Graham Agassiz thinks the word "freeride" might be dead. Or dying anyway. At the same time he’s cool with being called a “freerider.” Talk to a lot of pro mountain bikers these days and there’s a good chance they’ll agree. “Freeride” as a word, is fading from the mountain bike canon. That or its true definition is changing, perhaps now misunderstood, or mired in confusion. Think about it for a second. When was the last time you used the word? When was the last time you read the word? Sure, it's still out there, but for those of us who saw the genre widely categorized as "freeriding" rise to meteoric mountain bike fame, with a heyday that peaked out say, four or five years ago, the current state of affairs begs the question, what does it really mean?
Let's back up a bit. This is all relatively new territory, the dual suspension mountain bike game that is. If you were riding bikes in the year 2000 you knew that long travel offerings were slim. Freeride was revolutionary because it opened riders up to new worlds of possibility. It transported our sport and some of its athletes into the film star stratosphere, a hierarchy that only existed in sports like surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding. Finally mountain biking had non-competition athletes who merely had to shred and be cool. Life was good.
But we had to label it. A weird side-effect of our sport. Mountain biking has more classifications and sub-genres than the Periodic Table of Elements. But for such a significant label, one that did so much so fast, where did freeride go? How could it possibly be dying?
Robbie Bourdon and Joe Schwartz back in the early days of Nelson, BC freeride grandeur. Photo: John Gibson
Only a few short years ago magazines around the world were writing about the import of freeriding, how it was revolutionizing the sport. There were emerging pros, guys who went on to have fantastic careers, athletes like Wade Simmons, Richie Schley, Robbie Bourdon and Thomas Vanderham -- some of the first mountain bikers to cut a pay cheque without going through a finish line. Not only that, they were (and some still are) some of the best paid and most visible athletes in the entire industry. Companies were building specific bicycles just for them: 7 to 8 inches, with graphics and marketing campaigns that were way more vibe than race.
The pro downhillers deplored their Camelbak bullshit. XC racers were jealous of their big success sans 24/7 training. Yet they were the dudes. On the covers of magazines, featured in all the films, sponsored out the wazoo--from freeride shoes to freeride helmets, freeride jerseys and freeride gloves. There was even hot girls around. And then it all seemed to drift away. Think not? Just look around and tell me what you see.
Search the industry for a "freeride" labeled and promoted mountain bike. Doesn't really exist. Try and find a "freeride" branded team like the Kona Clump. Even Specialized's first gravity athletes were all of the freeride ilk, and Trek's too for that matter. Just think, not even eight years ago neither of those bike companies had a single bike with more than 5 inches of travel, now they have two of the strongest DH race programs in the world. The initial foray for both powerhouses was inspired by freeriding, not downhill racing. We're talking serious, multi-million dollar paradigms here. And "freeride" had everything to do with it. Now it has very little to do with either companies long travel dual suspension program--on the surface anyway.
Freeriding is all about not competing, which is approximately 99% of what mountain biking is. "You can't put a number on freeride," explains Agassiz. "Racing is all about times, and slopestyle is all about score, freeriding had nothing to do with any of that." More specifically, according to Aggy, it's about not riding trail, specific freeriding should be unbounded by the structural confines of singletrack or manufactured landscape. "Just shredding lines down gravel chutes and cliffs," says the 21-year-old from Kamloops, BC, what many refer to as freeriding's birthplace. It's that whole notion that got everyone excited in the first place. It's what inspired the folks at Red Bull to host the first ever Red Bull Rampage, which, if you think about it, might have been the main contributor to the fade on freeride's original gleam. Now it was a competition. Now you weren't freeriding anymore. Now your style and your line choice and the amplitude of your air counted for something.
Freeride pioneer John Cowan filming during NWD 5. Photo: John Gibson
Just look at what ensued: slopestyle competitions that struggle to find the sweetspot between a dirt jump comp and a big mountain comp (which is what?). Athletes that struggle to find the same happy place. You've got this Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour, which has a lot of us (and apparently a bunch of the athletes) wondering what that all means, especially considering the huge range in some if its more marquee events. Sure, it's just a name, but is Crankworx really a freeride competition? Or what about 26 Trix? Isn't that more dirt jump that freeride? Which brings us all back around to the big question, what the hell does freeride mean in 2011? And I ask you because no single person seems positioned to lay down the real answer. Ask yourself the question, how do you label a kid like Aggy? Paul Bass? Brandon Semenuk?
I still think you can call athletes like Vanderham, Hunter, Bourdon, and Simmons freeriders, but where's the next generation, and where do they fit into the equation? Hopkins? Buehler? Sorge? Are they qualified as freeriders? Talented as they are, they're not competition athletes. So if not, how does a company qualify their results? Hopkins recently starred in one of the biggest mountain bike movies ever, Life Cycles. Just so happens Scott let him go shortly after its release. Go figure.
