The trail meanders flawlessly through the hilly relief of the mountain, the difficulty perfectly matches your own ability, you put the bike into the bend as if in a dream, jump off, push through a hollow. Everything is perfect. But then, the trail is just as steep and the next tight bend is in sight, and the fun is only half as great. The reason: the single trail has become a dirt track. As soon as the path is wider than the handlebars, it gets boring. There's no point in standing on the pedals, you sit in the saddle and hope that it will soon become narrow again.

Therein lies the trail paradox. The freedom-loving athletes who want to live by their own rules only feel completely at home when the singletrack leaves them little choice of line. If the trail is a narrow brown track, then it is even fun if it only rides straight ahead, at least for a few hundred meters. As soon as you have space, the joy is hardly greater than when rolling over the asphalt. It's as exciting as playing tennis against someone who can't hit the ball. Or putting a convenience dish in the microwave as a passionate cook.

One explanation for why mountain biking is so much more fun when it's tight is the psychological concept of the flow experience. This occurs when the challenge matches your own ability. When everything fits, we are absorbed in our activity and ignore everything else. The flow experience ends when we are overchallenged or underchallenged. On our single trail, which has grown into a gravel road, the difficulty can perhaps be increased by increasing the speed. Riding technique kings like to keep themselves happy in this situation with manuals and similar tricks.

All we have to do is wait for the trail to force us back into its tight corset soon.