We called him Straight-A McKay, and it came as no surprise to us, the neighborhood ne'er do wells he hung out with, that Warren McKay would grow up to do great things. We were thirty-something when he mentioned in passing that he (now, "Doctor Straight-A McKay") had developed a special needle and delivery system which allowed anesthesiologists to isolate areas of the body by targeting a centralized nerve plexus - rather than using general anesthesia to knock out the patient. Warren, who prefers to speak in uncomplicated sentences, said that it was foolish to poison the entire body if one drop in the right place could do a better job.
I was in the zone, so to speak - the meditative state that occurs sometime after one passes the two-hundred-mile mark on a road trip, when the physical sensation of being attached to a body that is operating a machine is dissolved by the hum of the engine, the growl of radial tires, and the white noise produced by one and a half tons of steel as it barges through the atmosphere at 79 miles per hour.
I thought I saw a storefront sign that read: "Painless Tattoo," but I must have imagined that. In the zone, tangible objects drift past the windscreen like ghost figures - undefined pastel shapes that are recognized only by the subconscious. Paradoxically, with driving chores delegated to basal brain functions, the mind becomes sharp and imaginative. I recalled Warren's invention and I visualized how the creative use of anesthetics could be commercialized to create an upscale chain of pain-free tattoo parlors. I laughed out loud.
The concept burst forth in its entirety. Artists would be harvested from recognized fine arts institutions and then professionally trained for the needle to ensure that customers left with the highest quality images. With names like Humanarts and Dermascape, studios would be staffed by certified medical professionals, and attended by attractive, youthful assistants. Interiors would be poshly appointed, providing a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere where clients would consult and interview artists, then shortly after, enjoy a pain free interactive tattoo experience.
Freed from the anxiety and time constraints imposed by the once-painful tattoo process, client and artist could converse during their session and make alterations as the graphic takes shape. Sessions could be as long as necessary and the finished product would be sure to please. Best of all, the use of anesthetics would remove the barrier of entry for throngs of people who would love to flash some ink, but have aversions to pain.
A constellation of brake lights shattered my pipe dream, but my story would have ended as quickly as I brought the Volvo to a stop. Suffering is the sacrament of tattoo culture. Use an anesthetic and you cross the line. You wouldn’t have a
real tattoo. Being a cyclist, I should have known that.
Cycling is also a pain culture and as a whole, we seem to like it that way. No race story would be complete without the contorted face of a rider near exhaustion or the image of a brave soul shirking off a crash. We are supposed to earn our turns. We aren’t going fast if we aren’t falling. We demand that newbies bounce around on hardtails until they learn to ride properly. We act as if we must bleed to fully appreciate the experience. And, we initially attack almost any new technology that makes it easier or more comfortable to ride a bike.
Cycling is a self-powered activity which presupposes that there will be times when we may be throwing down efforts that only masochists could describe as pleasant moments. That said, I believe that most of us were drawn into cycling because no other form of locomotion can convert muscle power into such an intoxicating brew of speed, flow and freedom. But, somewhere along the line, as we worked our way towards its more elite levels, our conceptualization of the sport transformed into a celebration of suffering, with its ultimate expression being the Tour de BDSM in France.
Exclusive clubs can’t exist without a barrier to entry. Once, mountain bikers faced a tough learning curve to join up, and perhaps the hard core cyclist inside us enjoys that exclusivity. Presently, however, mechanical improvements have all but eliminated any barriers to newbie mountain bikers. Beginning with 29-inch wheels, a chain of technical improvements has made it a heck of a lot easier to join up. Big wheels; lightweight, long-travel suspension bikes; electric shifting; dropper posts; one-by drivetrains, tubeless tires, and lightweight carbon frames have transformed the basic mountain bike from the badge of an adventurer, into a user-friendly off road appliance. One must wonder, especially old-school riders, if the contemporary all-mountain trailbike has become the sport’s painless tattoo?
Enduro bikes have become so capable that trail riders are crowding big bikes off of popular DH lines, and now, the dawn of trail bikes designed specifically for low-pressure plus-sized tires may make it possible for just about anyone to ride the punchy climbs on famous trails that that were once the exclusive domain of bike-handling heroes. Plus is still in its infant stages, but after riding a few bikes based upon 27.5-plus wheels, I can say for certain that they will allow a new rider to roll around on terrain and trails that require an evolved skillset to negotiate on a conventional trailbike. With low enough gearing, plus bike riders may be regular sights, plying their way up dedicated gravity trails (I imagine that’s going to spark some ire). And, plus is just the beginning.