Graham Agassiz at last year's Rampage. Freerider? Mountain biker? Big mountain slopestyler? Photo: Ale Di Lullo
So how do we qualify the evolution? Street, DJ, bike park, downhill, enduro, slopestyle, these are the children of freeride for the most part. The question is, are they being respectful of their forefathers? Individually you would think, no question, but collectively, well, to keep the analogy going, once you've grown up, you don't really need your parents for much do you? Save maybe a little cash and a place to crash when you're passing through town.
That all being said, head on over to Europe and ask anyone whose got more than six inches of travel and they'll all tell you they're freeriders. Proud of it too. But that just might be a transAtlantic delay. Europe outscores North America on pretty much every fine development in the modern world. But they weren't the first when it came to knobby tires and catching air in the woods, nope, that's purely a North American invention. Surely, if freeriding dies as a reference over here in North America, it won't take long for the Euros to catch on.
So, here's the question, a fairly significant one at that. Is freeriding on its way out the door? Is it really true that one of the most important, revolutionizing movements in the history of our sport is now seeing its influence eclipse into a professional venue wholly committed to times and scores and world tour points? In the end, I don't think any of us get to decide. There's something larger going on, and we can only wonder with great excitement what that might be. Quite certainly though, I would guess, that we probably don't need to give it a name. Aggy would prefer we didn't.
Agree or disagree, curious to hear all your thoughts
You are only speaking about some riders that appear everyday in magazines, videos, webs and comercials. But this is not the "real world".
They can be the "image" of your sport, the companies use them to show us their products and have more sell, thats all.
I can tell you that they represent the 0,005% of the woldwide freeride scene.
For me, freeride means ride my bike (any bike) as the way i like and love, for the places i love and choose. Any magazine, web or video is not going to show me where, how and when i can ride my bike, because i will do it as i want. It can be road, bmx, trial, tandem, rigid, fron or double suspension, monocicle, or whatever. Freeride it is only this = FEEL FREE ON YOUR BIKE
They competitions you speak about, the Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour and so, it is just bussines. I dont say it is wrong for the sport and they industry, i say it is just a game to earn money. Nothing to be with freeride. And in the same hand, there could be freeriders in this competitions, they choose this way of life living, thats correct too.
That phrase you wrote up there, say me more about you: "that's purely a North American invention".
The Americans could have had the perfect word to call this life living as it is, freeride, but they havent invented anything, they just have gave a name to it.
I can tell you that when i was 13th, every afternon after school, my friends and i took the bikes and digging tools and we rode searching new lines to go down around our village. It was in 1993, and i can say we are not the inventors of anything, we just loved and love to ride our bikes.
And one image say all, that me with my first freeride bike. Any magazine, video, web or company didnt tell me how, when and where to ride my bike...
www.pinkbike.com/photo/6796140
See you on the trails...
www.freedreams.net
In my opinion are Slopestyle an Big-Mountain just another category under the word Freeride.
For sure it's changing but never that far. Freeride is the most aesthetic way of mountain biking so keep it up to yourselfes if you say "I am a Freerider" or "I ride Slopestyle and Big-Mountain!!
things like, "There was even hot girls around". There WERE hot girls, come on. Or constantly asking us to think about it, constantly addressing the audience- that's such a quick way to lose an arguement because its assuming youre correct
I want a saying in this. Freeride is when you go out for a ride. If its just a ride down the street and some jumps on the side, its freeriding! The Freeride Mountainbike Tour is NOT just about money, its good for our sport. This is the kind of thing that can happen to a person when you have experienced those awesome days! I used to be like that, looking back on stuff but now i have changed, Now im in present and looking forward to things and the sport has not been bigger then it is today! 26 trix is a dirtjump contest but who cares? we dont have to know what these words mean, its about riding and have fun. I used to not like when people say it that way becouse it sounded like the sport wasnt evolving that much as it was those days. But really, it actually does, its evolving. Ive seen a huge change sence the FMB world tour came in.
WC Racing and Slopestyle is just the current way companies market to us. Its not the real scene.
Nadie dice donde debo andar, como, ni cuando, solo andar y buscar el propio limite y superarse a si mismo.. eso es freeride.
So two things have either happened. freeride as a genre is in fact dying so much so that people don't even know what it meant. Or the term freeride has evolved to mean something completely different. Almost all genres of sport/riding have ambassadors or heroes. DH has guys, old and young, like Peaty, Hill and upcomers like Brosnan. BMX, XC all have guys who have lived the sport and new guys coming up. Who would be labeled a freerider these days in the same breath as guys like Simmons and Tippie? The youngest freeriders (Vanderham, Berrecloth etc) are all hitting 30, that's a dying breed.
as soon as i read the title i had pretty much the same thoughts
real world riders dont have a name for what we do
just cycling/enjoying the world on 2 wheels
no constraints or labels
its all advertising hype
What freeride was, IS dying, You riding a bike and calling it freeriding is not the same. It is in fact just riding around, I do all the same suff as all you 'freeriders'; some jumps, some dh, some xc etc, but I am not a freerider. I do not go looking for untapped terrain in big mountains to shred, I am not pushing boundries like REAL freeride did. Freeride still exsists in things like snow sports today as everyday there is fresh snow, new lines created to ride, new things to try. BIG things to try with no one scoring you out of ten. But I dont think champon you are a freerider, just a rider who has labelled himself that. Thats largely the meaning of the article (grammer aside) that we have lost the idea and that pioneering aspect, by labelling it and scoring it, till we have this pathetic watered down version that you think applies to you. I class my self as a rider, not a freerider.
