I rode BMX when I was a little tacker, progressed to mountain biking when I was a bigger tacker. For thirty years I’ve commuted daily, I’m a downhill guy primarily but have a bike for every day of the week to ride every discipline that’s had a name since the early 1990’s. I'm not afraid to ride / walk up a mountain to ride a great trail and I've been lucky enough to travel the world riding my bike.
I thought it’d be a good chat to throw my random observations of the innovations I’ve seen and the not so innovative things I’ve seen. In no particular order, here goes:
-Lycra doesn’t make you faster.
-Racing your bike doesn’t make you a legit hardcore bike rider that can talk smack about how good you think you are.
-Disc brakes are amazing. They made mountain bikes more awesome.
-Dropper posts! Possibly the best invention on a mountain bike that makes a good bike a great bike.
-Rim protection in tubeless is great.
-Clubs offering a social ride to attract new people is cool but then saying you need to be a member of whatever governing body is operating this week is shit.
-The requirement of over insuring everything associated with mountain biking is ridiculous. Stop making someone else accountable. Own your choices and deal with it.
-We haven’t been graced with internal gearboxes on mountain bikes because the manufacturer is likely making a fortune out of you destroying your drivetrain on a tiny stick. This won’t change.
-I hate to use the term illegal trails. Just because a club doesn’t have their name on a trail doesn’t mean the system should condemn it. Unsanctioned trails are the best and the guys who spend their time making them are rad.
-Don’t change a trail to suit your level of riding. Respect the builder and look after it.
-The seat post angle on some XL frames is fucking stupid. Lay it forward more you muppets.
-A black trail should mean you’re sort of frightened. A double black? You should be scared and thrilled.
-Stop building flow trails. That name is dumb when your trail flows about as well as ice cubes through a sink.
-Downhill is better than XC.
-Storing your small tools inside the open spaces of your frame & parts is excellent. Thanks for doing that cool stuff.
-Your choice of wheel size doesn’t mean you can be a wanker to the next guy about it. He / she is probably better than you at something but they aren’t carrying on about it. Grow up and own several bikes that all have different size wheels.
-Don’t push in on the shuttle line.
-If the trail is worth the climb, it’s the right kind of climb.
-High five the pro riders who show up to club level racing and mix it up with the people who ride for fun. That is cool.
-Don’t try something on in a shop then buy it online to save yourself $3. That’s a shit culture we can do without.
-Coil shocks are the best, man I love those things.
-Coil sprung forks need to be more common, they’re also awesome.
-Not one pair of padded knicks have ever been created that you would call comfortable. We still wear them though……………….
-Snotty nosed teenagers that have all the top gear because Daddy bought it for them doesn’t mean they can ride better than you. Let them be them and ride your own race.
-A tow bar mountain bike rack with plastic parts on it is an expensive accident waiting to happen. Buy good bike racks people.
-An afterparty for a downhill race should be memorable. I recall Steve Peat being so drunk in 2009 that he forgot he was world champ a few hours ago. Classic.
-Hot tip for learning to do jumps: Keep your torso upright throw the whole process, don't try to lean forward or backwards or crunch low. Stay upright, it helps.
-Different disciplines of mountain biking are more or less popular in different areas of the world. For example; Australia doesn't have a big XC following but Europe does.
-Women have a far better posture on a mountain bike than men.
-Social media has made it okay to be considered a good bike rider without winning a race. That is cool.
Now, there’s two things I have watched unfold over the years that I feel have left a big dent on mountain biking for me.
-The first? Strava. Yep cool, you map your ride and read the data telling you the length of the ride, the elevation, heart rate etc etc. Cool, its good to look at your ride and accessorize it with some numbers. What isn’t cool is a public database that exposes hidden trails that people cannot keep quiet, it isn’t cool to tell some random that you’re faster than him because you beat a time he set 7 years ago on a trail. Relying on a timed result of ride you did that is compiled by a satellite 481235982734km away is pointless. Think you’re quick? Do a bike race to brag about it. In the early inception of Strava, I watched people yell at other riders telling them to move ‘cause they’re on a Strava run. You wanker! I hope the lad out enjoying his bike ride ruined your dreams of setting a time that would bump you two spots up an imaginary list into 374643 place. Again, do a bike race if you think you’re the next World Champ. Also do the world a favor and don’t put a segment online unless it is a nationally signposted road or a club built trail. Trail builders do not want their trails exposed for every squid to ride. Respect the trail builder.