I have recently been privileged to pre-test a handful of innovations in the areas of suspension kinematics and electronic controls (some of which must remain in strict confidence) that promise to dramatically reduce the skills necessary to ride a mountain bike and nearly eliminate the volume of technical knowledge that have been the sport’s barrier to entry since its inception. All of which begs the question: “What constitutes a true mountain biker when bikes become so easy to operate that any Joe or Jane can buy one and enjoy the sport without earning a substantial degree of proficiency?”
We could make trails harder, climbs steeper, jumps higher, and races longer, in an effort to force newcomers to pay similar dues to gain entrance to our community of suffering (a suggestion which has many supporters). Or, we could embrace the possibility that future mountain bikers will not have to endure the challenges that we faced in order to fully enjoy the wonders of our sport. I’ve witnessed first timers on borrowed long-travel trail bikes who were keeping up with seasoned riders and boosting doubles on day one. It’s a testament to cycling technology that today, anyone with a measure of fitness and a modicum of athletic skills can hop on a mountain bike and start smashing the blue trails. That would have seemed like pedaling into a fantasy novel when I first started riding mountain bikes.
Revel in the pain if that is what
you need to embrace the sport, but there is no good reason to poison future members of the mountain bike community with ritual suffering now that bike designers have made off-road cycling so easy to enjoy. I never asked him, but I am sure that Straight A McKay, a man who has spent most of his life making difficult lives seem easy, would probably shrug his shoulders and say: “If you ride a mountain bike, then you are a mountain biker.”
I've been to B.C. in Canada on 3 different vacations, and would not have dreamed of taking anything but a DH or FR bike to really enjoy the terrain to its full potential
Here in the South-East of England, UK - my 29'er hardtail is all I need to enjoy the terrain to its full potential; anything more is just extra baggage which flattens the trails to the point where they become boring, and I am going slower
Before getting my 29'er hardtail bikes, I had a very capable 150mm Devinci Dixon but it just made the riding boring!
As an example they've just rebuilt one of my favourite trails at my trail centre. It is now a high speed highway with very little technical challenge in the traditional sense of rocks/roots/etc. However I now go faster down it and the challenge is more about cornering technique and balls at speed. It's different and I don't know if I really like it. Maybe time will change my opinion? But the point stands that any rider with less experience trying to follow a good rider down will not be as quick and can challenge themselves to improve or suffer some of the aforementioned painful consequences.
What I would say is that DH trails should be relatively exempt. People choose to ride them for the speed and technical challenge so they should pose difficulties. While I don't have the dedicated bike, I always notice an improvement in my abilities after spending a few hours seasoning the local dh tracks.
That's just reminded me I need to charge my lights for a ride in the Surrey Hills tonight.
A mate of mine was WELL into borrowing a bike of mine, until he watched Greg Minaar come off at the World Champs, last week, and then saw Gwin go headfirst into a bush, both champions, both top of their games, both riding top spec, $10,000+ bikes.....
So yeah, better bikes will get more people into the sport, which can only be a good thing, but lets see how many stay when theyre picking gravel out of their knees / arms etc when they come a cropper....
I think in some cases, you are spot on.
Just because you can, doesnt mean you should...
however, just because you dont also doesn't mean you shouldn't..
If that makes sense........ (come off nightshift, so am bit tired lool)
(not a diss against your post btw @davidsimons... )
Ride where you want and how you want is great - up until the point where you do so in a way that then gets access shut down for everyone else. Mountain biking is finally getting to the point where we're getting good riding the legal way. Sure, ride with attitude, ride where you want - but remember that you don't have a divine right to do so on lands you don't own. For that sort of thing, there's a process that's proven to work (the trails association way), and there's a process that's proven not to work (the renegade trail building way - which usually leads to bans, shutdowns, and bad blood all around).
Geometry must be one of the biggest advancements since the birth of MTB.
This is why hardtails are still popular and fast.
1. Respect/courtesy/friendliness to the other trail users.
2. Respect for the trails being ridden.
Who gives a crap what kind of bike you ride.
As long as you are happy on your ride does it really matter what it is?
Technology has given us options. If we take up those options it is up to us as individuals.
For me mountain biking has been more about attitude than what you ride.
Yeah, there's people skiing their second week runs that took me years to build up to. Would I wish them all back to skinny sticks? Not a chance!
If you can't appreciate other people's happiness and points of view -- even if it means they progressed faster than you did 20 years ago -- then you're destined to be a crotchetty old muthafuka.
