Originally Posted by cyccommute
I already read the forum and post in it but, and maybe this is what is bugging me, mountain biking is developing it's own brand of snobbishness. It kind of Balkanizing which I don't think is good for the sport in the long run. Just look at the list from Jeff Williams. Used to be that all of that fit under "mountain biking". Now it's just a confusing mishmash of different techniques and equipment. Look at the confusion that reigns about what is an all-mountain bike or a XC bike or a free-ride bike. The differences are slight but the confusion is large. With the possible exception of full on downhillers and XC racing, all three of those bikes could be used for the same thing without the world coming to an end.
The confusion is definately a problem. I wish the industry would just narrow it down. I see some very distinct lines in xc race, trail, and dh/fr. The xc race, xc, trail, all mountain, fr, fr ht and downhill sub-divisions are just ridiculous and more counter productive than useful.