What style of riding do these videos show?

morbiD

Hi!

Can anyone tell me what kind of riding these videos show?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBdQp5KRTVU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwqWSKJQGdQ

That's the kind of riding I would like to get into, but I don't even know how to describe it to people when I'm asking questions :roll:

I would take a guess at calling it singletrack. It certainly doesn't look hectic enough to be classed as downhill.

Then my next question would be, what kind of bike is best suited to that style of riding? XC, or All Mountain perhaps?

Briggo

I would call it ... mountain biking.

The Northern Monkey

Extreme fireroad?

Only joking... trail?

Anonymous

Briggo wrote:

I would call it ... mountain biking.

Ditto that.

nicklouse

riding down a hill.

the second was a bit steeper with a few bumpy bits. so I would say that you could class it as AM use a 140/140 travel bike.

But they could easily be done on a 100mm HT.

morbiD

Haha! Ask a silly question...

But seriously, if I went and started asking someone about "downhill" or "freeride" or "jumping," I'd be barking up the wrong tree. I just want to make sure I'm talking about the right thing.

Northern Monkey suggested "Trail" and nicklouse says it could be classed as AM. Anyone else agree or disagree?

Thanks for not being toooooo harsh on a newbie anyway :P

Anonymous

Trail, AM, Mountain biking, it's all the same thing. There's nothing specialist about it, which is where you start branching off into freeriding, XC, DH, or dirt jumping.

morbiD

I see what you mean. Thanks for clarifying.

Ok, so with reference to those videos and what nicklouse said about 140/140 travel, would a Canyon Nerve AM 5.0 do a better job than a Boardman FS Team?

Whilst searching forums, I've seen it said multiple times that those two brands are far and away the best value for money, and the Canyon has 150/140 travel while the Boardman has 130/120...

cooldad

I would call it pootling along a trail.

Bike Bloke

First vid looks like plain old mountain biking.....or XC, second slightly more gravity orientated but I'd still say XC.

Anonymous

morbiD, ignore the travel numbers - bike designs can vary hugely. All non specialist mountain bikes are capable of a bit of everything. Just choose something you like, basically.

cooldad

You don't need 150mm to do that. Add in some 4' plus drops etc and then maybe.

cooldad

Pretty much what Mcgee said, except you have to get the blasted thing up before you can go down, so hauling more metal than you need is a waste.

Anonymous

cooldad wrote:

Pretty much what Mcgee said, except you have to get the blasted thing up before you can go down, so hauling more metal than you need is a waste.

True, but the flipside is that if you're riding something featherweight, then you may start limiting yourself, or wandering "what if..."
Provided you don;t go for something daft like a Kona Stinky, you should be fine (but then, that's getting into the more supposeldy specialist machine anyway)

cooldad

Fair enough, unless like me you know your limits and have no desire to to fly like an eagle.
It hurts too much these days and takes ages to heal.
I will continue to soar like a chicken.

Anonymous

Pah, you talk rubbish. Flying doesn't hurt. Landing does

cooldad

True enough. My crashing style has changed from cool commando rolls to resembling a stuffed turkey falling off a truck.

morbiD

Well I'm basically looking at the whole MTB thing as someone who currently just rides towpaths on a rusty old hardtail :oops:

I saw those vids whilst trying to find out about types of bikes and thought "that looks good fun," so I'd like to head in that direction and have a bike that can take me wherever I might end up, within reason.

4 foot drops certainly sound cool but I don't think I'll be doing them *just* yet. Still, I'd like to have a capable bike if and when the time comes.

I have no interest in racing or long distance, so I assume an XC bike might just end up limiting me where an All Mountain wouldn't?

I'm probably just reading into it too much.

The Northern Monkey

you need this bike for that type of riding!



I mean, he never seems to go uphill so why not

morbiD

Haha! Does anyone need one of those?!

That looks 80% of the way towards being a motocross bike.

nicklouse

morbiD
Ok here are some of my bike with a brief description of their use.


Commuting and going to the Pub


DH racing ( not competitive)


playing on Tarmac and concrete


XC fun and long rides.


General riding (XC)


Playing Mad buggers.


Playing about and general trail riding.


Playing about and general trail riding.

then there are a few more if I am doing some thing else.


but I digress.

if you are looking at stating from new I would look at a HT with 130-150mm travel or a Fully with 140-150/140-150 front and rear travel.

and have fun.

Mark909

Yep id definantely buy a bike for every possible combination of riding style or terrain and then get your mum to drive around after you in her 4x4 with trailer so you have the correct bike at the right time. So for example in the second video i'd use your hipster single speed to ride along the road past all the people so you look cool. Just off the road switch to your 100m lightweight xc whippet for 10 secs of riding then up to 120mm xc full sus for another 10 secs. When things start to get a bit more bumpy out comes your 140mm canyon AM steed. Want to jump off a rock? Deffo need a freeride bike! Loosen your hand off those brakes then downhill is the only way!!

kdawg74

very nice collection of toys nicklouse.

wordnumb

Nicklouse is just showing off now. This chap however

The Northern Monkey wrote:

is clearly trying to compensate for something.

kdawg74

Got to love monster T's, just needs an engine.but yes making up for something.

P1Fanatic

I was thinking of starting a similar topic. My first taste of singletrack was at Cannock Chase Monkey Trail with my brother. Since then Ive been riding the trails at the Lookout nr Bracknell. What is the general category singletrack trail riding (at the 2 sites I mentioned) comes under?. I assumed XC but is that based on riding a flatter offroad terrain rather than riding down a trail as fast as possible?

DH seems fairly clear that its a lot steeper with more technical descents like rock gardens, drop offs, jump etc?

paul.skibum

The first one is dull the second is badly edited but better trails. Personally those trails are just riding - they would probably feature in my "I cant be bothered going anywhere further afeild to ride so I will do these" route plans - they are down hill but not downhill, they are trails but not Trails and they are free to ride but not freeride.

This would fall in between downhill and freeride in that it is both downhill, freeriding and fun as F*ck!

t0pc4t

P1Fanatic wrote:

I was thinking of starting a similar topic. My first taste of singletrack was at Cannock Chase Monkey Trail with my brother. Since then Ive been riding the trails at the Lookout nr Bracknell. What is the general category singletrack trail riding (at the 2 sites I mentioned) comes under?. I assumed XC but is that based on riding a flatter offroad terrain rather than riding down a trail as fast as possible?

DH seems fairly clear that its a lot steeper with more technical descents like rock gardens, drop offs, jump etc?

I ride Swinley a lot and I;d say with the notable exception of Sandy Gorge it's XC riding.

Anonymous

wordnumb wrote:

Nicklouse is just showing off now. This chap however

The Northern Monkey wrote:

is clearly trying to compensate for something.

You realise who that is, right?

(and besides, he was only about 4 foot tall or so, incredibly talented kid. Bike looks weird because he used forks for 26" wheeled bikes on his 20" wheeled frame - that's right, those are BMX wheels )