Ways to go
Mountain biking has come a long way in a short space of time, but the best (and worst!) is yet to come
Twenty-five years (and a few months) ago, I wrote my first words for mbr. Mountain biking seemed pretty damn sorted back then. We had global media coverage with mainstream brands like 7-UP, Mercedes, Toyota, Volvo and Subaru wrapping their logos around riders and events.
In theory all the basic ingredients for properly sorted bikes existed too. Stem length and suspension travel were still often the wrong way round, but full-suspension, carbon-fibre monocoques and hydraulic disc brakes were all in play by 1997. We had body armour, full-face helmets and purpose-built trails starting to appear.
OK, so there wasn’t really an internet and the mbr website was years away but the magazine had a VHS video on the front of the first issue. was in production too, so the shift towards moving pictures was definitely starting. But as mtb pioneer Gary Fisher said in the first ever TV news broadcast to feature ‘Klunking’, back in the late 1970s; “We’ve come a long way, but we’ve still got a long ways to go.”
But where exactly are we heading? There’s certainly a ton of interesting tech and development still going to come to mountain bikes. But like planes, motorbikes and most other forms of transport, I don’t think the basics are going to change much from here. Carbon, alloy and steel give a good spread of materials from high performance to hipster. We’ve been super long on travel and reach, but most brands have now re-centred around a more reasonable, versatile stroke and shape. We might see angles shift a bit more, now even XC racers are realising slack head angles and steep seats are a win. While 32in-wheeled bikes are already a thing, most riders have had more than enough of new wheel sizes to last them a lifetime.
Instead, most brands are dumping all their time into e-bikes, which have literally been a massive booster for mountain biking in terms of turnover and rider numbers. There’s clearly a lot more development to be done there too, like race-specific motors and new options from brands like SRAM. Then there are the big transport players, Porsche recently bought up Fazua and Grey-p, while Yamaha obviously spans both the automotive industry and bikes. And while car-badged bikes have a poor past record, there are there are big incentives for auto makers to offset carbon emissions – pushing into pedalling is one solution.
We’ll also see a lot more electric automation too. Rockshox Flight Attendant is appearing on more and more bikes and the ABS braking system from Bosch really does seem to work. The new generation of Fox sentient shocks is being race tested and Specialized is winning World Cups with something smart under the neoprene covers on its Demo DH bikes. I’ve been told to look out for some potentially game-changing gear set-ups at
Guy Kesteven spent the 90s thrashing hardtails round God’s own country before stepping up to bike testing. After four decades on the job he’s graduated to mbr. Most likely spotted shouting into his Gopro somewhere in Yorkshire big XC and enduro events soon too. Whether these innovations will become commonplace on the trails though, is less clear, as so far ‘real world’ tech take up has been very limited beyond SRAM’S AXS gearing.
Where we will see very significant changes are in the bigger landscape around biking. Everything from more big chain and brand owned shops (I’m thinking JD Sports, Trek, Giant, Specialized) to more ways to buy or maybe even lease a bike.
Hopefully we’ll see the biking demographic continuing to diversify too. While we’re certainly an easy target for hate campaigns and rabble rousing right now, if you look at the ‘insurance and registration plate’ murmurs from August it’d be great if that’s the last roar of threatened dinosaurs. After all, the mountain bike mammals have been proving a major economic gain, ever since the first mbr Big Welsh Weekend cleared every shop in the Afan valley out of bread and biscuits.
The first Big Welsh Weekend cleared every shop in the Afan valley out of bread and biscuits
Throw in gravel riding (which I reckon is already morphing into more flannel, less flagellation XC mountain biking) and we’re a far better cash crop to cultivate than the ramblers. Then again the latest Coast to Coast national trail proposal ignores mtb (and horse) riders entirely and fails like the Commonwealth Games race commentary and the European Champs ‘crazy golf’ XC course. It just shows we’ve still got a long way to come in terms of recognition and respect.
But hey, maybe Tom Pidcock and Laurie Greenland riding round in the rainbow world champion rings on Discovery Channel will be the tipping point to take mtb truly mainstream.
What I do know is that there’s a ton of stuff to talk about in a whole lot more depth. Which is lucky as this column is going to be a regular dose of the irregular going forward so keep watching for more insider insights, random musings and rants from me soon.