Mountain biking is a constantly evolving sport - components, apparel, even riding styles continue to change from season to season. What was once a must-have accessory (anyone need some anodized purple bar ends?) becomes a piece of history, something we can chuckle at when telling stories about how it was 'back in the day.' What follows are seven freeride trends that have earned their place in the history books, for better or worse.
1. SkinniesThe initial reasoning behind the advent of woodwork onto mountain bike trails was sound – bridges helped raise the trails above the mud and water found on Vancouver's North Shore, allowing them to be rideable year round. But then something happened. Instead of being a tool to allow trails to navigate through wet and marshy areas, the wooden features turned into “stunts,” getting higher and skinnier every season. Before long you had to have the skills of a circus freak / tight rope walker to navigate the contraptions scattered throughout the woods. It was a slow speed game, where precision and impeccable balance were required to survive a ride without ripping off a rear derailleur or spraining your ankles after jumping down to the forest floor from some ridiculous height. And don't forget the teeter totters, those rickety, never-quite-dialed features that should probably have been left on the playground instead of being brought into the woods. Luckily, as the seasons passed, riders began to realize that slightly wider features allowed for more speed and flow, and skinnies returned to where they came, the toothpick thin cedar planks slowly decaying into the forest floor.
2. Hucks to FlatClosely related to the popularity of skinnies, there was a time when pancake flat landings were commonplace, and the wheelie drop was a mandatory skill to survive a ride with all your teeth. Why weren't there any transitions? It's a bit of a mystery, but some of the blame may lie with Dangerous Dan, the North Shore builder whose trails were famous for their small, postage stamp size, sniper landings (Dansitions). There was a bit of machismo going on, an attitude that steep landings were somehow less hardcore than plummeting to a pile of dirt with the same pitch as a mall parking lot. Luckily, the allure of slipped discs and sore ankles has faded, and properly shaped landings have become more and more common, even on the North Shore. There's still the occasional drop to flat on certain trails for old time's sake, but overall those whiplash inducing landings are a thing of the past.
3. Stair Gaps / Urban 'Jibbing'As freeride bikes grew in popularity, so did launching flights of stairs and riding off of loading docks. With 8” of travel and a Monster T up front, what could go wrong? As it turns out, aluminum frames aren't impervious to breaking after weeks of dropping 10' to concrete, and more than one shop had customers come back distraught that their supposedly apocalypse-proof frame cracked when they were 'just riding along.' The urban hucking trend persisted until straight airs began to lose popularity, and the antics of BMX riders proved that suspension (or even brakes) wasn't necessary, and that it was actually possible to ride street with a bit of style. The big bikes slowly returned to the woods they emerged from, and nowadays the only stair hucking you'll see is likely part of an urban downhill race, where the addition of wild dogs and screaming fans makes stair hucking a semi-legitimate thing to do on a downhill bike.
4. 50 Pound Bikes'When I was your age, downhill bikes weighed 50 pounds and had 26” wheels....' For a time, concerns about bike weight took a backseat as the race for more and more travel raged on. Bikes pushed past the 8” travel barrier, and then Marzocchi pulled out their ace in the hole with the Super Monster, a behemoth of a fork whose 11.8 pound fighting weight matched its 11.8 inches of travel. Strap one of those onto a Karpiel Armageddon with a set of Sun Ringle Double Wide rims and you've got a Josh Bender approved huck machine. Luckily, a lot has changed in the last 10 years, and anything over 40 pounds is now considered heavy for a DH sled. And freeride bikes? Those overbuilt 7” steeds equipped with single crown forks, two chain rings, a bashguard and a chainguide in the front, well, they've shed some weight, had their travel reduced by an inch or so, and now they're called all-mountain or enduro bikes. They're just as capable, and a hell of a lot more pedal friendly than their predecessors.
5. 3.0" TiresFor a time, especially on the east coast of the United States, the downhill worthiness of your bike was directly related to the width of its tires. The fatter the better, and the Nokian Gazzalodi was the cream of the fat tire crop. Available in 2.6” and 3.0” widths, this bulbous beast showed the world how much of a badass you were. Bonus points if it was mounted onto a 24” rear wheel. When riders decided that cornering performance might be a nice option to have, the 3.0" tire's popularity waned, although the fat bike contingent seems to have picked up where this trend left off.
