It is all perception, and my perception of this poll was, "what kind of riding do you primarily do" Now call me lazy but I'm not gonna scroll up to read the exact wording of the poll itself.
I just know that in the areas I ride, the same groups of guys, have been doing the same thing for 5-10-15-20 years and hardly nothing has changed. In my past life as a manager of a sled shop, I used to try and bring different people riding to show them different styles of riding. Kinda hand-picked if you want. Sometimes they would become part of the regular crew, more often than not, they would go back to their original crew and do what they do. Just because you end up upside down inside of a tree once in awhile, doesn't mean you ride trees primarily. I just think more often than not, people "want" to pretend they ride the trees more than they do, when in reality they are still the ones on the trail and riding past all of us, actually riding(ok ok, more like stuck) in the trees.
My favorite thing to do is tell the group(when I'm not with my main core group of buddies) that I'll meet them "at the cabin" Don't worry about me, don't look for me, and only follow me if you want to get stuck. The looks and comments I get when I do meet back up with the group is often priceless. While they have their scratchers down still, and worried about putting snow on their rear coolers, I come out of nowhere with my handlebars and dash full of snow, shaking snow out of my helmet. Even better, is when someone comes to follow, before their 2nd or 3rd stuck, I'm pointing to where they can hook back up with the trail. Which, to their surprise, is usually a lot closer to where we are, than where they think we are.
I'm not trying to brag, because there are riders in my current group that are a lot more rounded than I am(World Champ Hillclimbers) are a part of my regular crew. So I get humbled often, but I know that we are not the majority. I see it everyday I go riding.
If you don't run out of gas, in our group, you didn't ride enough during the day. A source of serious ribbing within our core group. And the same groups that we pass on the way to the hills, are the ones passing us on the way home. We get to hear about how good of mileage they get, and that their sleds are better, blah blah blah....these are the same guys that we see ride "around" the hills instead of going thru them. The same ones that never run out of fuel. Sucks to be them. Haha It's these same guys in my hometown that buy all the latest and greatest, that talk a big game in the showroom, that start a lot of the same threads we reply to everyday asking for advice or showing off their latest "customization" without actually knowing what they are doing or why they are doing it. But it looks cool, so hey, alls right with the World right?
