It's not all about the BIKES!

I really do enjoy this site. Like most of you on here, mountain biking is well and truly in my blood. It scraped and cut its way in in the late eighties / early nineties and....it ended. Now I am starting to come to terms with "life":wife, sprogs, career etc and I am rediscovering all the old joys of (in my case) Kona.
There is so much technical discussion on here about the bikes, and yeah, it is a real thrill that now we can afford all those dream bikes (as long as we can get them on ebay!)
I personally though would like to see more discussion on the spirit of mtb'ing.
The sheer joy of riding.
So I am going to attempt to kick this off: watch this....and discuss.
http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2005/rampage-p1.php
I know it's easy to say this sat at a keyboard, but didn't we do stuff like this years ago?
Only when we did it, it wasn't as much about display.
I used to make jumps like this on a hardtail with no body armour, just helmet and gloves. I don't think we ever considered the extreme stuff we did as "cool", we just did it coz it was fun. Sure, we picked up broken bones (2 broken wrists for me thankyou kindly!)
Ok, I am having a bit of a moan, but my trip to a bike shop today kind of confimed what I have been seeing: that what was once a pretty unique, pure outdoor thrill which (to me and my peers) engendered a love of mud, wood, rain, with tange prestige, anodised aluminium and gnarly tyres, is being turned into an MTV-style BMXing hybrid.
I guess thats why I like this site so much. It reminds me of the purity of old-school mountain biking and I get all nostalgic. (few beers helps this too!) Anyways, sorry for rambling on. How about a few more discussions about retro mountain bikING as well as the bikes??!!

areeeeeee in the old days early 90,s for me it was all about justed getting out and riding it didn,t really matter what you were wearing. cycle shorts tee shirts/sweat shirts trainers with toe clips looooooovly.but today,s modern mountain bikers ( most of my mates) its about expensive gear kit bike.don,t get me wrong i do love my newish bikes an 92 vintage in my case BUT when i get out on my old 90 steads it an absolute joy fat tyre an all

one word sums those guys up...

idiots!

totally insane... a lot of skill and balls the size of coconuts... but... come on! how are you supposed to cycle back up to the top!!!

Absolute nutters!

Throw away bikes too!

The trouble is MARKETING .

Nowadays, you need a bike to freeride , enduro , cross country etc...

Listenning to mags and bikes companies , there are about 20 different types of mountain biking .

Seen footage of the red bull rampage before. It's pretty bad ass.

I don't think there's harm in the sport evolving, however as Chris mentions an awful lot of it does seem marketing related. If you beleived the hype (and words written by certain MTB mags) you'd need about 20 or 30 different bikes for different conditions and terrain.
Without wanting to sound like too much of a 'retro grouch' I do sometime pine for the days when everything was simpler. You had one bike (probably made of steel, rigid with toe clips) which you rode everywhere and did everything on.

i second that

Hey, there aint no shame in being a retro grouch!
Sites like this and the people in here should work to retain the purity of the sport so that it isn't completely bastardized by the corporates, and forgotten.

one of the young lads !! i work with is into this freeriding or whatever you call it ?
they ( him and his mates ) spend all day on the weekends , digging and building !! ramps , drop offs , and all sorts of shit , then go riding around in circles on this circuit they have built , DUMB or what .

shit man natures been building this sort of stuff all around you for millions of years .

go for a ride and FIND IT !!!!!! :roll:

We all sound really old .

When the first Marzo came out , same time as RS 1 , I had to have it , it was the same with all kind of equipments .

If i was 17 or 18 now , I will probably buy a full sus , with disc brakes , black or grey ( certainly not purple ) and read all magazines about jumping 100ft gaps .

But I am 30 plus , and a lot wiser . And my parents dont pay for my bikes anymore , I am .