6. Giant Fenders / Fork Stanchion GuardsBig tires require big fenders, and for a few seasons wheels disappeared underneath full size fenders that looked like they were stolen from a dirt bike. Eventually, someone realized that the plastic accoutrements were overkill, and fenders have since slimmed down to a less visually jarring size. Also related to the trend of strapping extra plastic to your bike were the fork stanchion guards that crafty Canadians started making out of PVC pipe cut in half and attached to the lowers of a non-inverted fork, protecting the stanchions from scratches. There's no clear answer as to why everyone suddenly felt the need to protect their stanchions – maybe the rocks were particularly sharp that season? There were even a couple of commercially available versions – Core Rat, best known for their nearly indestructible Cordura clothing line, was one of the first to capitalize on this odd trend.
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7. Full Body Armor
Nothing complements a 50 pound bike better than 10 pounds of body armor strapped to your back for the push to the top. The Dainese Pressure Suit was ubiquitous for a solid chunk of time during the heyday of the freeride era, a plastic and mesh signal to the world that you were about to get 'extreme.' The football player suit of armor trend has since faded, as the introduction of viscoelastic pads like D3O allow for more form fitting, less bulky protections options. The only full suits of armor you'll see these days are usually rental items doled out by bike parks in an attempt to keep new riders' extremities intact so they can enjoy more than one day of downhilling before visiting the ER.
I have a feeling that the ones who hate skinnies or tricky elevations were the ones who sucked too bad to ride them
Instead of full body armor, they should have put down those 661 knee/shin pads that always slipped down and became shoe/lower shin pads. We can all easily agree those won't be missed. May they burn in hell.
Most scary skinny I rode was 'skyline' which had a section 100 feet long, 4" wide and ranging from 10'-14' high with three angle changes / turns across its length. You don't want to fall off something that high!!
"6 out 7, (we'll call that 85.7%) of that list EXISTS largely BECAUSE of pinkbike and their stupid 'shore tested brah' bullshlt that pretty much defined that website in the first 10 years of its existence."
As you rightly point, skinnies in a bike park and skinnies on the mountains were different beasts
First I rode the proper north shore trails above Vancouver the thing that freaked me out was the 'exposure' with jagged sh*t everywhere waiting to put a hole in you if you slipped and fell. Some rocks here, some sharp branches there, on a steep gradient you could hardly walk/climb down!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmbJrhcP0A8
These are the types of extreme skinnies that tend not to be built year after year in popular places like they were 10 years ago. Maybe it was a filming fad? Or Danger Dan just needed his fix.
Simply put, in a majority of areas, building elevations would require material that isn't readily available and the features themselves wouldn't be seen as cost effective... which applies to individuals building their own trails as well. But really though, that's a big leap in logic you made there.
I just think the logic of, well if you enjoy skinnies, then why aren't you building them, is very flawed.
www.pinkbike.com/photo/10743226
The challenge of the skinny is fun, but why jack it up 10 feet? I'm trying to build skill, not kill brain fairies.
We have lots of skinnies in our area, but not the death defying ones from Drop In.
agree. the death defying skinnies way up in the air were not "fun" to ride, because the exposure / risk was too severe.
Just like those huge hucks and rampage-style quarry drops that you might send a few times before never sending again because you managed to clean them without crashing. I rode many of these stunts because they progressed my riding but I will not lie that my knees were knocking together and my mouth was dry on the walk-up to the run in!
ep1.pinkbike.org/p4pb342965/p4pb342965.jpg
when we had our bike park in Esher, Surrey (UK) the 2nd version of the bike park was built with technically challenging but "safe" skinnies to ride. People could spent hours trying to clean them with no more risk than bending a rotor or their rear derailleur
we had this guy come visit, Mr Wade Simmons
ep1.pinkbike.org/p4pb437121/p4pb437121.jpg
I got to session the park with him for a good few hours, we just rode the skinnies forwards and backwards for the technical challenge. There were more aggressive stunts in the park, including ladder drops, teeters, booters and dirt jumps but he seemed happy sessioning the skinnies.
24"x3" wide tire and all
www.pinkbike.com/photo/5874293
Wade brought Gully on the trip, he was more into sessioning the bigger stunts in the park, he brought a tonne of style and moves that day!
ep1.pinkbike.org/p4pb437127/p4pb437127.jpg
Wade taught me some cool stuff like front wheel pops off the ladders, I'd see him do these moves in NSX videos and it was rad to see in person
ep1.pinkbike.org/p4pb437122/p4pb437122.jpg
he then encouraged me to try them switch!
ep1.pinkbike.org/p4pb437123/p4pb437123.jpg
In 10 years we will lament "ridiculously low bottom brackets" - remember when we would bottom out on the lip of take offs? What were we thinking!?
