[Closed] Has mountain biking become the new golf

Golf is cheaper than mountain biking, so if anything it's more of a working mans sport.

You can buy a bike for next to nothing - though none of us do this- and riding it is then free

You have to be trolling /trying to get a reaction here as that is just silly

Golf has that corporate feel.

Putting my Canyon in my Lexus and getting out in the hills is a different experience.

I'm back into my MTBing after a couple of years off. Encountered hardly any riders over the last 12 months despite multi-day trips all over the country - but, walking onto a campsite near a Trail Centre after a weekend in the hills with g/f, found it was mobbed with loud, middle aged gentlemen, their very expensive (and very clean) bikes loaded onto the backs of Audis and VW vans parked next to cheap, gay Wendy House tents. G/f thought it was funny.

There are elements in any sport that require a commitment of cash, that you get some fetishisation of that equipment, and in that way cycling (not just mountain biking) is just as prone to that as golf is, but you see it in sailing, triathalon, and so on equally as much.

There is a massive industry based solely around making us feel bad about the lack of spangly bits on our bikes, and an element of that is driven by jealousy, just check out the currency of videos promoted by the bike manufacturers driven by lifestyle, and location, and shiny kit...

T'was ever so, TBH

Audis and VW vans parked next to cheap, gay Wendy House tents. G/f thought it was funny

WHO CARES???

GO RIDE YOUR BIKE & STOP WORRYING ABOUT WHAT ANYONE ELSE THINKS.....

🙄

edit: 40+ Santa Cruz & Porsche owner been riding since 1997. Yes, my bike is clean because I spend a lot of money on it & I like to look after it. Problem for you? See if I care what you think!

edit edit: I'm really crap at golf...... 😳

Put simply, cycling now has a greater proportion of tossers with no manners and more money than sense than it did a few years ago.

Hope this helps.
🙂

This thread is littered with awesome little bombs; I'm going with 14 pages, 3 accusations of homophobia, 2 flounces and closed thread.

This thread is littered with awesome little bombs; I'm going with 14 pages, 3 accusations of homophobia, 2 flounces and closed thread.

Oddest xmas song ever

'And a Santa Cruz on an Au-di'.
😀

I've been riding since 87 and seen a few changes. More money coming into the sport is always a good thing, if the rich folk think it's the new golf that's great, no problem here!

However - and I might be wrong here - has it become more expensive at the bottom end? When I started an entry level bike and a helmet (or not!) and you were set. I'm hoping that teenagers and newbies don't get put off by the magazines and websites who do seem to show most people spending thousands on kit. And why does no one smile in magazine and website pics?

I like the money coming in, I just hope it's not getting too "serious".

Bravo Rusty. Bravo.

However - and I might be wrong here - has it become more expensive at the bottom end?

It's full of mid life crisis sufferers in their vw vans now,20 years ago they would have been driving around in their Porsche with some golf clubs in the back,its depressing seeing a fat guy in lyrca step out of a van a 20 year old surfer should be driving,i usually go over and give them a hug and maybe a penis squeeze.I'm not gay though.

Mikey,3 - lol!!

I'm hoping everyone has got the day they started on a mountain bike tattooed on their arse.

Like all outdoor activities mtb is/has been commoditised with everything that goes with that - the same way that climbing etc went (the growth in bolted routes) etc . My mtb for is just another means to get me into the hills for others its other things, willy waving etc.

What tyres for a deep sandy bunker?

Was just making a point, you can buy a set of brand new decent golf clubs for £200. Far cheaper than an equivalent bike. It's by no means clear MTB-ing is cheaper than golf.

All the Audi hate makes me laugh too, it's a Volkswagen (people's car) with a few better quality finishing parts. It's entirely consistent with a decent mountain bike brand and product placement wise.

Sport is more accessible, the kit is better, the knowledge is better so biking is more of a mass participation sport. Look at skiing on the narrow skis I learnt on in 1970's skiing off piste was quie tricky. With the modern all mountain skis it's so much easier so many more people can enjoy it. What's so wrong with that ?

What if you're a chubby middle aged guy of middling fitness with a couple of nice bikes and a van that used to be a chubby twenty something guy of middling fitness with a couple of nice bikes and a van, where does that leave you?

At what point are you supposed to stop doing the things you enjoy for fear of being judged?

Guessing this is a trail centre thing? I have ridden MTB for 25 years and can't say I have noticed any difference where I ride but then I have never been to a trail centre and probably never will.

Don't see many others on MTBs and the ones I do see don't look like they have come from golf (or if they have they have tamed their trousers down a fair bit)

I played golf on a corporate type thing once. I was shit obviously but I did quite enjoy it (nice walk in the green, bit of a chat).
Back in the changing room, a proper golfist (who was playing behind us) looked at me and complained that it had taken him 4 hours to get around. Apparently "well that's a big bag of tough shit" isn't an appropriate response. I got asked to leave by the golfists club!

Some of the apparently skill-les middle aged men, fat or otherwise, with good or expensive bikes and cars may once have been young, thrusting, fast and fearless twenty year olds with endless energy, riding and driving acceptably inexpensive or old bikes and cars, with no more responsibility than attending a few lectures a week or finishing up their apprenticeships.

If you reach middle age and don't have expensive things or haven't made the decision to live out your dreams in lue of expensive things, then perhaps you should be more worried about yourself than others.

That is my judgement, for what it is worth 😉

Was just making a point

was just explaining why it was wrong,

you can buy a set of brand new decent golf clubs for £200. Far cheaper than an equivalent bike

http://www.americangolf.co.uk/golf-clubs/package-sets?srule=priceasc&sz=12&start=12

It's by no means clear MTB-ing is cheaper than golf.

