"It's mountain biking," says Mike Levy. Pinkbike used to spend a few weeks each year testing bikes in Sedona, Arizona, and it was on those trips where Mike Levy first earned my respect as a rider. For most, sessioning the myriad of tricky downhills and drops highlights the red rock experience there. Levy, however, spent at least as much time working on his climbing game and he's aced a number of the zone's most infamous pitches. I looked forward to the inevitable climbing contests that ensued, although I can count my victories on one finger.
There's an art to technical climbing that requires well-honed skills, one-hundred-percent concentration and, especially here, where exposure is always a danger, a level of commitment that rivals the muster you'd need to attack any black-line descent. Beyond bragging rights and a sense of accomplishment, technical climbs foster confidence and bank skills that can save gobs of energy when you're riding chunky trails at any gradient.
Mountain bikers who ride in the mountains will spend on average, 51 minutes of each hour going uphill, and that figure becomes much more lopsided for skilled descenders. That's right, the faster you ride, the larger the percentage of your riding time will fall into the climbing column. Look no further than the EWS, where the winner's total time for eight stages of downhill competition after two full days of pedaling uphill amounts to about 30 minutes.
It could be argued that climbing, not descending defines the sport. Homo sapien-sapiens are inherently lazy, preferring to populate river valleys and seaside retreats where accessing food sources and mating opportunities are rarely farther than a minute's walk. Mountains are wild and unpopulated because access requires effort. The harder it is to pedal to the top, the more likely it will be that you'll escape average humanity's noise, litter and situational numbness. The return for a few thousand pedal strokes and burning legs cannot easily be purchased: silence and solitude on the way up - and few reasons to hold back on the way down. Mountain biking is wonderful
because it's not easy.
The satisfaction that awaits a successful climb is not easily explained. We're not conquering mountains, as is so often written. We're conquering self doubt - overcoming inertia that's been hardwired by a lifetime of setting readily achievable goals. "Could have, Should Have and Might Have Been" are the daemons we fight with each rhythmic breath and revolution of the crankset, and while there are rare moments when the body and mind revel in the experience, climbing is mostly an uncomfortable, but all-consuming conversation between the two that comes to an abrupt end at the summit. Reaching it never gets old, but maybe that's just me.
Bikes have become gravity specific these days, and if you believe the marketing hype, climbing is out of fashion. Media reviews and bike brand PR's wax on about gravity-friendly geometry, 1200-gram tires,
suspension nuances, and how weight shouldn't be an issue - and we give high honors to trail bikes for efficiency as long as they don't make us suffer to an extraordinary extent.
| Newbies could be excused for believing that Mountain Biking was a downhill sport. |
The nail in the climbing coffin, however, may be the once-proud Big Brands who battled for years to win the pedaling efficiency war and are now falling over each other to sell e-bikes with tag lines like: "More of what you want, less of what you hate." Newbies could be excused, then, for believing that mountain biking was a downhill sport, or for searching for an "Uber Shuttle" app after discovering that the trailhead was inconveniently located at the bottom of the mountain.
That's where I stand, but I'm more interested in knowing your take on the subject. Today's poll is:
Also, sometimes a road is more direct and less winding, which can mean quicker access to the descents.
Edit: Basically what everyone else said while i was typing this
None of them has friends who ride either. I know of one kid who graduated 2 years ago from the HS who was a competitive MTB racer , but not expert. We live in the east bay area a supposed hotbed of MTB.
I go to the trails and ride 4 days a week. Only riders I see are as old as dirt like me 40's to 70's.
I went on a organized moto offroad/dual sport event a week ago with my KTM. Youngest was 39. avg age of participant was at least 55.
That movie Wall-E that I hated. May be spot on. Control of the masses has begun.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy climbing to access the trails, but I'm also not a fan of making my life unnecessarily harder. I'd rather save energy by taking the easier climb so that I have more energy for the descents and/or can ride for longer.
First 90% of the singletracks are impossible to climb because there are too steep.
