Pinkbike Editors' New Years Resolutions for 2022

It's always good to have a great big lofty goal to aim for, even if your resolution ends up being abandoned by mid-January. If you could accomplish anything in 2022, what would it be? We put that question to each member of Pinkbike's editorial crew and some regular contributors:

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Sarah Moore
Ride More Bike Park

The best bike park in the world is just a 45-minute drive away from where I call home, but I'm embarrassed to say that I don't actually ride there very much. We've done a Pinkbike staff day there the past two years and doing A-Line laps with the team was been a highlight of both seasons. The only problem is that the staff day is usually sometime in late September, so I only have a couple more weekends to make the most of my newfound love of bike park riding. This year, I want to get to the bike park early and spend more time in there the throughout the entire season.

Riding the bike park is great for repetition and getting comfortable on specific features and trails, but I also just want to spend more time sessioning jumps, technical climbs, and descents on everyday rides. I'd also love to do some more coaching this season. I did one day last season and it was really great to get someone else's perspective on what I should be working on. It gives you something to think about on future rides and keeps riding fresh.

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Tom Bradshaw
Organize an Event

New Year's resolutions are pretty punishing unless you tell someone about it. So here we go Pinkbike - I'm going to organise an event. Ha yep. In 2022. Yep, in the current climate. It's not going to be an EWS or massive world changing event. Instead something local, something fun, probably involving dress-up, raising money for something and definitely on/around bikes. Selfishly I've just moved to a new town, and want to meet more people. I also love hosting events, and getting people together. I've missed that. So keep your eyes peeled for when the world allows. What about those classic 24 hour team races, or a charity quiz, or a low key Super D....

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Seb Stott
Explore

I suppose I might as well make a resolution I'm bound to stick to. This year I moved back to Scotland after seven years and I can't wait to go out and explore the best riding the country has to offer. I'm looking forward to getting re-acquainted with some of my favourite riding spots, including Dunkeld, Aviemore and the Tweed Valley where I now live, but also riding plenty of new trails and new locations across the country.

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Mike Kazimer
Ride on the East Coast (Again)

I grew up in Connecticut, and got my start mountain biking and racing all over New England. Bigger mountains were calling my name, though, which is how I ended up in Colorado after high school, and in Washington eight years after that. I'm waaay overdue for a trip back east – almost 20 years have gone by since I last visited my hometown – so I'd really like to plan a trip to see how the riding scene has evolved.

There are two East Coast EWS rounds next season, one in Vermont and one in Maine, and I'm sure either of those events would be a good time. There's also the Trans New England race that looks even more appealing – I don't think you can go wrong with unlimited maple syrup and five days of blind enduro racing. Here's hoping I can get over to the other side of the country to revisit the trails that originally got me hooked on mountain biking.

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Mike Levy
More Stupid Rides

I couple of years back, I wrote something about wanting to "do more stupid rides," and that some of my fondest on-bike memories have been when I've either been "laughing, crying, hyperventilating, or doing an embarrassing combination of all three." Sure, it might not be all that fun in the moment, but we all know those sorts of rides are the kind you end up recounting at the end of the year... Like the time we bushwhacked through tight alders and thorns for six hours in mostly the wrong direction while mostly naked during a twelve-hour day on the bike. Or that month in the summer when I thought I was tougher than the sun and caught heat stroke two or three times while trying to do monster rides inside a pizza oven. Or that day when I definitely shouldn't have taken my dumb short-travel bike to that one trail on that rainy day and not expect to get spanked extra hard. Those were such good times.

I probably don't need to call it a resolution, but I'd like to continue doing more of the same in 2022 while also mixing things up in some different locations. Travel permitting and being optimistic about things, I'd love to ride the length of Cuba or Taiwan, or at least explore more of what's closer to me while making more memories that maybe aren't all the fun in the moment.

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Henry Quinney
Don't Move House

I know it sounds strange. I mean how hard can it be? Truthfully, I've lived quite a transient experience for most of my adult life. The most I've lived in any one place since 2010 is around 18 months. This happened on two occasions but both times I just got itchy feet for the next big thing. Almost without exception, the change has been prompted by better riding and greener, warmer pastures. This year though, I'm determined not to leave Canada for more than a week or two until at least next winter. This makes seeing out the cold months something I will have to do.

A problem with moving around a lot is that you no longer see it as a big deal, especially in a pre-covid world. I remember I was once walking home from a night out in NZ and I saw frost on somebody's windscreen and I booked a ticket to France just a few hours later. In 2021 I spent around 16 weeks in some form of isolation due to covid restrictions or travel quarantine. As much as I'm happy with those choices, and they were my own choices, it got pretty old. Quite frankly there is only a set amount of hours you can play computer games and eat cheese toasties before it begins to wear. I think at the core of it, New Zealand still has a hold on my heart and I can't help but compare places to it, even though I know there were many times when I was fed up with the place and envisioned leaving. Just like anywhere, be it any of the places I've been lucky enough to call home, location is not the silver bullet to feeling good within yourself. It's just one piece of a larger puzzle.

Life changes and we all grow up, albeit at different rates to each other. I feel like a man-sized boy, almost as if I'm living some form of caveated adulthood where it doesn't quite count. Whilst I don't suppose that will ever change, the first few months of 2022 will be the last of my twenties and I think I'm ready to just chill out and learn to love somewhere, even if it means I need to accept I can't ride in the mountains every day of the year.

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Alicia Leggett
Chill Out

My plan for the new year is to try to stop stressing so much about every little thing. This year, my love for mountain biking and really everything else was a bit muddied by the fact that I just never live up to the unreasonable expectations I set for myself. It's hard to enjoy riding a bike when you're just never possibly going to be fit enough, skilled enough, stylish enough, or whatever else runs through my head - especially since every time I improve, I lift my unreachable standards, too. I know that's not good.

So this year, I'm just going to ride a bike because I enjoy riding a bike. I'll go on fast rides, I'll go on slow rides, and I'll go on all kinds of in-between rides. All of it will be better than any type of ride that's ruined because I'm not the perfect rider, and goddamn, riding bikes is super fun. It would be pretty sad to lose sight of that.

As for the non-bike areas of my life? My resolution is also to chill the f*ck out. I'll give my best, then stop stressing and let things play out however they will. I can't control most of it anyway.

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Matt Wragg
Run (again)

Last year I said I wanted to run. The truth is that I didn't do very well at it this past year. I got into a groove a couple of times, but could never get to the point of consistency. So rather than try and start something new, I want to get this dialled.

Of course, aiming for consistency doesn't mean I should try and repeat what didn't work last year. This Autumn my wife and I bought a house, it came with around a hectare of land divided into steep terraces which is going to need a lot of time to manage, which means less time to ride. My goal is to try and run first thing on the days I need to work on the property, as I won't have enough time to ride those days. Hopefully between the manual labour and the running, even though I have less time for my bikes, I should be stronger when I do head out...

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What is your resolution for 2022?