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XC same as Trails?

vim147vim147 Posts: 120
edited May 2011 in XC and Enduro
Is cross country (XC) the same thing as riding trails ?

Was on YouTube watching videos of people doing XC races.

Do they use the same bikes as people doing trails or with lighter thinner types?
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  • ctrlaltdelctrlaltdel Posts: 114
    I believe there's a lot of overlap between the two types. xc generally means racing; a very paired down bike that's designed to be as light and as efficient as possible with little compromise to anything else. It'll do a lot of the same stuff as a trail bike but will be a little less robust - for example my xc bike will have very thin tube walls that make it susceptible to rock strikes.
    A trail bike may have more suspension travel, and I'd have no reservations about taking it down a rock strewn descent in the peak district (not that I'd avoid taking my xc bike down the same descent, I'd just be a bit more wary about it)

    Hope that helps.
  • njee20njee20 Posts: 9,613
    It's just labels.

    Some people think of XC as riding around on fireroads. IMO unless it's dirt jumping, uplift assisted DH, or has lots of drops of 3ft+ then it's XC! Trail centres are XC.

    Trail bikes, as above, do tend to be a bit tougher than an XC race bike, more suspension, bigger tyres and rotors to compensate for the heavier, less skilled riders that deem 140mm travel a minimum :-)
  • cloudynightscloudynights Posts: 351
    xc riding is many things to many people but for the older of us on here xc riding is just what it says, you ride your bike across the countryside, coming across a mixture of terrain, singletrack,forest, techy rock gardens both up and down, boggy fields, tarmac roads etc its not about racing its about getting out in areas of the countryside taking in the views and trying to ride the best you can in all terrains
    anthem x with many upgrades
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    As far as I'm concerned, XC is a racing specialism (new word, woohoo!)
    DH racing is a specialism
    Trials and dirt jumping are specialised areas.

    Everything else is just "mountain biking"
  • cloudynightscloudynights Posts: 351
    cross country mountain biking aint a new term its what we called it twenty years ago
    anthem x with many upgrades
  • NatoEDNatoED Posts: 500
    xc IS mountain biking.
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    NatoED wrote:
    xc IS mountain biking.
    No it's not.
  • booldawgbooldawg Posts: 290
    I'd usually view 'XC' as a competetive race around a small(ish) circuit of 5 miles, varying in laps. Thats XC as in the initials. Cross Country I'd guess is like riding the South Downs Way or any other light bridleway/fire road riding.

    Trials as far as I know is the Danny McCaskill stuff, urban stunt riding on special bikes that are more akin to BMXs but slightly larger.

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  • ctrlaltdelctrlaltdel Posts: 114
    trails not trials :wink:
  • njee20njee20 Posts: 9,613
    Cross Country I'd guess is like riding the South Downs Way or any other light bridleway/fire road riding.

    Why only light bridleway riding? XC racing is far more technical than that, so why is XC riding not? If you're riding around the countryside, it's XC!

    Someone once said to me "we're not doing an XC ride, we're doing singletrack" WTF?!

    Anyway, it's all just labels, why the need to be pigeon holed!?
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    njee20 wrote:
    Anyway, it's all just labels, why the need to be pigeon holed!?
    Precisely, if it's not racing, then it's just mountain biking.
  • njee20njee20 Posts: 9,613
    Agreed!
  • DeepunderDeepunder Posts: 145
    Mountain biking - is anyone going to get into the actual definition of a 'moutain' :lol:
  • VWsurfbumVWsurfbum Posts: 7,959
    Deepunder wrote:
    Mountain biking - is anyone going to get into the actual definition of a 'moutain' :lol:
    Mountain = Bigger than a hill
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  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    VWsurfbum wrote:
    Deepunder wrote:
    Mountain biking - is anyone going to get into the actual definition of a 'moutain' :lol:
    Mountain = Bigger than a hill
    But smaller than a moon.
  • leafliteleaflite Posts: 1,651
    It is definately important to know what is xc and what isnt-many components such as rims and spokes are labled XC Only.
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  • NatoEDNatoED Posts: 500
    When i'm riding my mountain bike across the country side I'm riding XC . be it up hill ,down hill so XC IS mounatin biking even if it as a trail centre as most journey's across the country require you to follow a TRAIL.

    Ergo XC is mountain biking .

    Racing XC is just that racing cross country

    Racing DH is racing DH

    Trials is well just hypnotic in a strange way.
  • cloudynightscloudynights Posts: 351
    NatoED wrote:
    When i'm riding my mountain bike across the country side I'm riding XC . be it up hill ,down hill so XC IS mounatin biking even if it as a trail centre as most journey's across the country require you to follow a TRAIL.

    Ergo XC is mountain biking .

    Racing XC is just that racing cross country

    Racing DH is racing DH

    Trials is well just hypnotic in a strange way.

    thats what xc means to me too
    anthem x with many upgrades
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    NatoED wrote:
    When i'm riding my mountain bike across the country side I'm riding XC . be it up hill ,down hill so XC IS mounatin biking even if it as a trail centre as most journey's across the country require you to follow a TRAIL.

    Ergo XC is mountain biking .
    No, because mountain biking can be other things too. XC cannot be mountain biking, because DH would then NOT be mountain biking.
    Mountain biking is mountain biking. There are subclasses thereof.
  • NatoEDNatoED Posts: 500
    But while i ride XC i also have to ride down hills. therefore DH is a part of XC and so by connection Mountain biking. A general rider will in the main be riding XC . DH is just a part of the ride some enjoy more than others. Most riders will ride their bike to the DH section therefore riding XC as they ride cross the different terrains to get to the part they like.

