Originally Posted by Drunken Chicken
You were partly right there: Downhill is people bombing down hills at high speeds, and generally (in bike parks, for example) are taken to the top of the mountain/hill by skilifts (the bikes have so much travel in the suspension and they're so heavy they'd be a pain to pedal up. Same with the freeride bikes, except they are made more for big jumps and tricks, they too weigh quite a bit and also have a lot of travel in the fork and rear shock. XC (cross country) is pretty much all over the mountain, up and down as you said.
Note: It's urban/dirtjump bikes that have singlespeed (generally), not freeride bikes.
Thanks, DC, for clearing that up!!! I feel much better know that now. Man, all these different kinds of bikes! It's almost as bad as all the subgenres in metal. :-) There's metal, progressive metal, black metal, death metal, doom metal, hardcore, grindcore, noisecore, screamcore, glam metal, nu metal, etc.
