Woods riding

[Philip]

 

[Theo]

I don't want to offend anybody but the way in which I see woods riding is to run higher risks than motocross for both yourself and your bike, getting more discomfort and less fun.
You don't have runoff areas and there are unexpected things like slippery rocks that can destabilize you any moment. You brush trees with your handlebar and if you hit the aformentioned possible rocks a certain way you will faceplant.
I've also tried some downhill cycling and the few times in which I rent a bicycle and do it I'm very cautious and I gain speed only when the trail starts looking more like a MX track, i. e. without too many rocks or roots and wider.
I think I understand how someone prefers woods riding, though, since it's adventurous.
For me, riding at the track is way better than the streets or woods both on asphalt and in the dirt.

 

[SteveBaum]

I love woods riding. It’s all I care to do, and I go almost every Saturday. I love the challenge of new or changing obstacles. I find mx tracks boring after a few times around, but I’m also not very good at jumps, etc. The way I see it, it’s good we all like different things. It keeps room for growth / change.

 

[Theo]

I’m also not very good at jumps, etc.

Don't worry, I'm not good either

 

[Matt]

I don't want to offend anybody but the way in which I see woods riding is to run higher risks than motocross for both yourself and your bike, getting more discomfort and less fun.
You don't have runoff areas and there are unexpected things like slippery rocks that can destabilize you any moment. You brush trees with your handlebar and if you hit the aformentioned possible rocks a certain way you will faceplant.
I've also tried some downhill cycling and the few times in which I rent a bicycle and do it I'm very cautious and I gain speed only when the trail starts looking more like a MX track, i. e. without too many rocks or roots and wider.
I think I understand how someone prefers woods riding, though, since it's adventurous.
For me, riding at the track is way better than the streets or woods both on asphalt and in the dirt.

I think one important thing to note is it's a lot easier to ride over your head on an MX track compared to single track. At least that's been my experience here in the NE.

 

[Theo]

I think one important thing to note is it's a lot easier to ride over your head on an MX track compared to single track. At least that's been my experience here in the NE.

I personally don't tipically ride over my head. Sometimes I crash but so far I've never had very serious injuries. I should point out some things to explain my experience and my point of view:
First of all, I am a slow rider and overall my experience is something like 200 hours at private tracks of MX and supermoto combined; supermoto done mostly at a track with jumps on asphalt.
I am also a risk calculator, I am not reckless in general. From my past experience both on public roads and at the track, personally I think I am better than the others in managing my emotions; I've seen smart people doing pretty stupid things with motocrcycles. What I mean with "stupid things" is not doing an extreme scrub on a jump face if the rider knows what he's doing, hopefully one day I'll do that, too, but rather exceeding one's limits a lot or endangering the others a lot.
I also never race since I find that it adds some fun but way more danger, especially because it's hard to calculate risk when risk depends on your interaction with others.
Talking about trails vs MX tracks: you see, the surface of a MX track does change during the day but it does it gradually and so it happens seldom that there is some unexpected feature that endangers the rider. A new hole doesn't appear all of a sudden, it becomes deeper and deeper after every lap, so it creates risks that can be estimated decently.
I listen to AJ Catanzaro's advice and, especially considering that my experience is limited, like he suggests, I work a lot on technique and not so much purely on intensity and I think that I will always work at least a little bit on technique; he says pros still do it a lot despite their already very good skills. To me, it seems that by focusing on technique I am getting faster and faster; it's taking time, though.
And don't get me wrong, although I get passed easily, I have so so much fun!

 

[Philip]

The trees are harder than they look. Even the thin ones don't feel so thin when you hit them.