What is DH?

RichMTB

Another definition for you:

A DH course is one that is designed to be ridden at speed and requires "mandatory air"

A trail descent can be ridden at any speed and all obstacles can be rolled / bypassed

Contrast the World Cup DH at Fort Bill and the new Red DH.

The world cup course basically demands to be ridden fast, the faster you ride it the easier it is (so I've heard I sh@t myslef and walked most of it!)

The Red descent while still being very technical can all be rolled and has quite a few sections that while a good rider could hanlde without too much problem aren't exactly designed to be ridden at speed

wordnumb

DH = MTB - (XC + AM + FR + 4X)

Maybe. :?

Anonymous

wordnumb wrote:

DH = MTB - (XC + AM + FR + 4X)

Maybe. :?

By that definition, no kind of riding is actually, mountain biking.

wordnumb

Given how few mountain bikes ever set wheel on an actual mountain I'd stand by the accuracy of my equation. No single aspect of mountain biking encompasses all mountain biking.

I retract my 'maybe'.

bomberesque

RichMTB wrote:

Another definition for you:

A DH course is one that is designed to be ridden at speed and requires "mandatory air"

A trail descent can be ridden at any speed and all obstacles can be rolled / bypassed

I like a lot of that but many DH tracks have chicken runs. Most of the non-competition ones actually. Most of the Alpine ones that I have have chicken runs in them but I don't think this disqualifies them from being DH tracks. I like the distinction that the obstacles themselves can be rolled on a trail descent. this is *mostly* true (there's always the odd step here or there)

like I said though, it's not necssarily about having a 100% "correct" definition or even one that most people agree on, just so long as it's understandable and concise so when discussing such things, especially with a newcomer we are talking about the same thing.

SS's point is that to some DH simply mean a downward pointing slope.

On that note I know several flemish guys who define freeride as "riding freely" (off the marked path) ... but they're all bonkers :P

Anonymous

wordnumb wrote:

Given how few mountain bikes ever set wheel on an actual mountain I'd stand by the accuracy of my equation. No single aspect of mountain biking encompasses all mountain biking.

I retract my 'maybe'.

Depends where you live. We have a lot of mountains here, and there's mountain bikers all over them.
In fact, I see more mountain bikers in the mountains, than I do anywhere else.
Although, I do also ride my bike to work occasionally, and, well, anywhere really.

I think the distinction is that a mountain bike is a bike that can be ridden on mountainous terrain.

bomberesque

the label mountainbike itself is rightly in question I think. The french use VTT (Velo tout Terrain) which I find more accurate. I don't ride in mountains often, more likely valleys and hills and I suspect that's true of most of us, except those lucky enough, like McGee, to live in north wales ... (do I remember that tight mcgee?)

trouble is All Terrain Bike, ATB just sounds .... um .... rubbish.

meesterbond

Ok, my take on it is that DH is simply riding on marked courses, against the clock, downhill... Cross Country is riding round and round in circles, against the clock and everything else should be classified as 'just dicking about on bikes'

All other categories are just marketing...

Should I ride my Power-XC, my Aggressive XC, my All-Mountain or my Trail bike this weekend...sheesh - remember when life was simple and you just got your 40lb steel hardtail (only it wasn't called a hardtail back then, if was called a bike) with a full 80mm of (largely immovable) travel out of the shed and went to play in the woods?

[and calm]

Anonymous

meesterbond wrote:

remember when life was simple and you just got your 40lb steel hardtail (only it wasn't called a hardtail back then, if was called a bike) with a full 80mm of (largely immovable) travel out of the shed and went to play in the woods?

Hell yeah! Happy days.
I also remember rigids, but that's beside the point!

My father's two ancient bikes are both under 80mm travel on the front end - and both elastomer sprung

Skonk

It's an interesting point this and one I'm interested in myself.

I have both a XC bike and a Freeride/DH type bike (Spesh SX Trail, Not huge travel but built like a tank).

When I go on a cross country ride, I take my cross country bike obviously; but sometimes I like to ride some downhill-esque trails in my local woods.

But I really dont know if I can call them "DH" since I'm a bit unclear on what exactly classifies a trail as being DH rather than just a trail that happens to go down a hill.

Also I'm a bit of a pu$$y and dont like going over huge double jumps (only been riding about 6 months, at the age of 29), but I do like to get down the trails as quick as I can (usually squatting the jumps to keep the bike low and get it back on the ground quick).

It's the speed I like rather than the height

So the trails I ride are generally not very long (not much I can do about that, its just how the landscape is) but they are steep, have several nice berms along the way and dotted with jumps of various sizes (usually a take off just before a down slope so at speed can travel a good 8-14 foot while in the air on some of them).

There are also some drops (not very big though, 1 or 2 foot max), roots here and there and some slightly rocky bits.

They can all be done on an XC bike; I've done them on my XC bike infact and my friends do them on their XC bikes but we have all had wheel damage riding these trails on our XC bikes (buckled wheels or broken spokes).

Which is why I got the SX Trail, I can get from top to bottom MUCH quicker on it and find it a lot more fun to do.

So the question is, am I actually doing DH riding or is it something else?

James.

EDIT:

Forgot to mention, the DHlly trails I ride, are pratically unridable on an XC bike when muddy, where as I find them hugely enjoyable to ride in the mud when I'm on the SX Trail.

meesterbond

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Hell yeah! Happy days.
I also remember rigids, but that's beside the point!

My father's two ancient bikes are both under 80mm travel on the front end - and both elastomer sprung

At the risk of descending into retro-reminiscence I used to really envy a mate of mine who had a Girvin Flexstem (remember those) on his Muddy Fox... I reckon that had all of 10mm travel... luxury.

Oh, and one more thing... to educate our younger readers... c. 1990, this is what counted as a DH bike! Small bag of sweets for whoever recognises it!

Mancunianfightingcat

dictionary.com refers to the noun ' downhill ' as follows

–noun
6. a timed ski race on a steep slope in which competitors take the most direct route to the finish line following a course with relatively few turns and attaining very high speeds.

Change Ski for bike and I think that's pretty much spot on!
Terrain, jumps, drops etc are just additional things that make each D/H track individual.

pypdjl

bomberesque wrote:

the label mountainbike itself is rightly in question I think. The french use VTT (Velo tout Terrain) which I find more accurate.

Then again all terrain bike is just as inaccurate, since there is plenty of terrain that you can't ride a mountain bike over. On the other hand you can ride road bikes off road, and up mountains. In short: it's just a name.

CycloRos

DH is a type of racing. DH courses are what DH races are performed on. If there has never been a DH race on it then its just a trail that points down... or is it all just messing around on two wheels and the rest is hype :?