Riding alone?

[duncanstives]

Hey guys,
Fairly new rider here... Been on Canadian daves for awhile and realized that my membership there actually is a membership for the whole forum and my question would be better posted here as there is more traffic and its not kdx specific.
Question is this:
My buddy who I normally rides with just let me know he won't be able to make it tomorrow but I really wanna ride. Would I be a moron to tackle a mild trail on my own?
I have only had my kdx about 3 weeks but in addition to riding every day (with the exception of downtime for "new to me bike maintenance) since ive got the bike for at least an hour on my property and weekends on long rides (my first one lasted 9 hours) I have also ridden 4 wheeler and jeeps for years (almost always alone... I am not terribly social)... This includes numerous multi-day trips in all seasons incleading the dead of winter.
I am a quick learner when it comes to piloting vehicles and while I am certainly still an amature rider I am reasonably competent and feel pretty confident about the terrain I am driving. The trail I am planning is directly behind my house and about 8 miles long. There will be no cell coverage and the farthest point from a road will be about 4 miles (roads are closer but the valley sides are cliffs preventing access with the exception of the two ends).
The bike has been checked pretty well and has some new parts (bearing, sproket, chain, etc) and has given me 0 issues so far.

So... Seems like a no brainer to me but I once went whitewater rafting in a class 3-4 river WITHOUT the raft... Also alone and people told me I was nuts later (though except for being battered and extremely scraped up I was fine... Totally worth it... It was a great trip). So... Opinions? Am I an idiot for considering this or is solo riding "legit" in the world of biking? If so I see some log trail rides in my future... I love exploring... Alone or otherwise.

 

[julien_d]

personal choice, but I make it a point not to ride alone. Besides, wifey won't let me.

 

[jsantapau]

its not the bike,s condition that prevents me from riding alone it is the condition I might be in that prevents it. Ever try starting a bike with a broken leg so you dont have to try and walk home on it? No fun even if someone else is there but atleast there is help.

 

[duncanstives]

Hey guys..... Thanks for the tips... Sounded like it might not be TOTAL lunacy and its a beatiful day here so I went ahead and gave it a try... My estimate was wrong: the trail was only 6 miles and gave me no trouble at all... I took my time and didn't do anything stupid and never even had any close calls. The only problem was flood waters had made the trail gnarly enough that dispite evidence of several tries no one had made it though in awhile (mostly 4 wheelers) but the narrow dirt bike made it (with some difficulty and lots of clutch)... Only to be confronted by several fallen trees which presumably the people with 4 wheelers (and those handy luggage racks suitable for carrying chain saws) normally would have kept clear... I wished I had brought my machete as I sharpened rocks cave man style to help me chop at the offending trees but before I left I had this image of myself falling on it somehow and getting impaled.
Eventually I cleared enough branches to put the bike under on it's side and continue on my way.
Since it's still early I might go tackle another trail.

 

[pesky nz]

Its all about risk verses reward, if I am 98% sure I will not get stuck, breakdown or dismount unintentionally I go riding alone. Things to consider are mostly covered by you already but do remember that even a small slow tip over can leave you trapped under your bike. If you can enjoy riding well within your capabilities riding alone can be very rewarding but you sound a bit too new to the sport to be able to judge/juggle the risks just yet. ps my longest push home is over 12 miles on a gravel road and it took over 4 hours in riding boots

 

[duncanstives]

Its all about risk verses reward, if I am 98% sure I will not get stuck, breakdown or dismount unintentionally I go riding alone. Things to consider are mostly covered by you already but do remember that even a small slow tip over can leave you trapped under your bike. If you can enjoy riding well within your capabilities riding alone can be very rewarding but you sound a bit too new to the sport to be able to judge/juggle the risks just yet. ps my longest push home is over 12 miles on a gravel road and it took over 4 hours in riding boots

12 miles? Yikes... Presumably you brought your bike on a truck... If it was a gravel road why not just walk out and get the truck?

As for not being able to judge the risks: I've crashed enough to know the risk is pretty high but I also know that I crash when I'm doing something more difficult then I've tried before or find myself in terrain that is more than I can handle.
In the case of this trip I didn't try anything risky and I had travelled the trail many times so I knew it was a cake walk (relatively speaking).

I will say its impressive how much you can gain skill and how rewarding those gains are in how confident and effective a rider you are. Just when I think I'm getting decent at biking I get even better and look back on just a couple days ago and realize how far I've come. So far I find that its a game of confidence: The more confident you are the better you are... I am getting to the point where I TRUST that (for example) the back tire will slide out if I gas it around a corner... It messes with your head because you know if something doesn't work that way you intend then all that throttle will have made it too late to slow down and try it at a lower speed... The thing is that the only reason it WOULDN'T work the way you intended is if you didn't gas it hard enough... Same with jumps: NOT hitting it hard enough is the primary way to fail... The one thing thats helped me most is learning to just gas it and trust in the princible of the thing... I still remember the moment I started to grasp that: Toward the end of my very first ride I was exausted (heat exaustion) and beat after spending the day picking my way around carefully in first gear... One of the last big hills had a bunch of huge bolder filled ruts all the way up... To tired to even consider picking my way up carefully with many stops and backing up and CAREFULLY trying not to wheelie while starting again I just gunned it and hoped for the best: I missed every single line I tried to take... No matter what I tried doing I was ALWAYS in the exact place I didn't want to be but I just kept on the throttle and hung on for dear life and was astounded when I found myself at the top still on the bike... It was one of those light bulb moments... I actually stopped for like a full minute to consider the implications.

 

[pesky nz]

12 miles? Yikes... Presumably you brought your bike on a truck... If it was a gravel road why not just walk out and get the truck?

unfortunately riding behind locked gates so only access by bike (no atv's back then) the trail I used to get there was not a push option but would have been shorter just too steep and rut infested. Aim for safe and the fun will come

 

[duncanstives]

12 miles? Yikes... Presumably you brought your bike on a truck... If it was a gravel road why not just walk out and get the truck?

unfortunately riding behind locked gates so only access by bike (no atv's back then) the trail I used to get there was not a push option but would have been shorter just too steep and rut infested. Aim for safe and the fun will come

Bummer... Sounds like a long day.
Got my jeep stuck once about 10 miles from a road... It was winter and I had my littler sister with me (she was about 8)... I got a fire going so she could keep warm (and me since I was soaked from trying to free the jeep) and when it became appartent it was hopeless we walked out got to a road (and cell coverage) around 10:30... Forest service was already searching for us but we were fine... My little sister was in excellent spirits... Especially since I let her eat the emergency snacks... She still talks about it fondly 5 years later... Lol
$250 to have a towing place recover it (pretty good deal considering it took the guy about 5 hours) and a little money for new fluids in the diffs, wheel bearing grease, etc (sat in the mud overnight) and I was back on the trail. Totally worth it.