New technology - Is riding now too easy?

[Dozer]

This thread will appeal to guys who've been around and ridden trails for a fair while. Think about the gnarly stuff you used to ride, the big jumps you were hitting with super harsh landings, the loose rocky downhill trails that you nailed no brakes, the massive high speed run ins from fire roads, the gaps you had to clear or get off and push, the tough lines on an XC trail that were just beyond your wildest dreams............ has all that stuff become so much easier and almost dumbed down with new things like mega powerful brakes, super fine tuned suspension, extra grippy rubber, forgiving geometry?
Does the advancements in bike parts and manufacturers designs make our trails easier to ride?

 

[camzh]

yep, makes it all a lot easier.

But it doesnt stop you from riding the old bike on the same trail.

 

[wembas]

i remember what it used to be like riding my rigid shogun prairie breaker down sick rocky descents with horrible canti brakes that faded out after about 2 seconds...

its a hell of a lot easier now... but it doesnt have to be... we choose to but the slick rigs with kick ass bling - because its super awesome.

The damned kids of today dont appreciate how tough us older guys are though... we did it tough back then... <insert 'when i was a boy... etc'>

 

[pharmaboy]

biggest change-brakes

riding in a storm downhill with v brakes squeezed into the bars........... still speeding up......

Biggest change is trails-we still get off the beaten track, off camber corners, berms made my a moto tyre, ditches that ll swallow you etc-all the parks and racetracks are so used these days, they're buff.

 

[Mr_hANky]

I dont think so. All that has happened is people have started going faster because of the technology. And when your going mak 10 no matter How good your gear, it doesnt feel easy.

 

[Turner_rider]

The damned kids of today dont appreciate how tough us older guys are though... we did it tough back then... <insert 'when i was a boy... etc'>

Yes when I was a boy the lowest gear available for climbing hills as 24-28 and if you got the line really wrong on fast rocky stuff your rims got smashed to pieces...

Its interesting though that while some parts back then were quite fragile other things like old 6, 7and 8 speed XT were massively overbuilt and last forever.

 

[disappearin]

I remember racing DH with elastomer forks and cantilever brakes on a HT... Those were the days!
Modern technology lets lesser experienced riders ride a lot faster. It also lets skilled riders do things that were only dreamed of in the past.

 

[floody]

I remember racing DH with elastomer forks and cantilever brakes on a HT... Those were the days!
Modern technology lets lesser experienced riders ride a lot faster. It also lets skilled riders do things that were only dreamed of in the past.

^This in a nutshell.

 

[John U]

I regularly find myself choosing the roughest line enjoying the joys of dual suspension.

The evolution bikes has made a massive difference to what's doable.

Like has been said above, if its getting too easy just go faster.

 

[driftking]

I have to admit as a young rider Iv have the tech or me, but ill give my 2cents.


Its all about the trail relative to the bike imo.
The level at which people used to ride is easier now with more technology without a doubt, but as tech has increased so have trails, the difference is people are not pushing the same level. If you ride the same trail at the same speed on a old bike and a new bike, the new bike is much easier, where the old bike is hitting 100% capability the new bike is probably reaching 60%, going faster on the new bike will improve time and probably still only use 70% of its capability because they are built to handle more intense riding stuff.

Take the new bike to champery, bromont, fort will, and then ride it 100% it's no where near easy.
Take the old bike and your probably be walking down.

The difference is the trail, what used to cut it as a hard trail is just a moderate trail now with new tech, we now need to push the limits again. If your riding a old bike on a old hard trail and a new bike on the new hard trails then by no means is the riding easier just faster.because the bikes performance is relative to the trail.
If you ride a old hard trail on a new bike though its amples easier.

Edit:
To add to my original post this is what happens.
http://www.rotorburn.com/forums/showthread.php?179789-The-Evolution-of-the-Awaba-Rock-Garden

If we took a photo today it would probably look more tech again. We develop and tracks do to but the effort it takes and balls remain the same. All about relevance between track and technology. As tech goes up we need to ride faster and harder trails.

 

[finksta]

It happens in every sport, technological advances in equipment force the game (whatever game that is) to evolve. Whether that means it makes it easier, I don't know.

 

[.dan.]