$10,000 carbon race frames for people who don't race? What were we thinking!?
Remember how stupid the 650b wheel craze was!? What were we thinking!?
Remember when we use to use derailleur!?? Haha what the heck were we thinking!?
Thank god it's 2024 and bucking to flat, 3.0 wide tires and stair drops are in vogue!
For someone like me at 24 years old, I came into mountain biking after 13 years of BMX so completely missed the urban hucking phase. And now on my full suspension bike I look at the old BMX inspired stair drops and things and gravitate towards it.
As we get older and younger lads start hopping on full suspension bikes (who completely missed the urban huck phase and aren't influenced by the jaded older guys who hate urban hucking because they have been taught that it isn't cool anymore), I can see them start to transition back to riding street on a downhill bike.
BMXs may be best suited to the job, but people ride street on 26" DJ bikes and nobody bats an eye.
Your argument boils down to "better be rich enough to afford expensive slimming elasto5000 tech or you're a loser." Up yours Mike Kazimer for advocating that we be less safe (and inevitably ride less) so we can look cool.
Made me think of the RIBS I enjoyed last week. Pork back ribs slow cooked in a delightful natural honey glaze BBQ sauce. Awesome. Thanks for reminding me.
RIBS.
Oh, its about armor. I'm glad pigs don't have armor.
This article hits a huge frickin home run... well done pinkbike... weird how our sport has "evolved" by going back to its roots.. hauling ass and having fun on trails.... as a side note skidding should never, ever be on this list
and when i mean the bigger stuff, i mean like this old ass video our FR/DH forefathers made.
skip to 2:40
www.pinkbike.com/video/59606
on the first set. im sure a bmx rider can clear that set with ease. but on that second one... yea.. no. i would have a dh bike for that. try to imagine a 20" bmx bike go through that. hah. granted they would probably just hop the first set and grind the second rails all the way down.. but what fun is that when you cant hear the chain slapping your chainstay when you land on the second set of stairs.. to me thats mountain bike eargasm.
And maybe you are lucky to live near mountains or hills. Have you considered that other passionate cyclists might not? And they still want to do a type of freeriding so they grab a bike in their cities and shred as hard as they can over there?
Stop being an a*shole hater and respect other riders.
@Maxwellington: so in your opinion a full on 26" street machine (like the NS Capital) is goofy too? If anything is goofy in my opinion, it's grown men riding a bike that is smaller than their 3 years old daughter's bike. Only because more people ride one type of bike (in this case BMX), doesn't mean that that type of bike is more or less goofy on something. The reason more people ride BMX is not because it's less goofy, but because it's easier. But if that's all someone cares about, why not ride a scooter? Even easier and goofier.
And btw I live nowhere near mountains, I live in Dublin, the closest forest with trails is 40 km from my home.
Lastly, I loved stair gaps. Man made, natural, it didn't matter. There was a thrill that came from launching off the top, clearing the flat, and putting the bike down on the last few steps that couldn't be matched. Coming up short or over shooting always had bad consequences.
If you don't like these things thats fine and dandy, to each their own, but keep in mind purple ano parts made a come back with the hipster fixie crowd. You are going to look pretty funny in your skinny jeans on your light weight 29r while all the cool kids are riding 50 pound monsters while wearing full body armor and baggies while railing skinnies and launching stair sets.
By the time that happens you will be old like me and wont care how you look or what you ride, you will just do what you like and say the heck with the current trend:p
Skinnies- Awesome, a lost skill with wider more flowy trails that tend to be a round now. Sh1t scary too!
Hucks to flat- Another lost skill, pampered by transitions that last for ages and massive travel bikes nowadays. All or nothing...you'd better hope you get it spot on!
Stair gaps/ jibbing- Damn fun and awesome to watch. How can you possibly not love making the most of the urban environment?!
50 lb bike- Yeah, they can die Just not necessary with the technology now.
3 inch tyres- Not practical for most riding but they have there place. Not too different to the 2.5's most people seem convinced they "need" for some ganrcore enduro they ride
Stanchion guards- Don't look cool but when the guy running an uplift has co-ordination like forest gump then it becomes sensible. Also, good protection riding skinnies. See "skinnie=awesome"
Full body armour- I don't know about you but I don't bounce especially well and my skin is not impervious to rocks. How can you possibly criticise these suits? Especially given the massive progression in riding and racing and lack of back protection on the market. Some of the top guys do seem to be getting more neck and back injuries than we used to see in the early 2000's and before...
www.singletracks.com/mountain-bike/best_trails.php?state=10
There's my rig! The Stab, runnin stronger than ever!
