You’re Being Lied to About Mountain Biking

Do you know how, have you done drops before? Uh, talk to someone before you do it. When I first started mountain biking, all I knew was get the best bike I could get my hands on and keep pushing the limits more and more. All right, we got a little rock section right here. We're going to session this real quick. Got the imminent right there. I think it's ready for it though. Got a little drop at the end, which is what I'm worried about because it goes into a turn right here that you got to be ready for. So you got to hit the brakes as soon as you come in. Trust me, when I was pushing the limits on what I could do on a mountain bike, it was an amazing feeling, but I soon got to a point where I was questioning, why am I even doing this? Which honestly led me to lose interest and excitement I had for mountain biking. I love mountain biking and riding gnarly trails gives you an adrenaline rush like you've never had before. But I started to realize I wanted more out of mountain biking, which meant I had to do less. Yo, say, you got some words of wisdom for him to hit and drop the hammer, man? He's been, he's been putting it off all weekend long, man. Oh, it's so easy. And we know it's one of the easiest, it's one of the easiest drops invented though. All right, we got the room. Let's go. Why are you hyping me up? Oh my goodness. Let's, let's go. I will, I will count him down. All right, ready? Three, two, one. Go. Drop the hammer was a feature I never thought I would be brave enough to try. And after two years, I finally did it and it felt good. But after this, I started to feel a lot different about mountain biking. When most beginners hear the words mountain biking, the first thing that comes to mind is the need for a really nice, expensive bike coupled with riding trails like these. I would always hear people say you need a certain bike to ride certain places. But what they would not ever say was there's trails at those same places where you don't need a highly capable bike. Actually, the more I would ride nicer bikes, the more I felt cheated out of the actual mountain biking experience. Because I was more focused on tuning a bike just right than I was actually riding a bike and having fun. Mountain biking is advertised as this extreme sport. When in reality, anyone can do it. And I think a lot of people miss out on an opportunity to try it because the first thought they have is that it's an extremely skilled and dangerous sport. When you mention mountain biking to somebody, the first thing they think of is all the craziness that could happen or the stuff that they see on TV or on videos. But just imagine if you told somebody about mountain biking and this is what they pictured. This is mountain biking. Imagine how many people are missing out on mountain biking just because they think it's super crazy. When in reality, this is it. This is what I mean when I say the mountain bike companies and just everybody associated with the advertisement of it are just advertising it wrong. Tell me one person you know that couldn't ride a trail like this. You literally are just riding a bike on some dirt. That's it. Now there are levels to it, but mountain biking in general, this is what it is. And a lot of people just don't have the correct information about it because everything that's being pushed is the super extreme stuff and the super expensive bikes. Look at this. Just imagine if everybody knew that if you wanted to get out and mountain bike, this is all that it entails. Mountain biking is about more than just the ride. It's about getting outside, being in nature, getting away from the crowds for once and feeling at peace. I think so many people can benefit from getting out on the trails and just riding. Not only does it benefit you physically, but I would say it does even more mentally. There's a huge potential market for mountain biking that I feel is being neglected, and I think it's causing the industry to struggle even more. 90% of people have no interest in the performance of a new suspension on a bike or how much it weighs. People just want to get out on the trails and ride bikes. But because mountain biking is so intimidating, they fail to even try because they're being led to believe that mountain biking is extreme and that they need these overly complicated bikes. Once I realized mountain biking wasn't about the gnarliest trails you can ride or owning the most expensive bike you can afford, but more about the entire experience itself, that's when my love for mountain biking came back. And I hope if you're watching this video, you decide to get out and give it a chance. Whether you love it or hate it, you can never go wrong being out in nature on your bike. Now I'm going to take you on a trail ride that most people can do and I think should be advertised a lot more because once people see things like this, it looks doable and attainable and it'll give them a chance to actually try it out. I remember the last time I came out to this trail, I was on the specialized status full suspension and now I'm riding it on a steel rigid bike. That's crazy that I thought I needed a full suspension this whole time. This is just riding a bike on a trail. That's literally what it is. Whatever trail you decide that to be, that's the trail you ride. But no matter what trail it is, in my opinion, it's still mountain biking. Like would you not call this mountain biking? Because I'm not doing anything crazy. I'm sure most people can do what I'm doing right now, except probably that part. But 90% of this trail is doable, at least the part I'm riding, by most people. But the fact that they have that initial impression that they can't do it, they miss out on a great opportunity to explore the outdoors and maybe find something they could potentially fall in love with like I did. I always thought the same thing. I thought mountain biking was crazy and you had to be a daredevil to do it. It's like, no, that's literally the complete opposite. I kind of cut this trail short because the higher I was going up on the trail, the more snow I was getting. But tell me this is not doable. Like I'm taking some of these lines because I'm experienced, but you don't have to take those if you don't want to. And those are few and far between on a lot of this trail, but you can definitely see it coming so it won't catch you off guard. But that's why I'm trying to show people that this is not what you think. Missing out on a lot of great times, great opportunities because the wrong message is being put out there. I literally almost stopped mountain biking because the bikes were just getting out of hand. It's like, I didn't even know what bike to choose for a while. So many options. But now I don't care what bike I ride. As long as it don't fall apart on the trail and it can handle the trails I ride, I don't care what it is. Once I developed that mentality, that's when my excitement and my love for biking instantly came back because I started focusing on the wrong things. That's what kind of turned me off about the whole mountain biking scene. I love rigid bikes. They're so fast. These things don't waste any energy.