Change from being ‘riding a long way off-road’ to multiple downhill laps with bits in-between, or is it just me?

Gravity enduro? When did marathon change from a greek battle to running a stupidly long way?

When it became a race format to suit the bikes used for enduro riding.

I think the format is that you are timed for the downhill bits, but also have a time limit on the linking (uphill stages), so it’s not like you can take a full on downhill bike to just destroy the downhill stages and get off and push uphill. It is a format that is used in motor sport as well.

It’s a Europe/UK thing, they’ve used it for years to describe the gravity enduro type. With the new World Series we’ll likely have to change our definition.

As far as I can tell it was always thus, it’s just that in the UK we bastardised ‘Endurance’ into ‘Enduro’, it’s only recently that we’ve noticed that when the rest of the world talked about ‘Enduro’ it was something totally different…

When it became a race format.

nothing to do with that, Enduro, riding a long way, existed as a race format before Enduro timed sections as a race format. It is why there is so much confusion as too what Enduro is.

Enduro = 24hr type things

Gravity Enduro = new rally style format.

change was about 2011 😉

nothing to do with that, Enduro, riding a long way, existed as a race format before Enduro timed sections as a race format. It is why there is so much confusion as too what Enduro is.

Only really in the UK, the rest of the world used ‘enduro’ to describe something similar to motorbike enduro (i.e. timed stages with time limited linking sections). Which is what it now get’s used for in this country.

Endurance (100km, 100mile, 24h, transalp) raceing is a different thing, and for some reason got abreviated to enduro in this country.

The rest of the world (including the UCI) call riding a long way ‘marathon’, it’s just us who call it Enduro, so now have to have gravity enduro to differentiate!

think it was before that, look at when things like the Spesh Enduro became all big and burly and non-24hr-xc-y

Enduro (as in proper Enduro, not “endurance”) has been a format in Europe since around 1989 with events in Europe:

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/A-Short-History-of-Enduro-2012.html

It’s only over here that we had to add “Gravity” to the title to try and minimise confusion. Although I do reckon it would be pretty funny to see some Endurance racers turning up on carbon 29er hardtails in Lycra having misunderstood what it is……. Especially when faced with something like this:

I think some of the (Enduro (Endurance/marathon)) team might give a few people of a bit of a surpise down stuff like that given a appropriate bike 😉

Any such thread needs the following text from the dyfi website 😆

Whats in a name? OK, so with the emergence events like the brilliant new Gravity Enduro series we are not, strictly speaking an enduro, because we do not include timed sections with-in the route. But, back when we started doing this there was no other event using enduro in the title, and, as a lot of the sections used in the Dyfi event are on motorcycle enduro tracks it seemed like a good name. Its been around long enough, we wont be changing it anytime soon, if theres a problem with that feel free to find a forum somewhere to vent your spleen.

I think some of the team might give a few people of a bit of a surpise down stuff like that given a appropriate bike

Hahaha good point! 🙂

if theres a problem with that feel free to find a forum somewhere to vent your spleen.

😀

Hahaha good point!

They go fast enough to make me fall off if I try and keep up 😆

(as in proper Enduro, not “endurance”)

Wrong way round. 24 hour races etc are “proper” Enduros (i.e. they were called it first), these rallies on bikes are something else.

I do enjoy these new enduros but I don’t get the concept. Why do a race where you pedal sections that don’t count? Surely if it’s a race the whole thing is important?

Er, I think the motorbike Enduro people were there first, and the mountainbike discipline is pretty much the same format. Some people in the UK started calling some marathon events Enduro as explained above, but it has reverted to the proper usage now and fair dos to them for sticking with it ! But it must cause confusion and some significant over-biking at their events. All good fun.

If you believe Wikipedia, the first motorbike Enduro was when the International 6 Day event took the name in 1980.

So in answer to your question, it started off as riding timed sections on an offroad motorbike in 1980, was use to describe marathon mtb events briefly in the UK only while the rest of Europe used it in the sense it has now become accepted worldwide, riding timed sections on an offroad bicyle. That usage has now been universally adopted.

That usage has now been universally adopted.

which it hasn’t been, because if it had there would be no confusion, and there is, so it can’t.

Not much resemblance between motorcycle enduros, which are a timekeeping event, not a race, and it’s mtb namesake, which is a race composed of special stages, more akin to a car rally.

If you believe Wikipedia, the first motorbike Enduro was when the International 6 Day event took the name in 1980.

