Video: Lahnvalley Crew - Daily Ride

 thats right. AM is a discipline that teaches a rider many lessons, one of them being respect to terrain and being able to rely on your own legs. You really have to be fit to get UP the mountain first, so that the reward of going DOWN feels all deserved and intoxicating. AM is the real deal!

 there are so many great models from many brands that we don't get here.

 for me, enduro is getting on my 6-inch bike and riding all the downhill trails that cant be shuttled and require some form of pedaling or hiking to get to the top. In general, its pretty much just aggressive riding where you still have to pedal to get to the top

 It's a race series where everybody rides Specialized Enduros.

 As someone who rides a specialized enduro, i approve of this

 @assfault: Enduro is more gravity oriented. That means you have to pedal uphill but it doesn't count in terms of time. Enduro is more aggressive so the enduro bike should have more suspension travel and meatier tires. Just go to any website from the bike manufacturers and "compare bikes" (feature included in most websites): xc bikes are lighter, enduro (am) bikes are heavier and have "a little more of everything"

 ...Then why is our national enduro champion, Adam Craig, riding a 4" travel 29er during competition? To me, it seems that people are merely redefining aggressive xc to remove themselves from the leg shaving, spandex-clad crowd. When "all mountain riding" was introduced, people began adopting longer-travel bikes that were better suited for the terrain. But before that, those same trails were ridden on short-travel bikes and described as "cross-country" in nature. How does riding the same trail on a different bike make it more gravity-oriented, or more aggressive?

 You can ride a DH track on a XC bike and you have to use DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES and SPEED to do so. See, you are riding the same trail but we're talking about different sports. Aggressiveness is part of every riders approach, there are people riding trials on road bikes!! I'm just talking about the average rider not champions. Longer travel means the average Joe can be more aggressive (and faster) on technical and gnarly trails.

 Since when does using different techniques and speed yield a new sport? Every rider has to alter his technique constantly to accommodate different obstacles in the trail, but that doesn't mean he is switching between different disciplines of the sport during a single ride. At the end of the day, pedaling one's bike, regardless of travel, up/down/all around a mountain is cross country at it's very core. Also, I don't believe you can differentiate between national champions and average riders. By doing so, you're essentially saying that what may be an enduro trail to one rider, is a xc trail to another, which has been my point this entire time - that enduro is made up to justify riding a longer travel bike, when there's no need for justification other than 'it's fu#ckin' fun.

 In many ways I concur, @assfault. I just went for a ride today, parts of which I haven't done since the days of rigid bikes (the original FR... Fully Rigid) and cantilever brakes. Some new trails today, but still 4.5 hours and all over a couple of local 'hills'. Lots of climbing, trail clearing, trudging through the snow and ripping down sweet singletrack (and way too much elevation lost on old logging roads). Truly all mountain, but something we'd done on rigid bikes for the most part, save for the new bits which were definitely a step up in challenge and would have been pretty comical to see someone attempt on a rigid bike). I agree that much of what we rode today might be called xc, no big jumps or drops (that I rode), nothing super technical aside from surfing some steep loamy sections where accuracy was absolutely necessary to avoid consequences.
I think I tend to look at AM as the kind of riding we did today. Definitely focused on up and down as opposed to xc as a race discipline that focuses on combining shorter climbs and descents with aerobically challenging faster and often less technically demanding trails. That said, I also feel the AM term is tailored to a segment of the bike buying and riding market who love to ride up and down, across and over, and do so on bikes that are built to go both up and down with aplomb, and make the often lengthy ride more comfy in the process. Is it a marketing label? Sure. But it also describes the kind of riding that I've always loved and sought out, and the newer generations of bikes that bear that label can handle more than I can throw at them, and I finish the day way less hammered than in the days of yore (I also crash far less).

 I think xc bikes are typically identified by steeper steerer angles, shorter travel suspension and a significant nod to weight conservation. Can they be ridden over the same terrain I rode today? Yup. Would I have been as comfortable on the descents? I doubt it. Would I have been as fresh at the end of the ride? Probably not, due to the rooty, rocky and slick nature of the trails we rode; where I would have needed to be significantly more accurate with wheel placement and line choice had I been on an xc labeled bike.
Amazing ride, one that brought back memories from nearly 20 years ago, and the antics of my riding budies. I still enjoy the same kind of riding I fell in love so long ago, and am glad the new technology makes the same rides smoother, faster and more manageable for an old fart.
p.s. Brad, was that you we saw on the KTM (N. Lake Samish/Blanchard area)?

 to my knowledge dh and xc require different techniques an they are labeled as different sports, don't blame me, I don't make the rules (for instance motocross and hare scrambles use the same motorcycles and sometimes even the same tracks or parts of 'em and they are different sports)... anyway I'm not trying to justify the different conceptions about enduro. You asked a question and I tried to answer. It makes no difference to me whether you liked my answer or not. Actually I should have noticed that yours was a rethorical question, so I give a rats a$$ what you think about enduro or xc. I'm not the person to argue with regarding the labels enduro or xc. Be in contact with race promoters and tell them you disagree with all this "enduro thing" hopefully they can do something to please you

 You're a douche; you can kiss mine.

 i think the best part of enduro/all mountain riding actualy is that you don have to deal with any internet bitch fights showing up on your dash

 Ha! Touche, Moloch, touche.

 Yes. The article can. Austria for those who are afraid of long paragraphs.