EDITORIAL
Micro-Categorize Your Mountain Bicycle
Collect Them All
Come one, come all! Welcome to the post-postmodern mountain bike categorization extravaganza! Where World Cup Freeracing rigs and All Cross Funduro machines contest exactly the same terrain and you absolutely need to own at least one example of each. Throw away your taste for blended bicycles and that salty skepticism of categorization. The 'mountain bike' is dead. Celebrate the definitive differences between every few millimeters of travel from a Transition Spur to a Banshee Legend and every machine in between. Yes, even once they're all sporting the same coil suspension, 2800 grams of tires, 220mm rotors, 200mm dropper posts, and 10-52 cassettes.
Hear your own voice echoing between your ears saying "N+2, N+2, N+2." Here 'N' is the number of bikes you currently own and '+2' is the similarly awesome but awesomely dissimilar Enduro bikes you absolutely need to buy next. One rig is a simply magical high pivot bounty of bolts with a whole range of washers, all the pivots, and an idler pulley. The other presents a real twist, a magically simple single pivot that supplies the same suspension performance with two bearings instead of nineteen. I hear you murmuring that materials matter so of course add a 'C', 'Al', 'Ti', or 'St' to any category for further clarification.
*Cover Photo: AJ Barlas
Is it Trail Heavy or is it Enduro Light? It has EXO tires and a reservoir shock, so neither. It's clearly an All-Mountain ride. But absolutely not All Mountain SL because zero dollars have been spent shaving grams. Photo: AJ Barlas
Is it a Tallboy with a lowered Lyrik? A short-forked and under-shoed MegaTower? A #AllBikesAreGravelBikes Bronson with 700c tires wedged in and a short travel dropper post? Who can even tell anymore? Photo: AJ Barlas
There's Cross Country, Front Country, Back Country, Slack Country, All Country, Down Country, New Country, Shore Country, No Country For Old Men (they’re all switching to e~bikes if they can afford them anyway). Plus, let's not forget Bro-Country, which is just Shore Country with mandatory pants and inserts installed in your tires. And that's just covering off categorizing any mountain bicycle with 100-120mm of travel that is uphill pedaling positive. There are also Slope Bikes, Slalom Bikes, 4x Bikes, Micro-DH bikes, full-suspension Jump Bikes, full-suspension Pump Bikes, and Short-Shocked Lowrider Retired Downhill Race Bikes within the same twenty millimeters.
Super-D was a mid-travel category and then all the races were won by Cross Country pros on their XCO bikes so it was killed off rather than making things confusing. For those that don't know, XCO bikes are simply pro-class XC Race bikes with an epiphany at the end as in "Ohhhhhh, this modern non-road-bike geometry doesn't suck!" Actually, some folks claim the 'O' is for orgasm as in "Oh! Oh, my! This new non-road-bike geometry is sensually satisfying!" But, that might be going a touch too far.
Thank goodness that most companies don't make their DH Race or DH Park bikes dropper-post compatible. It would really confuse things with the Freeduro, Freeride SL, Flowride, Freeride, FroRide, Freeride HD, and Freeride DH bike categories. Photo: Deniz Merdano
Add a touch more fork travel and find yourself where the Spurduro meets the Fall-line Boy. It's Nearly-All Mountain riding on a machine that could still be handy around a race track with a bit of a diet and a pair of semi-slicks installed. It's a whole blurry blend of I-don't-understand-why-you'd-want-a-short-travel-bike-that-weighs-as-much-as-my-Enduro-bike-so-I-think-it's-stupid categories, but sometimes when deciding between a longer and shorter travel bike with exactly the same frame that you're going to build up exactly the same way, you just have to trust your instincts even if you're dropping in from higher altitudes.
