Thread title says it all: I'll start
I rode 8 years of XC/AM, just basically riding around the wood and everywhere. Started at about 12. This is the start of my 2nd season of actually being a downhiller. I only considered myself one when I started racing as pretty much everything before that I'd consider a hard AM trail.
Never did any BMX or moto, basically learned two wheels on the trails.
This seems to have given me inherent strength in technical riding and just basically weaving through single track and not hitting trees. Precision is something that just seems to come naturally. And naturally I consider myself decent at putting the power down.
But I find my distributions of strengths a bit funny as I'm competitive in pro DH here but I can hardly pull a manual or a wheelie for more than a few meters consistently. I also took quite some time getting used to going fast and staying fast, especially in the roughs. Also took (or is taking) me for ever to learn how to whip. Big jumps were and still kind of are quite challenging, but drops are a peace of cake no matter how gnarly the take off or the landing is.
Does anyone have similar experiences with their strengths in downhill coming from a trail riding / xc back ground?
I'm sure many of you have come from moto and bmx too, how has that affected your style?
I rode 8 years of XC/AM, just basically riding around the wood and everywhere. Started at about 12. This is the start of my 2nd season of actually being a downhiller. I only considered myself one when I started racing as pretty much everything before that I'd consider a hard AM trail.
Never did any BMX or moto, basically learned two wheels on the trails.
This seems to have given me inherent strength in technical riding and just basically weaving through single track and not hitting trees. Precision is something that just seems to come naturally. And naturally I consider myself decent at putting the power down.
But I find my distributions of strengths a bit funny as I'm competitive in pro DH here but I can hardly pull a manual or a wheelie for more than a few meters consistently. I also took quite some time getting used to going fast and staying fast, especially in the roughs. Also took (or is taking) me for ever to learn how to whip. Big jumps were and still kind of are quite challenging, but drops are a peace of cake no matter how gnarly the take off or the landing is.
Does anyone have similar experiences with their strengths in downhill coming from a trail riding / xc back ground?
I'm sure many of you have come from moto and bmx too, how has that affected your style?