I think I speak for 99% of mountain bikers when I say the purpose of climbing is to get to the next descent. Amirite? With that in mind, sometimes we have a choice: climb up the singletrack then bomb back down OR take a fire road to the top and ride singletrack down. Given the choice, we want to know which you prefer!
(And just to be clear, it’s never OK to ride singletrack up and fire road down. That makes no sense.😁 )
18 Comments
Jun 19, 2022
In my neck of the woods it's fire road climbs and single track descents
Jun 20, 2022
Riding up a techy black diamond is a killer core workout, and the skills and strength required to huck UP the drop are deserving of respect.
Jun 20, 2022
In my area, the fire roads/jeep trails usually only lead to trailheads and do not intersect the MTB trails at all (or at useful junctions). So you're pretty much forced to ride singletrack up and down. Personally, I like the challenge.
Jun 20, 2022
Jun 21, 2022
Jun 19, 2022
Jun 19, 2022
SoCal's Snow Summit/Big Bear, SkyPark, Rim Nordic, Snow Valley, Exploration Trail area give a choice, and I can say that climbing singletrack isn't picked the vast majority of the time. At Greer Ranch, there's at least one fireroad climb that I prefer. At my all-time favorite trail network, Riverside's Sycamore Canyon, fireroads aren't avoided. They're the default choice, but we often pick diff routes to change things up, so things never feel old. Lots of Orange County Cali stuff is old school fireroad climbing, but I don't think people consider that there's much of a choice there, to conveniently access the descents they want.
I love the idea of uphill singletrack flow on an ebike. Had this experience at a Haibike demo event, hammering things in Turbo/Boost for a wild new experience, but I generally like long epic rides, so battery life would be an issue.
My ego picks singletrack for the sake of making pleasant memories. Legs, joints, heart, and rest of body pick the least painful option. Besides stamina cost, the time, money, and inconvenience (coping with traffic) cost can be kind of painful too. Some bikes, like budget and mid/long-travel bikes, make singletrack climbs more painful. Brain seems to think in some return-on-investment kind of way, wanting a good reward for whatever was put in. If I put a lot of work into fitness and money into a high performance lightweight bike, I'd want to get more out of it, challenging myself on singletrack that forces me to ride a certain line up the trail.
SoCal's Snow Summit/Big Bear, SkyPark, Rim Nordic, Snow Valley, Exploration Trail area give a choice, and I can say that climbing singletrack isn't picked the vast majority of the time. At Greer Ranch, there's at least one fireroad climb that I prefer. At my all-time favorite trail network, Riverside's Sycamore Canyon, fireroads aren't avoided. They're the default choice, but we often pick diff routes to change things up, so things never feel old. Lots of Orange County Cali stuff is old school fireroad climbing, but I don't think people consider that there's much of a choice there, to conveniently access the descents they want.
I love the idea of uphill singletrack flow on an ebike. Had this experience at a Haibike demo event, hammering things in Turbo/Boost for a wild new experience, but I generally like long epic rides, so battery life would be an issue.
Jul 2, 2022
Jun 23, 2022
Yea downhill is fun however it’s easy for the most part at my +65 age I prefer challenging environments just because it gives me a sense of accomplishment.
Jul 7, 2022
Jun 23, 2022
Jul 2, 2022
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Jun 22, 2022
Jun 23, 2022
Jun 28, 2022
Sure, you can take the fire road up, or you can puzzle together the climb up Ingles field gap instead, watching for the riders coming downhill and giving them a clear pass and a hoot!
Then, keep on climbing up to the top of greens lick, descend that, back up to five points and down IFG again.
I usually choose the singletrack climb on that ride and never regret it.
Jun 23, 2022
Jun 30, 2022