If anything, mid-travel bikes ranging from Trail-Lite to Shore-Mountain should have the most room for further classification, especially since they represent the bulk of battery-free bicycles sold in any recent year. The challenge is, of course, that without any event, the Trail Bike and All-Mountain categories are a bit nebulous. These bicycles simply don't have a directly correlatable world-level competition usage from which to build out a marketing campaign. Whether they're XC-Trail, Enduro-Trail, DH-Trail, or Trail-Trail, the secret is to tie their DNA to event-winning bicycles on either end of the travel range. In a pinch, the true All-Marketing apparatus can stump for the most epic XC race crusher and jump like a full-on Enduro race rig.
Of course, a hardtail, even a true chameleon, isn't just a hardtail, sorry. Take the full breakdown of full suspension bikes and add single speeding along with fifteen different categories of bike packing depending on distance, duration, and difficulty. Photo: Dave Smith
The secret of marketing a mid-travel trail bike in any micro-category is the process of tying it to your top-performing shorter and longer travel racing bikes. "Hey, hey! Our similar-looking bikes have won numerous events." Photo: Dave Smith
You can try to resist. You can declare something like 'my rig is just a DH Bike' but your post-postmodern mountain biking friends won't buy that indefinite indexing. They need to know, is it a nano-DH, micro-DH, mini-DH, DH-Park, Downhill, or Downhill Race rig? You simply can't escape the clear-but-complex future of mountain bike micro-categorization by hiding in the amorphous past. Not even riding a rigid fork will save you.
So embrace the over-labeling. Adopt a truly localized classification. Maybe your bike is a Fiver-Prizer, Fiver-Thriver, or Fiver-Survivor. It could be a Thirsty Beaver Beater, a Resurrection Ripper, or a Severed Dick Slayer and I'm certain Trailforks can help you from there. Your own bike might be a bit of a blur now that you've adopted it for the local element so if you're in doubt just pick the nearest category that makes sense and add a giant 'X' onto the end of it.
So, let's hear it. What type of bike(s) are you riding?
Comments
Cooper Quinn
2 years, 3 months ago
What's wrong with "mountain bike"?
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Andy Eunson
2 years, 3 months ago
Well. Some folks back in the day wanted to call them all terrain bikes in deference to those who might live in a place like Ontario or maybe North Dakota where there are on mountains. Wouldn’t want to offend flatlanders and people from the centre of the universe.
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Yeah, that worked out great for big-green-square-GAP-logo-rip-off-MEC too... who didn't realize (very sadly for some, I'm sure) that they were in better (upper management) hands the second they saw the mountains come back?
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taprider
2 years, 3 months ago
yeah, I noticed that MEP GAC logo without the mtns too
Have the mountains come back?
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Yes, one of the first moves the new 'Mountain Equipment Company' did was bring back the old logo. No more GAP.
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Cr4w
2 years, 3 months ago
It was also the nail in the coffin for a lot of people who didn't dig how they chose to openly run with their new corporate vibe. Adding the mountain back into their logo isn't fooling anyone.
edit: they didn't need to go fully corporate to resolve their structural management issues. They did have a long history of listening to the wrong people so I guess they're stayed true to that part.
edit 2: many of us are heartbroken at the loss of this iconic organization that was central to so many trips and adventures. The place you stop in for any last minute X or Y for your next outing. I straight up refuse to shop at the new thing.
Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
It’s weird. No argument the way the take over happened was dirty pool.
I think anyone who worked there, myself included, knows some awesome people who don’t have jobs there anymore. Some of whom got f***ed.
But, it was also a top heavy, poorly run, bloated sh*t show by people’s accounts who are/were behind the curtain.
I just think the logo is an example of actually listening to customers (“members”). It was only pride that kept them from stepping back from the GAP logo after the initial release /reaction to begin with.
Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
I don’t shop there much - not that I shop anywhere much, or did before - but I’d be surprised if, for example, anyone who has worked retail who shopped in the North Van store before/after wouldn’t have to admit on entry that it is significantly better arranged now. So much so, that I think - preferred business model, personal nostalgia, and take over aside - it’s impossible to contend the business isn’t being better managed.
