2manyoranges
Old School Grand Master
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Well the latest video out of the Rampage judging fiasco has tried to justify the mess which the event has become. I was always very sceptical of Rampage since although it was a showcase of extraordinary skills and deep commitment of the diggers, it seemed to be pushing elite athletes into crazy levels of personal risk - and communicating that mountain biking was about speed, amplitude and edging into danger. Rampage now is mutating, is it Big Mountain Freeride on natural ground? Is it trick-laden Slopestyle with heavily manicured features? It's suffering from an identity crisis...but then so does mountain-biking more widely....
With bike parks gaining bigger features, magazines promoting development in slopestyle skills, and dug trails being the apparent gold standard, mountain biking seems to have seriously diverged from the activity I knew when I started.
Digging is interesting. I like bridleway riding, and it was great living in Brighton with the multitude of legal trails stretching hither and thither along the length of the South Downs. But then I moved to London for work, and found complete restriction in what I could do. A move to Cambridge opened things up a tiny bit, with Thetford Forest just up the road, but boy do a still miss the hundreds of miles of trail in Sussex. Digging, bike parks and pump tracks have opening up more local riding - both for me and for people trapped in trail-barren areas. That's a good thing. But digging also has created jump lines which terrify me in terms of consequences...and push more towards slopestyle than the endurance 'leave no trace' riding which I felt was the beating soul of mountain biking.
Bike parks have the same assets - and relieve the pressure on the natural environment. They create a concentrated, all day experience which contributes to the economy. And in bridle-barren areas, young up and comers have a place to play and learn. Good things. But now they are becoming dominated by a 'Whistler A Line' mentality - big features, increased risk. Not sure I like that.
When I propose a ride to young ones, they want risk. They want amplitude. And they can readily get pretty injured as well as thrilled. That's not mountain biking as I used to recognise it. Yes there are risks - wet roots. downhill falls, anything that can happen usually does; but the ethos of the sport does seem to have switched to pushing boundaries and courting injuries rather than avoiding risk and injury.
I always have had fun. Always.
And 'leave no trace' seems to be an ethos which is now entirely antiquated. I have been into woods pretty much trashed by digging. Quiet areas of brush, previously a haven for badgers, deer and other fauna now all gone, and the wood criss-crossed with dug trails. In the face of complaints from walkers and horse riders, I could in the past argue that mountain-biking was really easy on the environment....not so now.
The Vibe hasn't gone. But it sure has changed.
With bike parks gaining bigger features, magazines promoting development in slopestyle skills, and dug trails being the apparent gold standard, mountain biking seems to have seriously diverged from the activity I knew when I started.
Digging is interesting. I like bridleway riding, and it was great living in Brighton with the multitude of legal trails stretching hither and thither along the length of the South Downs. But then I moved to London for work, and found complete restriction in what I could do. A move to Cambridge opened things up a tiny bit, with Thetford Forest just up the road, but boy do a still miss the hundreds of miles of trail in Sussex. Digging, bike parks and pump tracks have opening up more local riding - both for me and for people trapped in trail-barren areas. That's a good thing. But digging also has created jump lines which terrify me in terms of consequences...and push more towards slopestyle than the endurance 'leave no trace' riding which I felt was the beating soul of mountain biking.
Bike parks have the same assets - and relieve the pressure on the natural environment. They create a concentrated, all day experience which contributes to the economy. And in bridle-barren areas, young up and comers have a place to play and learn. Good things. But now they are becoming dominated by a 'Whistler A Line' mentality - big features, increased risk. Not sure I like that.
When I propose a ride to young ones, they want risk. They want amplitude. And they can readily get pretty injured as well as thrilled. That's not mountain biking as I used to recognise it. Yes there are risks - wet roots. downhill falls, anything that can happen usually does; but the ethos of the sport does seem to have switched to pushing boundaries and courting injuries rather than avoiding risk and injury.
I always have had fun. Always.
And 'leave no trace' seems to be an ethos which is now entirely antiquated. I have been into woods pretty much trashed by digging. Quiet areas of brush, previously a haven for badgers, deer and other fauna now all gone, and the wood criss-crossed with dug trails. In the face of complaints from walkers and horse riders, I could in the past argue that mountain-biking was really easy on the environment....not so now.
The Vibe hasn't gone. But it sure has changed.