what does "freeride" mean?

[konahed]

Is it a more relaxed sort of downhilling?

 

[Andy B]

Freeride, can be hucking of great big chunks of northshore style wooden stuff, big drops off natural terrain, the kind of thing you leave your brain at home for

 

[Kona Paul]

It's come to mean riding structures like skinnies, ladder bridges, trannies, logs, as well as doing drops and jumps. Though even without the man-made obstacles, it's simply going "out of bounds" as Kona calls it; going way out there and finding new not so obvious lines by riding natural obstacles such as rock drops, logs from fallen trees, natural drop offs and steep rooty, rocky nasty sections that traditionally would seem unridable or be avoided. The North Shore in North Vancouver is considered the birth place of the movement due to tough riding conditions, even without the man-made objects. Just taking the trails and avoiding all the stunts is brutal on the bike and rider. Therefore the development of bikes like the Stinky, made for abuse and with lots of plush suspension.

 

[longun]

freeride is modern talk for freestyle do what you want,how you want,when you want.its just fashionable now lol

 

[Kona Paul]

It isn't that modern. The term is used in Kona's 98 catalogue, so it was obviously being used before that. Freestyle can also be urban trials and BMX, whereas freeride tends to be on dirt, off road, in the mountains etc., and nowadays in a bike park as well. I went to college in North Van in the late 90's with a guy who was into it, though I didn't know what the hell he was talking about at the time with bridges 10 meters in the air etc., and it was definitely in the mountains they did all their "free" riding. I don't think freestyling necessarily encompasses freeriding, though freestyling might fall under the umbrella of freeride.

 

[Err]

Off piste.

 

[konahed]

Oh that's cool, my sister lives in North Vancouver, I've been there a couple of times but not done any biking there.

 

[MJN]

Without all the marketing sh1te,freeride is just riding,not training,not racing,just having fun in the woods,in the mountains,where ever.

 

[Kona Paul]

Without all the marketing sh1te,freeride is just riding,not training,not racing,just having fun in the woods,in the mountains,where ever.

So your weekly ride on a bit of local single track in the woods is freeriding then? Bollocks. I do agree with the having fun wherever part, but the term is often taken heavily out of context, because only the biggest freeride stunts are put into movies. All the big man built stuff is part of it, but not necessary to it, and a lot of that stuff was built for ecological reasons. A lot of the old school North Shore riders don't like the use of chicken wire and nails, because they want to ride it "natural, man." So it's not all marketing and big air and hucking yourself off a cliff.

And why is it nobody seems to mind that xc riding became popularized? So many talk about the bikes they drooled over as teens and couldn't afford, well they wouldn't have been in the window if it hadn't become popular. And the top riders of the day..? In adverts and bike mags? Yes, methinks they were.

 

[Kona Paul]

Oh that's cool, my sister lives in North Vancouver, I've been there a couple of times but not done any biking there.

Cool, next time you go you should rent a bike from the Cove shop and ride a few trails. Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Team Pangor on Mt. Seymour are nice intermediate trails with some cool structures. If you like those, you should go back and try CBC and Corkscrew.