Mountain Biking - Real People Defination of biking categories

Hey, im very sure most of us always wonder the difference between XC and Trail, Freeride and downhill and All mountain and freeride. And I found this article in MBA, check it out

http://www.mbaction.com/detail.asp?id=1083

It seems Tony E doesnt talk so much about XC term, but the rest he really explain it, anyway what does he mean by (trail category) Truth, outfitted with durable components? what does durable component means? no carbon? or what

Durable means it wont freakin break on you.

Good read tho, I think most of us grasp this concept just by reading around but it did pass a good 15 minutes for me at work :P.

Id love to have a "All Mountain" type of bike since I want to be able to take 6 foot drops and jumps, I havnt made it to my local trails yet so I have no idea what to expect.

When its split into beginner, intermediate, advanced, and super advanced on most of these places and we have stuff like the T.O.E. I dont think my rockhopper will let me run a place like that without breaking the bike or my tailbone.

But just as that article said those hardcore downhill/all mountain people pay alot, not only for the bike but for maintence, repair, and parts replacment... definitly not a good nitch to get into when your on a low hourly wage and father of 3 kids :/

lolol

Durable generally means well built components that aren't super light. For xc racing a lot of people make sacrifices in durability in order to have an extremely light bike. Some examples are extremely light tires and tubes, light rims, spokes, chains, cassettes, chainrings, bolts, etc. A lot of these parts won't make it through a season, therefore they aren't particulary durable.

In most applications carbon is durable. There are exceptions of course and no need to debate it. There are plenty of threads doing that already. I have had my carbon crankset for four seasons now. You just have to use your best judgement. For example I have no problem using a carbon seatpost on my roadies but I'm afraid to on my mountain bike. For that I'll use a Thomson Masterpiece.

good read, cleared up some confusion for me. Thanks for posting the link.