Yes you all think freeriding is about being free, thats just what RIDING is about, freedom, just you and the trail. Stop thinning down the iconic genre of riding that was freeriding into some hippy bullshit label for the feeling that we all know and love, it already has one, it's called 'riding a bike' not freeride. Freeride was the aspect that made out sport an 'extreme sport'. Us everyday riders are not doing anything extreme or iconic. Hucking was part of freeriding, not all it was about, but it was big, crazy and nobody scored you. It was amazing to watch and be around. I wish someone would bring it back and remind you guys what it is.
I totally agree with the article - its one of the best articles I have read on PB in a long time
as one of the few Pro freeriders in the UK (riding for Banshee Bikes and Da Kine) I went through the entire Freeride movement during the 2000-2008 era that was inspiring our Canadian and American cousins
I rode the North Shore in Vancouver a number of times, rode bike parks in Europe, built Esher Shore freeride bike park here in the UK, entered freeride jams and comps here in the UK, did magazine shoots with MBUK, MBR in the UK, filmed video sections, shot photos, etc.
but from 2008 onwards, I saw a big change in the UK scene from freeride back to downhill racing and dirt jumping, both in terms of what riders were doing, which bikes were being sold in quantities, and what the magazines were featuring
the bikes have totally changed, riders in the UK realised the 7" bike does not really have a place to suit our terrain, the DH guys and the All-Mtn guys are totally satisfied on their 8" and 6" bikes
I am now retired from Pro freeride at 38 years of age, and spend my time riding all-mountain bikes on the dirt and BMX in the skateparks
Freeride was to me, the extreme end of mountain biking, and involved sending insane gaps, building sick stunts and finding new gravity-orientated lines to ride - those early NWD, Down and NSX videos blew the minds of many riders all over the Globe, and inspired many of us to "send it large..."
riding "free" (doing what you want) is not the same thing as "freeride"
It wasnt about what freeride means, its about what freeriding was, it was orginally a specific part of mountain biking. Everyone here's definition of freeriding is much easier to write as one word: RIDING. The article may have annoyed some of you by saying freeride is dead, as you all think you're freeriders. But largely your just riders, the freeriders, the real ones, where those in the nwd films, those sending the huge inspirational extreme lines on magazine covers that we looked up too like superheroes, yeah there was a bit of marketing thrown in, that life, deal with it. But that rock star loonacy on a bike image was the original defenition of freeride, and from your comments, it is truly dead, if freeriding now can include little kiddies having their first go on a bike.
neg props awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
this is the kind of stunt I would ride as a "freerider"
www.pinkbike.com/video/109268
this video won 1st place in the MBUK / Kona competition in 2004 - my buddy and I got a 10 day all-expenses paid trip to Whistler to ride with the Kona Clump crew, Shaums March, Josh Bender and friends
www.pinkbike.com/video/112314
photo from the same trip
www.pinkbike.com/photo/377571
I didnt write a lot just to be better, i just wrote the lines to express myself. It could be more, it could be less, but it is.
I just didnt like what i saw on pinkbike when i woke up this morning.
I respect your comment, but not the lines you mention me or who i am or who the others are. (by the way, it is Chapon, no champon)
In some words i can tell you that i continue doing what i liked 15 years ago, even more now, and i will continue doing it until my body/brain let me do it. You and others can say and think freeride is died or dieing, them it will only mean that you and this other are out of this. Some people goes and others come...
You can check photos and videos in pinkbike or my facebook or flickr gallery, and you could see some of my life living.
Freeride is not go big and do crazy things with the bike, and of course it is not take your bike and go down the street to buy some bread.
It is a bit difficult to choose the correct words to describe it. But theese who are in, feel it.
Thanks for all the comments and props.
Theese are words from a rider who likes to feel free.
Freeriding is basically the underground scary aspect of mountain biking. gnarly steep lines, drops, gaps, skinnies, etc. If you scare the shit out of yourself by cleaning a line and theres no prize money, no trophy, no interviews, just high fives from your buddies then it is probably freeriding. All that stuff just that isnt mainstream anymore.
Whens the last time anyone saw a skinny in a mtb film other than the north shore extreme series?
Does that mean its dead?
No.
Freeride still exists. I do it every weekend.