I have ridden MTB for 25 years and can't say I have noticed any difference where I ride

I assume cheap lights are part of that but its pretty rare to do a ride without seeing another rider at some point - though I only saw two on the last one.

So one minute we're trying to encourage more people into the "sport" and the next, we're annoyed that some have nicer bikes than us and complaining that the trails are busy?
Envy is an ugly emotion.

I am not trying to encourage anyone part of the joy for me is to do things away from other human beings

Thats harder to do when more of them have the same idea 😉

I assume the golf thing means its trendy and the type of person who does the latest thing is now doing cycling and in 5 years ,or whenever, they will be doing whatever it is then

FWIW I dont mind on the road as there will be people there anyway....see I am a giver 😉

So one minute we're trying to encourage more people into the "sport"

I remember around 5 years ago I was chatting to a well known skills coach. He thought back then that MTB was the new golf, as in it was being taken up by affluent the "middle classes " with plenty of disposable income and these people were his target market.

I'm not a middle-class man and I don't drive an Audi so I don't know or care where I fit in. I just love riding my bike. Most other MTB-era that I encounter are friendly, so who cares about their income or what bike they ride?

I had to s**** about the accusation on page 1 that Mike is always posting on here so how can he have time to ride? The fact that you are noticing that someone is supposedly always posting on here, suggests you are doing the same! 😛

Junkyard - lazarus

FWIW I dont mind on the road as there will be people there anyway....see I am a giver

Rumour here is you push back 😯

Ok OP, I'll bite.

Should all newcomers to the sport ride heavy steel rigid bikes with road geo, canti brakes and skinny tyres for a few years before they are allowed to graduate to an Alu hardtail with elastomer forks and v brakes, then after proving their worth on that, be allowed a short travel f/s with discs and only the best of the best of the best being allowed the best kit of the day?

It is odd, but it does seem that then only snobbery in mtb is inverse. I can count on my thumbs the number of times I've heard folk on bling bikes sneering at those on less shiny machinery, whereas it seems like every other week there's a thread like this, or when a mag posts a review of an expensive bit of kit online thee are always folk commenting on it being too expensive and not for real riders. I've had a fair few snidey comments about my bike vs my ability (or lack thereof) to ride it.

Is it the same in other sports?

is it the same in other sports

Yes, loads of other sports. (Sadly)

It's a real arseholes view of things, but sadly it exists in many different sports.

Of the 4 in Dumfries 1 has closed and returned to farm land. I know from a committee member of another that it has been losing members and money for the past few years and is now in trouble. Others are advertising for members, something they've not needed to do on the past.
There are visibly more road bikers and I think there are more of " us "

Counting very quickly, I can come up with 27 golf courses within 20 miles of me, granted some are struggling, but not a chance that any will close. Unless the council sell off land from the municipal courses, but right now they are making far too much money and keeping quite a lot of people in jobs.

the old Audi driving/ Santa Cruz riding stereotype is so old

you do know its nowadays its

T5 Driving Fatbike Riding, thats where its at

JY I spend more on MTB-ing than I ever did on golf. Golf clubs don't need maintainence and my Nike clubs cost £200 and I hit them just as well / poorly as I did the £1000 Calloways I tried. You also don't tend to have a summer/winter/holiday set of clubs. A significant amount of the golf I played was as a client or host for business so free, in fact that's why I took up the game as there where so many business opportunities. I've never heard of a corporate invite for mtb which is definitely a good thing of course.

Ok, I'll bite. 😉

I know its a joke on here but am I the only one trying to avoid Audi driving... mtb'ers

Well, I can't avoid myself.

For the record I started in 1994

Personally, I can't stand you 'Johnny come lately's'. If you're not pre-1990 you shouldn't be on the trail.

I don't mind people having fun I mind them being in my personal space

That's not what you said to me last time.

even the quality of nob has gone down

Post-1993, almost certainly.

Looks like all the fair weather bikers stayed in and did their nails today.

I found the receipt for my first ever MTB 1990 montage, so that's 26 years of biking in all ,tempus fugit.

1990 montage, so that's 26 years of biking in all ,tempus fugit.

Indeed it does. Have you had a chip on your shoulder for all of it?

Out of interest, where, in the range of mtbs available at the time, did it sit?

Tell me, does using Latin reinforce your view of your own superiority?

Well I was out today, but judging by the number of comments you've posted on this thread, OP, I assume you didn't find time 😉

but judging by the number of comments you've posted on this thread

What 0 in the 10 hours since my last post, your logic and my observation posted at 8am this morning from a car park full of bikers 🙄

I like my Audi, it's a good car. Should I be in a position to buy a Santa Cruz mountain bike, I'd be very tempted, they're good bikes.

For the record, as others have shared, I first started mountain biking around 1989/90 on a 15 speed Emmelle which I suspect was made of wrought iron.

Riding since 88. Multiple SantaCruz's in my time. Do I win a prize?
Ride what you like no one gives a hoot.

I do so hate to agree with Stu, but I'm going to have to! 🙂

I remember bodging some cranks onto a scrambler back in the early 70s, simultaneously inventing mountainbiking and the first full suspension mtb. Singlespeeding too. I called rufty tufty biking back then. When I held the inaugural rufty tufty biking world champs there were only two competitors, me and a one legged alcoholic who lived in the forest and shouted obscenities at me.

Suffice to say, I won. Not long after dominating the sport I quit in favour of road riding wherein I invented time trial and cyclocross.

I do not own a Santa Cruz or an Audi, but I felt the above needed saying.

I miss those days off getting pissed while standing on one leg and swearing at jimjam. 😥