Then it's way faster to climb on fireroads so we can do more descents in the same amount of time. For someone with a good training the average climbing speed on fireroads is around 600m per hour.
Most of the people always choose the fireroads to the singletracks because it's easier to climb.
So at the end, we climb fireroads and we don't complain about it. Climbing singletracks here, we will make people complain.
I take your point though, minimal people are buzzing off the climb but its nigh on necessary.
@SlodownU: My favorite trail in Whistler (Comfortably Numb) is my favorite in part because of all the great technical climbing.
oh wait, wrong website
Bikes are the same. I am hypnotized by the rotations of my cranks and the trail in front of me, and when I look up I am in a new place, somewhere I have gotten myself to despite gravity trying its best to hold me back
Downhills are a different meditation, as I am so completely in the zone, communicating with my body, bike, and the trail. I ride in a microcosm of risk and reward and get a wonderful high afterwards of mixed endorphins and adrenaline
Sometimes I really need a climb, and I don't want it to be any easier, lest my thoughts find themselves back into my consciousness
Then while you're at it, put back all the chunky rocks, roots, off camber corners, sandy patches, cactus and other natural disasters on on the descent.
This has been my argument against those things which shall not be named for a long time, that climbing is an intrinsic part of the sport. There is no feeling like grinding for what seems like an eternity to reach the summit and enjoy a view and peacefulness limited to those who are willing to work to achieve it. There's a life lesson in there somewhere but in the age of instant gratification I'm sure it is lost on many.
Great read RC.
In short, the effort gap between lift and climbing is much larger with skiing than it is with biking, which explains the overwhelming success of ski resorts.
It requires pedaling and bike handling skills. When you are touring or splitboarding, etc, and you throw skins on, you aren't really skiing or snowboarding on the way up. You are simply climbing the hill with your skis or snowboard on. I feel like this is more like getting off the bike and simply pushing it up the hill.
You could take someone who has never snowboarded before, throw them on a splitboard/skis with skins and they could probably start making their way uphill without much issue. Throw a person who has never ridden a bike on one and send them up a technical climb and they will no go anywhere.
Maybe the reviewers should take a CX/gravel bike up a fire road just to show what acceleration you can get.
Fit is fast, and fast is the MOST fun. Don’t forget- injuries usually happen when people are tired, and those unfit people get tired right away. Anyone who says injuries are fun is lying. Change my mind.
www.strava.com/activities/2472485925
But I’d rather ride park non-stop all day, snag some shuttles with buds after the lift stops and then pedal an all day epic the next day... and be stoked on it all.
Fitness makes you a better rider. Fact!
Now, apart from "It's easier", why WOULDN'T you ride up?
never turn the front wheel you lose 1/3 of your power
slide yer ass forward with elbows out
breath out slow and long with short intakes
NO TALKING=EVER ON ANY UPHILL
DRINK...DRINK...DRINK
People are getting lazier, it’s not just biking, it’s life in general. No one cooks any more, few people know to build or fix things, the disposable society has dumbed people down.
It's still way more fun going down.
However, climbable singletrack is not always an option where I live, so there's plenty of fireroad ascending. I find I can somehow enjoy this,as the rythmical turning of the pedals puts me in a kind of trance where my mind goes blank and there's only the motion of pedalling. A nice view always helps. The bonus is that you start the descend properly warmed up.
But, there are a few cons to climbing everything all the time. One is that a ride with proper elevation takes a lot of time to complete. Not so convenient on weekdays, unless you have a very understanding significant other. Second is, you spend most of your time pedalling up and you don't really practice your DH technique/stamina as much. My mates who occasionally or partly shuttle in order to spend more time going down have become much faster than me. I can no longer keep up with them going down, esp. on rough trails that are more than 6-7mins long.
So maybe you have to do a bit of everything in order to be an accomplished allround mtb'er.
Yep, can't call out the media without calling out ourselves.
