Talk:Mountain bike
From Academic Kids
Who invented it?
This question is the subject of frequent debate. Some will say that development happened nearly simultaneously, others will argue for the recognition of thier favorite choice. The two men who are generally (separately) given recognition for the creation of mountain bikes are Joe Breeze and Gary Fisher. In truth it was likely the influence of a number of friends and the two men above were the forces that built and guided development of some of the first mountain bikes. This is an excellent question. I'm not sure there is a simple, neutral answer that fits in wikipedia. Anyone want to take a shot at this? --Speedeep 16:40, Jul 24, 2004 (UTC)
Why is it popular?
To those who ride mountain bicycles, the answer is obvious. For many riders, it's a form or freedom that you don't get by doing other types of activities. It's like hiking, but only faster and has more of a rush to it. Many people find mountain biking a great way to have fun and stay in shape. Others enjoy racing and being competitive. With newer trends like downhill and freeriding, a younger generation of riders is adding a more aggresive style, some call it Extreme, to mountain biking. It's a great way to have a lot of fun. Manual63 19:31, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Surely someone has a better photo than a sad old bicycle by a fence? With a cyclist and preferably a mountain! Gdr 16:47, 2004 Jul 25 (UTC)
What does freeride mean?
Freeriding is a form of more aggresive mountain biking. The term freeriding, an industry term carried over from the late 90's, is kind of misleading. In BMX they call it freestyle, which is generally BMX riders who do tricks and ride ramps and jumps on their bicycles. Mountain bike riders are taking on a more BMX style of riding and it has been termed freeriding for some reason. With gears and long travel suspension bicycles, freeriders are able to go faster and do bigger drops and jumps than BMX riders (BMX bicycles don't have any suspension or gears).
Basically freeriding is going beyond the normal boundries of mountain biking, which is mainly riding on packed dirt trails called Singletrack. Some places are opening freeriding parks, similar to skateparks for BMX and skateboarders, but with huge dirt and wooden made structures. NSMB (http://nsmb.com/) Check out this link for more info. Manual63 19:31, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Page name
Is "mountain bicycle" the best name for this article? "Mountain bike" receives 100 times as many Google hits. - SimonP 22:01, Dec 21, 2004 (UTC)
