These days, sports are more about innovation and challenges than ever before. Not content to simply go surfing, people now drop in out of helicopters, get towed out to the middle of the ocean to ride weird swells, and take on waves taller than skyscrapers with little to no protection. And that’s just the sport of surfing!
A growing number of alternative sports for independent-minded people of all ages have been succeeding lately in The States, but nothing is doing quite as well as mountain biking, which has managed to carve out a niche previously only seen for skateboarders, who transformed from weirdos to mainstream. With a variety of different styles and methods, mountain biking is quickly sweeping the nation.
Rather than simply riding a bicycle across town, or even riding one around a track, mountain biking freed the bicycle from its pavement environment. Now, riding a bicycle was more about balance, since mountain trails had to be dealt with. Different riders, in urban areas, even put their own twist on things and figured out ways to make city riding challenging, taking to natural obstacles in much the same way that skateboarders did.
As mountain biking has caught on in different communities and attracted different types of athletes, distinct schools have emerged, and it’s easy to see how they might continue to develop. From basic beginnings of just dealing with a landscape and the bicycle, things have grown and changed. Now, mountain biking can be as difficult or as simple as a rider desires, depending on the school he or she decides to participate in.
The best way to get to know mountain biking is by getting to know the different categories of riding. There’s trails, where bicyclists can be either in a more urban area or off-road, but the main goal of hopping over different objects without placing feet on the ground. It looks a little bit like those courses with jumps and hills, but is a little more extreme.
Probably the most famous variation of mountain biking is the kind seen everywhere from ESPN’s X-Games to “bike parks” around the country. The style, dirt jumping, or big dirt riding, involves bicyclists with a significant amount of padding and smaller, durable mountain bikes taking on a large dirt jump. Riders are judged by the tricks they perform in the air, usually variations of twisting, flipping, and maneuvering the bike but still having a safe landing. While fun to watch, this is definitely not the spot for aspiring mountain bicyclists to begin.
For those living in urban areas, with little or no access to the great outdoors, mountain biking is still a pertinent sport. One of the most popular variations on the more extreme styles of riding is street or urban riding, where people take on obstacle courses of man-made objects on mountain bikes. The bicycles used are smaller in both frames and wheels, and often would not transition well to endurance riding out on open trails.
The best jumping off point for most riders is simple cross-country, which can encompass any number of different environments, terrains, and conditions. A cross-country mountain bike ride can be a simple affair, with lots of break time to enjoy the weather, or it can be more strenuous and involve a great deal of attempting to ride uphill, to navigate slippery or muddy areas, or having to jump around obstacles.
Other more extreme variations on regular cross-country mountain biking that involve more remote locations include downhill, where riders just try to get to the bottom of a run as quickly as possible, as well as short cross, which is a combination of downhill, where the idea is to get to the bottom as fast as possible, but this time on even more challenging slopes. The extreme short slopes have a lot more obstacles and there is a much higher risk of crashing.
No matter the style, there’s no mistaking how helpful this sport can be to building a connection for the young and the old alike with taking their sporting endeavors outside. Like many sports of innovation, mountain biking and all of its new forms is truly here to stay.
Damian Papworth loves the excitement of mountain biking, but always ensures he takes his bike water bottles before he goes. A cycling water bottle is so important to maintaining hydration in this taxing sport.
categories: mountain biking,cycling,biking,extreme,health and fitness,exercise,fitness,sport,sport and,recreation,health,travel,lifestyle,people