I'm a middling mountain biker. I grew up in northern German (super flat) in the 70s, where riding a bike wasn't a sport, it was transportation (stil is). Moved to the US, ended up in Austin, got into mountain biking for a couple years in the mid-90s. Front suspension was a revelation - full suspension seemed like a disaster, both for enabling the poseurs, and for being very expensive to buy (and to then constantly replace the frames that kept snapping like twigs in those days), so I never got into that. Didn't touch a MTB for something like 15 years; got an entry level hard tail, rode a little, then discovered (a) Galbraith and (b) full suspension bikes. And am now properly hooked. I ride a 29er mid-travel trail bike - definitely appropriate to my status as a mid-40s punter. I'm having a lot of fun. Am I a candidate for 27.5+? Probably not, as the ease will kill some of the playfulenss - but I won't mind going a little wider on my rims and a little bigger on my tires on the next bike a buy. Basically, I'll be looking for the biking equivalent of my skis - a somewhat fat hybrid (cambered underfoot, rockered at the tips) with Randonne bindings (so I can rip around the resort, rip around the side country with a little skinning, and generally maximize my fun in the limited time I have to play, all with a one ski quiver). Those skis, incidentally, have made previously marginal days really good.
I'm not for change for its own sake. But if progress can make riding more fun for more people, great. Some people will work on their skills and get better; others will coast. That's the same in all aspects of life. And there'll always be the dude on the front porch, yelling at those damn kids to get of his damn lawn.
Answer: the one that's deriving inner satisfaction.
Anyone could walk into a car dealer with alot of cash and buy a Ferrari. They can then blast it up the motorway and promptly crash it on the first A road they get to.
Anyone could walk into a car dealer with a lot less cash and buy a used Subaru Impreza. They can blast it up the motorway and promptly crash it on the first A road they get to.
Not many people can by a £750 12 year old used VW Passat and drive it like a pro.
My point is this. Its the age old mountain bike phrase of "all the gear and no idea". Yes the bike makes a differance. The enjoyment however comes from knowing what to do with it. I have a very nice and very capable 160mm bike. Two days ago I worked a night shift, slept until 1100 then went for a ride. The bike did the work. I just held on. It was most displeasant.
You get out of riding what you put into riding.
"The worst you are at something the better the equipment you need"
If youve got that much money buy a race car and thrash it around a track.
(theres a euphemism in there somewhere... )
m.youtube.com/watch?v=FEGdnQUAt4U
The first demographic is your Joe who rode bikes in the park here and there but saw these new e-bikes and thought it would be fun for him and the wife. Possibly Joe continues on and heads out alone once a week but is always shunned and never gets to join the pioneer types on their antique 11 speeds. Joe rides alone all the time and never has anyone to push him, or has any friends in the sport, so never learns new or secret trails, so he stays on the gravel fire roads and maybe ventures off the beaten path here and there. Joe never becomes an avid cyclist.
The second demographic is Billy. Billy who has an idea of what mountain biking is, wants to get involved, and the parents help Billy out by getting him his new e-bike. He rides around and maybe his buddies have one as well, they venture off and get lost, run out of battery, get home some how and have big smiles on their faces, all without the use of any methamphetamine. Maybe these kids continue on and find all the local spots, destroy all the berms, and never know what its like to struggle like the rest of us up a 2 mile climb. Whatever, they are still outdoors having fun, and supporting cycling in a sense. Billy has found joy in riding his bike (e-bike whatever) and grows up to appreciate the outdoors and ends up being a constructive part of society and now has 5 bikes for every discipline.
The third demographic is one of us, we'll call him Hans. Hans knows he'll be burned at the stake for buying into the kryptonite that is assisted pedaling, so he builds a secret layer to store his e-bike, and always rides with a full face. Hans is always planning his next expedition carefully so he isn't spotted, traveling from one trail center to the next. With Hans' 4 hour battery life, he can ride in 1 day what he used to ride in a week so he has less of a chance of being seen on the trail. Not only that, but now he can ride his bike to the trail center without even loading his bike into the car so no one can recognize his maroon Subaru Outback with what as well may be an unborn fetus attached to his bumber. Hans now takes day long rides deeper into the woods then he could have ever imagined. If only Hans had like minded friends that would realize that even though his pedal assisted bike made it a little easier for him to get up the hill, he still works just as hard because he his climbing 10x the elevation!
Maybe one day everyone will understand that its okay for Joe, Billy, and Hans to ride an e-bike. Just because they do it differently doesn't make it wrong. Swallow your ego, no one is forcing you to buy anything.
As long as you are happy on your bike and can ride the trails you want to does it matter?
Bikes get better so more of the wilderness becomes rideable. No one designed a 200mm full suspension bike for riding a fireroad, that would be stupid.
Humans aren't becoming more lazy, humans want to do more. 50 years ago, riding a bicycle off-road for fun would be a pretty unpopular idea because of the effort and difficulty. Is it sad that its now feasible? Are we all more lazy because of it? No!
You said it exactly: all technological development and design improvement up until the time I started to ride were nothing, just time passing. All changes since I learned to ride are rubbish learning aids for the masses.
Motorcycles didnt spell the end of pedalling, so i doubt e-bikes will......
also...... +1 on what @Ruffletron said!
