Downhill thinking...

Down Hill

The so called sport of DH has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with grass routes mountain biking, other than you have two wheels under you. It is more akin to Motorcross against the clock. The reason why this site is so popular, is about folks getting back to what the sport was all about, and a grillion miles away from the whole nasty mess of "free ride," "all mountain" and "downhill" (spit!!) If we start down that road!!
The sport could be still re born if competitors had to compete in all disciplines again and on the same bike. That would bring a few laughs?

Downhill thinking

I must say that I disagree with World Ranger when he says downhill racing has nothing to do with grassroots mountainbiking. As one of those grassroots people myself-started riding dirt in the 1970's-all of the guys in Marin loved racing down Repack-which, unlike Motocross is done one at a time against the clock-and before there were rules about where you could go, we used to "freeride" down many big, grassy hills around here before the term was used to denote a style of bike.

DH

No, no, no, it's what we have got now, not what we had then! what the sport has developed into: 40 pound plus bikes with 8 inches plus at either end, it's MX without an engine.

Downhill thinking

Hey, BITD, ALL the bikes weighed 40 pounds plus.

Re: Downhill thinking

FairfaxPat":7zyynd01 said:

I must say that I disagree with World Ranger when he says downhill racing has nothing to do with grassroots mountainbiking. As one of those grassroots people myself-started riding dirt in the 1970's-all of the guys in Marin loved racing down Repack-which, unlike Motocross is done one at a time against the clock-and before there were rules about where you could go, we used to "freeride" down many big, grassy hills around here before the term was used to denote a style of bike.

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I agree. Downhill and freeride are pretty natural aspects of the sport. What kid didn't push his bike to the top of a hill for the thrill of speeding back down again?

I can understand World Ranger's point of view, and thought the same way when I found this site late last year having drifted away from mountain biking for 5 years or so. The weight of the new bikes seemed ridiculous to me.

As I've got back into my mountain biking my opinion has changed. I'm starting to think riding around and around in circles on a designated track (i.e. cross country) on bikes that are prone to breaking if pushed to hard is probably further from the "grassroots" of mountain biking. I took my brother-in-law mountain biking for the first time a few weeks ago, and visited an old cross country track I love and he couldn't understand why we kept going over the same track.

I loved racing cross country back in the mid 90's but I can understand why it's fallen in popularity and the bikes have gotten heavier with more travel.

Re: Down Hill

Wold Ranger":1254wawo said:

The so called sport of DH has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with grass routes mountain biking, other than you have two wheels under you. It is more akin to Motorcross against the clock. The reason why this site is so popular, is about folks getting back to what the sport was all about, and a grillion miles away from the whole nasty mess of "free ride," "all mountain" and "downhill" (spit!!) If we start down that road!!
The sport could be still re born if competitors had to compete in all disciplines again and on the same bike. That would bring a few laughs?

Click to expand...

what on earth is there to spit at!? as 13 year old kid in 88' riding my bike offroad was pure freedom. today, not only is it my passion but also my career.

funny thing is, the BEST part of a days riding were always the DH bits..

i can only imagine the bitterness comes from the way the industry/media have turned mountainbiking into something sooo varied & now specialist, & aimed at a much younger generation (kids..), i can only think jealosy plays a small part.

hell, i would have gone crazy for a DH bike with 8" travel & disc brakes when i was 13! :shock:

but back then, mountainbiking for a lot of us here in blighty was much more about adventure & bridleways. Imagine how cool i felt when i took my newly purchased muddy fox seeker for a ride last week

Mr. World Ranger might get a pretty big argument about the roots of the sport here in Marin County.

We started out riding cross-country, but the first CONTESTS (1976) were downhill. The participants in our first cross-country races (see poster in Magazine and Catalog Scans) were all veterans of downhill.

Although plenty of people "invented" the mountain bike long before the Marin riders did, the SPORT of mountain biking, which made the bikes popular worldwide, started with downhill contests in Marin County.

Mr. Ranger has pretty strong opinions for someone who was not on the scene.

I've got this: Karpiel vrs. Circa '95: it even has the slot to fit the cable stop for cantis. It has variable rate rear, which can be changed rotating an eccentric pivot. The noleen shock has multiple pivot points, and the travel is around 4 inches, massive for the time. I haven't assembled it yet, tho...