Opinion: Should You Be Riding Instead of Ranting?

When I first sat down to write this piece, I was primed and ready to unleash a heart felt diatribe against all things 'enduro.' It was going to be a real doozy of a rant, one where I deconstructed the semantics of the word itself, talked smack about the endless wave of 'enduro specific' products arriving for review at my doorstep; you get the idea. But then I took a step back, a step big enough to look at the overall picture. I went for a long, head clearing mountain bike ride too, which always helps bring things into perspective. And you know what? My frustration has subsided. In fact, I've begrudgingly decided to accept the term, even if my skin still crawls a little when I hear someone say they're going 'enduroing.' Why the change of heart? Well, somewhere on my ride it occurred to me that if other riders are finding something to get excited about, if this supposedly 'new' type of mountain biking is getting people motivated to pedal up and downhill, then it can't be all that bad.

Sure, there's a lot of marketing hype and bullshit behind the enduro craze, and a lot of it certainly deserves to be made fun of, but at the end of the day, does it matter what inspires someone to get out and spin the hours away on their bike? I don't think so - what matters is that they got out there in the first place. And if it takes a baby blue jersey and a fresh set of goggles to motivate a rider to pedal up a hill they normally shuttle, well, that's just how it goes.


Letting go of my pointless frustration about all things enduro reminded me of a British fellow that came into the shop I was wrenching at a number of years ago. He walked in pushing the type of rig that makes mechanics scurry away like cockroaches illuminated by a refrigerator light - a mountain bike turned touring bike with every type of pannier imaginable strapped onto it. I can't remember if it had aero bars, but it's highly likely. I didn't find a hiding place quickly enough, so it was my lucky day to work on this overloaded, sweat stained beast of a machine. But as I started my attempts to bring its worn out drivetrain back to life, the bike's owner started talking about his travels, telling me where he'd been and where he was going, and working on his bike began to seem like less of a chore.

You see, he was a good portion of his way through a south to north journey by bike, travelling from Cape Horn all the way to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, a trip of over 16,000 miles that actually deserves to be called 'epic'. What had inspired him to take on an adventure of this magnitude? He had had a lucrative career as an attorney in London, and one day after work he went to the grocer to purchase a particular cut of meat. When he found out the store had run out, he was so furious that he began filling out a complaint card, scribbling down his angry thoughts, belittling the store for not having the product he wanted at the very instant he wanted it. But then he stopped. Something clicked in his brain, and he realized how meaningless and trifling of an issue he was complaining about. Hell, even his chosen career didn't seem to be very significant. He threw the complaint slip away, walked out the door, cashed in his savings, quit his job, and headed down to South America to begin his journey by bike. His moment of clarity allowed him to step off the runaway train his life had become and make changes for the better.


This story has stuck with me over the years, bringing me perspective when little, trivial issues (like the proper use of the word 'enduro') begin to bother me more than they should. With the massive amounts of information we get bombarded with every day it becomes second nature to make superficial, snap judgements, liking or disliking something within seconds after seeing it, without taking any time to process our thoughts. It's a difficult habit to break, a cycle that takes a conscious effort to escape from, but it's not impossible. Give it a try - the next time you're about to lash out against the world on the internet, push pause. Walk outside, hop on your bike, and go on a ride. You don't need to circumnavigate the globe – even a few laps around a pump track might do the trick. And when you're done, if you still feel the same way, by all means, express your opinions. But just try to remember to pick your battles, and that riding bikes fixes just about everything.

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Stories Mike Kazimer Reader Stories