[That’s absolutely no fault of anyone who worked in/managed the store. Those weren’t store-level decisions. North Van had some amazing people working there]
They have made significantly better use of natural light. The layout is better, cleaner, simpler. Everything is easier to find - and that’s from someone who knew the store pretty well having spent a fair few nights restocking it.
taprider
2 years, 3 months ago
I see it is no longer the "Co-op"
Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
No. The elected board gave the business assets and branding to a private investment company.
Surprised you hadn’t heard that? I feel like it was sorta a big deal? A quick Google will catch you up.
taprider
2 years, 3 months ago
Old GAP signage still up all around the North Van store
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fartymarty
2 years, 3 months ago
VTT works for me.
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Velo Tout Terrain?!
I have to opine that ATB - ‘All Terrain Bike’ - is one of the worst, if not the worst, names for the mountain bicycle.
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fartymarty
2 years, 3 months ago
I love ATB / VTT - it's so general and marketing defying. It means you can ride your bike where ever your heart desires and no one can tell you otherwise.
"Mountain Bike" doesn't make sense to me as our highest local hill is only 294m high. The tallest "mountain" (hill in reality) in the UK is only 1345m therefore Mountain Biking can't exist in the UK. Therefore ATB / VTT makes more sense to us with vertically challenged terrain.
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Touché!
Velocipedestrian
2 years, 3 months ago
In central Wellington we have 'Mount' Victoria @198m, which looks like the tiny knoll it is from the top of Hawkins 'Hill' @495m.
It's only near the top of Hawkins the sub alpine plants appear.
Perhaps Bumps + Inclines + Knolls = Extreme!
Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Bumps + Inclines + Knolls + Extreme…
B.I.K.E… don’t think we didn’t see what you did there.
Onawalk
2 years, 3 months ago
I’m forever going to be salty with RC, and Mountain bike magazine for trying to make “black diamond” riding a thing. Why there was a need to change “freeriding” was always beyond me. (It’s a pointless and silly, but it still sits with me)
Maybe it was a copyright infringement situation, that my younger, slightly more naive self didn’t understand.
I’m cool with all the categories, etc, I’m well aware that they’re all just mountain bicycles, and conveyances for getting me out into nature, and letting go of the stress.
Must be bewildering to get into the sport for the first time, grown adults taking playing in the woods so seriously!
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
“Must be bewildering to get into the sport for the first time, grown adults taking playing in the woods so seriously!”
Completely.
Pete Roggeman
2 years, 3 months ago
ATB is better than fat bike, in my opinion. I have nothing against fat bike, although it only describes the wheels and tires, whereas ATB tells you more about its ability. And, as I've argued before, ATB sounds utilitarian, and I still contend that fat bikes are primarily utilitarian machines (albeit fun ones).
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
I had a shop friend years ago who was railing against the name ‘Fat Bike’ after a few beers… I asked him what I’ll ask you: what would you call them?! Pretty sure the question caused his brain to overload and that’s why he passed out from standing up!
I mean, it’s a stupid name, sure, but unlike ATB where there are great alternatives I can’t think of one… and I mean, ‘Snow Bikes’ makes me think of those semi-steerable sit-skis so that’s worse certainly.
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Hollytron
2 years, 3 months ago
Im going to start calling them "molehill magnification machines" cuz there are always bigger mtns or gnarlier trails somewhere. MMM. Yummy.
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Jimothy.benson
2 years, 3 months ago
I've been using the simple term "off-road bike" because living in Winnipeg I can't honestly call it a Mountain bike. Close runner up is the term "Manitoba bike" (soooo close to mountain bike, orthographically. So not close in most other ways)
I can say this with authority because I happen to be the reigning provincial Singlespeed fatbike senior men's champion (a category that doesn't exist on paper, but I was definitely the only fool to show up on such a bike 4 years ago and place DFL in the category UCI had next to my name) but have since wizened up and gotten a Honzo, which I'm now in the process of converting to singlespeed as a winter project. Best tool for the local terrain IMHO given the contast up and down nature of trails here (rather than long mostly climb followed by long mostly descent).
