When I first sat down to write this piece, I was primed and ready to unleash a heart felt diatribe against all things 'enduro.' It was going to be a real doozy of a rant, one where I deconstructed the semantics of the word itself, talked smack about the endless wave of 'enduro specific' products arriving for review at my doorstep; you get the idea. But then I took a step back, a step big enough to look at the overall picture. I went for a long, head clearing mountain bike ride too, which always helps bring things into perspective. And you know what? My frustration has subsided. In fact, I've begrudgingly decided to accept the term, even if my skin still crawls a little when I hear someone say they're going 'enduroing.' Why the change of heart? Well, somewhere on my ride it occurred to me that if other riders are finding something to get excited about, if this supposedly 'new' type of mountain biking is getting people motivated to pedal up
and downhill, then it can't be all that bad.
Sure, there's a lot of marketing hype and bullshit behind the enduro craze, and a lot of it certainly deserves to be made fun of, but at the end of the day, does it matter what inspires someone to get out and spin the hours away on their bike? I don't think so - what matters is that they got out there in the first place. And if it takes a baby blue jersey and a fresh set of goggles to motivate a rider to pedal up a hill they normally shuttle, well, that's just how it goes.
If there's no one around to see you wearing goggles and a half shell, is it still enduro?
Letting go of my pointless frustration about all things enduro reminded me of a British fellow that came into the shop I was wrenching at a number of years ago. He walked in pushing the type of rig that makes mechanics scurry away like cockroaches illuminated by a refrigerator light - a mountain bike turned touring bike with every type of pannier imaginable strapped onto it. I can't remember if it had aero bars, but it's highly likely. I didn't find a hiding place quickly enough, so it was my lucky day to work on this overloaded, sweat stained beast of a machine. But as I started my attempts to bring its worn out drivetrain back to life, the bike's owner started talking about his travels, telling me where he'd been and where he was going, and working on his bike began to seem like less of a chore.
You see, he was a good portion of his way through a south to north journey by bike, travelling from Cape Horn all the way to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, a trip of over 16,000 miles that actually deserves to be called 'epic'. What had inspired him to take on an adventure of this magnitude? He had had a lucrative career as an attorney in London, and one day after work he went to the grocer to purchase a particular cut of meat. When he found out the store had run out, he was so furious that he began filling out a complaint card, scribbling down his angry thoughts, belittling the store for not having the product he wanted at the very instant he wanted it. But then he stopped. Something clicked in his brain, and he realized how meaningless and trifling of an issue he was complaining about. Hell, even his chosen career didn't seem to be very significant. He threw the complaint slip away, walked out the door, cashed in his savings, quit his job, and headed down to South America to begin his journey by bike. His moment of clarity allowed him to step off the runaway train his life had become and make changes for the better.
Long rides help put everything into perspective.
This story has stuck with me over the years, bringing me perspective when little, trivial issues (like the proper use of the word 'enduro') begin to bother me more than they should. With the massive amounts of information we get bombarded with every day it becomes second nature to make superficial, snap judgements, liking or disliking something within seconds after seeing it, without taking any time to process our thoughts. It's a difficult habit to break, a cycle that takes a conscious effort to escape from, but it's not impossible. Give it a try - the next time you're about to lash out against the world on the internet, push pause. Walk outside, hop on your bike, and go on a ride. You don't need to circumnavigate the globe – even a few laps around a pump track might do the trick. And when you're done, if you still feel the same way, by all means, express your opinions. But just try to remember to pick your battles, and that riding bikes fixes just about everything.
For example; Trails are being closed here in San Diego CA to the point that only Fireroads are left as designated mountain bike trails, and this sucks balls. If no local trails are available to ride, then what's the point of having a bicycle. I don't like riding only fireroads, and due to this I may just pickup another sport.
Another thing that sucks is the price of everything going up. A few of my friends have left mountain biking because it has gotten too expensive for them. When I think about it, the tires on my bicycle were double the price of the tires on my Honda Accord. If the trend continues, I'll likely stop mountain biking just like I stopped snowboarding, it just got too expensive to maintain as a lifestyle.
Now I had to rant about this, and hope someone that can do something about these two issues read this.
I will still go and ride my bicycle today, but being able to rant is important.
I know people will think that I should get off my ass and do something about the two things I'm ranting about. I have and I am, but if I can get more people to open their eyes to see what's happening, maybe we as a group can bring change.
Peace and love out to everyone.
The trail situation is a kick in the dick. Is there some kind of volunteer group you could join?
