Whilst rad, mountain biking isn’t all gnar, and by presenting it like that, lots of people are missing out an all the easy fun that mountain biking could offer them.
Matty Johnson is a former professional baseball player who now makes mountain biking content for his YouTube channel. He discovered mountain biking five years ago, and in that time has pushed himself to ride harder features.
In this video I will be talking about some misconceptions when It comes to mountain biking and how all the expensive bikes and difficult trails are not what mountain biking is all about.
The topics he covers have a lot of overlap with the agenda of Reframing MTB. What do you think? Is there room for all styles of riding? Do we see enough of ‘just riding along’? Or is it boring to watch, but fun to do? How would you encourage more people to give mountain biking a shot?
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MTB peaked a while ago, imho. I still love it even if I’m no longer really aligned with it as a ‘thing’. But would I invest in it if there was an MTB industry tracker? Nope. The trend doesn’t look good – reduced earnings, high competition and low PODs, high cost of entry and a shrinking customer base – plus a proposal presentation that promises more than it can deliver, as the article here gets into. You’d hope you’d have got out when it was stagnating pre-covid. Along that line of thinking there’s certainly small companies you would want to back, but not the overall industry.Â
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On the marketing side, imho if MTB marketers had more of a clue or better grasp of reality and what customers wanted there wouldn’t be so many people struggling to ride gravel bikes off-road*. I mean, how have gravel bikes become the default ATB? How did most MTB brand mess that up? If your riding is about the off-road but it’s still ATB more than BPW .. drop bars make no sense. That’s why CX bikes weren’t the boom thing of the mid-late 80s, ‘mountain bikes’ were. But in recent years Rapha probably had more influence than any MTB brand in what a lot of people ride for mix terrain stuff.
*I know, some of us like underbiking and I love drop bar bikes that can go off-road. But the size of the gravel bike sales / market for actual light-duty off-road use says to me that the commonly-marketed MTB side of things like FS bikes, goggles, cutties, jumps and all that is being rejected and has been sidelined by the majority of riders (riders as in anyone who ride a bike for active leisure – roadies, gravellers, MTB, tourers, etc).Â
Interesting Q. I think they don’t want the uncoolness of a road bike and they want to pull wheelies. It’s also not really an ‘MTB is cool’ thing, it’s an urban bike culture thing.Â
The game changer for me: When UCI finally allowed disc brakes on CX bikes… thank god! Gravel bikes were born after that I think?Why on earth do muggles have to wait for pros to adopt things? It’s a bit backwards IMO.
To be fair, pros did adopt gravel bikes after normal riders already had.
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Gravel is not XC riding
Similar here, or when discs for drop bar STIs were available, more accurately. There were people/brands making “heavy, race-illegal, I don’t get it.." disc-equipped CX bikes for byway bashing some years before the UCI allowed them in races in 2010-11 (I was one of them). Who needs racing to sell a bike.. Another point a lot of MTB marketing seems to miss.Â
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Very much this
My spanish friend called my bike “a countryside bicycle". She was right.
I evolved from the early 90’s XC over the years as fashions changed, more trail centres were built and bikes became more capable. This went turbo after my riding pals gave up for a while as my riding became exclusively trail centres or short technical rides I’d drive to.
Then in covid my pal got a gravel bike so I did too. We really enjoyed gentler rides retracing our childhood routes. Gave me back my XC buzz and now the majority of my riding is from home in the Dales. GB changed to carbon XC and I dropped as much road as possible. Planning on some longer rides this summer so just need to finish building my new Spur and I’ll be off!
I had planned to change my bigger bike but I’m not sure how much use it will get now so I’ll be keeping it unless an insane offer lands in my lap.
I often call my bike something shorter but similar. Often around the same time I’m changing bearings or bleeding brakes…
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Any different to people doing a school run in a 4×4? It’s just an image thing. They could go off road, but they never will. See also divers watches, etc, etc.
One thing that concerns me about gravel is roadies bringing their attitude to the dirt.
Sure ,on the road ride big but there’s no place for chain gangs when there’s other people enjoying the countryside. If I encounter a walker I slow down and say hello. Gravel roadies seem to just charge through.
I’m only basing my findings on videos of someone I follow on you tube but some of it makes me wince.
It is all riding bikes and all good, I don’t see why people get all tribal over it.
I have a hardtail, I do thousands of miles a year from the door, bridleways, woodland paths, trips to country pubs, sunsets and getting some fresh air.
I have a full suss, great for trail centres, days out, holidays and big stuff.
I have a road bike that I used to commute on but hasn’t been used in years, I should really get rid of it.
I am about to invest in an ebike for big, big days out.
I say ride the bike you like, where you like, as often as you like and ignore all the background noise.
Long before gravel was popular I’ve seen people on mountain bikes:
-XC riders blast past on a climb with a roadie scowl and no acknowledgement
-“Enduro" riders do the same on descents, sometimes throwing in a trail wrecking skid for good measure.
