Cool Wall -> Mountain Biking

Uncool





However, I have decided that riding old italian roadbikes is cool, so my qualification to answer this is somewhat dubious.

I remember why I thought it was cool, besides the fact that it was a freakin blast to ride an oversized BMX bike with gears on a single track trail- it was a rebel sport back then. Our gang didn't normally wear "cycle clothes" like lycra and such (one did and heard about it!), and it was all about going out in the woods, smoking grass and flying down the hill fast! Watching the passerby road cyclist with all that flash and shaved legs made us feel like we were doing something cooler- (I am much more evenly balanced now, especially since learning eventually that they were smoking too!) Yes, back then MTB was cool- you can't deny it. I agree with one of the posts here who stated that after the mid 90's and cheap mass-produced bikes were everywhere, it wasn't the rebels and fanatics anymore..it was everybody! That's the way it happened with every innovative "cool" sport I imagine. It was cool to custom out your ride too back then, it seems that all of my extra money went to it.

COOL.

BMX is cool, but I've always thought mountain biking was a bit like the slightly nerdy older brother....

When I was a kid there was no mountain biking, I seen it arrive in the early 80's up to that point it was all racers or BMX.

For me it was Super Cool, bikes that could be ridden off road with gearing low enough to get you up anything :shock:

First had a go on my mates Raleigh Mustang/Maverick (not sure which) in 1985 in the same area I now use as my practice area 25 years later.

Super, super cool, a pivotal recreation choice in my life

defo cool.
Love everything MTB

BiTD at the turn of the 90's I thought Mountain Biking was cool.
Doubt other did other than my friends, but that's not the question.

Certainly in the early days it was cool, I remember drooling over the latest kit and to have others drooling over my "Dale" wherever I went on it.... Is it cool today? Probably not, the sport is now so fragmented that you need different bikes for different types of riding.... BITD we did it all on what we had, we crashed, broke frames and bones, yet we laughed and had a blast. Now it seems you need to take at least 3 different bikes to a trail center... and that is not cool :evil: However as this was asking if mountain biking is cool (BITD) then I say yes it was.

mtb sport

i think its gotta be cool, like in the early nineties when it got bigger exposure, it opened the sport to a wider audience & thats gotta be good. any way i think roadies are hijacking this vote! if it was the other way round, id be buggered if id vote for the leg shaving tarmac huggers

It was uncool back then because I was a kid into BMX and lycra clad MTBers weren't very cool.

Then I grew a bit and riding through forests was cool, albeit not in lycra.
But only in my own head for enjoyment factor.

Now it's uncool, it has no chic attraction factor. Cycling in general doesn't but at least the chics love watching the strong legged roadies not the muddy baggys emerging from the trees.

Is the definition of cool what you find fun? What impresses your peers? Or what impresses the opposite sex?

stewlewis":6myo3bme said:

Is the definition of cool what you find fun? What impresses your peers? Or what impresses the opposite sex?

Click to expand...

I'd say what the general public / society, perceives as cool - and I think in fairness, when mountain biking first came to the public's attention, probably how it was perceived.

If it needs explaining to them, it ain't cool - which is why modern-day mountain biking ain't cool.

If it looks like a group of nerds discussing Star Trek on usenet, in the early 90s, then it ain't cool - which in fairness, is probably what most people would think about a group of aging cyclists / mtb-ers discussing it on retrobike.

I'm just saying...