Bespoken Word – New Year's empty promises or genuine bike life upgrades?

Riders at night
(Image credit: Ben Wolveridge)

New year, new you. New Year’s resolutions. I’ve probably even used “New Year’s revolutions” as a crap cycling pun in the past. However you frame it, this tradition of pretending we can burst from the fatty, lazy chrysalis of Christmas like some sort of aggressively ambitious, boundless energy is hollow hype. Especially if you’re a bike rider in the phase of the shortest, nastiest days of the year and probably at your annual low point of fitness. But then maybe it’s the reaction to the traditional excess and idleness of the ‘festive period’ that provides the impetus we need to make these mostly empty promises? I’m certainly not immune either, but let’s have a little story time for how that’s going so far...

The 2024 story so far

I spent New Year’s Day morning in recognition that the ‘No Dig – No Ride’ Police would rightly lock me away for a long time based on my current ratio of riding vs trail building. Having ridden the latest local new bit of trail on Tuesday, it definitely needs some work to open up what my unskilled eye thought would be a ‘twisty tech’ start, but is actually so slow it’s painful.

That Tuesday ride was partly due to a promise to myself to clock the good days on the forecast and ride then and write later, rather than ending up frustrated in the filth after filing copy when the rest of the Bike Perfect team was still on holiday. The e-bike I’d lent to a friend had a ‘limp mode’ glitch that resulted in multiple stops for attempted fixes and the promised sun soon turned into steady, heat sucking rain. And of course the test sample CO2 inflator I’d ditched my trusty pump in favour of somehow managed to off gas it’s entire charge into thin air rather than putting any pressure into the front tire that went flat half an hour from home.

I started getting ready for the Thursday night ride at lunchtime so I was actually there on time. But then I changed half the components on my Pace MTB while doing quick video reviews of the ones I was pulling off and burnt through all the extra time. So I still ended up rushing loading the van and dropped my phone in the back lane where it got run over.

Bike with flat tire

Good intentions of 2024 have largely been a deflating experience so far (Image credit: GuyKesTV)

And, and, and..... 

In short, all the ‘new me’ changes I’ve made in the first few days of 2024 have been far from a complete success. If there’s one thing I am to a fault though it’s stubbornly unrealistic, so I’m not giving up yet. After wasting hours of time I could have actually been training scrolling through workout reels from various coaches and influencers, I’m finally going to sign up with a proper program next week. And hopefully I’ll learn from past lessons that clearly teach me that I need to be patient and pragmatic with adding gym work into my life rather than rabid and rapidly injured.

That’s probably a vain hope though as my ridiculous habit of over reaching means I’m also planning to learn to wheelie just so Doddy from Mondraker can’t laugh at me anymore. And work out where an apostrophe is supposed to go to finally calm the echoing rage of my 7th grade teacher [and make your editor a happier person – Ed]. And spend more time on DIY. And do more drawing. And train our new hound to be a little less ‘free range’ so he can come trail riding with me. And do yoga. And really get my YouTube channel into gear properly while also catching up on over 100 reviews I need to write up for Bike Perfect. Oh and properly launch the ‘adventure before dementia’ “Time Travel Gravel” route video project my wife and I started working on last year. My family and friends would probably appreciate if I was less distracted all the time, finished the jobs I half started and that I showered more rather just thinking, "well I’ll be getting sweaty/muddy again in a few hours so what's the point". I should probably learn to touch type with more than four fingers too, seeing as that’s how I actually earn the money that could potentially support these unrealistic dreams if I got the words out faster. But then I’d need to stop responding to every WhatsApp I get instantly and knock the LinkedIn habit I accidentally started over Christmas on the head.

E-MTB rider after a crash

Maybe actually learning from my lessons rather than just repeating them until I properly hurt myself is the key to a more successful 2024?  (Image credit: GuyKesTV)

Doing less not more in '24

But clearly what I really need to do is take a step back and actually be realistic. Look at the time I genuinely have rather than hating myself when 20 hour days as a default lifestyle can’t get the job done. Recognize the talents (that shouldn’t take long) the flaws (that’s a much longer list) which form my DNA. Unravel the twisting life helix of unlearnt lessons and repeated ‘work harder not smarter’ examples so I can steer myself more towards evolution than extinction. And then - as my long suffering wife/carer Sarah neatly puts it – concentrate on the things I want to do, not the things I ‘ought’ to do. 

So as an experiment I’m actually going to end this piece while it’s still a reasonable length rather than rattling on forever as usual. Because maybe the resolution I need to really make for 2024 is that ‘do more’ isn’t always the right answer…… 

Guy Kesteven
Technical-Editor-at-Large

Guy Kesteven has been working on Bike Perfect since its launch in 2019. He started writing and testing for bike mags in 1996. Since then he’s written several million words about several thousand test bikes and a ridiculous amount of riding gear. He’s also penned a handful of bike-related books and he reviews MTBs over on YouTube.

Current rides: Cervelo ZFS-5, Specialized Chisel, custom Nicolai enduro tandem, Landescape/Swallow custom gravel tandem

Height: 180cm

Weight: 69kg

Read more
100% Celium – one of the best MTB gloves
Best mountain bike gloves – top-rated full-finger gloves for every trail and situation
The best MTB grips are the ODI Reflex seen here fitted to a mountain bike handlebar
Best MTB grips 2025 – our testers' picks of the models that will improve your mountain bike's comfort and handling
A rider wearing the best mountain bike goggles
Best mountain bike goggles 2025 – top-rated models that provide clarity and protection on the trails
Latest in Mountain Bike
Calibre Bossnut 2025 seen side on
Don't buy a budget hardtail! The full-sus Calibre Bossnut is the best-value MTB right now with a massive £500 price cut in this Black Friday MTB deal
Continental Race King XC tire side view
Continental’s Olympic and World Championship XC winning Race King Protection is the fastest rolling MTB tire I’ve ever ridden, but it’s not for the nervous
Schwalbe Rocket Ron
Schwalbe Rocket Ron XC tire review – our favorite all-condition race tire
Pinarello Dogma XC bike
Golden beginnings – How Pinarello’s Dogma XC HT rose to the top of cross-country mountain biking
GT Sensor ST Carbon Pro
Is GT's Sensor ST Carbon Pro full-suspension MTB cheap at half the price?
Calibre Bossnut 2025 seen side on
The all-new Calibre Bossnut is a fantastic comeback and only a shock tweak away from being a totally awesome budget full-sus MTB
Latest in Features
A mountain biker riding a cross-country mountain bike
Content funding on BikePerfect
Pinarello Dogma XC bike
Golden beginnings – How Pinarello’s Dogma XC HT rose to the top of cross-country mountain biking
Guy Kesteven in horrible kit with a horrible bike
From trail centers to racing, UK mountain biking is in a real crisis right now. Should you care and what can you do about it?
A rider wearing the best gravel bike shorts while riding a dry gravel track
Best cargo bib shorts – gravel bike shorts for comfortable adventures
Shimano XTR and PD-M520 pedals sitting on rocks
Shimano XTR SPD pedal vs its M520 bargain sibling – just how close are they and does the 2024 Olympic winning model justify the huge price difference?
Roval Traverse HD rim being ridden
Do your MTB skills feel spot-on in theory but don't always translate to the trails? Here’s how to fix things...