    I come from a very old school of mountain biking where there was only one discipline and that was mountain biking where you rode your bike cross all the different terrains . DH is a subcategory of XC as it evolved FROM XC .

    XC is mountain biking in it's purest form Garry Fisher , Keith Bontrangor , Tom Ritchly all say that and they invented the sport .When they started the repack they wanted bikes that would allow them to ride up and over the mountains in Marin . They didn't just want to go down they wanted to cross the landscape to ride free of the restraints of the road .

    To me Trail riding is a renaming of what I started doing in the mid 90's as a 13 year old kid, that all the other mountain bikers were doing riding our bike across the country side enjoying the Whole experience free from the hassle of life. For that brief moment in time we were our own masters . Some enjoyed the down hill bits more so just did that , but they found that after the first experiences of riding XC . Now that is lost after all these years .

    XC should be claimed back and put where it belongs as the patriarch of mountain biking , where the MTB was born. How any one of importance in MTB design came from . Where the home of the common MTBer is , weather he be riding just DH or full XC .Not looked down upon as a forgotten and irrelevant "race" . Let us not listen to the advertising trickery applied by the suited masses of the companies that look for "New" and"improved" yet just give us "rehashed" and " renamed" .

    Infact we should look to the grand farther of MTBing CX for our inspiration in life. peace out and pas me some tie died clothing now thanks, ............should i grow and afro ?
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    DH did not evolve from XC. DH is a specific discipline. In the same way that a downhill skiier is not doing anything really connected to a cross country skiier.
    Yeah, a normal ride involves going down a hill, but that does not really relate to the category of DH. How many people incorporate a DH track in their average ride?

    DH is a part of mountain biking. XC is a part of mountain biking, trials is a part of mountain biking, dirst jumping and slopestyle is a part of mountain biking.
    They are all MOUNTAIN BIKING
  • NatoEDNatoED Posts: 500
    DH did come from XC . The first DH came from people enjoying the DH part of their XC ride and so decided it would be fun to develop a new discipline from it . At first DH bikes were exactly the same as the XC bikes that were around . It's only because of marketing that the term XC has been dropped. XC perfectly describes the normal use of a mountain bike as it is exactly what you do with it , you ride your bike cross country.

    It's the same as Rugby and Football . Rugby is officially known as Rugby Football as it was a development from football in the 1800's . Even though they are separate sports they share the same heritage in their history .
  • njee20njee20 Posts: 9,613
    I do agree with NatoED there, DH is now a totally different discipline, but it didn't start as such, it was just riding down fireroads and being timed! Arguably it's the case for all MTB disciplines anyway, as it virtually all has it's roots in Marin County and the Repack.
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    Yeah, so... DH didn't come from XC, did it? Sine xc wasn't first.
  • cloudynightscloudynights Posts: 351
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    Yeah, so... DH didn't come from XC, did it? Sine xc wasn't first.
    beg to differ mountain biking came from fixed forks no rear suspension bikes which were beefed up versions of a road bike, they were used to ride cross country or xc as some call it
    then things developed as things do, too bikes with suspension forks and then rear suspensions thats when things take off and different types of riding then start downhill a good example, you could even argue that mountain biking came from the bmx world but thats for another day :lol:
    anthem x with many upgrades
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    The first real use of mountain bikes as we know them was for racing the repack. That's where the founders of the mountain biking company started, and it's what the first "mountain bikes" were made for.
  • ceecee Posts: 4,553
    NatoED wrote:
    DH did come from XC . The first DH came from people enjoying the DH part of their XC ride and so decided it would be fun to develop a new discipline from it . At first DH bikes were exactly the same as the XC bikes that were around . It's only because of marketing that the term XC has been dropped. XC perfectly describes the normal use of a mountain bike as it is exactly what you do with it , you ride your bike cross country.
    .

    but those marin county boys were really riding road bikes....so xc came from road riding...by your logic....DH is a part of XC is a part of road riding? really?

    I have crossed the country on a road bike, including parts which were singletrack.....some of which were down a hill....so by extension, I have done DH on a road bike! How rad's that! or are you just being silly? :D:D
    Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I believe in the future of the human race.

    H.G. Wells.
  • cloudynightscloudynights Posts: 351
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    The first real use of mountain bikes as we know them was for racing the repack. That's where the founders of the mountain biking company started, and it's what the first "mountain bikes" were made for.

    nope your still wrong mountaiin bikes came from the road bike my mate still has one of the first marin and its dam near a copy of my early eighties road bike just bigger built
    anthem x with many upgrades
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    The first Marins were actually very late on. 1985 or so, I believe. The Specialised stumpjumper was (if I remember correctly) the first purpose made mountain bike.
  • NatoEDNatoED Posts: 500
    no first purpose built MTBs were made in Yorkshire and were the bikes that influenced Garry fisher who would have used 700C wheels back in the mid 70's but couldn't get any in the US at the time that were balloon like enough at the time as only Nokia made them but he didn't know about them . I can't remember the name of the guy but he still makes bikes now . he was in a US MTB rag last year.

    Arguably Sheldon brown was building the first MTB's in the US during the1960's too . He built a road bike with 625 wheels with balloon tyres .


    Side note that repack was ridden after the first off road rides by the marine county guys.
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