You probably don't use the very cheapest tire you could possibly find for your bicycle, but you do have that cheap-as-dirt tire on your car. The only issue with the price is that we are extremely picky about our bike parts, but we don't give a sh__t about our cars - because we're less connected to the car.
I would love to go for a ride right now, but my new bike isn't here yet. But my bike is in fact an important part of my work-life balance. But you know, summer's vacation is already booked and goals for 2014 are set. Time to get back riding, time for spring.
Tired, trembling legs, hungry, having incredibly dirty hands (snakebite, but I had a spare inner tube and co2), happy.
Now, I'm going to take a shower and I absolutely don't care if my MTB have wrong size wheels, narrow bars or to steep headangle to be enduro specific.
Cheers!
Anyone else getting it wrong (for example saying a normal ride is enduro-ing) you just have to accept the fact that they don't know what they're talking about. It's really nothing to get angry or rant over... makes things more entertaining if anything. Gapers always make me giggle.
I'll ask u again Joe. Do you believe comments should flow on this site or just be random nonsense tagged onto other comments? Could you answer the question this time please.
My answer to your question is "I get your point but there's nothing to be done about it. So Deal with it or move on"
When we stop living mediocrely, we stop stressing about the mediocre crap.
Do I still get bothered by things that fall under my 'important things to freak out about' list? Hell yeah. But you're right, Mike: we have to pick our battles.
Thanks for the reminder and a very well-written, introspective piece.
As for the enduro-specific products I think there are not that many that deserve the name. Surely the frames and forks of course. Dropper posts became really popular in Europe through enduro racing where it provides huge comfort/advantages. Then the only one I see would be XX1/XO1 though it also works for xc dudes (who should also try dropper post as they would look less goofy in the dh section, plus though heavier it's been proved to make them save time, but weight winnies...)
The biggest thing I don't really get with Enduro is people still whining about it, in few years we will probably have trail-racing, more XCish kind of AM, and huh, there will be yet another cry out of what is and what isn't trail riding, because someone has crapped on the name of riding you were always doing and it ain't how we see it. I am really tired of people saying: XXXX is really about this and that. It's all interpretation and current "Enduro"is just a unification of that interpretation. I see a direct connection to religion. Few people had an idea what or who god is , then thye started to share it, discuss it and they formed an image of what they thought god is, how the world works. Then when they became a group large enough they started forcing it on others. As simple as that. Now it's up to every single on of us to be smart about it explore our belief, get strong in it, stand on the ground to be able to just let that wave pass by. Otherwise we'll just keep on floating on those waves. Waves aren't bad, they just are, we can't stop ocean from waving it's pointless to try to fight them, it's like punching the water to make it do something. We must understand that waves carry both good stuff and crap with them - a true great person just picks the good stuff and is smart enough to wait for the crap to wash away, maybe some drying crap can be covering a pearl inside? I think it's about how we deal with it. Most importnatly: we do not have to agree with each other! Consensus is overrated!!!
Great article Mike!
And you have those putting the "enduro" tag in order to broaden their own customer basis. We see it with products (especially helmets...), we see it with races that used to be called DH marathon (Megavalanche and so on) trying to put the enduro word on it to get more attention/importance. OK, the Mega doesn't need more, but the other race series the organizers run does.
As a riding buddy said "A dropper post is one way to add weight but make me faster."
Not only is it faster, it allows me to rest in marathon/endurance events. When I get to downhill slopes I can put the seat much further down than it needs to go and do some leg bends and stand and let the bike move under me without worrying about getting nadded. Change is as good as a rest. Exactly as mfbeast says - it feels like you have nothing between your legs (ooh err vicar!).
Sure, I ain't no WC XC racer, but after twenty years of XC racing, I know what works for me.
One hiccup however is most top-shelf XC bikes have 27.2 seat tube diameters due to the increased stiffness and damping quality, and quality 27.2 droppers are hard to find (I think X fusion has one but it's low end and cable actuated).
As for my "name" I picked it long before the hype but yeah, I understand your laugh... It's cause I love the sport. So sometimes I can't help ranting about some coming changes
The simple benefit of dropper for XC racing is that you can regenerate better on the downhills as you can ride in a more relaxed position. You ride downhill with less effort. Sure guys like Nino Schurter can jump, manual, rail berms, style things better with high seat than most of us with the seat slammed down. Minnaar said once that he'd be scared to death to ride PMB XC course with high seat on XC bike, so there is a grat deal of skill involved for riding with high seat, but vast majority aren't so good to handle XC race bike so they would benefit from it greatly, look at some World Cup races how many fight for their lives on downhills. Another problem is that many coaches working with young XCers are not as open minded as Nino... many of them are unfulfilled roadies banging to the heads of youngsters that they should spin circles and what is cool and what isn't it, it's just that they replace word "cool" with "thing that makes you win". As soon as "automatic" electronic suspension becomes a norm on XC courses, and the lads will no longer need to flip the lock out switch all the time, we'll see some droppers for sure.