If you spend enough time at any lift access bike park this summer you will see people EVERY week head to the ER for stitches and casts. And not just the tourists, the "regulars" who are to cool for pads.
Body Armor is a MUST, gear up and live to ride another day.
Anyone who says pads don't protect form brakes/fractures etc either has garbage pads or no experience in the medical field.
I have a huge bag of old gear in my truck and have given away pads to "Joeys" who are becoming regulars, they couldn't be more thankful. Pass it on, share your old gear & advice with the "Joeys", gear up and ride-on.
Otherwise the article is pretty funny. Although I still love to take laps on 50lb sleds from time to time. They are the Hummers of MTB!
I'm perfectly fine on my 7", 35 lb, 26"- wheeled, 2011 outdated bike. Boo-hoo, guess I'm not one of the cool kids.
Everything is on a continuum. In a matter of years, "enduro" bikes won't be cool either and sites like this will be trying to tell us what we need next.
There is a massive difference between 180mm of heavy duty coil suspension (Totems) on a heavy duty rig like my Norco, to 160mm of air suspension on a light bike like my Spec Enduro.
Also, when a product is "outdated" faster than computer hardware is outdated, something is amiss. I will ride my Norco for the next 5 years, and by then it will be "cool" again.
Even getting 10% less banged up and not having knee guards slide would be awesome.
And shit, what's wrong with protecting stanchions? But yeah, everything else can get shafted. Stairhucks, heavy steep FR bikes and skinnies are cooked (mint in early kranked/NDW though).
Btw, if you don't smoke Tarrytons then f**k you!
I fail to see how a 3.0 tire has poorer cornering performance?
1.They give you more grip so you can break later and ride in loose terrain with more confidence,
2. Increase your wheel diameter (a 26x3.0 is about the same diameter as a 650bx2.35) so rolls over stuff better
3. The added tire height gives you more cushion so you can plow over stuff with less fear of pinchflats and damaging you rims.
The only downside (and it is a big one) is the added weight which makes accelerating them harder :
26x3.0 Nokian weighed 1800g and the Duro 26x3.0 (which you still can buy) weighs ~1600g.
Of course, if there was a modern supergravity version I'm sure you could get them down to 1400-1500g ;P
Just don't do this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od231q6nbS8
But some how the 3.0 front was still 26"? Bike was 50lbs with a Shiver up front and rode like a monster truck but it got me started.
Then the Demo 9 was close to 48lbs out of the box and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get it lower then 44lbs with 2.7 Nevegal front and a skinny 2.5 Nevegal in the rear.
8" is 8" no matter the size wheel.
But 24 tends to get hung up in the rough stuff. It was good for those hucks to flat. That was about it.
The first bighits 2002 did not have an offset rear wheel so people would get the previous gen FSR DH rear and bolt it up so you could have a 26" rear wheel.
People who didn't live through that era shouldn't smirk. It was fun when it was happening. Eventually you'll be looking back on today's stuff the same way. Technology then was superior to what came before, and technology now is better than back then. And in 5 years who knows where we'll be, looking back on the wheel debate, $10k carbon debate, "enduro", riding the bike park in no armour, using derailleurs, etc.
In the present we do the best with what we have. And right now that's a lot!
The stupid trend in safety now is, its not cool to wear gloves. Last week me and my son were buying some new fox gloves and elbow pads, cuz we're "enduro" like that and this guy at the shop asks how we are doing. He introduced himself as a Special Bikes product manager doing research on retail customers to get feedback. After a 30 minute conversation I went to shake his hand and say good talk, he says, "I can't shake your hand, let's do a lite fist bump instead" his palm was all chewed up and wrist was swollen from the day before. Said he doesn't like to wear gloves cuz he "can't stand feeling of little folds of fabric between his fingers". If he does, he just can't ride!! Hahaha swelling will be gone in couple of days, chewed up wrist won't. Haha no riding for him for a while.
Soooo many people would walk away from so many crashed if they just wore some pads in the right places. All those Leath dudes with nothing else on, no gloves in skinny jeans. Lame!
3" tires and heavy body armor maybe not. but bridges always add something to trails that would become bland without.
Of course PB if you are riding 29ers then yes I am sure you probably would not like to see skinnies or tech drops make a comeback. More endure please, it is sooo exiting------ not!!!!!!!
