Does being s**t at riding bikes matter?

This will probably never be read by anyone but to be honest, I'll talk to myself before sitting in silence, so this is kind of like that isn't it?


I started riding again after about a decade away from bikes in January 2017. I've had a bizarre year since then, death of a very close loved one, upheaval in other personal circumstances, redundancy, existential crises whilst having a crap, all sorts of stuff. Since I started riding again though, it's kind of as if I have a shield from all of the shite. I'd love to be the kind of person that says that nothing bothers them, and that things don't get to me, but I'd be lying if I said that's what I'm like. I'm as happy-go-lucky as the next guy, but if someone who you spend half your time with just dies suddenly, you're left wondering what it is that you've been doing for years considering that, in that configuration at least, it's all now gone.

So, I was having a hard time, and riding mountain bikes made me feel better about myself and my life, which at the time (and it probably still is) was a train-wreck.


I never had much skill as a kid, I'm about as brave/technical as I've ever been since becoming an adult (or pretending, I've found the best way to seem like one is talk about bills and illness all the time, and judge things and people based solely on appearance at any given opportunity), and since coming to understand the physics of jumping/berms/drops and MTB in general. As a younger rider, I refused to believe it wasn't witchcraft keeping feet attached to pedals as my peers flew over dirt jumps without me. I cursed their godlike ability to be not touching the ground, but still touching the bike. Every jump I'd ever landed resulted in either damaged pride, or a dramatically reduced likelihood of me ever bearing children. While that's changed over the past year, and I can now confidently hit most red runs and a few blacks regardless of drops, I still feel like a total beginner when I turn up at a bike park. Even though I've had both wheels off the ground more times then I've been out with girls this year (that just makes BOTH figures look appalling really doesn't it? I'd probably better just finish this here and tug myself into oblivion hadn't I) it doesn't matter, because there's always a thirteen year old on a hardtail that's going to make you look a like a fat, useless bell-end.

And do you know what? NO ONE CARES.

No one cares that you're the only one at the bike park on a 26" bike. No one cares that your helmet is older than their sibling who's just gone into year 9. No one cares that you don't have a £2k bike that you routinely throw off the massive double.
Real mountain biking, whether it's in a bike park, on some singletrack, or in the middle of nowhere without so much as a trail, is NOT about pride or money, or even about looking the part. All that matters is that you have as much fun as you can possibly have, regardless of who says what or what you're riding. No one tells you that you're crap at jerking yourself off do they? I've never had anyone on a forum post saying "Up-tugs are the future, Ban down-tugs" and then borne witness to a pointless three-page argument about the merits of either. Why is it we have so much time to argue about e-bike this, and 26" that, at the same time as some folks not wanting to try to ride anything new for fear of being judged in a car park full of hardware worth more money than their last house?

Basically, what I'm trying to say here, in a massively wordy way because I'm currently seeing how long I can sit typing and holding in a piss, is that the ONLY important thing about mountain biking to consider is getting out and riding your bike. Doesn't matter if you're good like everyone else, or awful like me. It doesn't matter if your trainers are worth more than your bike, or whether you have put yourself in crippling debt to pay for it; all that matters is that you GET IT SENT.

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