I want to look at doing some xterra races and am looking for a site similar to slowtwitch that’s more focused on off-road races and classifieds. Love this site, just not a whole lot of information on mtb for sale and offroad races. Any direction would be appreciated.
Following!
I’m looking for the same thing…
I’ve found dirttri.com, but it’s no ST. The mountain biking forums don’t seem to cover offroad tri either - they’re only grudgingly covering cx and gravel. PinkBike seems to be the most widely used person-to-person mountain bike classifieds.
Maybe there’s an element of “if you build it, they will come” - so where do we need to start asking?
While there’s something to be said about not segmenting a forum community too much, this brings up something I was thinking about relative to the thread about Transitions at local sprints. ST could benefit from having a subforum specific to beginners and amateurs—I’ve only been around a few years, so I’m not sure if that’s been done in the past, but, I would think it would help.
—and having a dirt/gravel/xterra sub would be cool as well. There aren’t many dirt tris around, so raising awareness of where they’re being held, posts that promote small local groups that are trying them, etc would be nice to see.
Per, I was thinking about it from the other direction - do we need to be going to sites like DirtTri and asking them if they have considered running a community or forum? Maybe we need to meet those athletes where they are rather than trying to get them to ST.
That said… Even an “Offroad/Xterra Tri Master Thread” here would be something, though. I’m having a devil of a time finding information, especially beyond the main Xterra race websites.
I come and go on forum segregation. The trouble in my mind in having a beginners forum is getting the more experienced members in there to help. One of the things I like about it here is that I can throw a question out and get input from everyone from rank amateurs to pros and everyone in between. You do have to not have thin skin, though.
I’m always surprised how little attention off-road tri gets since to me it is such a great sport. When I first got into tri, I learned a ton on ST and agree it would be nice to do similar for off-road. However, a couple of points: much of what I learned was about swimming which is no different from road tri (and I therefore suck in either format) and esoteric bike stuff (e.g. aerodynamics, rolling resistance the equivalent of which can be learned on MTB-specific sites). And for running, I find off-road similar - just try not to sprain your ankle. Heck, I just use my racing flats on fairly technical courses (Xterra French River, Quebec, Maui). That being said, I do agree it would be nice to have a dedicated site like ST. For one thing, there wouldn’t be as much talk about indoor training since the dangers of MTB tend to be self-imposed not some jackass on his phone and a big part of going fast off-road is skill which can’t be replicated on a trainer (and therefore limited to people who have access to trails which does narrow the pool of candidates). Anyway, put me down as someone who doesn’t have a lot to offer in road tri advice/discussions but might have something to offer in the off-road world. I’ll also be happy to see gravel tri events pop up.
Me too!
Would love an off road tri forum, I think a segment here would be great as I’m not sure there is a larger following anywhere else in the Xterra/offroad community. Could be I just haven’t found it. I’ve raced road for years but have been playing with Xterra the last couple years. I had so many questions initially and still do; how do train differently, gear, fueling, where are the races, etc.
I know for a fact that DirtTri attempted a forum and it got virtually no use. At one point, XTERRA themselves even hosted one on their website back when every company on the internet tried having a forum of its own.
At this point, there are a handful of Facebook groups that are fairly useful for what you’re looking for. I know there’s an “XTERRA southeast athletes†and then another one for mountain region that I forget what it’s called, but I don’t think they or any other regional ones are terribly picky if you live elsewhere.
Otherwise, what draws a lot of us to cross triathlon is that we kind of have to amalgamate the best of road triathlon, MTB, trail running, and adventure racing into what we need. It’s a lot less dogmatic than road triathlon in particular, so experimenting for yourself is really the best teacher.
I know for a fact that DirtTri attempted a forum and it got virtually no use. At one point, XTERRA themselves even hosted one on their website back when every company on the internet tried having a forum of its own.
At this point, there are a handful of Facebook groups that are fairly useful for what you’re looking for. I know there’s an “XTERRA southeast athletes†and then another one for mountain region that I forget what it’s called, but I don’t think they or any other regional ones are terribly picky if you live elsewhere.
That’s good information, thank you for sharing. It does seem to be a bit of a “wild west” as far as information is concerned - for a voracious reader, that’s tough!
MTBR.com has good user forums segmented into tons of different categories. I don’t think there’s an Xterra or tri forum, but there are forums for beginners, XC racing, gravel, etc. as well as regional forums for US states and other parts of the world. Classifieds as well.
MTBR.com has good user forums segmented into tons of different categories. I don’t think there’s an Xterra or tri forum, but there are forums for beginners, XC racing, gravel, etc. as well as regional forums for US states and other parts of the world. Classifieds as well.
