(Way long - Sorry!)

I think all the categorization (is that a word) is hurting mtn biking. It's not "hey, I ride a mtn bike" anymore, it's "hey, I ride XC or DH or Freeride".

I saw the same thing happen to windsurfing. When I started windsurfing, everyone just had one board, one sail and you rode the same board, same sail regardless of wind conditions. It was FUN!

By the time I had sold my last bit of gear, there were light wind wave boards, high wind wave boards, speed, bumb & jump boards, slalom boards, course boards....and don't even get me started with the sail types. If you didn't have the right gear, people looked down their noses at you. It became LESS FUN!

When I got into mtn biking. Pro's were racing XC one day and DH the next. If your bike had suspension it was only 1.5" of travel and you were happy to have it. We all had very similar bikes, hardtails w/ or w/o front forks. We all rode, rode hard, crashed and had a great time. It was FUN!

I consider myself a mtn biker, plain and simple. If I were to fit into a specific genre, it would have to be freeriding. I consider XC as the people who race, I don't (maybe once in a great while), so I don't consider myself a XC guy. I live in FL, so DH is out. I like to ride trails, ride obstacles (when available) push my limits riding technical trails, drops (not very big one's - maybe 3' max), but just having a good time on a bike! I don't want to worry about not having the "right" bike for that type of trail. I don't want to be classified as a Freerider b/c I wear baggies and full fingered gloves and ride a heavy bike. I don't want to be classified as a XC geek when I put on my jerseys, lycra shorts and ride my aluminum hardtail. This is LESS FUN. I just want to be a mtn biker!

I think that XC racing (World Cup and Norba) is dying because the courses are becoming less technical. I think Short Track racing was the opposite of what needed to happen. Mtn bikers want to distant ourselves from roadies. We ride mtn bike because we want to get away from a "pack" type riding. We want to be out in the woods, away from civilization (or evidence thereof!), we want to challange our abilities and ride courses that push our level of riding. The short track is an EASY (technically speaking) criterium race on an unpaved course. I'm not saying it's easy, due to the endurance and speed necessary to win, but it's not what I think of when I think of mtn biking.

TV coverage of mtn biking sucks! No matter what discipline. DH is probably the most exciting, but there are usually only 3 or 4 camera angles; the start (wow, that sucks!), one or two sections of the course, and the finish (that's pretty boring as well). XC coverage is worse, they show the start (big behive of riders) one climb (snore!), one technical bottleneck, and then the start/finish line.

Freeriding, is about the only thing that makes people look at the TV and think, "Wow! I'd love to try that!" That's why (IMO) it's getting so popular.

Do we really need good TV coverage? Does the mtn biking industry need to be mainstream and huge? I think NOT!

Let us be our own submersive, fringe group and ride one bike for all conditions and remember to keep it FUN!

L8R