trail. xcountry. and freeride

As a newly addicted mountain biker, i still dont know the exact meaning of all the different types of ride. can anybody help with a clear description

What time is it?

It’s Chico time!

don’t expect sensible answers on a friday evening here!

Made up marketing bull.
Just ride

lol. very helpfull thanks

As ac282 says, just ride, bollox to pigeon holing.

Xcountry – Going up and down hills
Freeride – “going up hills” (but not really) and going down hills jumping off stupidly big things

Defo made up bullsh*t – we’re all riders, sometimes I ride more leisurly sometime more stupidly – some would call the former XC and the latter All Mountain (or in some cases Freeride if something gets broken)

Freeride is just falling through trees on stupidly steep slopes if you ask me! but XC and Allmountain are very close.

I fell out with my friend because I like XC Trail lite, and he’s into All Mountain. Bastard.

It might be made up marketing bullshit but the stratification of new classes of riding was what reinvigorated a flagging MTB market. MTB was on it’s arse and sales were in free fall, a few marketing bods at teh bigs co’s and magazines got together and came up with a strategy to help make MTB more approachable and define specific groups within the sport that could be targeted in different ways.

Do you think all the overgrown BMX kids would have crossed over had it not been for companies pushing a hard core MX vibe in the marketing.

Like it or not it has been good for the sport, these are good years for product development and good years for growth across the industry.

You forgot ambientxc jeycore lite.

Its all marketing bollox.

is it not about about balls and bottle.but the the inevitable happens.a+e department.then it,s back to xc riding for a bit.

There are far to many constraints associated with trail and xc, I much prefer freeriding

Ballsy XC is where its at. I know because MBR says so.

so what is it then ? the difference i mean. ive done a few forrest tails and made a few up at rivington pike. whats their classification?

XC Lite i’d go for

For me?

XC is taking off “across country” away from trail parks.

Freeride is some sort of gravity-assisted lunacy which isn’t quite full-on Downhill.

Trail?? Dunno really. Somewhere between the two? Might overlap with “All Mountain” and probably covers anything from Blue to Black routes at UK trail centres.

I seem to recall a definition on the Marzocchi website, aimed at pointing buyers to the right forks for their riding style.

oh no chico’s from bolton 😳

i ride a bike full stop.

Do your wheels leave the ground intentionally? That’s all mountain.
If you do it in style, that’s freeride….

Right?

DrP

the mbr definitions seem to vary depending who’s writing the article, terms describe both the rider, terrain and bike. God forbid we should break the rules and take a 4″ travel bike up a mountain.
as i see it they define categories like this…

xc – cross country small travel bikes often associated with racing events, distance occasionally less technical, old skool, more fitness based than trail

trail – prob what most uk riders do, variety of terrain including uk mountains and trail centres, leisure based.

all mountain – big hills and drops, heavier stronger bikes with bigger tyres, harder hitting down hill, more relaxed riding position on bike

freeride – scare yourself with big jumps, bike parks, nothshore etc… similar to downhill but not just against the clock, its more about showing off

downhill – steve pete

like others have said its marketing tosh, I ride at sherwood pines, peak district, welsh trail centres, Lakeland fells etc – at least 3 categories if you look at it but I ride the same 120mm travel bike, so don’t get hung up on finding a pigeon hole for what you do, just enjoy the ride.

“Mountain biking” is now called “trail”

Welterweight

i should have asked the 70 yr old guy i saw on saturday on his 1970 drop bars with 1.25″ tyres what type of niche he was into,

i felt quite embarassed.

that was singlespeedstu

XC – crashing normally harmless
Trail – cuts and bruises upon crashing
AM – broken wrist upon crashing
Freeride – broken collarbone upon crashing

All tongue in cheek of course! As mentioned, most people probably do a mix of the first 3 on a 5″ forked HT or Full suss.

Marketing bollox but it’s all good fun and makes for pretty products and hammered credit cards!

spend less time worrying what type of riidng it is and just ride 😛

XC – you’re allowed to ride an off-the-peg aluminium bike, eg. Trek.
Trail – you can only use On-One or Cotic hardtail, steel/ti.
AM – you must read MBUK and ride 7-inch 42lb tripple-clamp forked full sus with Maxxis tyres whilst wearing white gloves.
Freeride – you can only sit and talk about how rad you normaly are but your 2 weeks old Iron Horse Sunday is so not-good-enough that it’s impossible to ride it at all.

It’s a way of classifying bikes more than anything. XC is now generally light and leaning towards fast and racing bikes.

trail is most bikes that you ride everyday on singletrack, natural stuff and trail centre routes.

Freeride is a bit more extreme normally IMO park and huck* rather than long rides.

*Do people still use that word or am I a bit behind the times?

I wouldn’t get too concerned with the marketing. If you are buying a bike look at it on it’s merit and how you ride. If you are heavy and just barrel through things then you may need a stronger bike than a whippet who has lot’s of finesse who could probably do it on a light weight xc bike. As long as you enjoy the ride it’s fine and try to avoid riding with people who tell you otherwise.

Is the difference also how you ride a trail?

I always remember going down a trail in NZ wiht some guides and me pottling down it XC stylee. Stopping at the bottom looking back up I saw the canadian guide popping off this and hucking off that – totally different ride down a trail using a different line to me