-The second? E bikes. I could ramble on for hours about the benefits of e bikes. I totally hate that it is becoming the modern consumer mountain bike though and it is having bad effect on the culture of mountain bikes. More bikes mean more traffic on trails. I can handle that but now guys are able to ride up a technical single track climb and instead of getting off for an obstacle they’re riding around it and widening the trails which is decaying the strength of the obstacle which then collapses and you’re left with a pile of crap trail. Get off your bike, you’re wrecking single track. Don’t believe me? Then stop riding only machine built flow trails that don’t require any skills and visit some places that are hand built. That brings me to my next point of my distaste of e bikes; they’re making riding accessible to people that have no skill which means we’re getting more trails built to suit the green track riders which means the resources to build harder trails are exhausted which then means we miss out on public access trails to advance your skills which means green trails will be considered hard trails which means you’ll tell people you can ride hard trails which means you’ll find a harder trail on Strava that shouldn’t have been made public then you’ll crash hard on an actual black trail and need to sue someone because you’ve been misled by a machine built flow trail grading system that tells you their green trail is a black trail that is actually a green trail. Sigh, it’s real and I’m seeing it everywhere I go to ride my bike. Now the industry is telling us that an ebike with less battery power and less weight is better for you because its lighter? What? I was pretty content to just let the e bike thing be but it isn’t skilled riders buying these things en masse to ride more, it is the general public that put their helmet on backwards with the seat post slammed to go ride flat shared pathways that then venture into out into the forest to complain about mountain bike trails. I’ll just say it; e bikes are motor bikes, not mountain bikes. I hate they’re going to be the norm and take the cool culture away. I’m going to survive without an ebike just fine.
One of the great parts of mountain biking has been the amount of fun guys and girls to ride with having a fun attitude. This is changing. Could it be technology running it’s race or could it be the has-beens that don’t want to see the changes being dicks about it? I know my place.
I thought it’d be a good chat to throw my random observations of the innovations I’ve seen and the not so innovative things I’ve seen. In no particular order, here goes:
-Lycra doesn’t make you faster.
-Racing your bike doesn’t make you a legit hardcore bike rider that can talk smack about how good you think you are.
-Disc brakes are amazing. They made mountain bikes more awesome.
-Dropper posts! Possibly the best invention on a mountain bike that makes a good bike a great bike.
-Rim protection in tubeless is great.
-Clubs offering a social ride to attract new people is cool but then saying you need to be a member of whatever governing body is operating this week is shit.
-The requirement of over insuring everything associated with mountain biking is ridiculous. Stop making someone else accountable. Own your choices and deal with it.
-We haven’t been graced with internal gearboxes on mountain bikes because the manufacturer is likely making a fortune out of you destroying your drivetrain on a tiny stick. This won’t change.
-I hate to use the term illegal trails. Just because a club doesn’t have their name on a trail doesn’t mean the system should condemn it. Unsanctioned trails are the best and the guys who spend their time making them are rad.
-Don’t change a trail to suit your level of riding. Respect the builder and look after it.
-The seat post angle on some XL frames is fucking stupid. Lay it forward more you muppets.
-A black trail should mean you’re sort of frightened. A double black? You should be scared and thrilled.
-Stop building flow trails. That name is dumb when your trail flows about as well as ice cubes through a sink.
-Downhill is better than XC.
-Storing your small tools inside the open spaces of your frame & parts is excellent. Thanks for doing that cool stuff.
-Your choice of wheel size doesn’t mean you can be a wanker to the next guy about it. He / she is probably better than you at something but they aren’t carrying on about it. Grow up and own several bikes that all have different size wheels.
-Don’t push in on the shuttle line.
-If the trail is worth the climb, it’s the right kind of climb.
