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Home >> Mountain Biking

Mountain Biking

Mountain Biking info, ideas, and photos

Amasa Back - Moab
Photo: Tim Brink, through a Creative Commons Attribution License

Introduction to Mountain Biking

Mountain Biking is the sport of riding bicycles off paved roads on dirt trails, slick rock, and in some cases modified ramps. A huge array of specially modified bikes exists, from simple steel "hard tail" bikes to full suspension bikes made out of space age materials.

Back in the mid-1970's groups of innovative mountain bikers in Crested Butte Colorado and Marin County, California, working separately but in parallel timeframes, modified bicycles with fat tires, called by some "Klunkers," which became the ancestors of the modern mountain bike. Improvements in technology and design caused a virtual boom in Mountain biking in the 1990's. Today, mountain biking has grown to be an international sport, which now even includes Olympic Mountain bike competition.

Mountain Biking has branched out into different specialties. Downhill is essentially the original form of mountain biking, with the focus on going down at high speeds with heaver bikes, often assisted with lifts or vehicles. Cross-Country is the most common form of mountain biking, riding under one's own power on trails and dirt roads. Freeride encompasses jumping and riding 'North Shore' style on elevated trails made of interconnecting bridges and logs. Trials riding consists of balancing and hopping bikes over obstacles.

Mountain Biking Meccas Worldwide

In the U.S., Moab, Utah, and its extremely technical slickrock trail and the 100 mile long White Rim Trail is ground zero for mountain biking. Lake Tahoe, along with Marin County in California, Sun Valley, Idaho, Crested Butte, Boulder, and Durango, Colorado, Bend, Oregon, Asheville, NC, and the Monongahela National Forest in Virgina are each important mountain biking centers. The most up and coming mountain biking hot spot in the U.S. is Fruita, CO with it's extraordinary high desert single track.

Canadian Mountain Biking's soul center are the North Shore forests of Vancouver island, where enterprising riders, to deal with the mud, built elevated wooden ramps and technical obstacles on dozens of secret trails. This practice has expanded now into hundreds of bikers parks in the forests of Canada and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. In addition, great trail systems exist in Whistler, Squamish, Golden, and Rossland, BC.

Morzine, France is the soul center or Euopean mountain biking with hundreds of miles of trails and a mind-blowing location in the Alps. In addition, Chamonix, France, Sardinia, Lake Garda and the Dolomites, Italy, Fort William and Glentress, Scotland, Blandford, Dorset, England, Afan and Cwmcarn, Wales, Mount Parnitha, Crete, and Mikonos, Greece, as well as Cyprus all have great trails.

Down under, Hobart, Tasmania, Canberra and Cairns, Australia, Whakarewarewa and Makara Peak in New Zealand each are mountain biking hot spots.

Mountain Biking Adventure Travel

Mountain Biking has become an important part of the larger adventure travel industry and mountain bike journeys to Vietnam, China, Morocco, Ethiopia, Malawi, Peru, Chile, and Argentina are popular. Kathmandu, Nepal with it's ancient system of trails and roads has become the center of mountain biking in Asia. Mountain biking from Lhasa Tibet to Kathmandu and from Kashgar, China to Pakistan are rapidly becoming classics.

At the cutting edge, Intrepid mountain bikers like Martin Adserballe and Janne Corax have been making ground-breaking, extraordinary long distance mountain biking journeys over 5,000 meter passes across the Tibetan plateau and Western China.

Things about Mountain Biking Other Sites Might Not Tell You

Mountain bikers to tend to be regarded by those of other communities as brash and reckless. This impression isn't helped by the fact that there have been a number of high profile incidents of mountain bikers colliding with hikers. These incidents have led to considerable tension between the the mountain biking and hiking communities. You can do your part by knowing and observing the right of way. Yield to hikers and horses on the trail. This means stopping, getting off your mountain bike and letting them pass. Be as friendly as you can with people you meet on the trail. It's only by doing this that mountain bikers will rebuild their reputation in the adventure sport community.

Mountain bike participation peaked after the initial boom years in the 1990's. As an industry exec. said confidentially, "people all bought bikes in the 1990's. . . then they found out that mountain biking was hard." Indeed, mountain biking takes effort, but with impressive trail systems going in at ski areas like Winter Park, Mammoth Mountain, and Park City in the U.S. and Les Gets in France there's no excuse not to get out there.

If you get the urge to go out and do some "North Shore" freeriding, make sure you've got the skills to do it, or better, take a class and learn the skills. A lot of people are getting hurt riding on ramps and logs. Wet, muddy wood can be slippery- ride smart.

Tour Companies for Mountain Biking

Dreamride - Moab

Rim Tours - Mountain Biking Outfitter in Moab

KE Adventure Mountain Bike Holidays Worldwide

Western Spirit Cycling - Mountain Biking Tours in The Western U.S.

Transalp Riders

Bike Tours Direct - Mountain Biking in the Alps

Bike Himalayas - Mountain Biking in Nepal

Books and Maps on Mountain Biking

The Bicycling Guide to Complete Bicycle Maintenance and Repair: For Road and Mountain Bikes(Expanded and Revised 5th Edition) by Todd Downs

Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance by Lennard Zinn

Mountain Bike Maintenance by Guy Andrews and Gary Fisher