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Hahahaha… that’s like the time my buddy T came first in his category at a big race… his category being single speeders over a certain age named T.
“Manitoba Bike.” Love it.
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RNAYEL
2 years, 3 months ago
All Terrain Bike is a literal translation of the French term of Vélo tout-terrain (VTT).
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
This comment has been removed.
Rick M
2 years, 3 months ago
Those who go to the end of the earth to prove their point will eventually come around.
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Exactly.
(Wait... what have you done with Cooper "Shore Country" Quinn? Is he okay? Ransom demands?)
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fartymarty
2 years, 3 months ago
This comment has been removed.
trumpstinyhands
2 years, 3 months ago
I think you missed Power XC and Over Mountain! When I finally get a Boomer Scooter I want it painted in a Wade Simmons RM7 style but RM7 replaced by 'Broped'.
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Hahaha. My best attempt at an encyclopedic capturing of all the categories of MTB and I missed both ‘Boomer Scooter’ and ‘Broped.’
(And Over Mountain - which has to be a Brit term? - and Power XC which I assume is from Germany?)
Sorry!
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trumpstinyhands
2 years, 3 months ago
Ha ha, Power XC was British but Over Mountain was Cannondale's version of All-Mountain.
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Lu Kz
2 years, 3 months ago
Also "adventure"!
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Todd Hellinga
2 years, 3 months ago
Broped! [laughcry]
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Andy Eunson
2 years, 3 months ago
Groped is much better than "heavy complex price of crap that cost more than my used Tacoma and needs a university degree to fix that motor that breaks a lot". Oops. Meant Broped but somehow Groped kind of works too after you lay down all that cash you may feel you’ve been groped.
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ackshunW
2 years, 3 months ago
In the rocky rooty slow Northeast, with not a lot of Elevation (capital E), but many steeps and a ton of elevation change on any given ride, and some big moves mixed in thanks to the retreating glaciers and the boulders and rock faces they left behind, not to mention large fallen logs aplenty: a term emerged in the early 2000s that I liked - Cross Stuntry.
Apologies for the flowery sentence. It just felt right.
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
I like Cross Stuntry. Cheers!
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William Swanson
2 years, 3 months ago
Beer-country
Slow and light, except not that light.
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Malt-And-Biking?!
I like Beer-Country.
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cheapondirt
2 years, 3 months ago
Rocky Mountain missed an opportunity with Ride-9. They could have given each position a name to describe the specific style of riding most encouraged by that setting. Pick your identity, buy one of the 9 jersey and sock options, don't be a dick about it though because everyone has a unique Ride-9 chip.
I'm position 3, by the way. I'm not sure if that's Aggressive Trail or Passive Enduro because they didn't freakin' label them. No wonder they had to regress to 4 positions - with identities attached, consumers would have welcomed at least 16!
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Definitely Passive-Aggressive Funduro!
Hahaha. Thanks for this!
And you know, between the shared-frames of the Altitude and Instinct there’s Ride-9 x 2. So really the Instinctitude / Altstinct has Ride-18!
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Cr4w
2 years, 3 months ago
Instead of 'be a dick about it' it's 'leave a snippy note about it on your car'.
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cheapondirt
2 years, 3 months ago
"Your bumper sticker says you're progressive, but your Ride-9 told me otherwise. P.S. Learn to park"
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
I think (when it's not raining/snowing) my new hobby is going to be leaving aggressively crafted, complimentary notes on people's cars.
Like I saw a Rubicon the other day painted a rather fetching green colour and it would have probably made buddy's day to find a note until his windshield wiper that read:
"HEY YOU,
THIS GREEN COLOUR IS SICK.
NICE JOB PARKING BETWEEN THE LINES TOO (actually).
HAVE A GREAT WEEK!"
I mean, who does that? Me?!
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cheapondirt
2 years, 3 months ago
Ha! This sounds like a real art form.
I still think about the mysterious windshield note I received four years ago that simply questioned, "Did you feel it?" All morning I racked my mind but couldn't recall any unusual sensations. It was a successful psychological attack.