-High five the pro riders who show up to club level racing and mix it up with the people who ride for fun. That is cool.
-Don’t try something on in a shop then buy it online to save yourself $3. That’s a shit culture we can do without.
-Coil shocks are the best, man I love those things.
-Coil sprung forks need to be more common, they’re also awesome.
-Not one pair of padded knicks have ever been created that you would call comfortable. We still wear them though……………….
-Snotty nosed teenagers that have all the top gear because Daddy bought it for them doesn’t mean they can ride better than you. Let them be them and ride your own race.
-A tow bar mountain bike rack with plastic parts on it is an expensive accident waiting to happen. Buy good bike racks people.
-An afterparty for a downhill race should be memorable. I recall Steve Peat being so drunk in 2009 that he forgot he was world champ a few hours ago. Classic.
-Hot tip for learning to do jumps: Keep your torso upright throw the whole process, don't try to lean forward or backwards or crunch low. Stay upright, it helps.
-Different disciplines of mountain biking are more or less popular in different areas of the world. For example; Australia doesn't have a big XC following but Europe does.
-Women have a far better posture on a mountain bike than men.
-Social media has made it okay to be considered a good bike rider without winning a race. That is cool.
Now, there’s two things I have watched unfold over the years that I feel have left a big dent on mountain biking for me.
-The first? Strava. Yep cool, you map your ride and read the data telling you the length of the ride, the elevation, heart rate etc etc. Cool, its good to look at your ride and accessorize it with some numbers. What isn’t cool is a public database that exposes hidden trails that people cannot keep quiet, it isn’t cool to tell some random that you’re faster than him because you beat a time he set 7 years ago on a trail. Relying on a timed result of ride you did that is compiled by a satellite 481235982734km away is pointless. Think you’re quick? Do a bike race to brag about it. In the early inception of Strava, I watched people yell at other riders telling them to move ‘cause they’re on a Strava run. You wanker! I hope the lad out enjoying his bike ride ruined your dreams of setting a time that would bump you two spots up an imaginary list into 374643 place. Again, do a bike race if you think you’re the next World Champ. Also do the world a favor and don’t put a segment online unless it is a nationally signposted road or a club built trail. Trail builders do not want their trails exposed for every squid to ride. Respect the trail builder.
-The second? E bikes. I could ramble on for hours about the benefits of e bikes. I totally hate that it is becoming the modern consumer mountain bike though and it is having bad effect on the culture of mountain bikes. More bikes mean more traffic on trails. I can handle that but now guys are able to ride up a technical single track climb and instead of getting off for an obstacle they’re riding around it and widening the trails which is decaying the strength of the obstacle which then collapses and you’re left with a pile of crap trail. Get off your bike, you’re wrecking single track. Don’t believe me? Then stop riding only machine built flow trails that don’t require any skills and visit some places that are hand built. That brings me to my next point of my distaste of e bikes; they’re making riding accessible to people that have no skill which means we’re getting more trails built to suit the green track riders which means the resources to build harder trails are exhausted which then means we miss out on public access trails to advance your skills which means green trails will be considered hard trails which means you’ll tell people you can ride hard trails which means you’ll find a harder trail on Strava that shouldn’t have been made public then you’ll crash hard on an actual black trail and need to sue someone because you’ve been misled by a machine built flow trail grading system that tells you their green trail is a black trail that is actually a green trail. Sigh, it’s real and I’m seeing it everywhere I go to ride my bike. Now the industry is telling us that an ebike with less battery power and less weight is better for you because its lighter? What? I was pretty content to just let the e bike thing be but it isn’t skilled riders buying these things en masse to ride more, it is the general public that put their helmet on backwards with the seat post slammed to go ride flat shared pathways that then venture into out into the forest to complain about mountain bike trails. I’ll just say it; e bikes are motor bikes, not mountain bikes. I hate they’re going to be the norm and take the cool culture away. I’m going to survive without an ebike just fine.
One of the great parts of mountain biking has been the amount of fun guys and girls to ride with having a fun attitude. This is changing. Could it be technology running it’s race or could it be the has-beens that don’t want to see the changes being dicks about it? I know my place.
