I have a confession to make. I've been to the dark side. And I quite enjoyed it. But it won't be a regular occurrence.
For my birthday last year my kids bought me an 'experience day'. They booked a session in a supercar at a track somewhere. When I looked at it it seemed to be a lot of coffee and briefing, then 2 laps (or 6 miles) of a track. Thanks for the thought, but that seemed to be a lot of cost for not a lot of 'experience'.
Searching the gift company website I found land yachting (nice, but the other end of the country), a spa day (what? me?), and then I found a day's introduction to mountain biking, down the road in North Wales.
So, today was the day. And now I'm totally shattered.....
Only 3 of us and an instructor. Total of 4 hours on the bike - enough for me. Coed y Brenin Forest Park, N of Dolgellau. Fantastic place. Miles and miles of graded tracks through the pine forests, training areas, obstacles to practice on, cafe, bike shop, bike hire, hundreds of 20-somethings there today.
Instructor was excellent, bike provided was a Giant (well-used but serviceable, but a bit too stretched out for my taste) and a good time was had by all.
I'll not be converting to the dark side, but as an entry into a different skill set it was well worth it.
Interesting demographic though - I bet the median age of the MTBers was late 20s. The median age of the road cyclists I meet at audaxes is maybe mid 50's. Maybe that says more about audaxers than road cyclists, but you get my drift. Anyway, the MTBers have not yet bought house and had kids. The road cyclists have been there and done that.
Gin in hand, dinner on way, followed in short order by snooze in front of telly, and early bed..........
I do like my MTB riding, even though that bike has 1/3 of the mileage of my road bike.
