WTF happened to mountain biking

er, perhaps if you had spent less time getting smashed off your head, and more time learning / working, you could also afford to buy a £4k gnarpoon……. 😉

And besides, for every “all the gear, no idea” rider i see, i genuinely see 10 others who have much more average bikes and ride them properly!

Finally, affordablilty and “value for money” are not the same thing, and are different for everyone.

Me? I can afford a very nice bike indeed, yet i know full well it doesn’t offer as much value for money as a cheaper one, but so what. It’s my money, my choice. The bit the Trolls don’t see is days like today, a sunny sunday, when i’m stuck behind my computer writing code for some tests that have to start on monday. Makes me Cash rich, time poor…….

I’ve been out paced on many a rugby pitch and mountain bike by ‘fat blokes’…it boils down to fitness and not weight.

I buy what I like and within a budget I can reasonably afford. If folks don’t like it…then f##k off

I was in Dales yesterday and they had a full sus, fatty e-bike. Honestly, I’m a bit perplexed by it all.

I sort of sit on the edge of the Mountain Biking world

Looking in I do worry that the kit getting better could damage the sport. I know that seems stupid but it seemed to happen in Windsurfing. The kit got better and the sport got more exciting, but the price of the kit then becomes a barrier to entry and anythin less than a windy day is boring. Its still true that you can buy windurfing kit for next to nothing that is better than ever. But when everyone else has better kit than you it’s not quite the same

I do think the gravel bike thinking will save it for some. I did a gravel type ride today on 17 year old hard tail with 2 inch slicks, great fun…

A fatty bike full suss. Yes because middle aged men seek and seek anything different to subliminally make themselves stand out. They don’t realise it but it’s a cry for attention in their increasingly dull world.

Look at the hipster £100+ threads that Gok Brant is knocking out! Middle aged men looking for a definining fashion thing that they can call ‘their own’ love em.

Double Denim is a telltale sign of the most brutal bridge trolls

A fatty bike full suss. Yes because middle aged men seek and seek anything different to subliminally make themselves stand out. They don’t realise it but it’s a cry for attention in their increasingly dull world.

Oh…. I wont be getting my Alfined Singular Swift built to 27.5+ then or buy a Pink Stooge…… 😆

Cheers, Steve

Last years Commencal El Camino 650b = £357 ! That’s straight from them in Andorra via direct buy website. You can buy this whilst stoned and slouched on your sofa if you like.
If you become a keen MTB’er then a full suspension Bird Aeris kitted out with SLX components, Renthal bars and RockShox Pikes will be around £1600. Bargain. Some people may think it is a £4000 bike as you fly past.
You’re welcome.

Last years Commencal El Camino 650b = £357

Bugger wish I knew that sooner, just ordered 4 Diamondback Heist 1.0 for work.

Cheers, Steve.

We were out for a few years and when we got ‘back’ into it it was all tapered head tubes and 10 speed. 10 speeds! Never in the world, what will they think of next? 😯 11? Away with you, you madman. I remember when all this was fields and 1×8 was what the cool kids with plaid shirts and cut off jeans were doing. Missy Giove, Anne-Caro, jumpers for goalposts… I remember when BMX tracks had proper jumps on them, not this pumpy nonsense that’s all the rage now and stand up straight and stop mumbling and look at me when I’m talking to you, not your phone. And pull your bloody trousers up. Werthers, anyone?

Buuuut… people still use their ‘mountain bike’ as just a ‘bike’ and, y’know, use it to pop to the shops on and stuff. It’s not all rad to the gnar road trips and going big or going home or taking up too much room if you’re not living on the edge. It’s just bikes, innit. Fun and that 😀

It went mainstream. That’s all.

Thankyou kayla1 for your excellent post, just cheered up my Monday morning.

@kayla1 🙂

It went mainstream. That’s all.

Yes it did, around 1995 – maybe a bit earlier.

It went mainstream. That’s all.

Really??? if anything its just as non-mainstream as its always been.
Road riding is mainstream, just look at the numbers of tubby middle aged Team Sky wearing bumblers on the country lanes when its sunny. It gets major press coverage and is very much in the public eye.
Mountain biking has always been off the radar – Its not on any sports channels (Bike Tv doesn’t count as its crap), it gets f-all recognition from the national press, its widely seen as a sport either for kids (one up from BMX), or for those males rapidly approaching middle age.
All that’s changed in the last 15 years is the ability for average riders to ride decent trails with decent kit, and ride it fast. A 1k bike from 2016 is a world away from what you could get for a similar price in y2k, and for most riders the standard of trails (and the accessibility of them) at centres such as BPW is light years away from the bridleway based mug fests some of us grew up on.
Its a great time to be a mountain biker, don’t get too hung up on the fashion side of it and enjoy yourself…

wait until there are dedicate mags and forums – your sport will be in trouble then OP 😉

I am always gobsmacked at the money thrown at riding bikes down a slope, but the same can be said of golf equipment where despite all the innovation, handicaps have hardly changed. Hmm, how odd….

As for skiing…..

I do half my riding on a £500 bike. But it’s a fatbike so I’m not sure if that’ll console you or anger you.

Secretly hoping it flips your NOT PROPER MOUNTAIN BIKING buttons though.

Why is it that when people (perhaps legitimately) claim to have not ridden a bike for 10 years they also appear to have been on the moon or somewhere for all of those years and become surprised and enraged upon returning to planet Earth to find that things are not how they left them.

If you want to have a rant just have one – most of what you say is true. You don’t need to justify your rage with fake surprise.

We used to smoke some puff and hit the table tops on bmx’s or any old crap and now it’s all fat old guys riding around “slurrey hills” etc…

The kids grew up, got desk jobs and families, had mid life crisis and spent money on Audis and £4k bikes to go ride “slurrey hills” 😛

Actually this is fairly old now, things have moved on in 5 years. We now have bigger wheels, and Santa Cruz replaced the Ellsworth as the required bike to ride the hills 😉 (although I think YT Capra is more dominant now)