Isn't Shuttling the only kind of riding that ISN"T free?
| It's been a few years since I gave up the whole
Cross Country suffering-for-fun thing. In fact, the last time I rode SPD's
was 1995. Then I went to Grouse to watch a bit of the World Cup a few weeks
ago, and it got me to thinking... Watching all those professional masochists
surge forward with every pedal stroke scaling a steep grade faster than
most people descend made me realize that somewhere along the way, mountain
biking has started to lose its work ethic. Now, before you all start throwing
your stanky Roach pads and full-face helmets at me in protest, there is
a point to this. I do understand that the roots of mountain biking are firmly
planted in shuttle runs up the now legendary Mount Tamalpais in Marin County,
California, so you're probably all saying "Shuttling is the root of the
sport." |
|
If that's the case, why did the grandfathers of mountain biking install granny gears and front derailleurs in the first place? Simple. So they could RIDE up to the tops of the trails that they enjoyed coming down. To create a bike that was versatile enough to ride most any terrain with ease. These days, mountain biking seems to have splintered into so many different groups; it's almost getting to the point of the whole Roadie vs. Mountain Biker war in the early 90's. Now we have freeriders poking fun at the lycra-clad cross country riders, cross country riders laughing at the slalom specialists, everyone laughing at the trials riders and just about every 15-year-old out there wishing he were Wade Simmons.
What ever happened to the all-round rider? Back in the late 80's and early 90's, mountain bike races would take up a whole weekend, like a festival. There would be a cross country, a downhill, an uphill (yes, Virginia, there was such thing as an uphill race) a trials event, and eventually slalom joined in. Awards were presented to the winners of each of these individual events, but the main prize would be presented to the best all-round rider with highest overall results. Some of these stage races even required that riders use exactly the same bike for every event. In fact, one key Yeti rider (I believe it was Joe Sloup, Casey Kunselman or Jimmy Deaton) was penalized for putting a larger chainring on to win the Kamikaze DH after John Tomac protested.
So I ask you, what ever happened to the all-round rider? Ask anyone with a mountain bike what kind of riding they do. You'll get answers like "I'm a freerider. I like drops and trannies," or you'll get looked at straight in the eye and told sternly, with a hint of defence, "I'm a cross country specialist."
If you ask me, the best mountain bikers out there are the guys who successfully combine freeride, DH, cross country, trials and just about anything else you can do on a bike, and integrate them into one ride. The guys who sweat pedalling up to the trail head as fast as possible so they can descend and drop all the big moves they want, then turn around at the bottom and ride right back up and do it again. See, the faster you are at going up, the more runs you'll get in over the course of a day. It's simple math. Don't get me wrong, I fully support this whole freeride scene. In fact, I feel freeriders have among the best combination of skills and fitness of many of mountain biking's new niches, but I still think the best riders are the guys who'll just as easily blow you away on the climbs as they will on the skinnies.
See, riding is more than just about how big you can drop to flat or how much travel your fork has. It's about getting out on your bike and having fun. I understand that different people have a different idea of what fun is, but why limit yourself to one kind? Instead of riding up the access road to get to your next big descent, try riding up the trails you've perfected descending. You'll likely find that the satisfaction of cleaning a crazy-technical uphill section is on par with cleaning a skinny or landing a smooth tranny. But that's just my opinion...
Richard Belson
