Downhill Mountain Biking: A Truly Distinctive Sport

Airborne Taka Downhill Bike

As I wrote almost exactly a month ago,

I have wanted to get into downhill mountain biking for a long time.  Gravity-fueled adrenaline-pumping sports are what I'm all about. I come from a background heavy in downhill skiing, so riding a lift and shredding downhill at high speeds come very naturally to me.

After spending a little over a month riding a big 8" travel rig around, I feel like I've had a healthy dose of downhill riding, and am starting to understand what it's all about.  And let me tell you: downhilling is big, it's bad, and it's tons of fun!

Downhill mountain biking has got to be one of the coolest sports I have ever done during the summer time!  I love getting to rip downhill at high speeds, and the feeling of the suspension just eating up all manner of rocks and roots as you bomb down a narrow trail is just addicting!  After a short transition period, I think I would almost completely give up cross-country riding if I had a place nearby where I could take a chairlift to the top.

If you are thinking about jumping from cross-country riding to downhilling, here are some things that you should consider:

Searching for a Place to Belong
Essentially, downhill mountain biking is a sport that is distinctly separate from that of cross country mountain biking.  I have wondered why there were some websites on the internet that seemed to focus exclusively on gravity-fueled bike disciplines (Pinkbike), and others that seem to be much more focused on cross-country riding (Singletracks). The reason is that these sports are totally different.  At times, it feels like there is very little in the way of skills and techniques that cross over between cross country and downhill.

Then there's all mountain. All mountain riders are stuck somewhere in the middle between cross country and downhill, and they don't know really know what the crap is going on.  The all-mountain mountain bikers just know that they like riding bikes, and coming down hills at high speed, despite whatever sort of junk might be sitting in the trail between them and the bottom of the mountain.  This is the largely undefined category that I find myself sitting squarely in.  Because of my great love for high speeds and gnarly trails, those descending skills transferred over pretty well to the big-hit bike, but I still felt a little unprepared.

So in what ways exactly does downhilling differ from cross-country riding?
Well over the next 2 posts I will cover, in detail, several significant ways that downhilling stands apart as its own sport.  Stay tuned!

Difference 1: The Physical Side
Differences 2 and 3: The Mental Side and the Mad Skills Factor

Your Turn: What is your opinion on riding style/bike style classification?  What categories do you recognize as legitimate? And does it really matter that much?