outerlimits
Banned
What is more important, Fitness, Skill or a combination of the 2 ?
Fitness or skill ?
- Thread starter outerlimits
- Start date
outerlimits
Banned
Soz.. general trail riding everything from xc to all mountain.
JTmofo
XC Enthusiast
This question answers itself.
I'm fat.... relatively unfit and hate climbing. Saying that, I'm above average when it comes to technical descending.
One of my good mates is the complete opposite, being above average speed wise on pedalling section, but sucks balls where you need them.
Ideally I would be fitter, but I like beer and pizza too much.
A mixture of both is needed to be a good all round rider ..... but id rather be fast downhill for the rush than fast uphill.
Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk
I'm fat.... relatively unfit and hate climbing. Saying that, I'm above average when it comes to technical descending.
One of my good mates is the complete opposite, being above average speed wise on pedalling section, but sucks balls where you need them.
Ideally I would be fitter, but I like beer and pizza too much.
A mixture of both is needed to be a good all round rider ..... but id rather be fast downhill for the rush than fast uphill.
Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk
Logic
Likes Dirt
I would say i'm 60% skill 40% fit, but i would much rather walk up a hill than walk down one...
The Duckmeister
Has a juicy midrange
You need both. If you're unfit, your brain turns to mush sooner as you fatigue, and when your brain is fried your skills go to shit.
Nautonier
Eats Squid
Is this a general life question or a MTB one? IMHO skill trump fitness, but only to the extent where you still have the ability to ride up hills/mountains in order to enjoy riding down them. Who cares about climbing quickly - as long as you can get there with enough energy to manage your run down (the fun part). Obviously XC riders will have other views, but my argument is that if pure fitness-oriented riding is what floats your boat, then get a road bike. All those annoying rocks, roots, dirt and corners will just ruin your Strava times...
Nothing is stopping riders having MTB and road bikes and happily enjoying both disciplines. Fitness and skill: good together, but not always realised in the same arena. Personally I love riding up hills to get my descending fix, but only because I no longer have a road bike.
Nothing is stopping riders having MTB and road bikes and happily enjoying both disciplines. Fitness and skill: good together, but not always realised in the same arena. Personally I love riding up hills to get my descending fix, but only because I no longer have a road bike.
Last edited:
Flow-Rider
Burner
You need a good level of both even for general trail riding, it takes a fair wack of your energy coming down. Annnnnd who wants to be that bloke that's always last and everyone waits for in the group. 
Ultra Lord
Hurts. Requires Money. And is nerdy.
Spend enough time practicing skills and you end up reasonably fit anyway. Can't clear that jump? Push back up and pedal harder. Still cased? Rinse and repeat untill smooth.
Climbing sucks. Feeling strong is nice when you are fitter, but headingt down quick, smooth and safe is where it's at.
Climbing sucks. Feeling strong is nice when you are fitter, but headingt down quick, smooth and safe is where it's at.
Flow-Rider
Burner
There's actually a story that I've heard from 2 people I know that raced XC UCI world cup in the mid 90's. They ran a wattage test down at the institute of sport with all the sports gurus and decided to get the Downhillers on the test bikes. To their surprise they almost ripped them out of the floor mounts with higher readings than most of their top xc riders.
The Duckmeister
Has a juicy midrange
Sorta but not entirely. With all disciplines you do need some of both, in varying proportions, except maybe triathlon, where skill is apparently totally unnecessary, but let's not go there..... :tape: From a XC rider's perspective, this is probably the point where fitness vs skill is in the most equal balance, as being able to climb strongly and descend quickly and smoothly are equally important to being a fast rider, and as I suggested above, if you're lacking in fitness, as you tire it's the brain that fries, and when the brain fries the skills go out the window, and then it's in the trickier bits that you turn to shit, and you can lose more time there than by going slow on the climbs.
So if you take XC as your 50:50 centre point, as you go for a greater focus on fitness you move to gravel, road and at the extreme triathlon, and the other way, with progressively more focus to skill over fitness you go toward the endooro & DH side of things.
That's my take anyway. :smile:
spikenet
Likes Dirt
not really surprising, I've seen output figures from BMX racers that eclipse most disciplines.. but its horses for courses, to win at xc you have to be uber fit for the uphills.. races are "generally" not won and lost on the descents in that realm.
I was hardcore into xc, endurance, road racing years ago but have transitioned into downhill, enduro, bmx and dirt jumping. Absolutely loving the skills aspects and as mentioned earlier, if you ride enough you will get some level of fitness with it.. Wheelies, manuals, trials moves were never on the radar in the past, now I'm loving these things
safreek
*******
Bit of both, the girls love some skill but really dig a stayer. Lucky I have both
Nautonier
Eats Squid
An excellent summary. I'd add that with real enduro, where you have to climb sometimes over 3000m per day, the fitness to skill ratio is possibly the same as XC. I'm sure the fit guys did a lot better at Red Hill last weekend than those with more specialised DH skills.
Either way, fitness is never a bad thing in MTBing. Even elite DH riders have to be super fit. The way I look at it, fitness is an added bonus to the best sport in the world.
Ultra Lord
Hurts. Requires Money. And is nerdy.
Its a vicious cycle pf riding for fun, getting fitter, then riding more cause your fitter, having more fun etc etc.
pink poodle
気が狂っている男
I always find fun to be the more important aspect. When it stops being fun those other factors dont mean shit.
That is why training sucks balls. Best way to ruin a fun sport is to start actually training for it.
I commute on a roadie 4-5 days per week. Makes riding lots of fun dirt k's on a dually over a weekend super fun (3rd mtb ride on a sunday arvo can suck a little at the end with dead legs)
bikesarefun
Likes Bikes and Dirt
eBike and skill. Lol.