-Group trail rides with bits on fire roads/ bridleways where those in the back half of the group get the peleton mentality and lose all sense of bodily autonomy, common sense and self preservation and just blindly copy the herd.
I don’t think the choice of handlebars makes people dicks.
“I don’t think the choice of handlebars makes people dicks."
Amen to that.
I haven’t watched the video, but anyway… I don’t ride much nowadays. When I do I would say it’s an xc/ wander around/ sort of ride where am trying to ride as much as possible in the time I have, but still hit as many trails as possible so it’s not just bridleways. My xc bike is 10years old now but still fine for this. I just don’t hit the big gaps the kids have built though. It’s wheels on the ground(mostly) xc not sending xc. Just riding a bike.Â
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MTBing seems to have a a general perception issue (for both participants and observers), presented as being non-stop Gnarr with people banging on about progression and adrenalin, when it can’t all be like that all of the time. I’ve got two very different flavours of MTB these days a bouncy one and a rigid one, and they cover quite a potential spectrum of uses between them from efficient long distance trundling to uplifted Gnarr. Hypothetically the bouncy one could “do it all" on it’s own, but where’s the fun in that? I’ve had various DH, Trail, Dirt jumper and XC bikes over the years the definition of an “MTB" or indeed “MTBing" is so broad now as to be almost meaningless. At the same time why do we think Gravel has become so popular? (got a couple of those too); It doesn’t seem to come with the expectation that participants regularly exceed their skills/ability and have to take time out for broken bones to heal, there’s a bit more of a focus on getting out and about and using a bike as a tool to see the world, rather than finding new and exciting ways to cheat death or serious injury. That’s clearly got some appeal to quite a lot of people too… Of course the curly barred bikes will never compete with the fun of battling your way through a bunch of lose turns, drops and jumps to successfully clean a tricky line on a machine that is a bit more equal to the task (and is only really limited by the meat sack in charge of it). I guess the key is balance and recognising you don’t have to spend all of your time on a bike trying to dance on the edge of calamity, some times it’s nice to scare yourself a little, but nobody can live like that all the time… Not really very profound is it?
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Kind of starting from the assumption that Gravel bike riders are all just “Roadies" with a new hobby. I’m not so sure that’s the case…Â
I don’t think anyone is lying to me about mountain biking, but it has evolved around me whilst my preferences have largely stayed the same.
I was 26 when I got the bug and I’m now 51.
Back then, the 90s were drawing to a close and unless you were a DHer you were an XC rider or a trials rider. I was a trail hacker then and I’m a trail hacker now, just an older, less fit and more skilled and experienced one.
The marketing and trail centre culture that has grown up in the intervening years has lead to less expectations on physical effort actually cycling and more focus on jumping, drops and flat out speed down some kind of gradient, but all the other iterations of what mtbing is or has been are still out there but aren’t as fashionable right now.
You just have to choose the one you like doing.
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For you? Cool. For others, maybe it’s not about balance.
For me it’s either local gnar, or the uplifted gnar. Regularly hitting the adrenaline button is something that serves a purpose for me.
I don’t do gentle routes or scenic bimbles on the bike, I get more enjoyment from walking them with Ms. RM and the hound.
But what I’m not going to do, now or ever (nor should anyone else) is tell others how they should define what MTBing is for them.Â
I watched the video and felt it was a bunch of self-indulgent tripe which pops out via such mediums every now and again.
MTBing is what you make it, want it and/or need it to be for you.Â
There endeth my sermon.
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I always do unfashionable mtb now days, but you do get to see some nice wildlife.
My favourites are mountain hares, adders and weasels.
Scenery is often nice as well.
Huh, the article got no comments for a few days but apparently I opened a modest floodgate with mine today.
I don’t know that I had a particular point, it was just that the video had some moments that struck a chord with me where I’ve been questioning what I enjoy about the pastime lately, along with having a few competing interests making it so I get out less on the bike anyway. Might just be a longish loss of mojo interlude, might be a permanent change, I dunno. Interesting to see all these thoughts about what the industry and trends are doing to people’s perceptions though. It feels like the clickbait title is a little counterproductive in that sense but that seems to be the way of the world now.
I couldn’t be arsed with watching it or that reason, it’s like all the videos about why XVZ ‘is a con’ – Gore-Tex is a classic. Or plus-sized tyres etc. Why ice cream is the biggest con ever etc
I just like riding bikes. No-one’s lying to me about it because I’m not gormless enough to confuse social media or advertising with reality.Â
Is this an example of the tribe/ club attitude of cycling in the UK. Here you are in or out depending on the bike you ride.
European cyclists are different they are a united sport/leisure group, perhaps that’s why cycling is well supported by the governments.Â
Also tell me why XC biking is different from gravel or bikepacking, isn’t it just going out on unprepared trails? Racing is a different story.
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