Huh? Who you talking too? They still have 26" wheels!
When I was "your age" I was riding a 20" bike with a banana seat, doing all the shit people are doing now.
Nowadays MTB feels more surgical and dialed ... Progression you would call.
29",27.5",26",24", 20",freeride, DH, enduro, we didnt care about it, we just wanted to ride ...
I miss when everything was new (to me) and the old trends and the old style have this magical aura to it ...
I dont know ... The craziness of those days is still in my memory!
PS - i'm a street rider with 2 brakes and gears, so you know I'm that commited to old school way!
PS 2 - Pinkbike: one of the best articles I have seen in here because it brought back my memories
2. Street riders still huck to flat. I agree that in freeride it makes no sense tho.
3. Stairgaps: I really miss those! Unlike most Canadians, many people (like me) live in flat countries, where the biggest height difference we can possibly find is a stair to the elevated little park of company premises (mostly due to parking spots being underneath them). Stairgaps are the closest we can get to freeriding in our country, so everyone who loved freeride hucked them all the time. It was so much fun!
4. I agree, I really don't miss my old bike, that weighed twice as much as my current bike and had many many problems, unlike my current bike.
5. Those super fat tyres came up quite handy for the stairgaps: they made the stairs smoother and lowered the chances of getting pinch flats. Now the 3" wide tyre trend has faded away, and we got a new trend to replace it: 4" wide tyred fatbikes. Even wider than the old ones.
6. Ugh, those fenders were so ugly, I couldn't agree more!
7. If you crash on a stairgap, those stormtrooper outfits do come handy. Overkill for DH: yes. Overkill for stairgaps: not so sure about that.
Even tho this is a very personal article, that is all about the opinion of the writer (who puts his words into all of our mouths), I really enjoyed reading this and it brought back some really good memories. Cheers for that!
Not sure what is dumber riding tech trail by himself or stupid features.
I prefer more natural trail features with less wood work. This in fact is the direction the shore is headed. Less woodwork better designed trails..
Woodwork has 10 yr lifespan here at best. A well designed trail can last much longer and cheaper.
There are lots of skinnies still here btw but only the ground level ones are being maintained now.(by the district and approved trail builders groups)
Could have been a freak accident who knows really what happened that day.
I personal am not a fan woodwork from an aesthetic point view. I prefer more natural looking trails and features which incidently also imo makes slightly safer experience possibly in some situation.
It was sad thing to be sure but riding alone is risky add the element of unfamiliarity and excitement about riding a "BC style trail and is the risk elevated imo.
I ride 80% alone so I make sure I am prepared for problems as best I can.
I have first kits,a light, gps cel etc food tools etc.
BUt I always tell my wife which trail in what order and how long I'm should be gone for.
I txt her if anything changes and she can track my progress through my iPhone using an app.
More than that I ride easier stuff those days. More xc like. I dont do pipeline or floppy bunny etc unless Im with buddies.
I just want to get some exercise, see some trees and breath some fresh air.
I'm sick of people riding for other people, you are probably never going to make it as a profeccional rider, so get on your $500, 2006 kona stinky and have the time of your life, for yourself.
Skinnies are at every uk trial center still.and used.
I see people in wharncliff woods most weeks in body armour.
Pinkbike do you even visit riding spots before you make statements?
I've been riding bikes for 16 years and every time I ride, whether it's local trails, Whistler, Costa Rica, one basic line always comes to my mind by a North Shore legend:
-Look where you want to go-
Bruce Spicer
Yeah, I was there for all of that and 50lb. bikes were just as ridiculous then as they are now. Blame companies that made that shit, like a stem you could hand a V-8 from. While some things simply have to go over time, we wouldn't be where we are without all that stuff. I can tell you that today, nobody needs ceramic bearings on a bicycle, ever.
Most of those are directly related to each other actually...
I still love my 24x3inch "Cost a lotties"
24 inch for life.
I guess i really show my age from the early days of freeride.
I still have fun on my bike tho!
never did 3.0's..2.7" wss the largest for..
never did anything 50lbs but I was close (45)...
Yes...fork boots were counter intuitive cause they actually held the dirt in...thats called sheep marketing
Lets put an end to the freeride flick. I am pretty sure if you take off that neck brace you will be able to carve a turn.
Now go ride, it looks to be a nice day.
so we made this: www.pinkbike.com/video/349901
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrE8sT-zMEE
www.pinkbike.com/video/7842