I've only been MTBing since 2005, so missed the elastomer forks and cantilever brakes, but some of the stuff that I ride now might not have been possible on those old bikes. Technology has made older trails that were designed for older bikes easier, but you can ride them so much faster nowadays. This one gap I built recently is only just possible to clear on an 8" travel dh bike because the run in is so hard to ride at speed, wouldn't have even thought about building something like that 15 years ago on those bikes. Look at how far freeriding has come due to technology, they wouldn't be riding rampage on the bikes that Tippie, Schley and Simmons started the freeride movement on.

 

[Nautonier]

I agree with DK; it's all relative to the trails and a lot of the trails back then were a hell of a lot easier than what we ride now on 8" bikes. Sure they were super steep and not at all groomed, but they didn't have all sorts of hard-core features built into them that made them almost impossible to ride without a full 8" rig. There's no way I could ride the DH tracks I ride now on my old Diamond Back Apex with cantilever brakes, 3" forks and skinny tires...

 

[pharmaboy]

I dont think so. All that has happened is people have started going faster because of the technology. And when your going mak 10 no matter How good your gear, it doesnt feel easy.

This is a good point.

Tech has made us faster, but that doesnt equate to easy, it might however equate to faster crashes ;(

 

[Genius Josh]

I'm sure the rise of the hard tail single speed set has something to do with this. Can't see people going back to v or centre pull brakes which were the shit, when I was a lad. I had a steel framed Malvern star that I managed to fold the centre pull brakes partially through the forks I'm sure only possible from multiple runs on a 60+ km/hr descent with coke on the rims on. I remember when a downhill trail was a badly rutted fall line fire road with water bars (lots of waterbars) that shot you like ski jumps horizontally off a 30 to 45 degree slope. Those were the days.

 

[frensham]

I started off with an Apollo Himalaya. Fully rigid, canti brakes, 28 teeth max on the rear cluster. I had fun.
I am now (after a series of duallies) on a titanium Lynskey HT, 34 teeth at the back, lovely 100 mm of plush suspension up front and zillion compound, tubeless tyres to boot. I am still having fun.
I think the advantage of all the new technology is that it allows you to do stuff you found difficult or too hard before. I remember in the early days suffering from arm pump and hand palsy from the long downhill sections - having to stop halfway down. Now I simply go all the way and my back and kidneys thank me too!

 

[Ridenparadise]

I've been riding bikes off-road for over 45 years. It was not the same back then - pushing through brush to follow moto lines with your mates on some adventure or hunt. In Oz, even 20 years ago there were so few MTB riders that doing something extreme meant making your own "trail" because otherwise you were on a dirt road. Not so much a trail as a line leading to rocks or steeps or drops or exposure or whatever floated your boat at the time. Speed was never the issue.

Having said that, the fastest I've ever been on road was on a fully rigid Scott Boulder MTB (93kph). The same bike also took me the fastest ever on dirt - near Olsen's Lookout, riding down from the main range in NSW after crossing from east to west. I think you went fast back then because you knew no better.

 

[willsy01]

My first trp to Thredbo was in 2001 on my 2000 Avanti Hotdog......hardtail, vbrakes and Bomber DJ1 elastomer forks. My forearms were like stone at the bottom.

The older I get, the better I was.......regardless of the bike under me.

 

[Wellsey]

This thread will appeal to guys who've been around and ridden trails for a fair while. Think about the gnarly stuff you used to ride, the big jumps you were hitting with super harsh landings, the loose rocky downhill trails that you nailed no brakes, the massive high speed run ins from fire roads, the gaps you had to clear or get off and push, the tough lines on an XC trail that were just beyond your wildest dreams............ has all that stuff become so much easier and almost dumbed down with new things like mega powerful brakes, super fine tuned suspension, extra grippy rubber, forgiving geometry?
Does the advancements in bike parts and manufacturers designs make our trails easier to ride?

Nope. It's being dumbed down because of peoples insistence on turning single track into two metre wide groomed BMX tracks.

 

[99_FGT]

Nope. It's being dumbed down because of peoples insistence on turning single track into two metre wide groomed BMX tracks.

I'm with Wellsey on this one. It might be a necessity from having so many riders, but can we keep some decent tracks please?