[Closed] Is this what Mountain Biking is about?

I've done a heli-drop with my bike: It's great fun. Get over yourself.

If it was 13,000ft then perhaps its justifiable but 3,635ft?
nah

for environmental reasons

Is that a middle class justification for your chosen sport?

I agree that helo biking is crass, but mountain biking for environmental reasons?

do you think those riding that day will have ever ridden up a hill/mountain or likely to ride up a hill/mountain in the future?
or will they only ever be heli-downhill riders?

Waderider - Member

Am I just a grumpy lentil muncher

Yes.

Is it "what mountain biking is about"? No, but what is? Mountain biking covers so much ground, I think anyone who reckons they can point at an event (or anything else) and say "THAT is what mountain biking is about" is fundamentally a moron, it's many things to many people.

But perhaps I'm missing what mountain biking is about.

I don't play on a mountainbike "for environmental reasons",but if a helicopter became a necessary accessory to my riding I'd have to give it up for environmental reasons. I rather agree, I'm not sure that's cool, but I can't really put my finger on why. Nevermind. 😕

Is this mass disagreement then?

I just feel it is a crass marketing exercise. Why not just take up car rallying or something if your muscles don't work?

*Edit - some less disagreeing responses seem to have appeared. I feel better now :D*

hmmm,

in 2 minds about this... part of me agrees with the OP however I would be a total hypocrit as I have done some heli snowboarding in NZ when much younger and it was 'really' fun. I saw heli biking in queenstown and thought that looks great... I do agree with the enviro aspect but I think theres worse things happening in the world BUT OP does have a point.

I kinda think mountain biking is a sport that means different things to different people. I personally love the hills and the nature side of things - but to some heli biking would rate as a great day out - no doubt at huge expense as helis dont come cheap....

however most weekend warriors think its acceptable to drive many hours to ride a scalextric track so biking isnt enviro friendly in that respect or the whole rampant consumerism of the sport - as is A LOT of western / modern life. Thing is we are living a lifestyle on the back of millions of years worth of stored solar energy in the form of coal / oil etc and one day that will end and things will be 'challenging'....

hmmm - sum up its not my idea of mountain biking but I would like to do it just for a ride in a heli again...

perhaps the event organisers can buy some trees as a carbon offset???

ho hum

paul

I would love it if a helicopter was mandatory for mtbing. I love helicopters - they rock.

It seems positively unethical to ride down something that you haven't first ridden up.

not for me each to their own crap answer mikey

This is why so may downhillers are fat, they should be made to ride up the hill to lose weight 8)

Have I miss read the article? Sounds to me like they're carting 120 people up there for a specific race. I guess because there's no other simple way of getting everyone up there. The idea behind DH, love it or hate it, is that you ride down hill, and normally down stuff too steep/technical to ride up easily, and you don't want to be burnt out before you start the decent (that's for XC). Anyway, using a heli for one race is quite a bit different to opening a day in day out heli uplift service, which I'm pretty sure isn't happening, right?

I think that is 'definitely what mountain biking is about' 120 riders are going to have a whale of a time hooning down a mountain, surely the biggest reason all of us go mountain biking is enjoyment? The fact it involves a helicopter and no pedalling up hill is irrelevant.

Its all riding bikes. Therefore its all good.

How many lentil dahls to carbon offset a helicopter ride?

It's fun.

Probably better than grading a road up to the summit too.

Mountain Biking is not a green sport. Too much equipment and waste for that. Cycling as transport is but not as a sport.

It's wrong to spoil a beautiful and dramatic mountain - rare enough in this crowded country of ours - with a clattery old helicopter and a bunch of lardy fatsos.

I thought it was about eating cake in car parks.

Not sure I've got the energy for much else.

loddrik - Member
It seems positively unethical to ride down something that you haven't first ridden up.

Skiing with you must be exhausting!