Its just not what's mainstream anymore.
We are all riders and all want to be free during the ride, so we are all Freeriders. It's not about the scary drops and steep lines, where do you draw the line?
Everyone is pushing it's own limits and that should be enough. No one invented freeriding and no one will destroy it, it's just there and it will always be there.
As kids, we were building stuff in the forrest and rode our bmx, that's where it starts, you take that spirit up into the mountains or anywhere. That spirit will never die and that's what is Freeride to me: free to ride anywhere I like and on any bike I like.
So get a new label for what you thought Freeriding was all about.
As I remember the term "Freeride" existed in the mid-90's for snowboarding backcountry, so you northamericans didn't give it a name- you stole it a name
Every guy's opinion are the same - Freeride Will never ever ever ever ever die!
On the other hand, though, noone says that a good 4x racer or a dirt jumper cannot be a freerider outside their competitions...
so going off that i dont think it is dead i just dont think it is publicized as much as big comps and stuff so you dont hear from it and the diamondback scapegoat is a all out freeride bike too cant get it over here though and i work in a diamondback stockists lol
www.pinkbike.com/video/173404
But for us who build own (mostly illegal) trails and ride them with friends, nothing changed since beginig.
Freeride is about being free not making money.
To me Free riding is about ride freely enjoying the ride a getaway from daily working life.
Riding makes me free from the chain of working life & the struggling of everyday life to make a living out of it.
Free Riding Live on. Just the bike & rider, anywhere, anytime.
Free riding: some random guy enjoying the freedom his bike provides...
VS
Freeriding: freeriders like Berrecloth and all the others sending it big and pushing the limits of unimaginable line and stunts like your average dude would never dare to do while on his ''free ride''...
To me the difference between freeriding and mountain biking is therefore how big you go, and surely that's a relative term anyway. Big to one person is the norm for someone else.
I just don't see a real difference between freeriding and mountain biking. To me (and people may give me neg props and disagree) the original freeriders were just doing what the rest of us were doing at the time, but doing it bigger, often much bigger.
I then find myself back at my trails, planning the next bermed cliff outrun, or flowing jump section. Realizing that my definition of a fun trail to ride, no longer fits the same criteria as it would have ten or twelve years ago. But a few things still remain constant, wether it's old school big stunt type gnarl, or the super evolved multifaceted flowing trails of today. I still want to go ride seven days a week. And so do most of my riding friends. Very few of us are stoked on races and competitions, while we still show great appreciation for the different aspects of the ride. Trucks filled with bikes, going up shuttles roads all week long, happens in pretty much every town in B.C. It's a freedom that can only come from freeriding! Long live the shuttle.
When I was 13 I had a single speed boneshaker I used to ride down hills.... Freeride
When I was 16 I got my first mtb, rode it in woods down rivers across fields.... Freeride
Now Im 38 and I have a seven inch travel bike that I ride down things, off things, over things occaisionally through things and into things. I dont even do it very well sometimes (a lot of the time) but in my head it will always be freeride. I don't care how old I get or what I'm riding as long as its still fun.
Freeride dying? Nope, mabye the brandname, but you cant kill doing stuff on your bike just for the thrill of it.
What do you say to people when they as what you do on a bike. There are so many different disciplines what do you say. Part of it I think is the type of bike your riding but the biggest part is what you do. Me for instance I dont really hit trail centers a lot but do hit locally built trails. I try to hit bigger jumps and more technical lines when Im out. But I might do that on my local streets riding steps or on a purpose built down hill too.
Ian hyland wrote that for him the meaning has changed to just riding your bike and he might be right. But if I tell some one the sort of ridiing I do its not cross country, it isn't downhill, it isn't slopestyle or dirt jump so how do you define it?
I do it for fun, I dont compete and dont really want to. I always try to go a bit bigger (but in fairness anybody who has seen me ride will tell you theres nothing very big about it) so to me its Freeride.
Ramble over
"I really don't like the classifications in mountain biking a lot of the time anyway. Why, as humans, do we feel the need to pigeon hole everything that we come across? Why do we feel the need to have to categorise? Can't something just be what it is? Can't I just be a mountain biker? Why do I have to be a XC rider, or a DHer, or a freerider, or a DJer, or whatever?
I ride trails, I ride XC, I ride DJ, and sometimes I just go out into the forest and get off the track and see what I can find to ride. Whether that's just some ground between a bunch of trees with no worn trail, or a fallen tree that I think may be fun to play about and ride on. So what am I?
Do you know what? I think I'm just a guy who loves my bike, and who loves getting out on it and having fun, regardless of how or what I am riding."
Me doin it in my home town. Not the fasted or the best
Still it was my freeride run five years before fat face
Freeride isnt all about big jumps and big air...it's about the feeling of freedom you get when you get up on your bike.
And what I don't get, is where Mitchel got the idea, that Freeride is dying, just by listening to a bunch of pros?
So what's with all the bike parks that are being built worldwide? If riding at bike parks isn't Freeriding, I don't know what is. And most of the people there are in fact riding Freeride bikes. To just name a few of many: Kona Operator, Specialized Big Hit/SX/Demo, Scott Voltage FR, Trek Scratch/Session, Canyon Torque/Torque FRX, most of the Banshee Fullies, Norco Truax,...
So basically, the statement that there are no bikes out there, which are promoted as Freeride bikes, is simply untrue.
To sum up, Freeride is VERY alive. So grab your mountainbike and do whatever you wanna do.
If all this... say "Sell Out," industry promotion and classification changes the name of what all of us posers want to throw our money at, then big woup what ya call it. (that's right, I said "poser" 'cause I didn't invent it, but I do enjoy it) Ya send a guy to the moon and a couple decades later I get to have a phone that could run this website. I embrace what ever evolves the technology that allows me head out into the woods w/ a half dozen friends and challenge each other's abilities and have a little fun. Call me XC 'cause I pedal up the hill, AM 'cause I have more then 4" of travel, or FR cause I hucked off a wall that isn't part of a marked trail. I don't care, I'm just having some fun.
Commercial or not, Sell-out or not, that particular style of popular music seems bent on sticking around, whereas the style-specific transformations go back and forth throughout its own history, sometimes more polished, sometimes more lo-fi.
Now, if you transfer what I said about punk towards freeride, there are plenty of parallels. Artists (riders) get signed or dropped, are one-hit-wonders or benchmark references, or even both at different times. Sure, there are financial concerns, but the sheer fact that there IS an economic aspect to it speaks for its resilience, imho.
Bikes got more specific to their task over the years (slopestyle, AM, DH, FR, whatever), now the manufacturers are back to the "one-for-all" concept, slamming 180-200mm travel on something that would've been called "enduro" just 2-3 years back. As in popular music, the trends repeat themselves, get discarded and reborn to keep the show running, but at the end of the day, it's about the essence that is particular to that kind of music/sport.
I wouldn't worry at all about about freeride dying. Next time you see an old dude with a Misfits T-Shirt, think about why he's stubbornly wearing this rag for 20+ years. He's hooked, and so are many of us and they're here to stay.
Go to ride guys! cheers
JonathanCarre - +1
I find it quite sad when people have to pigeon hole themselves : "I'm a downhiller", "I'm a freerider", "I'm a racer" etc.
Me? I just ride...... my xc ride might involve some dirt jumps, man-made wooden structures and downhill trails on the way round...
In my opinion,that's the basic idea of creating FMBA,so all the compenies could compete in the race and kids could see,that (another example) Cam Zink rioding for Evil bikes is the leader of the whole tour. It's really sad,but being a true professional extreme mountainbiker is never again ONLY about riding a bike. It's about the promotion of the company,and genering money for the bike company U ride.
Freeride is out of the race,so allmost none of the main companies sponsors the true freeriders.
Ok,there's a Kona supporting Graham Agassiz,there's s Specialized with Darren Bearclaw and that's it...
I still can remember,when Kona Clump was a team of 5-6 guys who were pushing freeride to the limits and enjoyed it to the max,but even a company like Kona is stepping away from this scheme. And we gotta remember that they created the first ever FR bike...
Having fun from riding a bike is not lucrative for the companies and that's the whole point...
Each time you go out, alone or with your mates, shred a trail just to have fun, that's all about Freeride and it will never die. Maybe you call it something else, but that's just your problem since you don't know the true meaning of Freeride.
You can consider yourself as a Downhill racer, but when you are ridding just to have fun, you are a Freerider.
I can say with 100% certainty that I'm a Freerider.
One of the best explanation about Freeride was given by Voreis (in the
NWD Greatest Hits - Kirt Voreis' Edit)
"(...) At first, was going off and not going to a race, it wasn't going to signup and being part of this big group. It's going out with your jeans and going up to the hills. Pushing up and just riding down. (...)"
Just check it out - www.pinkbike.com/news/NWD-Greatest-Hits-Kirt-Voreis-Edit.html
Now, with the advent of the modern burly hardtail front suspension dirt jumpers (known to some as BigMX) and sexy durable full suspension slope frames, us old school and new school urban freeriders have access to much better equipment that is far more suited to the discipline than a 20” BMX frame. I don’t do “street” (flatland to us old guys who still ride). That has never described it. It is more than that.
Freeride is not dead. Freeride is not fading. In terms of definitions, freeride is everything that is not road or XC. It is the master discipline that encompasses everything gravity, slope, north shore, dirt jump, urban, ect.
Freeride, as many have said in response, indirectly, is also a philosophy, a way of life, a way of being. It is the eXtreme zen of losing yourself in the flow and rip of intense kinesthetic expression. It is the dirt and mud cousin of surfing. As the mantra goes… “Live to ride, ride to live”. And that’s all there is to it.
The freeride movement wasn't about competitions, or endless red bull marketing, or doing 360's and backflips over perfectly groomed dirt jumps and stunts. Freeriding was a lifestyle... it was a group of people of like mind. It was bombing down illegal runs with shoddy ladders and 30' rock slabs. Freeriding was meeting up at the bike shop every single evening for group rides. It was watching kranked or NWD or north shore extreme and being inspired to go ride again. It was pushing your bike for 2 hours up a road because there were gates blocking us from shuttling.
Freeriding was a culture, and that culture has all but disappeared from what I see getting back into the sport after a few years. Even when I go back to Rossland for riding vacations, I sense that things just aren't the same. The locals have all grown up and moved away, to be replaced by American Tourists living in fancy condos with fancy all mountain bikes. The lifestyle has been replaced by something different. It's not all bad, Life Cycles proved that there are still people out there who are about the sport, not the hype. But things have changed.
Freeriding has become the new downhill. Downhill was and is all about course times. Freeriding, it seems, has become all about having a fancy bag of tricks, and scoring big with the judges.
And no, freeride doesn't mean riding whatever bike/wherever/however... maybe let's call my 8 year old neighbour kids on Huffy's freeriders too, since they're just riding around...umm freely?
I grew up making trails and shredding/learning to shred too, but I wish I could call myself a freerider, let alone a racer....
That's why it's not easy to market. And freeride might just be another marketing name.
Just think with me:
Do you remember the moment you grabbed a bike for the very first time? What propelled you? A time being showed at the end of the trail? Someone scoring your style while riding it?
I don't think so.
What impelled you was the pure essence of a bike ride, the absence of boundaries, the lack of "where tos" and "how tos".
Freeride is some sort of embryonic philosophy that I'm pointing to discover.
Freeride stylings are just awesome, and the freedom it expresses is to die for!
or
its evolving.. going underground ....back to where it came from
hands up....how many people here are racing world cups or hitting up major dirt jump/slope style events????
not many, most of us work or go to school an are out in the woods (mountains or not) freeriding every weekend or after school
i consider any riding that isnt racing,competeing or training to be freeride.......
so thats most of us..most of the time then.........
1) Riding your "Mountain Bike" on a trail or street with no time allocated and just having fun tricks, jumps, wheelies, etc...
2) Extreme Mountain biking performing highly Dangerous tricks, jumps, downhill lines, drops, wheelies, etc... Where scores or fastest time is not judge.
To correct Mitchell Scott: The only "freeriding" thats over is the business $$$ side of it. Not the word and not the use.
Anyone fancy a re-write of what could of been a good topic to cover?
does it mean a difference to any of you, if someone says you are a freerider or a downhiller (or whatever)?! the only thing that is important is that we have fun on our bikes. how ever your riding style is called!!
Free riding is non sanctioned competition. The winner is the guy that is the better rider no scoring system, just the better rider (completely subjective and non-quanifiable). Free riding is not about the bike or the label but instead about the life style, go out and tear it up!
Freeride will never die!
to begin with, the freeriding will stay alive for years to come, because it encompasses many riders that are out of racing, fat, old, young, women, shy, or just people who are not content just to ride a trail to have the hope of winning a trophy.
I, for example, I have 36 years old, cycling from 17 years old, I dirt jump, DH, XC; change bike many times. and saw the evolution of the bike. but only participate in two racing DH when I was 18year old.
freeride practice always, the Americans only had the right word to define an activity. practical activity for many years.
in fact, in Argentina the races are so bad, and there is so little support from businesses. that all the riders here are freeriders. because the idea of competition here is not winning. The idea is to get together with friends.
freeride involves crossing a mountain out of trails. or trails, seldom used here in Argentina so much.
freeride far from dead. is growing every day.
www.pinkbike.com/video/169795
www.pinkbike.com/photo/6347114
to begin with, the freeriding will stay alive for years to come, because it encompasses many riders that are out of racing, fat, old, young, women, shy, or just people who are not content just to ride a trail to have the hope of winning a trophy.
I, for example, I have 36 years old, cycling from 17 years old, I dirt jump, DH, XC; change bike many times. and saw the evolution of the bike. but only participate in two racing DH when I was 18year old.
freeride practice always, the Americans only had the right word to define an activity. practical activity for many years.
in fact, in Argentina the races are so bad, and there is so little support from businesses. that all the riders here are freeriders. because the idea of competition here is not winning. The idea is to get together with friends.
freeride involves crossing a mountain out of trails. or trails, seldom used here in Argentina so much.
freeride far from dead. is growing every day.
www.pinkbike.com/photo/6347114
www.pinkbike.com/video/169795
@ Filipei7 & Psyckphuk: this is one of the best, if not the best, articles on this web and not a Proficiency test. At least Chapon speaks two languages (Spanish & English) what about you?
I know for sure that I am gonna get thousands neg props but I don't give a sh*t because not only I ride free but I FEEL free as well.
Think of it as mainstream hip-hop vs. underground "real" hip-hop and hopefully that'll make more sense of what I'm trying to say here.
SORRY FOR THE LONG AND CUT-UP POSTS - APPARENTLY, MY POST WAS TOO LONG =P
It is changing, and it's not bad or good, it's an evolution of meaning based on bike companies and media outlets taking something that was originally very limited in scope, and marketing effectively to tens of thousands of consumers. We've all bought into it, and in buying into the hype, we've redefined freeriding, and turned it into something that we can participate in. We're all free riders now, regardless of whether or not we'll ever personally carry our bikes up the side of a mountain for an hour or more, just for the thrill of riding down a slope with no trail...
In my opinion i think that freeride mountain biking (although appropriate at the time) was not the right name for this genre of riding. and the fact that it has flourished and has become more popular and easier to do should not be a reason why it should be said to be dying.
Just seems a bit dumb to me
essay over
There is a huge difference between feeling free on a bike and freeriding on a bike. My grandmother feels free when she rides down the street; Robbie Bourdon is a Freerider. Any early NWD part with Bourdon or Vanderham will somewhat explain what freeriding was when it was first used in mountain biking. Natural cliffs, chutes, drops, slabs, sinlge senders and insane ladder and bridge building. The meaning now isn't dead, it's just forgotten or altered. With so many new trails, ski hills and MTB parks, freeriding doesn't happen nearly as much. But it still exists and always will. Riders will always scope natural terrain and go ride it. It just isn't a priority on the majority of mountain bikers minds these days. The original meaning of the word will always remain the same in mountain biking. But it's such a sweet word to say. It sounds so cool. Just say it "FREERIDE". It just feels good. We just can't let it go. And that's probably why marketing and ad campaigns can't give it up. They don't have any other words to use. It almost has the feeling of "organic" or "native". Today the word is used by journalists, marketing companies, and the media to represent something different than it's original use.
Actions speak louder than words...or should I say RIDING SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS.
Trek and Specialized had gravity teams well before “Freeride” was even a term for mountain biking. There was a few years in the late 90's when all the big manufactures figured sponsoring racing was not translating into profits and they got rid of almost all of their teams (also influenced by the fact that many of the big makers were now owned by bowling companies etc). About the same time the boys in Canada started hucking cliffs getting people stoked on riding again and the big guys found they could capitalize of sponsorship better paying one or two guys to do “extreme” stunts to sell bikes, and surprise for everyone when it actually became more than a marketing idea and a viable movement within mountain biking that just happen to coincide with amazing advancements in suspension technology that enabled anybody to do stunts that only a few years earlier would have been an unimaginable stunt in a video.
Freeriding did not start the long travel movement, it just happened at the same time as world cup DH tracks were getting more gnarly helped push the marketability of such a product and pushed it over the top so for the first time people besides DH racers were stoked about long travel riding.
I still believe that the freeride movement stem's from DH being sunbed form the Olympics in 96. Gravity guys finally said screw it lets have fun. And isn’t having fun pushing the limits on a mountain bike really what freeriding is/was?
Ten years latter trail systems all over incorporate these kinds of features. Yes the flavor of the features is a bit different and it’s no longer considered extreme or edgy. But just because this sort of riding is (sort of) main stream, doesn’t mean it’s no longer freeriding. Far from being dead, Freeriding is alive and well. Just look at how any good bike company now offers a 160-180mm frame.
The various competitive genres of riding mentioned in the article are logical outgrowths of the of the original freeride movement. As with so many competitive genres, they are increasingly regimented and specialized. But the Freeride spirit of non-competitive gravity riding, getting big air, and riding big lines and building what you ride is now ubiquitous (i.e. not dead)!
But Freeride is deeply changing since 3 or 4 years, that doesn't mean that it's dead; the new kinds of competitions which mix Dj, Slopestyle & Freeride up are good for MTB, for sur and fans a increasingly numerous than before. However, pure-style of what we called Freeride 5 years ago is relatively different these days. There are more and more dirt events with a touch of slopestyle and freeride, with perfect jumps based on incredible slopes (to pass everywhere on a mountain is not enough now), we are more closed to BMX style...
It is a shame because this is not Freeride, I'm sorry. Brendon Semeniuk who is probably the most talented slopestyler we've ever seen of this new generation has a dirt style, that's the same case of Kurt' Sorge, whereas we can't say that riders like Pilgrim is a freerider (but that's not I'm not criticizing this fabulous MountainBiker).
Concerning organisation of competitions, The Rampage is the last event of authentic freeride comp' in North America & the firts two Châtel Mountain Styles were the last one in Europe.
i was 18 when Kurt Cobain died, and the grunge died with him in some ways, it was a great moment (the grunge, not the death of Kurt obviously) and me like many others thought that it would never end, and one day it happened. things evolves, the matter transform... i have a full suspended, a dj bike, an all mountain, and i love doing all that stuff, what more freeride than this? just an humble opinion.
Maybe the reason you're so confused is simply because you haven't identified the REAL differences in "freeride", which are not the smaller categories underneath it. They are only the differences between "freeride" the fad, and "freeride the activity". "Freeride" the fad is that thing that the industrial corporate greed machine exploits for capitalization. Motivated by people who probably forgot how to pedal a bike decades ago, nevermind actually "ride" one. You remember when Cannondale tried to patent the term? If you don't, you certainly remember The Rocky Mountain "Froriders"? You mentioned two of them in your article. They were "Froriders" because believe it or not, the bike industry has it's own highly proprietary parasites looking to cash in on anything they possibly can, any way they can. Cannondale is one of them. Or at least they were. Shimano is another, but that's another topic. "Freeride" the fad still exists today and you already found it. FMB World Tour.
Freeride Forever!
(Sorry for 3 separate posts, didn't know it was too long)
And as far as the author saying that a ''freeride'' "labeled & promoted mountain doesn't really exist"...also NOT TRUE. Go to the norco, specialized, rocky mountain, transition, & kona websites ( just to name few) and you will see bike descriptive phrases like "gravity & freeride" "Out of Bounds/Freeride" and even just "Freeride" it's self.
This article seems delusional to me, or maybe I'm still stuck in the paralel universe of 1999
I ride a ladder bridge park, and I call it Freeriding.
I love hip jumps, and I call that Freeriding.
My street riding time is very free, thus...
See the pattern here...? LOL
In my opinion a freerider today is someone who gives everything a go, may not be amazing at one particular section, but they'll give it a go and keep at it. That is a true freerider
The difference between dh and fr is that dh is about technical descents and FR is not. Any smooth and fast trail with a lot of jumps and wall rides etc is FR.
AM riding is like light FR with a bike that can climb well.
Freeride is not over people just panic because it is not the center off attention right now. Was downhill over a few years ago? Is dirt bmx dead? No!
I ride trails, I ride XC, I ride DJ, and sometimes I just go out into the forest and get off the track and see what I can find to ride. Whether that's just some ground between a bunch of trees with no worn trail, or a fallen tree that I think may be fun to play about and ride on. So what am I?
Do you know what? I think I'm just a guy who loves my bike, and who loves getting out on it and having fun, regardless of how or what I am riding.
Well, that's a load of crap for a start! Americans invented racing down fireroads and marketing it.....
Does competition have any bearing on my riding?! Other than the roundabout way of driving innovation, the simple answer is "No!" Whatever your style/attitude/etc., just go out and enjoy riding your f@#king bike...
Up until the late '90s, I don't remember labeling the riding it was doing; I just enjoyed being out riding/beating up my bike. Did coining the term "freeride" have any effect on what I was doing? Negative; riding was just riding. Does competition have any bearing on my riding?! Other than the roundabout way of driving innovation, the simple answer is "No!" Whatever your style/attitude/etc., just go out and enjoy riding your bike, and if you're doing it to be "cool," there are cooler things out there...
I don't like the idea of dirt jumps as freeride, because for the most part you only hit them one way.
Funny how people claim that simply riding (free) is "freeriding", and then complaining that "freeride" was a term hijacked by commercial interests and turned into something it isn`t (or wasn`t), that freeriding is not about scoring points or competing, simply enjoying biking.
Whereas most people I meet trailside or otherwise who define themselves as "freeriders" actually are just riding a an overly built bike labeled as "freeride" by those same big, nasty, evil commercial interests on trails that can be tackled on a much lighter bike with some guts and a fair bit of skill.
Those are no better than fixed-gear-freestylers, it`s all about buying into an image.
www.bansheebikes.com/scythe.html
That's not true. Norco has a section devoted to freeride bikes, there are 5 actually. www.norco.com/bikes/mountain
. Free ride is all forms of riding your bike downhill, or on a trail with jumps, or ladders.
Ridng of any form is purely a spiritualised experience that belongs to the individual.
www.morewoodbikes.com/
the word freeride means what you want it to ,i see it as freedom to do what you want / enjoy
it's alive and well.
...Who really cares? go outside and ride, sweet Jesus!
retarded
I would say this video is pure freeriding and to me it seems quite alive
Still riding free for the last 25 years!
There are definitely a number of companies that promote the use of certain bikes for "freeride"...
Kona, Transition, Trek, and Specialized have categories of bikes that fit that application for sure, and they have the word "freeride" as part of the category that those bikes are in.
What I do think happens is that many folks like to carve out a little niche for themselves based on what they are good at....some riders can't handle rock gardens and tight turns...but can huck DJ's like crazy, so to clarify their abilities to other riders that person now becomes a dirt jumper etc etc etc. All I can say is we all ride bikes, and hopefully we all smile at the end of the day...so instead of having to label it "freeriding' we should just be happy we are free to ride.