Mountain Biking

Written by: Eric, reporter in ISFM

In this article, we’ll be talking about mountain biking & its origins

Mountain biking, also known as MTB, is a sport on a bike where you go off-road and on the mountains. It is pretty challenging as you can face obstacles like rocks, roots, drops, and rock gardens*.  It requires skill and practice, like any other sport. It does not always include tricks, for example tail whips, bar spins, and more. But there are jumps that require practice to have the skill.  

*(Rock gardens are a patch of rocks stuck to the ground usually)

Requirements

Of course, like any kind of sport, there are requirements. First of all, you need a bike. The recommended types of bikes are hardtail bikes, (suspension in the front only), or full suspension bikes (suspension in the back and the front). Bikes without suspension can hurt you quite a lot because you can feel every bump you ride over, every root and every drop. Next up, a helmet. They are one of the most crucial things for safety on a bike. There are multiple types of helmets. We’ll only focus on two of them. First, there are normal helmets. They are okay as long as you don’t do something that can really hurt, for example, jumps. Next, there are full face helmets. It’s basically a helmet but with extra protection near your mouth and chin. These helmets are mostly used by people who do lots of jumps. Next, we have pads. They are highly recommended for your safety. Pads are protection that covers your joints such as your elbows and knees. Thirdly, gloves. They are helpful so that if you fall, your hands will not hurt as much as without them and they can also prevent cuts as you put your hands on the ground and slide across it. Lastly, neck and body protection. Body protection is a form of a vest that you put over your body the gives protection to your chest and your back, and sometimes shoulders. They are not that recommended but pretty recommended when you’re on jumps. Neck protection is a sort of hard collar that you put around a little below your neck. It’s so that your neck doesn’t move too much when you fall.

Types

There are four types of mountain biking. XC (cross country), trail, enduro, and downhill. XC is good for uphill, as it is for downhill. It’s designed  for pedal efficiency and they are usually hard tails. The tires are mostly slick and have less grip. Next, we have the trail bike. They are basically your everyday bike for trails. They have more grip than XC bikes for going up and down on the rocky trails. If you’re looking to get an e-bike (electric bike), you are most likely going to buy a trail e-bike. Thirdly, we have the enduro bike. They are pretty similar to trail bikes, but they have bigger brakes. Overall, the trail bike and the enduro bike are pretty much the same. The enduro is the bigger and buffer type. They are especially used for downhill and nearly never used for uphill. They have good suspension and have big brakes to stop rapidly at high speeds downhill. The tires have good and beefy grip for steep surfaces. And the last one, downhill bikes. They are designed to go downhill at high speeds. The tires have good grip so it doesn’t slip easily while going fast. 

History

Mountain biking even has history too. Its ancestors date all the way back to the late 1800s. The bikes back then were modified bikes that were more specifically made for off-road usage. Bikes were ridden on the rocks by road racing cyclists that used cyclocross as a mean of keeping in shape during the winter. But cylo-cross eventually became a sport in the 1940s, with its first championship held in 1950. A community was created just five years later called The Rough Stuff Fellowship that was established by off-road cyclists in the UK (United Kingdom). The first use of a name for today’s mountain bike was made in 1966, by a Chemeketan club member, named D. Gwynn, built a rough terrain trail bike. He named it a “mountain bicycle” for its intended place of use. It may be the first use of that name. In 1968, situated in England, a man named Geoff Apps began experimenting with different mountain bike designs. By 1979, he had developed a custom-built lightweight bike which had uniquely suited the wet and muddy off-road terrain found in the south-east of England. They were sold under the Cleland Cycles Ltd until late 1984. Bikes based on the same design were also sold by English Cycles and Highpath Engineering until the early 1990s. Throughout the 1990s and the first part of the 21st century, the sport of mountain biking moved from a rarely known sport to a mainstream activity. By the mid-first decade of the 21st century, even department stores started selling inexpensive mountain bikes with full-suspension.

Bike Parks

There are a ton of good bike parks around the world. Bike parks are places where there are sometimes pump tracks, trails, and jumps. Some big bike parks like Northstar or Whistler (locations are at the end) have gondolas, which is a form of ski lift that is closed on all sides, like a small box. Some other bike parks, like Mammoth and Boreal, have lifts that are basically normal ski lifts. To carry the bikes up, there are special ski lifts just for that. But some bike parks, like at Stafford Lake, have no gondola or ski lift at all. Bike parks like this usually have a pump track and require pedaling up to the trail you would like to ride down. And lastly, some bike parks have a big pump track with multiple ways you may go, however you want.

Contests

There are even contests, or should I say, obviously. There are multiple types of contests. The main ones are downhill, cross-country, slopestyle, enduro and four-cross. Downhill is pretty much racing. The best level of downhill racing is the UCI Downhill World Cup, which for this year, will be situated in five different races, with four of the races in Europe, and one of them in the United States. The concept is really simple: the fastest person to the bottom, wins. Secondly, we have cross-country. Cross-country is pretty different. It’s when you go up against multiple opponents (sometimes up to 100 other people) on a rough and steady terrain. In other words, it’s biking in a forest, on forest paths, rocky uphill, rooty descents, and single track trails with speed. Next, slopestyle. Slopestyle is a discipline where riders perform tricks on a trail with jumps, ramps and drops. It’s basically like freestyle mountain biking but with a competitive aspect. The athletes are judged by the difficulty, the style and the execution of their tricks. Afterwards, we have enduro. Enduro mountain biking is a competitive form of the sport that combines downhill and cross-country elements. Riders will tackle timed downhill sections and untimed flat or uphill sections. The winner is determined by the fastest combined time across all of the stages. Last but not least, four-cross (4X). Four-cross, also known as mountain-cross, is a relatively new style of mountain biking racing. It’s when four mountain bikers race downhill on a prepared BMX like track, simply all four of them trying to get down first. 

Locations

Northstar

Northstar Bike Park is located near the town of Truckee, to the north-east of California, near the Nevada border. It is accessible by car which usually takes up to four and a half hours for San Francisco to Northstar. It’s also accessible by private jet. Northstar has greens, blues, blacks and double blacks. Most of the trails are medium-sized as some trails like Coaster are longer. It is also home for the pretty famous Toyota Jump.

Whistler

Whistler Bike Park is located in the small town of Whistler, Canada. It’s also located near the big city Vancouver. To get there the fastest way possible, you must take the plane to YVR Airport (Vancouver Intl.) and take the rest of the way by car/pickup. It usually takes up to two to three hours to get from Vancouver to Whistler depending on traffic. Whistler has longer trails than Northstar. It includes greens, blues, blacks, double-blacks and reds (red is expert only). It is home of the famous A-Line which this trail has insanely big jumps. 

Stafford Lake

Stafford Lake Bike Park is located near the town of Novato, California and is located to the north of San Francisco. It has a pump track, greens, blues and blacks. It also has jumping trails.

Conclusion

We hope we increase your knowledge on mountain biking. Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

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Written by: Eric, reporter in ISFM