Pinkbike Poll: How long does your ideal mountain bike ride last?
As mountain bikers, we all have our riding routines. What we toss into our pack, the trails we choose, who we ride with, and even how long we ride for – after enough seasons in the saddle a pattern inherently emerges that lets us get the most out of our time on the bike.
There are countless factors that influence the duration of a ride, since flat tires and other mechanicals can stretch even the shortest outings into multi-hour affairs, but most riders have a preference, a rough time frame that they plug into their day that is set aside strictly for mountain biking. There are riders that can quench their thirst for mountain biking in less than two hours, rides that end up being a brief blip in the daily routine. These sub-two hour rides are easier to fit around work, school, kids, housework, and whatever other tasks eat away at precious riding time. While these short rides may work for some, for others they can be something of a tease, not providing enough adrenaline and muscle fatigue to satiate the addiction.
![My favourite photo from the Chilcotins. Riders Andreas Hestler and Seamus McGrath.]()
Long rides amongst big mountains - there aren't too many better ways to spend a day.
Then there are the riders whose urge to ride teeters on the edge of insanity, and if it were up to them they would ride all day, every day, until their body refused to function, and even then they would still probably try to ride even further. These are the riders that put in five hour rides after work in the middle of winter in the dark, the ones that wake up before the crack of dawn during the summer and don't return until the sun has sunk below the horizon, fifteen or sixteen hours later.
![Darcy Turenne ten minutes from her home in Squamish BC.]()
When your backyard looks like this, it's tough to only ride for an hour.
In between these two extremes is what seems to be the sweet spot for the duration of a ride – somewhere around the three to four hour mark, which is enough time to cover a good bit of trail while still leaving time in the day to accomplish other tasks. Although some days, days when the trails are perfect and the sun is shining, these rides have a sneaky habit of running longer than planned, and real world obligations get put on hold in order to savor a couple more miles of tasty singletrack, or to session a freshly built jump line a few more times.
That brings us to the topic of this week's poll: How long does your ideal mountain bike ride last? Are you an all-day epic type of rider, or is an hour or two long enough to get your fix?
There are countless factors that influence the duration of a ride, since flat tires and other mechanicals can stretch even the shortest outings into multi-hour affairs, but most riders have a preference, a rough time frame that they plug into their day that is set aside strictly for mountain biking. There are riders that can quench their thirst for mountain biking in less than two hours, rides that end up being a brief blip in the daily routine. These sub-two hour rides are easier to fit around work, school, kids, housework, and whatever other tasks eat away at precious riding time. While these short rides may work for some, for others they can be something of a tease, not providing enough adrenaline and muscle fatigue to satiate the addiction.
Then there are the riders whose urge to ride teeters on the edge of insanity, and if it were up to them they would ride all day, every day, until their body refused to function, and even then they would still probably try to ride even further. These are the riders that put in five hour rides after work in the middle of winter in the dark, the ones that wake up before the crack of dawn during the summer and don't return until the sun has sunk below the horizon, fifteen or sixteen hours later.
In between these two extremes is what seems to be the sweet spot for the duration of a ride – somewhere around the three to four hour mark, which is enough time to cover a good bit of trail while still leaving time in the day to accomplish other tasks. Although some days, days when the trails are perfect and the sun is shining, these rides have a sneaky habit of running longer than planned, and real world obligations get put on hold in order to savor a couple more miles of tasty singletrack, or to session a freshly built jump line a few more times.
That brings us to the topic of this week's poll: How long does your ideal mountain bike ride last? Are you an all-day epic type of rider, or is an hour or two long enough to get your fix?
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but really, I got your joke
Especially not living near tons of vert, DH runs are short and rest is long, so going all day is no problem. Trail riding? different story. Hammer down from the parking lot until we make it back to the car. Minimum rest and as much trail as we can fit in before water runs out and cramps knock at the door.
Oh, and wanting to be a better father than rider means sub-2hr trail rides is enough for daddy to get his fill and be home in time to spend some quality moments with the kiddos.
"I'm gonna slow down because I have Cricket"
also there are times when I feel like a f+#king madman pedalling dh gives me a wee rush know what am sayin .
When I'm on holiday (ones a year) in Austria I will ride every second day a whole day!
Lift Access= 6-9 hours with a beer break half way through
I rode in Moab a few years back and even then the longest ride we put in was 3 hours due to our inexperience with the terrain and limited supply of water. Not to mention I got 5-7 flats that day so probably close to an hour just changing tubes.