A riding friend of mine ask a very serious question on the way home from an enduro a few weeks ago. After being beat up a put through the ringer my wary friend in all seriousness asked, "Tell me again why we do this?"
At the time I had no answer other than "It was fun?" The questioned was answered by craig_enid on the way home from yet another enduro. Craig, bswift and myself were in a deep intellectual conversation about the same topic when Craig_enid summed it up best by saying " The utopian ride".
On that rare occasion when everything goes just right. The bike is spot on. The soil is of perfect consistency. You pick all the right lines. You find yourself always in the right gear. You time the log crossings just right letting the suspension absorb all the impact.
You laugh at the nasty uphills, the sand whoops are like cracks in a sidewalk, The tight trees seem six feet apart. Slippery roots at an angle fall victim to the quick little wheely with the backend skipping over just as easy. Rocks??, HA, your bike dances through them like they were snow.
You don't even have to holler Hey, Hey at the slower riders, they hear your bike screaming up behind them and move over without you even having to break stride. You find the resets boring, waiting anxiously for the time to pass. Time keeping is spot on, riding into your minute 20 seconds hot knowing you can scrub the time off.
These are the rare occasions when everything goes right, you have ridden the "utopian ride". I know most riders won't understand the enduro terms, but the principles are the same for all riding. MXer's going through the rhythm sections just right, the cross country riders firing up on the first kick, holeshotting the first corner.
That's what keeps us coming back. Just my thoughts.
:cool:
At the time I had no answer other than "It was fun?" The questioned was answered by craig_enid on the way home from yet another enduro. Craig, bswift and myself were in a deep intellectual conversation about the same topic when Craig_enid summed it up best by saying " The utopian ride".
On that rare occasion when everything goes just right. The bike is spot on. The soil is of perfect consistency. You pick all the right lines. You find yourself always in the right gear. You time the log crossings just right letting the suspension absorb all the impact.
You laugh at the nasty uphills, the sand whoops are like cracks in a sidewalk, The tight trees seem six feet apart. Slippery roots at an angle fall victim to the quick little wheely with the backend skipping over just as easy. Rocks??, HA, your bike dances through them like they were snow.
You don't even have to holler Hey, Hey at the slower riders, they hear your bike screaming up behind them and move over without you even having to break stride. You find the resets boring, waiting anxiously for the time to pass. Time keeping is spot on, riding into your minute 20 seconds hot knowing you can scrub the time off.
These are the rare occasions when everything goes right, you have ridden the "utopian ride". I know most riders won't understand the enduro terms, but the principles are the same for all riding. MXer's going through the rhythm sections just right, the cross country riders firing up on the first kick, holeshotting the first corner.
That's what keeps us coming back. Just my thoughts.
:cool: