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Why Go Mountain Biking?


Why ride your bike in the dirt?

Mountain Biking is a very fun, fast-paced activity where you choose the level of danger and the level of competitiveness. There are some very compelling aspects to mountain biking that attracted me to it:

  • Go outside and enjoy the outdoors
  • Great exercise - mountain biking can be very strenuous
  • Exciting - Going slightly too fast on trails feels dangerous
  • Multi-faceted - One minute you think you are just getting a bike for some exercise, but then you start learning to repair and service your own bicycle, installing upgrades on the bike, etc
  • Social - mountain bikers are, in my experience, very laid back and friendly people
  • Challenging - some obstacles out there on advanced trails are somewhat dangerous. Learning to overcome them is an obsession.

Sitting on a bench watching mountain bikers on trails makes me think that perhaps one day, in the future, when the oil is all gone and other technologies have failed us, that people will travel on dirt trails through forests very rapidly on bicycles. The bicycle never really got a chance to replace the horse. You might be surprised just how much you can do on a bicycle with a one foot wide path through rocks, roots, sand, mud, streams, etc.

The most special thing about Mountain biking is that you do it at your pace. No one makes you go off a cliff, no one makes you ride anywhere at all. You get on your bike at a time of your choosing, ride as long as you like on whatever surface you like, and you go home. Unlike an aerobics or other class activity, mountain biking is about freedom and independence. You aren't on a team, you don't have to do your part. You just ride, wind in your hair, through the rocks, trees, dirt, streams, and enjoy time outside while pumping some good exercise.