It never occurred to me that spending thousands every year on exotic materials shipped from all over the globe was good for the environment. I guess it makes up for driving thousands of miles a year to ride, and having to use a great big pick-up truck to get the bikes in.

I feel all smug now I know I'm an eco warrior.

Mountain Biking is not a green sport.

Neither is it a particularly un-green sport - although those niches that rely on uplift are clearly less green.

Arguably, the fact we do our sport in semi-natural environments justifies not ploughing them up for more farms, houses and workplaces.

Do I think heli-biking is mountain biking? Yes, but only in the same way that heli-skiing is skiing: a niche within a niche, and not the norm.

Got to hand it to No Fuss - it's good marketing... Will help the new owners of GMR so as a long time affecianado of White Corries I'm pro anything like this which will help preserve and sustain mechanised uplift on that hill.

The Helicopter is probably more bother than its worth but it pulls in the punters and will guarantee good news coverage. Far better hills to do this on tbh but none that would generate positive publicity in the way this will.

As I understand it the riders are getting air lifted to the top of the Cliffy (single man chair which terminates around 2800ft) so they still have to push their alleged lardy arses and heavy bikes another 800ft vert.

Could you not argue that any fairly big sport that involves shipping parts from abroad is pretty un-green?

Personally, I'd love to do a heli drop!

I'd do it. Sounds great as a one off and with the price of helicopters it's unlikely to be something that's a regualr feature on a Wednesday night ride. Fair play to No Fuss for doing something different.

Arguably, the fact we do our sport in semi-natural environments justifies not ploughing them up for more farms, houses and workplaces

If you were right, driving to these "semi-natural" environments then riding a machine around them would be the opposite of green.

I'd have given my left nut for a shot at the MacAvalanche. Looks brilliant fun. Do you remember fun?

the heli drop is only because the chairlifts dont go all the way to the top!

so its not like they are saying lets ride down that hill there and use a heli through choice

if they could have the chairlift to the top then they would, look at Ft william gondola to the top station

the heli drop is only because the chairlifts dont go all the way to the top!so its not like they are saying lets ride down that hill there and use a heli through choice

Fair point the scottish higlands were completely in accessible before helicopters and chair lifts!

If you were right, driving to these "semi-natural" environments then riding a machine around them would be the opposite of green.

I completely agree that it is not a "green sport". I'm just providing some perspective to the discussion as there are plenty of less green sports. And based on what I have seen of STW readers' habits, long drives to trail centres are the exception, and more local riding the rule.

There is almost no pristine "wild" land in the UK. But there is land where nature and natural processes are allowed and even protected: moors, mountains, heathland, forests, shores etc. And I think that by using this land for recreation, we justify and give measurable value to it's continued existence; a counter-balance to commercial pressures that would urbanize or convert it to industrial mono-culture.

This is a bit like the tow in surfing debate that has been raging for years.

There is a time and a place for it. In surfing there are waves you cant ride without being towed in first on a jet ski and having the safety of jet skis around to get you out of any trouble (you tube search Laird Hamilton / jaws break for some awesome video).

You could argue that a helicopter can push the extremes of mountain biking in the same way.

Or.

You could just ignore all this hyped up extreme riding its not like you see it at Glentress!

Is this what mountain biking is about?

[img] [/img]

Is this what mountain biking is about?

[img] [/img]

Is this what mountain biking is about?

[img] [/img]

Is this what mountain biking is about?

[img] [/img]

Saw a couple guys tow surfing in St Ives 😯 ,Strange as I'm rubbish and was managing to paddle into them 😀

[i]Is this what Mountain Biking is about?[/i]

It's what [b]that race[/b] is about. Don't understand why you'd have an issue with one particular event.

LoCo

Thats what i mean - a time and a place for it. Tow surfing / heli biking, i cant think of any place in the UK where either would be appropriate.

I had some guys turn up on jet skis at a surf break once and i told them to Fu*k right off. and they did.

jimjam - yes to both 😀 although you could argue that having to wear purple as in the first pic is NOT what mountain biking is about 😉

It seems positively unethical to ride down something that you haven't first ridden up.

