Beginner or Sport??

[stewpend0us]

So i'm probably going to go to this comp at big bear lake but i'm not sure if i should ride beginner or sport....this will be my first one.

I've been riding 5 months? (alone) since i joined here basically. I can rock, pivot, track stand, hop in place, side hop 6" either side (havent been practicing this because i don't have a bash yet), rear wheel hop a few times (average 7-10 hops) but little to no control over it. I have nearly zero experience on natural to this point.

I feel like i would be able to do beginner with few problems but i have just about no confidence on my rear wheel which is needed in sport (i'm guessing).

What do you think?

Also anyone looking to carpool from louisville area?????

[David Weyman]

Ride sport if your skills are like that, beginner won't do anything for you and you'll wish you'd rode sport after the comp. Push yourself!

[johnglazer]

If you have no experience riding natural, I'd suggest that you do beginner. You can take a look at the sections before you sign up.

When I did my first comp, I couldn't decide if I was going to do beginner or sport. I went with beginner and did a lot worse than I thought. Riding on natural sections takes so much more concentration, precision, and energy. You have to be able to know how your bike will react when doing certain moves on certain angles/slopes/rough terrain.

For a first competition, and with only 5 months of riding, no experience of riding natural, I would definitely recommend beginner.

[Bryan]

beginner

[beastoftheeast]

You can take a look at the sections before you sign up.

[trialsrider50]

do beginner if you're trying to place.
do sport if you want to learn something and get better.

[Bryan]

bah. I guess just look at the sections. You can't really get this kind of advice on the net. Beginner at one comp is sport at another. From the comps I've been to, and given your description of your skill level, you will probably five everything in sport, and close to everything in beginner.

[stewpend0us]

okay guess I'll check it out when I get there...hopefully get a little more confidence on the rear wheel in the next week and I'll ride what little natural I have around here..

[Dang!]

I rode in my first comp this spring, it was far more difficult than I had suspected. I had been learning and teaching myself as many different tricks and techniques as I could in the 4 months I had been riding. They all amounted for shit, because I had never worked on riding a line or section without dabbing. If I couldn't get something I had always stopped, started over until I got it or wore myself out trying. In a comp you have three tries per section. I had no idea how to recover from a dab or better yet using one to my advantage.

[FlatFender]

Im really thinking of driving down for this. Should I even bother to enter the Beginner class? I cant even trackstand. I would however like to see how others do, since I have nobody to ride with here.

[johnglazer]

Well, you could just give it a shot and see how you do, or you could just watch the competition and ride the sections and ride with everyone after the comp.

[MultiRider]

Agreed that natural is surprisingly difficult. You will probably find that you have trouble with what looks like pretty easy stuff -- rocks and roots that don't look like a big deal will throw you off. If you haven't ridden much natural and the comp is natural, go beginner. Urban is trivial compared to natural -- in natural, you have way more to worry about such as off-camber, traction issues due to dirt and gravel and dust and whatever, and tire placement is far more important.

[stewpend0us]

so yeah... found a ditch full of rocks and i basiclly can't ride it.... the rocks are generally 6"-12" cubed?? couple of nice flat ones. generally somewhat small i guess and alot of them move around.

Does this sound like something that would be in a beginners section?

got my first pinch flat on the new bike riding it :ugh:

[spartan1]

comps are such a mind trip. There arnt many comps near my house but theres on in toronto every year. The first year i signed up begginer and really it was too easy. All it is is riding over logs and stuff, there are NO rear wheel moves and no real balance needed. The biggest jump (excuse the pun) is from begginer to sport. In sport you gotta do rear wheel moves, gaps pedal ups and side hops. If you can use the rear wheel moves then go sport if you can go begginer

[stewpend0us]

thanks, I rode beginner at the comp...it went pretty well but there's still room for improvement. I also had a missunderstanding about how the scoring worked so i didn't put full effort into sections that i had previously cleaned. If i were to ride another comp tomorrow i'd do beginner again and see if i've improved but hopefully i'll start training on some natural and get a few group rides in before my next one...maybe move up, who knows

:blah: