Video: My Girlfriend is a Mountain Biker

 Maybe the name of a new wheelsize

 I think Kowa has a fork called girlfriend...

 @bluumax This is the best comment so far this year.

 I girlfriend is kind of like a bike; it uses all your money, you spend the majority of your time waiting for the next ride, when you go for a ride even if it sucks its still really fun, you constantly need to buy new stuff for it, and you brag about it to your friends

 So who wants to be a shuttle bitch, lol

 Strava once showed me a trail called "girlfriend". The trail was not rated, but a reviewer said that the trail was very stressful.

 I did, and it ruled.

 >"I did, and it ruled"
>>"did"

So, what happened then?

 I dated a guy who wasn't a mountain biker. We broke up.

 I bought my wife a $4800 bike...and I'm still trying to convince her she likes it.

 What happened then? She occured to be riding better than him and this was his silent reason to go away.
Most of the girls presented on main page videos on Pinbike ride better than me and I try not to think about it.

 I married one!!

 @dirtworks911 - do you need another "wife?"

 @dirtworks911 - me too... I'll be your wife too (Love Keith x)

 That's commitment

 Haha. She was way better (and still is) than me for sure! I remember being super stoked cleaning one rocky 20 foot steep section then turned to see her air the whole thing going 5 times as fast as I did. Getting new tires every couple weeks and always having a pimp fresh bike was pretty sick, I have to say. I had to move from one bike and board mecca to another that was closer to civilization and airports in order to not stagnate in the Kootenay fog. There's lots of kick ass riding ladies where I live now too, (including my wife and more and more my oldest daughter). I read Lee Lau's piece a few months back that said 45% of Squamish riders are women, so guys are nearly matched for ladies in the riding world here.

 The amount of variance between individuals is huge. Just like guys who bike, I'm sure there is a spectrum from selfish douche to healthy cool. I liked the way the video highlighted some of the odd cultural things within mountain biking seen from an intimate outsider...like from a partner that doesn't mountain bike. The unique language from within the subculture was another point that could have made for some funny scenes also. Well done as always. Thanks.

 I bought my wife a $10,000 mountain bike and she said I can get one too.

 My girl doesn't own a DH bike, but holy f*ck she can ride

 Story of my life haha

 I think I need to buy my girl some flowers, so she will shuttle me this weekend.... maybe chocolates too.

 3 seconds of my life wasted, looking at what this dumbass typed.

 @utahspines I tryed that once. My friends truck is a 5 speed........ She was game till that....

 My husband needs to read this to assure himself he isn't alone.

 I married one also, last weekend I had to work she went to the bike park, she is getteing her mother into DH, she got home after I was allready in bed telling me how great her day was, how many squids she took out and jumps that she cleared. Tonight I am buying a brand new rig and she is encouraging me to do so, the only catch is she wants the 40's it comes with. True story! I love you Mel

 My missus tried mountain biking - actually bought two bikes, never really enjoyed it.

Since I started riding Road bikes (in addition to my mountain biking) she got a road bike and really enjoys the riding - even the hills! Sunday morning involves us going out for 100km of road riding and coffee shops.

Her riding girlfriends had a similar experience and all found Road riding much more accessible.

 It always fascinates me how women see risk in MTB. My sister in law was a fanatic road racer but she started as XCer. She quit because she was affraid of descending. Just like her best friend. Car bumpers and hoods passing by at 60 while they ride side by side don't scare them as much as OTB

 If she was afraid of descending, she could take a lift down. It's always empty.

 MTB = MounTainBike so it is either up or down, depending on direction. Whatever the bike type is there are always some uphill and some downhills. Dh riders don't like climbing so they use lifts. This way keeping the analogy, XC riders may not like descending, so the only conclusion is a lift. If you don't like climbing nor descending, you can put your shiny bike on a lift and stay there for the whole day reading a newspaper. This was my logic, although I am having a bit of a laugh now. Nobody uses lift down, because everybody likes descending. She might be quite an individual.

 I will get back to you as soon as I get it. But to not insult you I am laughing in advance

 Don't worry. I cannot immagine any situation in which you could insult me.

 My wife is the same. Will ride all day on the road, gravel, doubletrack, but as soon the trees start getting a bit too close, the trail a bit too bumpy, she's done. I blame it on the fact that her parents always put her in stereotypical gender roles. Many women are like this. They associate exercise with looking good and enjoying a day outside. For most dudes, exercise is just an added bonus to the adrenaline rush of winning, shredding, almost dying, going fast, etc. You know what, I've met guys who grew the exact same way. No cars, no motos, no bikes, nothing involving speed or competition, and today, they are risk averse.

It's almost as though you've gone your entire life without drinking a beer by the time your 30, and you say "this tastes terrible, why would I start drinking now?" Only it's adrenaline instead of beer. Some people never associated adrenaline with speed, control, fear, etc.

 PHeller - haha, you probably missed that you "labelized" guys in the same way as women. Pursuit of adrenaline in MTB is a social construct, not reality, I see plenty of guys who feel pressed and thus weird because they don't feel the kick, they want to descend a sketchy steep or jump some gap or drop off, but they are scared and they don't want to be scared. Fear kills the chemical reward. That is because MTB, DH in particular is stigmatized by public media as an extreme sport and God forgive me for saying this but things like Rampage or Crankworx are to blame most, for that particular reception. Adrenaline charge is to blame for us being seen as idiots trying to kill ourselves on the bike, whenever I talk to someone not riding about riding they have an impression that DH is about daring no1, being cool no2, skill no 9352. Can you see how Enduro is not so hardcore, while those guys ride tracks as difficult as ones on DH World Cup? How come freaking ski jumping is considered as a classic sport, blokes jump 230m going 120km/h, but give a man a bicycle and let him jump a 2m drop with perfect landing and he's crazy, it's extreme. And because of that bad fame, so he feels when he is about to post a shtty Iphone pic of his "achievement" on his FB.

I hate adrenaline, I hate fear, I like skill, I like progression, there is daring to do, but speed and size of jumps come by themselves as soon as skill and some basic fitness is there. I will skip the relation between adrenaline and actually going fast, because one can be more scared to death and in actual danger on a XC bike with narrow bars, than on Champery WC course on modern DH bike

 @PHeller, I don't quite like this kind of sterotypes, especially gender ones, but I think you got one wrong.
Competition. Imho, it has nothing to do with risk. I have plenty of friends who grew up in highly competitive environments and families. And when they started mtbiking they all got involved in xc or road racing, they get off on being the fittest, the fastest climber, but they avoid anything mildly technical and are always complaining about xc races getting more risky.
In contrast people coming from more relaxed environment usually love technical sports, ones where skills matters as much and more than fitness, where you don't have the pressure to be the fastest at all costs and you can concentrate on being good at what you do.
This, as WAKI says, often gets confused with love for fear and risk, but it usually is just a desire for skill and progression.

 @WAKIdesigns
I quite sure you're wrong about your social construct. I studied neuroscience and I had the chance to work on the effects of steroid sex hormones on behaviour. Sex steroids are involved in brain plasticity, which means gender inevitably leads to difference during your social construct.
Few studies show that male are more susceptible to try drugs and to get an addiction whereas women are more susceptible to relapse. And it's possible these differences are caused by différences in hormonal balance.
Drug consumption is a risk behaviour, and searching for more adrenaline is a risk behvior too.

as a conclusion : Pursuit of adrenaline in MTB is a social construct but also biologicaly determinated

 Yes zede, I agree, I should have said that it is ALSO a social construct. I may have added that it is also a commercial construct of energy drink industry. My main point was that as much as MTB grows commercially it also pushes away women and people more prone to fear by stigmatizing it as an extreme sport. Many noobs do that as well talking of relatively easy features as extreme.

In general I could compare it to developed sexual practices - while some need porn, sado maso stuff, affairs or "just" having sex everyday, many don't dig current sex culture (propelled by porn, magazines like Cosmopolitan or Playboy) which tries to make EVERYONE think that experimental sexual behaviour is a NORM and is NECESSARY for maintaining happy and SUCCESSFUL relationship, which is bullcrap. We all have sex drive, but we are told it is never enough. So it happens with adrenaline in MTB. Many new to gravity disciplines of MTB talk of it often, about the "kick", "gnar"or more or less unspecified "fun". More advanced riders tend to be more relaxed on "hot" topics, they talk about "flow", training details.

 I find it amusing when people talk about an adrenaline rush like it's fun. I have a feeling that many of such people have never really felt a full rush of adrenaline, when time slows and you really think you are about to die, and then you are jittery, lightheaded, and nauseous for a few hours.

That said, having experienced this before (major car accident), maybe a little adrenaline is pleasant and adds to the fun on trails. However I think adrenaline is like alcohol. Too much and it is suddenly no longer fun.

 Been in major car accidents and other situations where I was definitely in full-adrenaline shock.

That is certainly no fun, but a little bit of adrenaline when you're having fun on your favorite downhill section is great. I am "afraid" when I ride on busy country/suburban roads. No adrenaline, just a rational fear of being hit by unaware driver. In the city and gravel back roads I enjoy the peaceful ride sans adrenaline.