Fair play to the two guys I saw a couple of years ago who rode up to the Fort William DH and then rode down the world cup course. For some reason they didn't look very happy on the way down.

Mountain biking covers so much ground, I think anyone who reckons they can point at an event (or anything else) and say "THAT is what mountain biking is about" is fundamentally a moron, it's many things to many people

That's it.

I'm firmly in the "it seems positively unethical to ride down something that you haven't first ridden up" camp.

For the same reasons I have little respect for Golfists who have little cars to carry their lazy backsides to their ball, and a slave to carry their massive bag. The poor little darlings.

And tennis players. Stopping every 20 minutes for a sit down, minions to run around fetching their little balls, getting them a drink, hand them a towel.

And Footballists. Can't even manage 90 minutes without a comfort break in the middle. Plus most of the time they [i]are[/i] on the field they take every opportunity to stop the game and lie down pretending they broke every bone in their body when another player vaguely brushed past.

🙂

(p.s I may or may not be being deliberately inflammatory)

I would love to do it, there is defo a time and a place for everything.
Don't get a helicopter to and from work, cycle. Grow as much of your own food as poss, don't buy the food that has been transported half way across the globe to your local supermarket that you drive to. Generate your own electricity from used scrap parts instead of buying from BG,Manweb etc or buying a new wind tubine which was built god knows where and took a stupid amount of energy to make. Where do we stop?
I don't plan on whittling my new DH bike from the trees I'm growing in the garden.
Just be happy that your doing your little bit to make the place nice to live in.

Peace and Love

Mountain Biking is all about arguing with strangers on the internet.. nothing more.. nothing less..

Mountain Biking is all about arguing with strangers on the internet.. nothing more.. nothing less..

Sums it up perfectly 😀

Just be happy that your doing your little bit to make the place nice to live in.

No. Don't be. Get out of your middle class dream where you can consume your way to nirvana. As George Monbiot said "No political challenge can be met by shopping".

Agree with NorthWind.

Personally, I'd love to do a heli drop!

I hope they drop from the chopper on their bikes and ride off 😈

to make it more niche it should only be open to those with Raleigh choppers 😆

yunki - Member

Mountain Biking is all about arguing with strangers on the internet.. nothing more.. nothing less..

Wrong. You really don't have a clue do you

Wrong. You really don't have a clue do you

Genius.

Wrong. You really don't have a clue do you

It would seem that, for some, mountain biking is all about taking interwebs forums way too seriously....

"Mountain" biking covers a wide multitude of riding styles, terrain, bikes etc. Why do some people feel the ****ing need to pigeon hole everything all the ****ing time!!! Why does it have to be about a definitive [b]any-****ing-thing[/b]?

As long as you are on your bike and having fun without ****ing things up for other peolpe what does it matter? If you really want to wring your hands about environmental damage, go comment on one of the F1 threads so beloved of here.

I'm firmly in the "it seems positively unethical to ride down something that you haven't first ridden up" camp.

Mountain Biking is all about arguing with strangers on the internet.. nothing more.. nothing less..

I'll fix that.

Singletracks forum is all about arguing with strangers on the internet.. nothing more.. nothing less..

Or of course, insulting strangers

Wide spread of responses. On balance, I preferred mountain biking when it [u]seemed[/u] that the folk involved weren't the same sort who might try (say) jet skiing on a otherwise peaceful body of water at the weekend.

I blame trail centres and Canadians myself. Every Canada has given the world has been a force for bad e.g. Freeride and Rush 😀

Just spent the evening in the park with my friends having a barbeque, getting pissed, and messing about on some drop offs and jumps. Today, that's what mountain biking's all about for me.

The event was downright bloomin AWESOME

the Heli lift just added something special to the event!

Wrong. You really don't have a clue do you

I demand proof of this..