Was having a chat with Dirty about the state of mountain biking, as two drunk dudes merely trying to wrap our heads around why the activity and those who ride are either seen, or see themselves as being “badass, hardcore, etc.” – why trails are getting easier during a time that bikes are becoming more capable of riding difficult terrain than ever before. With stuff like 650b, full-suspension fat tire bikes, the SWAT system, electronic shifters, detachable chin plate helmets, cyclocomputers, Strava, etc. you’d think people would desire something more challenging than dirt rollerblading – in the words of Caveman – because well, mountain biking is supposed to be hard.
Alas, the dialogue inspired this flowchart of thoughts entiteld, Global Trail Fuckage:
Mountain biking grows in popularity, and with the more people doing it, the more money the industry makes. The more money the industry makes, the more advertising they will do. The more advertising they do, the more people will enter the sport, and the more money the industry makes as a result. The more money the industry makes, the more “innovative” the shit gets that Taiwan will make. The more “innovative” of shit Taiwan makes, the more shit people will buy. The more shit people buy, the more shit people will use. The more shit people use, the more trails will get beat to shit. The more trails gets beat to shit, the more fucked we are as mountain bikers. It’s kind of like global warming, but for bikes.
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Dirty puts it best, “I’m not sure if this is bad or good, just a bizarre evolution to something that’s been held to be so counter culture.”
I don’t know, maybe this shit is dumb. What do you think?
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get used to it folks.
there are lots more people. lots more users of all kinds…especially near urban areas…and like errything else on planet earth….we’re gonna fuck this up too.
welcome to the future. it is bleak and uncaring.
…………………..and selfish. But that’s humanity.
Gawd, I miss Johnny and DC being less the whiney bitching.
Dumbing down the trails? What about the dumbing down of DC? You turned into a bitchy, angry drunk. Go home.
The cyclocross nationals were cancelled due to mud? Please tell me Bikesnobnyc was just yanking our collective chain.
Pisgah.
What nobody has mentioned here is that there are two types of trails: Most trails are XC trails and then there are DH trails.
Dumbing down the xc trails is more forgivable, since as mentioned above, the boring lame’oes can ride their boring hardtails on them and still have fun.
But it is not forgivable to build a lame DH trail with short, fun killing, momentum killing climbs. Even if it has technical challenges the unnecessary climbs kill your momentum and just aren’t what DH is about, never was. IMBA seems to specialize (No pun intended) in these type of DH trails with climbs in them, which is why virtually all DH riders increasingly think IMBA sucks. I don’t mind a little pedaling on aDH trail, but don’t make me struggle up a climb when the whole trail go be downhill. That is the attraction of XC.
The sport is diverging into 3 categories and for better or worse will never be the same. DH riders who want to go downhill (three are actually the original American mtb’ers), and then the xc guys who like technical challenges and those on hardtail or with no skill who want it smooth or who are just happy to be out in the woods pedaling and don’t care like us spoiled entitled brats do.
Actually, the ORIGINAL original MTBers rode fixed gear.
And the TdF in its earliest days was not raced on smooth pavement; mais non. It was raced in the countryside on dirt roads that, often as not, were rutted, steep and went both uphill and downhill. Wht we now call “gravel races”, I suppose.
The fiction of offroad cycling springing up full-blown in Marin county makes for good storytelling. I and many of my school-aged chums were racing cruiser downhill in the 1960s.
Oh yeah, and there is movie film shot by Edison of hipsters doing tricks on fixed gear bikes. So you see, there really is nothing new under the sun.
The reason the Marin Downhillers get credit for starting the sport is because their type riding is what actually grew into what mountain biking is today.
Of course all sorts of people ride bikes in the dirt before them, but none of them maintained the momentum to connect it to the sport it is today. The Marin guys did that, and that is where the term mountain biking came from. Downhill is the soul of the sport, the pedaling uphill stuff came later. Respect the soul. Even today, appropriately, DH racers and the closely associated freeriders are the kings of the sport; they get the most media attention even though it unfortunately isn’t an Olympic sport.
I guess the best way to solve the problem of dumbing down the trails is to build more trails so there is more variety and everyone will be happy.
“…more trails…”
Cripes, why didn’t I think of that? Good looking out.
All the old gnarl gnarl trails are still here, and almost no one rides them. Happy Day.
maybe mountain bikes should all come with a pamphlet about your NOW COMPLETELY NECESSARY volunteer work to help keep trails you will soon be destroying up to snuff so everyone can ride them.
if we quadrupled trail work, we could have gnarly death trap trails and keep them in good shape too.
i mean, fuck, i spent more time building trail than riding it in arizona. i’ve only been there twice! roped into work both times! happy to help though.
-N-word Carl.
Maybe that’s why I so love riding my townie on the streets of this stagnant little cesspool of inbreeding. No trailbuilding required. No McLeods or Pulaskis needed, as I have paid my taxes for the privilege of residency in this Mayberry, populated by the gang from Deliverance.
And no, Cletus the slackjawed Cable Guy, these streets were not “Made for cars”, despite the plaintive cries emanating from your F-Shitfifty Sooper Doody. These streets existed long before the infernal combuster corrupted the perfect life that we once knew.
Go back to your doublewide and tell your sister or your cousin or whatever inbred skank you’re shacked up with what a big man you were when you “run that queer on a buy-sickle off the road”. The joke is on you.
Any weak-assed bitch can step on a gas pedal.
The article is a bit contrary, as it first states that technology is making biking easier, then it blames an increase in riders for making the trails too difficult to ride.
If trails are getting torn up it is most likely the result of poor trail design-sudden turns below fast sections with poor sight lines, overly steep grades on loose soils, or improper drainage. Actually, the more technical, rocky trails are often the most sustainable, so the argument that sustainable trails are always smooth and boring is not necessarily true. I think the main problems are in areas that don’t have rocky terrain. In order to make trails challenging, features must be constructed such as jumps or North Shore style obstacles. Building a fall line trail and waiting for it to erode into a “V” rut,or building some rickety ladder bridge that falls apart in a year is not going to go over well with land managers, nor is it going to be much fun to ride.
I find most of the DH types generally don’t get involved with trail advocacy (unless whining on a forum counts), mainly because they are too cool and don’t want work with a bunch a bike club geeks. So they go out on their own and build some jumps and short cuts in the trail, then complain when it gets torn down.
But you have my full support when it comes to the A-holes that are prying rocks out of techy trails to make them smoother. WTF!
I feel like I dumb down the trail sometimes when I ride it. Baller status are the riders that repair / preserve the trails AS they ride them. No brake dragging dicks! I also like to pack aluminum cans into any sketchy low double trap areas. It brings a purpose to all the drinking i do out on the trails. Everyone knows the best trails are created and maintained by guys on Big Bore KTMs. You are welcome.