The adrenaline rush comes from having wrecked or knowing that if you make a mistake, you'll be in the weeds. When you hit that trail and just pin it, within inches of disaster, that's an awesome feeling. You may be a downhill guy moving at 50mph, or you may be an XC rider hitting that perfect line through the rocks at 10mph, but its the risk of dabbing (or risk of death) that push you just past comfort and into the adrenaline rush.

 I get more of a rush now from road riding than mountain biking because I can get a more consistent, harder physical work out riding my road bike than my MTB. This rush is coming from pushing my body to its aerobic threshold or into the anerobic area. There is also nothing like descending at 45mph on a road bike!

Since I got older (and decided to scale back the stunts) I'm no longer doing the extreme stunts of FR and DH, and that "rush" has gone from my MTB riding. My MTB riding is now riding fast XC singletrack going up, along and down the hills. Still really enjoy it, but its a different feeling to the road riding which is less technical and more about pushing physical limits.

 It just depends on body and terrain hampstead. I did road for two years, it just wasn't challenging for me, I die inside spinning above 70rpm. My trails and technique make me spike to near max heart rates for longer periods of time a few times within 2h ride and I love it. There is a moment, a place, a zone on steep rocky climb when, forcing you to keep momentum, to keep on cranking where the pain of rushing heart and burning breath just stops getting worse, it is so liberating, getting there is almost like a drug. I cannot imagine that on a road bike, because there is no real situation incentive to crank so hard. But hell, how great that we all like different things

 I used to road bike to help train for mountain biking. The roads around here are pretty busy and drivers are careless. After riding for about a year I gave it up because I had heard so many stories of bikers getting hit and clipped by cars. Id much rather hit a tree at 30mph then a car hit me at 50. I dont know see how anyone could get a bigger adrenaline rush from road biking, it just doesn't compare.

 @hampstedbandit

I think that's totally fair enough. The guy who used to own my local shop said the same thing - as he progressed into his 40s his perception of risk changed, he no longer had the motivation to hit the big jumps and drops. He was still mountain biking, but it was all XC singletrack. It was all about being outside, keeping fit and breathing the fresh air. He got his kicks from busting his lungs on the climbs rather than busting his back wheel on the jumps. He enjoyed seeing the next generation of riders come through and pushing themselves, but it wasn't for him anymore.

Men go through different phases in their lives. Most young men have a 'warrior phase' between 18 and 30 where we go out in testosterone fueled bids to prove ourselves - whether that's in sports, business or whatever else. Seeking excitement and validation. The ego is king. After 35 or 40 the testosterone starts to drop, men are less fussed about proving themselves - its more about looking after themselves and those around them... Either that or they go full midlife crisis mode

 Each to their own tom666. Many guys around and after 40 behave like they need to prove something to others, they are intimidating and easily get stressed and ashamed. I've seen many guys like that hitting stuff way out of their skill and comfort zone, looking like they just started to MTB. Men do go through phases but in my view as a Person bery conscious of it, it is anout finding yourself in the hormone storm and realizing that fears and desires are not real you. There is nothing reasonable and responsible in hitting a 12m jump but so is the situation when you have been doing it in a skilled way for 5 years and suddenly you decide to stop. The biggest thing MTB taught me is that too much caution is as harmful as too little of it. Cheers!

 I remember very well my friend in late 30s who always had "male alpha" aura around him and so he was considered by younger riders. We rode together for the first time in two years or so. I rode behind him, pushing on him on uphill, He made a mistake, lost valance and fell into a ditch aside of the trail. I laughed very loud - he barely spoke to me for the rest of the ride and was evidently finding and creating competitive situations and intimidating me. Another bloke in similar age went with me to Dirt Jump site. He was evidently trying to be the first to hit any bigger line. I hit the biggest line as first and he got very closed inside. Then he set off to the big line tried to whip it hard, fell and broke his wrist. Also my boss in his 50s, Jesuuus... i took him for a ride then his ex wife a week after. He was all about how did she do (she was much better) because on our ride some girl came by and rode down an easy shoot than he was affraid to ride down. Then he went with his son to a bikepark and refused to ride.

Men are weird...

 @WAKIdesigns The people you're talking about are competitive men having a midlife crisis. My ex girlfriend's Dad was having one of those - guy was like 49 years old. He became a total fitness freak to prove to himself, his friends and his family (particularly his wife) that he wasn't 'past it', but really it was just embarrassing for everyone involved because he wasn't enjoying himself... He was evidently trying to prove something to the world.