www.google.ca/imgres?safe=active&rlz=1C1FLDB_enCA562CA562&espv=210&es_sm=122&biw=1280&bih=675&tbm=isch&tbnid=B3OFIspqLH5lRM%3A&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fsethgodin.typepad.com%2F.a%2F6a00d83451b31569e2013489158321970c-popup&docid=lacd6ByccFvliM&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fsethgodin.typepad.com%2F.a%2F6a00d83451b31569e2013489158321970c-800wi&w=700&h=490&ei=prgIU8SVJ6OWyAHhpoH4Dg&zoom=1&ved=0CGAQhBwwBQ&iact=rc&dur=2217&page=1&start=0&ndsp=19
If we want to worked up about a word/phrase, we should start with "mountain biking". We only have hills around here so should I call my bike a hill bike?
Oh, and how about clipping into clipless pedals?
Yep, nothing to get worked up about.
At the end of the day, I ride bikes that are fun to me. Might be a 26" long travel hard tail with a mix of parts and clipless pedals and midsized single wall tires to make it an XC bike. Or a 26" long travel chromoly hardtail with flats and big tires. Or a new untested 29er hardtail because I don't see $2500 of bike money coming in the near future but could swing $500 for a frame and some parts and had enough spare parts to throw one together. Tire size just isn't important, maybe the 29er will change that. The short ride I did take was fast and the bike steered just fine. I cut at least 2" off of 30" bars cuz I don't like super wide bars, just uncomfortable. Not because of anything else, like change, but it's just not comfortable. You shouldn't have to get used to anything.
They only issue I have is the price of stuff. Sure my first full suspension bike had full XT and cost $1800, 20 years ago, but my motorcycle at the time cost $4900. The aluminum full XT bike I've been eyeing up cost $5200 and the new motorcycle, same model, is $6700. There is an issue there. The moto would be $14,000 if the same formula was done. Parts are better, but the frames are made of the same stuff. My pay hasn't increased 187% to make up the difference, so I can't get a new bike I don't need to upgrade.
Takes me to this, I will, without a doubt get slammed for these opinions and what I ride and what I don't like. I'm on here whilst I'm at work, I ride after work. 156 trail rides last year. I don't like making comments because I do get slammed on almost everything. It's actually kinda sad, but oh well, I can just go ride and forget what armchairs think of me...
Yeah it's a bit silly to have yet another term since I think this style of riding was fairly covered by Trail/AM but whatever. It means manufacturers are finally building more stuff to suit. And that means more options in shoes, bikes, tires and lightweight armour then I'm all for it.
The race format recently been adopted world wide so just cause a lot of you have not been up to date on whats happening in other parts of the world does not mean enduro is just simply a made up term for AM stuff.
" enduro" is really been overused lately. Specialy when you know the first events with that format started over 10years ago.
but the market is growing, and bike buisness is doing pretty well.
in our world where winter is fading everywhere, we can t blame the companies to make profit out of one of the most fun way to ride bikes, pedal up and pin in down! on one bike that allows you to do both pretty darn well!
Secondly, that we used enduro makes me nauseous ( best, best !, new, new !, real mtb, true mtb ...). and especially the compétition.
The worst haterz are the enduro haters because that has become lame and predictable.
Great article though. To many people with too many opinions about insignificant things that don't matter in the big picture. We are all hypocrites and we are all Madoff's, so have a little perspective.
m.chronicle.com/article/We-Are-All-Madoffs/48182
By the way, there is no "proper" way to use enduro here in the States because the only people I've seen doing enduro correctly are the Europeans. They've been doing it correctly for well over a decade. We just wanna look the part, and that's fine by the industry. Just as long as we keep buying the merch.
Kidding.
But yes, there has been a proliferation in opinion pieces lately... I like it, but not sure everyone else does? What are your thoughts?
If I'm smart, I'll be in Oakridge, Oregon on that day!
The time-keeping aspect of old school enduro format would blow the minds of most Pinkbike readers.
Dont really see what erry body been ranting about - just cause you been living in your bubble.
It's like high school book report day in here!
Guys, this isn't an article about Enduro or wheel size, but a very good piece about the decision to rant or not. Jesus.
i had ENDURO before it was even cool !?
www.theweatherprediction.com/humor/life
Well written though.