Cr4w
2 years, 3 months ago
This comment has been removed.
taprider
2 years, 3 months ago
FrommeFunduroX, but it is so specialized it won't work on Seymour, although with lycra and inserts (in the tires that is) it can sort of work on the Cypress Bowl side. However, with a complete tire and rim change, it can work on the Green Necklace (that is really a blacktop necklace).
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Xtreme Commuter!
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Vik Banerjee
2 years, 3 months ago
Over the years the names people were using for the type of bike I was interested in changed even though the kind of mountain bike riding I did stayed pretty much the same [within the limits of my local geography as I moved around Canada]. The term I liked the best was "All Mountain". It captured my desire for riding up and down the trails around me without being too focused on one part of the ride or the other.
Since nobody uses that term anymore my second favourite choice would be "Trail Bike". It's got the same generalist flavour that All Mountain did, but it's stuck around and most people would know what you meant.
In a few years it will become necessary to say "Meat Powered Trail Bike" as people will just assume you were talking about a motor equipped "Mountain Moped" since that's what everyone was riding.
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
I don’t think it will be necessary to say “Meat Powered” because when you say “rigid bike” or “single speed” folks will know it hasn’t been e~’d.
(Hahahaha)
-
I also liked the term All Mountain but admit “All Mountain Racing” doesn’t sound as cool, or specialized, as Enduro.
Trail Bike is too generic! How will anyone know from that if you run 8” rotors and DD tires or a lighter setup up on your HighBoy?
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Vik Banerjee
2 years, 3 months ago
I also liked the term All Mountain but admit “All Mountain Racing” doesn’t sound as cool, or specialized, as Enduro.
All Mountain was a race-free category so you wouldn't need to combine the two terms. Makes more sense than Enduro/Enduro Racing when 95% of people buying bikes from that category will never race them...well unless you count phone social media app use as racing.
Trail Bike is too generic! How will anyone know from that if you run 8” rotors and DD tires or a lighter setup up on your HighBoy?
Same way you can figure out who is a vegan or triathlete at a house party...no worries give them 5mins and they'll tell you!
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Velocipedestrian
2 years, 3 months ago
As a dedicated anti-racist (OK, I entered one once, and came precisely mid-pack), I approve of this distinction for All-Mountain, though in the spirit of accuracy we may have to introduce Most-Mountain.
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Tjaard Breeuwer
2 years, 3 months ago
I tried clicking “like” twice, for each those statements, but ended up back at where I started.
Well done!
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Poz
2 years, 3 months ago
Totally agree on all-mountain. It’s the term that has stuck around for me throughout it all.
It captures the spirit of a generalist that rides the ups, the downs, the easy and the hard and even the woodwork (where it exists but isn’t racing
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Kenny
2 years, 3 months ago
I like all mountain as well. I feel like no matter what bike I start with, hardtail for full suspension, that's the best description of what it ends up being.
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Mark
2 years, 3 months ago
Ahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahaaha. Ha!
Moiste excellent Andrew, the industry can go F itself with this absolutely stupid proliferation of bike categories.
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Ben Shaw
2 years, 3 months ago
My Remedy is a Slo-ped
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Sven Luebke
2 years, 3 months ago
Having bike-pack gravel path and road toured and beerDH raced with a stock Reign and Hail Advanced loaded with 3 weeks of sleeping gear 500+ km Auckland to Rotorua, I can affirm a bike is just a bike.
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dirtsled
2 years, 3 months ago
Happy new year to you all!
DS, dirtsled? (prutslee in Dutch) Yeah silly username....only works on unpaved surfaces.
Out here, no mountains or hills, just mud (prut) when things are wet so we slide from here to there in winter.
However, i dont think this wonderfull sport of ours would have caught on with classifications based on sustained injuries.
As of the Day before xmas, i am thinking of my bike as an rb-bike, RIB BASHER, JRL in town when approching a turn my front-end rebelled and slid to the right, rest of bike and body went left resulting in a resounding crash, dont mixup directions, that dont work! I am sure you can find other initals, NC anyone???
