Progression...

[andy]

Mountain biking is still progressing like skiing is. 5 years ago guys were hucking themselves of 80 ft cliffs and often not holding it together. None they are going of backwards, laying down a lincoln flip, and sticking the landing backwards. Will this happen to mountain biking.

Socket do you actually like mountain biking.

 

[Ty]

ok X-post from HCOR by minichase (an actual decent post)

from an interview with Jeff Lenosky

"I think we can take urban mountain biking a lot further. I believe the real value of street riding on a mountain bike isnt just to copy BMX. The more and more i ride with Aaron, the more we'll reflect and realize what we're doing couldn't really be done on a BMX bike. Like if something has a bumpy runup, you need a suspension fork and big tires to get over it. Sometimes a 20" wheel isnt as capable as a 26" mountain bike tire. Last week, when Aaron and I were shooting for the maxxis ad for an upcoming issue of flow in Philadelphia, we had a perfect example of what you could do on a mountain bike that wasnt previously possible on a BMX. We spotted this bank to pillar. The run-up and the bank were really sketchy and bumpy. We noticed the pillar had alot of sprocket marks from BMXers getting halfway up it to do sprocket stalls, but there were no tire marks meaning no one had gotten all the way on it to do an abubaca on it. Then, more recently Aaron was bump-jumping off a parking block and doing a big wall ride. Those things we realized couldnt be done on a 20" bike. I want to explore the 'real' street riding and what is totally possible on a mountain bike that you can't do on any other bike Either finding a line that would be otherwise impossible on a bike without suspension or just a bigger move, in general, is where i plan to take it. Trying to copy BMX moves on a bike that's twice the size is pointless. It makes more sense to use the wheel for what it's good for and to your advantage"

 

[S.]

Socket do you actually like mountain biking.

Nah, I only ride MTBs cos I hate it. :roll:

 

[stylinruss]

That quote from Lenosky pretty much sums up what I was trying to say earlier.

 

[sxereturn]

OK, I'm going to go out on a limb here and defend BMX...this isn't senseless arguements, but rather a discussion...

stylinruss - What stuff are Jeff Lenosky and Dylan Tremblay doing that BMX's aren't/can't? Guys have fakied (ridden backwards) down stairs, hell they've been going fakie, then 180'd down stairs to land forwards, or gone fakie-360 down stairs-land fakie. There's a lot of guys running front brakes, too. Guys are doing wallrides to hang 5's, which is where you have one foot on your front peg, one foot hanging off, nosewheelieing away...

I ride BMX, MTB and moto's, and the transition between BMX-MTB is a lot easier than it is from MTB to MX. I can do just about all of my non-peg BMX tricks on my MTB (apart from small, technical stuff), but to hell if I could do that stuff on my MX bike.

You might get pissed at BMX's thinking MTB is lagging behind, but when MTB guys think BMX is a bunch of acne covered teenagers on $300 Haro's doing x-ups, it opens a whole can of worms...


Fuzzy - I admit they are a bit harder to do, but check out one of Mat Hoffman's videos fromback in 87/88. He jumped on a MTB, jumped his box jump, and on the FIFTH jump, done a perfect flip on it. And this was on a bike that would now be laughed at if you rode it anywhere...

Socket - Believe me, there is still A LOT of crap BMX stuff on the market. And cheap? My bank card doesn't think so, haha. A lot of gimmick's out there, too. Norco, with their disc brake race bike. Pointless. Euro bottoms brackets in freestyle bmx, they're just too weak and save zero weight.

Ty - I agree, but is it really progression? All in all it's still the same trick, going the same height, with the same difficulty, but it's just inaccesible by a BMX.

 

[Guest]

Fuzzy - I admit they are a bit harder to do, but check out one of Mat Hoffman's videos fromback in 87/88. He jumped on a MTB, jumped his box jump, and on the FIFTH jump, done a perfect flip on it. And this was on a bike that would now be laughed at if you rode it anywhere...

Hey i never sed that they were imposible and matt hoffman is champ style man.......its hard for people who originally learn them on a mtb...people like me

 

[wombat]

Ty - I agree, but is it really progression? All in all it's still the same trick, going the same height, with the same difficulty, but it's just inaccesible by a BMX.

I think it is. I mean if you drop 40' on a huge duallie, and then come back and do the same drop on a hardtail is that progression? Yes, because you've progreesed in skill level to take a drop that size on something with a rigid rear end is much harder to take (unless of course you were already capable of doing it on a HT before you picked up the duallie, but that's not what I'm talking about.

How about speed records as another example? or big jumps? motorbikes have set huge records in terms of both these feats, which bicycles will probably never match, but still when somebody on an MTB jumps 10' bigger than before, it's still progression. You can't compare MTB's and BMX's like this, because they're different.

 

[Ryan]

I think hitting lines that BMX riders can't get to is definitely progression. BMX bikes are the current rulers of the real street movement because they can access stuff skaters and bladers don't have a hope in hell of getting to and invent more creative and progressive lines because of this. If our bigger wheels and suspension tech mean we can get to stuff the BMXers can't, it'll continue to push real street further again, with even more creative lines and whatnot. Progression in terms of lines that can be accessed is just as important as progression in tricks IMO.

 

[fastrider_ben]

it would be great to c more MTB hittin motocross style jumps or big high steel kicker ramps in the future, like what cowan and pritzle are doing. Big gaps and crazy moto style tricks.