I did wonder if they might be interested in adding an off-road tri subforum; they are a good example of a highly segmented forum where there’s not necessarily a lot of traffic to any given area.
Per, I was thinking about it from the other direction - do we need to be going to sites like DirtTri and asking them if they have considered running a community or forum? Maybe we need to meet those athletes where they are rather than trying to get them to ST.
That said… Even an “Offroad/Xterra Tri Master Thread” here would be something, though. I’m having a devil of a time finding information, especially beyond the main Xterra race websites.
I come and go on forum segregation. The trouble in my mind in having a beginners forum is getting the more experienced members in there to help. One of the things I like about it here is that I can throw a question out and get input from everyone from rank amateurs to pros and everyone in between. You do have to not have thin skin, though.
as you know, the founders and longtime producers of xterra sold it a year or two ago. i have spoken to xterra about working with us. they send us their press releases. that’s it. i’ve raced a number of xterras, and other offroad triathlons, gravel triathlons, and i’m a fan. i would be happy to host a superthread here just on offroad tri. or a subforum, but superthreads generally outperform subforums.
beyond this, what we write about, what we cover, is and will be gravel. gravel triathlons. that i can support. our here in the west, full blown straight up straight down triathlon (bike and run) i’m not personally as much a fan of that. i’ve raced it, but i’m not a fan. i’m not a guy for obstacle tri.
so, i’m happy to give you want you want, within my capacity. but that’s the general overview from my end.
Please do what you can. I’ve done some off road tris and they are awesome. And I’m planning on doing a lot more. For me, they bring balance to triathlon since they are a lot more laid back.
What’s happened with me is that Zwift is so good, I train most of the time indoors. But when I go outdoors, I like to keep safe and mountain bike. My son was making fun of me and my lack of riding on the road over the past few years, so I told him that me not putting endless miles out on the highway might be why I’m here today instead of roadkill. And then I’ve found that mountain biking keeps my bike handling skills top notch, so it takes just a few minutes of road riding to pick up where I left off. I might even be better for it.
We’re looking at some Xterra races coming up, but there’s no forum to discuss them like there is here. What’s the course like, what tidbits do we need to know, what pros are going to be there… stuff like that would be great.
I would love to see a gravel, xterra, general offroad tri forum. I am moving in that direction. Don’t want to be road kill.
Don’t know why your perspective of cross triathlon is that it is nothing but straight climb to straight descent.
Sure, there are a good number of courses like that, but plenty of others that mix climbs, descents, and flat/fast with twisty or rocky technical. There’s more to cross triathlon than Utah, Tahoe, Beaver Creek, and Maui.
I understand the appeal of gravel tri because lord knows I’ve had too many conversations with road triathlon friends who are terrified of riding on a canal path so proper technical MTB trails would scare the hell out of them, but really I’d love to correct this notion. At 190 lbs I wouldn’t have ever bothered trying to race the format if it was nothing but climbing on the bike and power hiking the run.
I don’t think Dan was saying what you think he was saying.
Don’t know why your perspective of cross triathlon is that it is nothing but straight climb to straight descent.
don’t know why you think that’s my perspective.
i specifically noted this is what xterra is where i live. the tahoe courses. the only xterra in socal the year i did the laguna beach course. anything within a 10hr drive of me was straight up and down, bike and run. which is fine. just, not my cup of tea. i’m not against xterra at all. this has been xterra’s expression anywhere within 800 miles of me.
Cross tri - and the gravel scene, to some extent too - seems to vary wildly from place to place. I live in Maine, and my local mountain biking looks very different from, say, Florida or Colorado. It’s one of the reasons I think it would be good to have a common place to share knowledge, rather than launching the occasional thread which gets a lacklustre response and quickly buried.
MTBR.com has good user forums segmented into tons of different categories. I don’t think there’s an Xterra or tri forum, but there are forums for beginners, XC racing, gravel, etc. as well as regional forums for US states and other parts of the world. Classifieds as well.
I did wonder if they might be interested in adding an off-road tri subforum; they are a good example of a highly segmented forum where there’s not necessarily a lot of traffic to any given area.
It seems like most of the offroad racers just aren’t as active in social platforms. I used to post frequently on mtbr but most of the other people who posted there were more one-off type athletes. I tried garnering interest on the tr forum and there’s one other regular poster there in to off-road racing.
I remember the old forum on the xterra site and it just did not get much traffic. I’d say at least half of the regular participants at an off-road event regularly participate on the road or just do 1 or 2 races per year. I would guess many who are active in forums scan st from time to time so the superthread is a good idea. That strange denizens of the pool thread has been going for what seems like a decade or more.