Trying not to laugh or hickup at the moment....only four-five more weeks to go!!!???
Great article Andrew, on point and funny, reminds me of that article about men-specific bikes and other beautiful rants on marketing and gear, much appreciated!
Grtz!
Jord Mosselman
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Heal up Jord! Happy new year to you too.
Thank you, but significantly less threatening correspondence on this one compared to M-S Bikes!
Dirt Sled sounds like a totally legit mountain bicycle category...
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taprider
2 years, 3 months ago
I think I've seen something like a crazy carpet used to drag a bike across sand dunes to the next available rideable area
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Spencer Nelson
2 years, 3 months ago
I laugh at how seriously most of the industry loves to micro-categorize, and yet... I find myself doing the same thing with so much of my window (or worse, actual) shopping. My primary FS 29er trail bike has remained relatively static, thankfully.
My 2nd bike is a Trek Farley, and the iterations I go through with it are ridiculous. Studded fat tires for winter as the default, makes sense. 29er wheelset for summer, 35mm inner width, so let's throw the widest slicks on it to make a sweet commuter. But I love singletrack, better buy some 29x3.0 XR2's so I can really contrast it against my FS 29er. But how much better could it feel if I had i40 carbon rims instead of i35 aluminum? Is rigid even my jam, or should I get a Lefty Ocho for the front end? Or maybe I should get a Mastodon so I don't have a unique front wheel. Or for even more contrast against the FS, what if I just bought some fast-rolling fat tires? And since this bike is intended to be focused on the experience (ie fun lower limits over absolute capabilities), what if I did a dropbar conversion?
Not sure I can summarize where I'm going, other than to say "please send help".
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
You'll find no help here. Sounds like a fun example of adult-Lego to me! (not that regular Lego isn't for adults too).
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Reed Holden
2 years, 3 months ago
I think all of my bikes would be called "shore country"? Whether a hardtail or full suspension, they all need to be capable enough to ride a north shore black but make me want to pedal it like an XC bike. I tried a process 134 and it felt sketchy on challenging chunky trails. Pedaled great, cornered great but when things got steep and gnarly, the bike turned out to be a noodle. You'd think I would keep it and take it on less technical rides but it turns out I can't get my head around riding a bike that I can't take in everything. So shore country bikes it is.
Great article. Not sure how long it took to come up with all those different classifications, but every one felt spot on describing a niche of the mtb market.
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Cheers!
Hopefully a good mix of a bit of fun and a fun bit of a rant.
.
Ha. I think the term SHR CNTRY was invented just to harangue me… I like “Slack-C.”
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fartymarty
2 years, 3 months ago
How about good old fashioned Klunker?
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Easy Klunking / Klunking Ain’t Easy
.
But I mean… is that purist coaster-brake-only Klunking? Dual-Discs-Allowed-Klunking? Klunker-Aesthetic-Only Klunking?
Hahaha.
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fartymarty
2 years, 3 months ago
I have heard / read that coaster brake bikes were actually called Cruisers and Klunkers came along later. As such I assume dual-disc-klunking is an acceptable form of klunking. If the early Klunkers (the participants, not the bikes) had access to disc brakes they sure as hell would have fitted them to their Klunkers (the bikes, not the participants).
For me Klunking was about riding / pushing up and riding down and not taking shit too seriously - therefore we are still within the boundaries of the definition of Klunking - therefore by definition are Klunkers (the participants, not the bikes).
Klunk on my fellow Klunker.
PS - don't tell the Radavist as they'll claim Klunking as their own term.
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Clearly you’re just missing another level of categorization?! Just turn up your imagination.
The Radavist-Klunking would be tied in with bike-packing, so it would be Klunk-Packing, Pack-Klunking, Klunk-With-A-Trunk.