 I can share something I deal with myself: Being 33 with two small kids, I am scared as shit of my riding buddies who got kids and chose "easier" riding, or accept being marauders on small group rides. I spoke to one of them lately, in late 30s and he was complaining
on people telling him to enjoy time with his kuds as they are small because they grow up so fast. He said with a lot of hidden sorrow: but I also get old fast and when they get big enough to even play by themselves, so my wife can stay with them without getting exhausted, I will be too old to ride. I don't want to be forever young, I just want to have that minimal level if strength and skill that will allow me to reach the "zone". I need that, it is a source of life force to me. I know all too well the true stories of DH dads getting wasted in a bike park after not riding for years. But that shows one thing in my eyes: certain people get to certain places and speeds by daring. It is mandatory - sure! But wise riders get there mostly by skill and strength. If one just "dares", if one relies too much on technology like sht loads of forgiving travel, only to prove something to himself or others, then when the mental crisis comes and takes the will to gamble away, when body weakens and it gets hard to prove anything to anyone, so does most things that put him on the trail head. So shall I fight and keep training in the off season at home, spend time taking excruciating sprints up a nearby hill inthe dagk, once a week, just to be ready to show up when the opportunity comes to "drink from the source"

 best line in the video

 wait, you really think anyone didn't get it?

 I switch genders on daily basis and I still don't get it.

 it all makes sense now

 A fifth of the price?

 He's using spouse math.
My V10C is like, $1500.00

 @scary1 - spouse math - ahaha, never heard that before. Yea, my V10c costed 1500$ four years ago, and honey, all upgrades I am making are actually swaps, you know I sell old part at high price and get the new part at 10% of msrp, sorry barely used one, you know thAt rich guy I ride with, he has no clue and buys stuff Aaaaall the time. I know it sounds like I am almost making money, I must confess I've spent almost 20$ this time to change my renthal fatbar to renthal carbon bar. I had the aluminium one for what, half of a year or so, but you know me, I ride hard and the fatigue, micro cracks, i can't get hurt. We cant afford that now with the baby. It's the last purchase this year I swear...

 @Waki-
See? Yeah, YOU know. You got the algorithm DOWN!

 Don't believe your spouse that this was his last purchase of the year, even on the morning of 31st December. If a courier brings a parcel to your door with Tubes inside - it's a decoy! He's probably getting a larger delivery to his work adress!

 Yes, Sir !

 Moncia McCosh, Micayla Gatto, Kristen Smart and Leanne Tompkins.

 I wouldn't mind if Leanne Tompkins would park her bikes in my livingroom ;-)
and Monica could bring hers as well

 Yeah that's a good one. I love so much the Matt Denison's videos.

 Lol you just described me too my non riding fiancé is the most patient man in England lol I can't live without my bikes >

 You better check that prostate man. Not only it makes you pee as often as you describe, it also causes problems with getting and staying hard

 Being 33 you should not know so much about it yet. Perhaps you're the doctor?

 No, I watch Sherlock Holmes. In the way of deduction I dare to suspect that you have some sort of irritation in prostate area, you take the anger caused by it and project it on me.

 No. I am supporting luis-beri in front of your accusation.

 Well you can't prove either of my accusations to be false so your efforts are futile. You must be fun at the parties - Never let the truth ruin a good story - how do you know it's a good story? - exactly

 Sorry to be so direct on the main point, but however your party sense of humour is fun, some people may not find it so funny being laughed at, nor watching other people being laughed at. No matter what the truth is, but especially when the joke is so trivial. Have you satisfied all of your needs now?

 He trolls every article and every comment and every post, just ignore him. The only funny thing he does is his blogs. Otherwise its just keyboard warrior shit.

 Peace!! But its cool to date one... No more: "So... What will we do this weekend?"

 Perfectly possible My fiancé doesn't ride, he loves cheering me on he cooks pretty well too

 Well Kate, I stand corrected. But wouldn't you want him to ride? We all want our women to ride with us!

 I would love him to ride, but he hates exercise, he's more of an xbox kind of guy I'd love it if he did decide to join me one day though

 I feel sorry for you now! Having an xboxer can be frustrating. I have two sons, luckily one loves to DH with me - not XC mind you - that's too much pedaling for him. The rest of his time is on the x-box. I wish you luck. Couples who share experiences together are much happier. Get him on that bike!

 poor bastard.

 Jump ship buddy

 Ahh boys he thinks hes so lucky ha ha

 Wait til the day he meets a nice lady on the trail and makes a realization. .. cause if my girl said shit like this, she wouldn't be my girl

 We're really not that hard to find.

 Errr, really?maybe where you come from. There's 1 mtber girl in like a 50 mile radius of my house. And she's going out with a mate of mine.

My last girlfriend threatened to sell my bike if i didn't spend less time with it. We aren't together anymore. :s

 Ya, I'm from Vancouver and didn't meet many girls in the mountains but, I have to say, that each year looks like is increasing the women number I see around tho. Most of them with a male company haha