Elbo
pesky scooter kids git off ma lawn
I was just watching old MTB videos on YouTube I used to watch as a teenager and realised I've been noticing a steady decline in creativity when it comes to trail building. I've never really been inspired by McFlow trails. You know the ones I'm talking about: turn, grade reversal, lose 3m elevation, gain 1, artificial rock speedtrap, turn, repeat. Sure they're fun to ride and its great to have more trails but they're incredibly predictable; once you've ridden one, you've ridden them all.
Videos like NWD 3 never represented the mainstream of MTBing, just like Danny Macaskill videos don't these days. But videos like NWD pitched MTBers as either awkward social outcasts or super nice but slightly odd individuals, who became obsessive over the trails they created. Kind of like surfing, before Gidget.
Goat tracks, creative lines that embody something of the builder, trails whose names emerge from folklore, and rides that end in bush bashing, they're the things that still get me excited about riding mountain bikes. Not the highly polished, designed within an inch of its life, 1m wide benched singletrack that has recently become the norm.
I feel like there is less diversity in trail building now. Part of the creativity has been swallowed in red tape and outsourcing design. Has MTBing lost something with all the bureaucracy that has led to the current glut of McFlow trails? What is our image now?
Link to part of NWD3: [video]https://youtu.be/x6d1LBvwVQo[/video]
Videos like NWD 3 never represented the mainstream of MTBing, just like Danny Macaskill videos don't these days. But videos like NWD pitched MTBers as either awkward social outcasts or super nice but slightly odd individuals, who became obsessive over the trails they created. Kind of like surfing, before Gidget.
Goat tracks, creative lines that embody something of the builder, trails whose names emerge from folklore, and rides that end in bush bashing, they're the things that still get me excited about riding mountain bikes. Not the highly polished, designed within an inch of its life, 1m wide benched singletrack that has recently become the norm.
I feel like there is less diversity in trail building now. Part of the creativity has been swallowed in red tape and outsourcing design. Has MTBing lost something with all the bureaucracy that has led to the current glut of McFlow trails? What is our image now?
Link to part of NWD3: [video]https://youtu.be/x6d1LBvwVQo[/video]