With that said, I don't "mind" doing the climb, as long as there is interesting, quality downhill after that. Also, I ride the right bike for the right purpose.
But, FK it. I ain't "to posh to push"
I’ve had an mtb since 1986 and yes I loved it but it couldn’t be ridden in the way folk expect nowadays but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have liked it to be more able but it would probably have just broken.
I still like climbing and personally believe it’s a massive part of the game that improves fitness and skills but my two sons don’t see it that way, but they’re 30 years younger than me !
Mountain biking is no different from any other aspect of life, it’s changing with technology, the important thing is to enjoy it while you can and follow your own path.
That puzzles me every day,????
But I have a soft spot for really difficulty, old-school fall-line climbs that were never intended for bikes. That is my favourite way to access trails. Climb something absurd, using skills and power. Then savour the usually equally difficult fall-line descents.
I have been using a friend's Specialize Turbo Levo on the odd ride for a few weeks, and although it helps on climbs, it still requires an assload of rider input to work well in tough and technical terrain and on hard climbs. It makes fire roads and double track easy. (I find it boring on the downs due to the weight)
For me the experience of climbing is key to enjoying everything about MTB. But then I like gravel riding in the spring and bikepacking too.
Ain't nothin' wrong with a 30t x 50t easy gear.
M
Either that or they are 30 year olds ageing super fast, because, you know, mountain folk or something.
I believe in reality it’s the opposite.
"Riding with friends that send it like maniacs and could care less about "climbing" is just an add on for off-road cycling.
For my usual bikeparks, it'd be a 1600m climb to get to the lowest gondola - this is too much for me do and then ride a full day on the descents.
I have been always yelling around here that a bike that is meant to pedal (anything other than a DH/park bike) HAS to fit the rider well when pedalling, regardless of the effects that has on downhill performance and regardless of the ideas the rider of the bike has ('yeah, i want max DH performance, i'll manage the uphill suffer' -> shut it, buy a DH bike then). It also has to pedal well without any pedal bob, again regardless of any impacts it has on bump absorption (pedal kickback or anything similar). But it's possible to make good bikes that do both of the spectrums well so why the hell bother with bad bikes??
Nutrition and Fitness articles represent less than 1% of Pinkbike content.
So yeah, climbing is not fashionable, training with a roadbike is not fashionable, dieting is not fashionable, sleeping well is not fashionable... And the only way to avoid all that is getting an E-bike, but that's not fashionable either.
On the other hand walking up a climb is "normal", shuttling is really nice, Bikeparks are amazing, and eating like a pig and drinking a beer after a ride is really cool...
Last Fox XC fork has no handlebar block lever.
Coil shocks have no handlebar block lever.
Climbing on a bob horst link bike is beyond my comprehension.
Climbing on a Tantrum bike must be fun...what do you think Richard?
Cross country skiing was cool in the 60's... but I think 95% of people ride a lift nowadays to ski down... I don't know why.
If i could, I would take a shuttle, helicopter, gondola, chairlift, or tug rope to the top every day... just my humble opinion... in the end though, I pedal up because I do like the down... and I can't find someone to shuttle me.
flame on!
Till recent changes in geometry majority of bikes where crap to pedal uphill since you whether have 8 inch stem or rounded back
Forked over 5k for a real bike, never gonna buy an e-bike unless I get a serious tax break for commuting to work. I’m warming up to a motorcycle with pedals.
Now, apart from "It's easier", why WOULDN'T you ride up?
Riding downhill well is where the skill of "bicycling" becomes apparent. All these people upset about ebikes and lifts and lazy people bringing the world to an end? Their strong suit is climbing.
Full discolsure i'm a back-of-the-fast-group-front-of-the-casual-group semi-endurbro riding all-mountain on a 6" travel 29er wearing gym clothes, just calling em like I see em. Shuttling is fine and I'll do it at a ski resort but, if you're at a trail network you're riding a whole lot more singletrack if you're climbing tech.
The best mountain biker is the one having the most fun ????
If not, sorry for being judgy.