Originally Posted by cyccommute

Look at your avatar. Most people don't like to fall off things. I ride and I ride hard but riding across suspended 2x4's just scares the willies out of me! People, normal people with calcium in their bones, are intimidated by most of what they see in the mountain bike group. Granted it's not all about free-riding, drops and BMX for big kids but it is a large component of that group. Mountain biking isn't just a young man's sport but that's the way it's perceived. There really isn't much there that would appeal to a novice. I'm not a novice and there really isn't much there that appeals to me.

For example there was a recent series of post on pictures of your favorite rides. Nearly every one of the pictures provided was of things that people with families and mortgages would probably avoid (i.e. us old folks ) because their wives haven't got the life insurance paid up yet! I probably wouldn't post any of my rides because I'd be laughed at for them not being "hard" enough.

I love mountain biking but I don't love it for the trails or the thrill but for the places that it takes me. I can have a wonderful day on old railbeds that thread Colorado or old dirt roads out on the Colorado plains or even on some wickedly gnarly single track but the bike is only a tool to take me to those places, not the main point.