I was on a alloy 26 full sus bike, with a camelbak, kneeguard, flat pedals, 2,35 tire with low pressure.
Money can't buy skills, fitness and/or love of mountainbiking, and I will never buy a carbon bike with all the latest stuff, just to do this again.
Passing someone ≠ love of mountain biking
I love mountain biking, and I love trolling these guys obsessed by their performance and by having the latest carbon stuff whereas they actually don't even like mtbiking.
that experience taught me never to forget the basics. for the same reason i now own a cross bike and dam that thing can be funn
Well written RC, it was a delight to read.
Have a look at some young riders these days, who shred as hard as people 10 years their senior, on their sacrilegious modern trail bikes.
I hope one day you can get overtaken by a 14 year old on a boost plus bike, leaving you in the dust before he boosts and whips a jump you could never imagine doing yourself
Love this article and it's superbly written and the creativity you use to communicate your ideas is really awe-inspiring.
I personally don't feel that the 'skill' element of riding a mountain bike will ever disappear, regardless of what technology we use - a great example are the bikes we use today; never before have we had it so good but one thing is abundantly clear - we need skill to ride our bikes to the level they were designed for ... plus bikes are no different.
Yes, we may be joined by a new rider segment that's new to the spot and endowed with less ability - this isn't something on the horizon, this is what we have today, passionate newbies riding incredibly capable bikes. What separates the riders ultimately is skill and fitness, a plus bike will not teach you how to pump the trail, nor will it teach you how to corner a bike - yes, it will help you get away with more much like a long travel bike will, but the same elements remain.
I also think theintroduction of wide rims on 'conventional bikes' is a really significant development that actually brings us closer to our plus cousins, so for me, I don't think the gap is going to be that big, I'm more interested to see if riders on plus bikes develop their technique in spite of the advantages their huge tyres offer.
Also seeing first timers boost doubles? Sounds like an anomaly.
Age and injuries have eroded my courage, but my Tallboy LT enables me to ride terrain even more technical than I used to back in my salad days.
Also, on the issue of e-bikes being a pedalling aid, how is that different from any of you guys who use a shuttle or a chairlift to reach your trails? Shouldn't you be riding to the top first? And when you are old and your body is knackered don't you want an option to continue to participate in a sport you love? I know I don't want or need that option now, but in 20 years or if I have a bad accident or whatever, maybe I'll be very appreciative of the option?
Waki always writes little essays which are probably just too long, poorly edited or convoluted so he gets down-voted every time. Still he does it again and again and the ideas that he tries to get across are interesting. That strikes me as a drama I enjoy witnessing, thus my demonstration of appreciation.
Almost everyone I know has gone down hard because they're pushing their own personal limits. As bike technology improves the trails and riders will improve to match. That's the beauty of this sport. Even the very very top riders in the sport have challenges on their bucket list. May it always be so.
I personally had a fully rigid 1991 Stumpjumper S-works. It was a great machine, but I can do a hell of a lot more (and have a lot more fun in the process) on the bike(s) I have now.
From a kid who started on a bicycle ( blue Schwinn Stingray) learning to ride on two wheels. On to the venerable BMX bike in my pre teens. Then on to riding dirt bikes and racing some moto. I've come full circle and am now riding mountain bikes (13 years) in my late 40's. And now own a full squish 29er! Technology and evolution, my back and knees thank you!
Thing is I agree. I declare myself guilty of it despite having learned with full ridgids and side pull brakes. But bikes nowadays are easy to ride, let you do more for less effort and mtb's have been like that for a few years now.
A big enough gap jump will always deter those with little courage...I should know because the scare the c***p out of me!
It sucks having to bitch out because it's hard as shit to go massive on a race HT and I'm sure as hell am no Jared Graves. Plus I hate having to true my wheels all the damn time and my skinny-ass tires and high seat leave little margin for error
Well written article RC, putting to rest all the MTB tough-guys around
But pick the right bike for the right trails, before your local trails become down-right boring
What is really sad is that most people dont hook their kids up with a better bike. If you ride a $10K carbon trail bike, and your kid is riding a POS bike, your to blame when your kid dosent want to ride with you. Hook the kids up, and watch what they can do with a bike and a little passion!
Plenty of traction and extra cushioning as well as can run fast low knobs on the back and sharp handling as we know and like it for technical terrain in the front? Should not compromise handling too much and allow for fine tech climbing. I'd try f i had a frame where it works. Probably today you would need a 27.5+ compatible frame and then run a 29er in the front and a 27.5+er in the back. Reminds me of motorcycles.
Just because they used to pull teeth without anaesthetics doesn't mean it was a better learning experience (definitely more "memorable", though...).
thread over.
- Greg LeMond
Bicycle means to me "human force powered transport".