We'll I have a lot to say in this. I started out XC riding all the time acouple years back. I had the usual hardail with front suspension. I raced and rode for my own pleasure. Today I am a pretty serious freerider, but haven't lost the goodness of XC riding.

Here is the reason why I started freeriding: I have always thought about doing downhill while I was a XC rider. I even went to test ride some downhill bikes. It wasn't just the goodness of not having to pedal often or having an awsome looking bike. It honestly was about the ride; grab some air, hit the drops, ride the rock garden, nail the chute, or speed as fast as you can. However there are several reasons why I never did downhill. One, is that the bikes were very costly compared to a XC or freeride bike. I didn't live near any slopes. And another reason, you don't ride downhill as often as you would in XC riding.

So with taking the great aspects of downhill in mind and combining it with XC, you get freeriding. I saw it as the perfect type of riding that would suit me. Freeriding: You got plenty of pedaling to do (believe me!), you can ride pretty much where you want, take the drops, nail the jumps, and have a great time. So know that freeriding would be no where if it hadn't been for XC or downhill.

As far as new technology going into more freeriding bikes than XC, I can see that to a certain extent. This is a very political issue. There is a high demand for freeriding bikes and components now. Thus, manufactures must supply. That is a reason why more technology is going into freeriding. But know that XC is getting plenty of attention from the market. Racers and weekend riders need up to date equiptment too. But know there's only so much improving you can do within a year or so. Maybe make the bike lighter, more efficient? Who knows. Begginers must start somewhere. Not saying that XC is really easy, but begginers can't start at a freeriding level where steep climbs, decents, drops, or chutes are a walk in the park. XC is the key to mountain biking and developing the proper attitude adjustment for this awsome sport.

Another thing you must understand is that terrain can have an affect on whether bikers go XC or freeride. The area I live in is more suitable for freeriding due to the very rocky terrain. Drops are formed everywhere and steep rock gardens are ideal for a freeriders day out. So believe it or not, the area you live in can also affect the choice of XC or freeriding.

Just because you have a FS bike doesn't mean ANYTHING. First off all, I know plenty of FS bikes used for XC. They just use short amounts of travel and are usually equipted with air compression rather than coil. If you got a hard tail, that most people see it XC and I can agree in some parts. Hard tails aren't the way to go for freeriding if your doing drops or rocky decents. However, I've seen plenty freeriders with nice hard tails that do dirt jumps and softer types of freeriding. If you're a person like me, you'll need a FS bike with at least a good 4 inches of travel on front and rear. I love drops and ledge/rock decents. I ride the rock walls and play the chutes, so if you do the same a FS bike with 4 inches is good enough for freeriding. You can have a FS bike, but it can be a piece of you know what. Take it off a ledge and it could break in half for all I know. So just cause you or your friend has a FS bike don't mean anything.

I'm gonna stop there, but all you should know that I haven't stopped XC riding. I find it as great as freeriding, and i'm sure many freeriders still ride XC. But we all should be proud of one thing: how large this sport has grown!