This Safety-Klunking you’re talking about with modern brakes and probably Geo and rubber? It sounds a lot like mountain biking to me so you just need to drill down from there… Free-Klunking, Klunkduro, XKO…
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fartymarty
2 years, 3 months ago
LOL
PS - I'm an engineer, my imagination is limited.
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fartymarty
2 years, 3 months ago
Andrew - I think you missed MTB Cruiser
https://theradavist.com/2022/01/bikes-for-buddies-and-rusty-trucker-mountain-cruiser/
momjijimike
2 years, 3 months ago
Since 1990(Scott Windriver = gravel bike?) I'm a mountainbiker and today I'm still riding a mountain bike(Santa Cruz Megatower = Enduro?), life could be so easy :)
Mountains and Trails are the same, uphill is still a challenge, downhill still exciting, wet roots are still scatchy, all the same but enjoy the progress of bike technology.
>It would really confuse things with the Freeduro, Freeride SL, Flowride, Freeride, FroRide, Freeride HD, and Freeride DH bike categories
Like a lot of other things... just marketing...
Have fun and enjoy your MTB!
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eriksg
2 years, 3 months ago
I occasionally end up in a bike shop being asked by an employee what kind of riding I do. I usually reply "I'm a mountain biker" because I ride off-road primarily.
The usual follow-up question is: "but what kind of mountain biking?" I sense the expected answer is somewhere on the spectrum between XC and DH.
I have generally settled on "well, I ride trails, so I guess general trail riding." But I really don't know how to answer the question. If you ride recreationally and don't race, don't have a heart rate monitor or power meter, don't make Strava KOMs uphill or down, what do you say except "I'm a mountain biker!"?
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Just make up something esoteric sounding!
It sounds like you do a lot of recreational light-enduro riding to me.
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eriksg
2 years, 3 months ago
How 'bout "recreational funduro". That ought to clarify and confuse them at the same time.
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taprider
2 years, 3 months ago
even more confusing would be "funduro racer"
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eriksg
2 years, 3 months ago
I can go with funduro racer. I race myself up and down the mountain, for fun. I win about half the time ;)
hailecycles
2 years, 3 months ago
Bravo! What a fantastic article.
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Thanks!
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Lu Kz
2 years, 3 months ago
And here I thought the moniker "All Mountain" was officially killed by that big website after the recent batch of 150-160mm trail bikes.
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Skooks
2 years, 3 months ago
Haha, I really enjoyed this Andrew, thanks alot. My 135mm Fugitive LT transcends labels, but if I had to call it something it would be a Mountain Bike.
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Cheers! I’m glad some folks were entertained rather than enraged.
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samnation
2 years, 3 months ago
This article is gold! I tend to just build a bike and let other riders categorize it! From bikes that weigh 38 pounds and I pedal up to bikes that have dual crown forks and dirt jump parts on them.
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Morgan Heater
2 years, 3 months ago
The comments are nearly as poetic as the article! Hilarious. Someone should collate a list of all the potential monikers and pin it to the top.
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
Tons of great comments!
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BadNudes
2 years, 3 months ago
I mostly ride XXC, maybe on a road trip it'll be XXXC, on a porky hardtail. But at the risk of giving somebody a big head, this winter I'm trying to piece together my very own "Major bike"; metal, modern, min-maxed singlespeed, sometimes rigid, push-on grip smasher.
Thank you Andrew for sharing your thoughts through 2021.
Sidequest, Magura MT Trail Sport with the nice short lever, or MT5s with the long lever but a whole 'nother pair of pistons? The things that keep me up at night.
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Andrew Major
2 years, 3 months ago
I wouldn't worry about my head getting too big... between my friends (love you guys), family (love you guys), and the readership at NSMB I'm held pretty well in check.
The Trail Sport is a great system and the two-piston rear caliper feels great - just keep the rotor sizes the same front and rear. I'd actually run that setup with my Formula Cura brakes as well except that the Cura-2 and Cura-4 feel quite different (both good - just different enough that it would bug me to mix-match) so I run the 2 or the 4.
Excited to see shots of your new rig!
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