I should be and, to be honest, I just feel like a f*cking old man of nearly 60. No change there, then......

So - maybe a change is as good as a rest. After all, riding a mountain bike isn't really one of life's essentials, I seem to recall feeling that way about not having a trials bike after never being without one for twenty years but, hey - there is life without a trials bike just as there (hopefully) will be life without mountain bikes.

The hills and valleys that I love to spend time in will still be there and I can get to them without a bike - I just have to walk from my front door, plus I won't have to decide whether to go out on a bike or go walking with Karen.
Now I just have to decide what to keep and what to get rid of, I suppose - that's probably the difficult bit.

It's an age thing - I've got a bass playing gig this evening and feel as if I can't be arsed to drive the fifty mile round trip, let alone do the playing (but I will, of course).

 

[MCsanandreas]

i kind of know that feeling. got a load of bikes but just cant be bothered to ride sometimes.
dont mind going out walking for hours tho?
keep the bikes and maybe the nojo will return,thats my plan.

 

[Neil]

Off-roading may seem more daunting and perhaps less rewarding - but there's no reason to ditch the bike riding.

Perhaps do more gentler stuff? Doesn't have to be all or nothing.

For me, bike riding is a life thing, not just limited to riding off-road. I've always ridden bikes, I always will, until I'm not physcially up to it any more.

How I cycle may well change over the years, and has already - a few times - but I still ride a bike.

 

[tintin40]

I know your feelings. Riding to work made me feel the same. So stopped riding to work and in bad weather.
The joy of riding is back.

 

[Augustus]

Interesting.

I have had similar feelings on mountain bike rides this year. I have to say, as much as a bike is a bike is a bike, changing to a cross bike on the previous mountain bike loop locally has made it all more interesting and refreshing and skilful and fitness related again.

Might work. Did for me.

 

[Andy R]

Off-roading may seem more daunting and perhaps less rewarding - but there's no reason to ditch the bike riding.

Perhaps do more gentler stuff? Doesn't have to be all or nothing.

For me, bike riding is a life thing, not just limited to riding off-road.

Well, the thing is, I've been riding/driving off-road since I was 16, (or since about 8, if you include tractor driving) whether it was trials bikes, rally cars, enduro bikes, 4x4's, sled dogs, mountain bikes - for me it's all about the off-road side of it, that's where I most like to be I suppose.

I'm my own worst enemy and my own harshest critic and when a ride goes well for me I come away feeling revitalised and on top of the world but when, for one reason or another, I can't put it all together I feel that I'm just wasting my time.
The trouble is that I set high standards for myself in my riding (and my bass playing BTW) and sometimes my head tells me that I'll can't attain them any more. I don't necessarily think that's true, but who knows?

 

[Andy R]

Interesting.

I have had similar feelings on mountain bike rides this year. I have to say, as much as a bike is a bike is a bike, changing to a cross bike on the previous mountain bike loop locally has made it all more interesting and refreshing and skilful and fitness related again.

Might work. Did for me.

That's interesting actually - last Wednesday I'd planned a ride with a friend but, due to work commitments, he had to cry off at the last minute leaving me "all dressed up with nowhere to go" so I went out on my own, as I often do.
I took the Hummingbird (as usual) but after an hour into the loop I thought "Bollox to this" and took a shortcut home. Then, as soon as I'd thrown the bike in the shed I felt that I'd wussed out coming home so soon, so I grabbed the old '88 Explosif and went out on it instead for another hour.
I think the change of bike actually did make the ride more bearable - maybe I should ride it a few more times and see if I get some of my mojo back again.

 

[orange71]

Do you have plenty of company to ride with? I got fed up with riding on my own, and so lost my biking mojo. However since joinging this site and finding like minded people locally it's back again with a vengeance. Often doing a very familiar ride with somebody who has never ridden the route before allows you to see it through new eyes and can help. Some prefer to ride alone of course, but I don't. Of course being out on a small island might not be helping you.

 

[brocklanders023]

I promised myself that I'd get out more on my own this year but it has not happened much as it's just not as much fun without my riding pals.

Have Christmas off Andy then grab one of your bikes on a really nice day in the new year (if we ever see another!). Wait until you feel the riding itch and you might get your mojo back.

 

[BobCatMax]

Having had a no biking rule enforced upon me by my doctor and other half, I am literally itching to get out on a bike

a break may well be the thing you're after.