Oddly enough, the 6 day changed its name from ‘trial’ to ‘enduro’ largely because it bore little or no resemblance to observed trials. We now see similar confusion in mountain biking. 🙂

Why do a race where you pedal sections that don’t count? Surely if it’s a race the whole thing is important?

So that it doesn’t just become an XC race where most of the time is won/lost on the climbs (and before anyone starts yes I know most top XC racers are very good technically too).

Yeah but nobody else in the whole world apart from a small section of the UK uses Enduro when they mean Marathon so yes I suppose I misstyped – what I really meant to say was “universally excepted apart from in a small part of the middle of the British Isles” or perhaps there are just a lot of easily confused people living there which is another possible explanation.

Why do a race where you pedal sections that don’t count? Surely if it’s a race the whole thing is important?

The idea being that you need to be fit enough to give 100% on the timed stages 5 times in a day, but a recognition that the climbing is merely there to reflect “real” big bike riding rather than a part of the race with any real relevance.

It also protects the scene against stupid fast roadies who could potentially overcompensate for slow DH skills by smashing the climbs way faster, essentially just turning it into XC but on big bikes. I know that one of the things that turned me off XC racing back in the day was the way a fit road racer could dominate just on climbing/flat speed, and compensate for their lack of skill levels.

Yeah but nobody else in the whole world apart from a small section of the UK uses Enduro when they mean Marathon so yes I suppose I misstyped – what I really meant to say was “universally excepted apart from in a small part of the middle of the British Isles” or perhaps there are just a lot of easily confused people living there which is another possible explanation.

What you really meant to say was “universally accepted apart from in a small part of the middle of the British Isles and her former colonies“

I think some of the (Enduro (Endurance/marathon)) team might give a few people of a bit of a surpise down stuff like that given a appropriate bike

I think Absolon was 3rd or 4th in the first world enduro race thingy.

FWIW I did a Saab Salomon Enduro at Glentress in 2007, that was stages with linked sections.

Glad it’s not just me then 😉

ah sandy point excellent for a rip

are you from there vinny ?

you know dave brookland ?

pedantic thread is pedantic.

I think Absolon was 3rd or 4th in the first world enduro race thingy.

Remy always places well in enduro events 😉 😉

I dunno, personally I think the history isn’t that important- fairly few events use “enduro” to mean “riding a long way” or “pedalling round a field” now. And there are better understood names for those same events. The few hangers on seem to mostly do it out of bloody mindedness. But it causes tons of confusion, can’t be good for anyone.

Comes a point where people should be doing what’s right for the sport, even if it disadvantages them, but in this case I can’t see that sorting out names disadvantages anyone at all.

TBH I think this would be one of those rare cases where it might actually make more sense if the UK just fell in line with the rest of the world for the sake of a bit of minor common terminology…

continuing to refer to plodding round a muddy field for 12 – 24 hours as “Enduro” because you like being a bit awkward makes little sense, calling it either “Marathon” or maybe “12/24Hr Endurance” racing seems reasonable IMO…

Its basically rallying isn’t it? Timed stages and transitions with time limits.

Change from being ‘riding a long way off-road’ to multiple downhill laps with bits in-between, or is it just me?

when people find out they are rubbish at ‘riding a long way off-road’ and downhill, so have to invent their own niche, then abandon it when it become popular and they get beat,

to be fair there was always a niche market of events for the over-biked T5/Audi drivers just waiting to happen

XCO is all that matters really,

Wrong way round. 24 hour races etc are “proper” Enduros (i.e. they were called it first), these rallies on bikes are something else.

Sorry, but no. In your world maybe but not in the rest of the world. It used to really annoy me that endurance events here were for some reason called enduro. Now we have to call them gravity enduro to avoid confusion and so people then complain if there is anything slighly uphill on a timed section.

Glad the UK has woken up to a nice smell of European coffee.

to be fair there was always a niche market of events for the over-biked T5/Audi drivers just waiting to happen

ouch!

It’s only over here that we had to add “Gravity” to the title to try and minimise confusion. Although I do reckon it would be pretty funny to see some Endurance racers turning up on carbon 29er hardtails in Lycra having misunderstood what it is……. Especially when faced with something like this:

I think a few unprepared guys turned up on singlespeeds to the first round of the UK Enduro series, and left after practice complaining that it wasn’t advertised as 5 back to back DH races. Although I’ve taken my rigid SS down worse than that pic! Not quickly, but it’d be rideable.

I think it’s a falacy though that XC racers can’t ride quickly downhill though, the average XC racer could probably beet the average weekend warrior DHer down a hill, in the same way a DH racer could probably beat a weekend warrior XC rider back to the top again as the Eduro series is proving.