Posts
2239
Joined
8/1/2009
Location
IL
Fantasy
Edited Date/Time
4/11/2017 1:25pm
Before you cry troll, hear us out...:
As much as we all like to complain about labels, they are useful. Labels help us instantly categorize and classify stuff, and when it comes to something as diverse as mountain biking, that can be of great help. The rise of Enduro racing has led to much confusion and debate however, with many people wanting for it to be referred to as a racing discipline and a racing discipline only. It's easy to take the "well it's just mountain biking and we did it for years before Enduro came along" high road, but that does not actually jive with how we label the other disciplines of our sport.
The following are well-established and fully accepted riding types:
XC
Trail
All-Mountain
Downhill
The good thing about these riding types is that they translate nicely to a scale of technical difficulty that everybody can relate to. As you progress from one riding type to the next, your skillset needs to evolve. Trails get gnarlier, jumps get bigger, and so forth. Now funnily enough, two of the riding types listed here ARE ALSO RACING DISCIPLINES. If XC and DH can be both racing categories and riding types, why can't Enduro?
Diving deeper, we'd argue that there is a very strong case for maintaining Enduro as a riding type, and it has to do with the bike. There is a real differentiator between Trail, All-Mountain, and Enduro riding when it comes to the bike, and that in turn has to do with the kind of trails that correspond to each category. On the Trail and All-Mountain side of the equation, climbing performance and carrying speed across undulating terrain is an important part of the experience. You can ride loops with little elevation gain and still consider it a proper All-Mountain ride, if the type of trails and features warrant it. A solid 4-5" bike with good angles is going to be a better choice for most of these trails. Many riders in this category will also be concerned with uphill performance, actively seeking a bike that allows them to climb faster and tackle technical uphill sections.
When it comes to Enduro, the focus is shifted. The racing discipline defines the riding type (as with XC and DH), and Enduro is all about descending. Climbing becomes a means to an end, and the most important uphill performance aspect the comes into play here is the ability to get through a big day out with potentially lots of climbing without blowing up. Setting KOMs on the way up is never part of the story, and if you have to walk a technical climb to conserve energy, then so be it. The fun starts when you get to the top. The ideal Enduro bike is your 6", slack HA, long wheelbase slayer with a steep enough seat tube to help you get back up the hill comfortably. Many of these bikes are less fun to ride as soon as the gradient of the trail becomes too flat. And that is precisely why we think it's entirely justified to refer to this type of riding with a name of its own, that helps define it and more importantly helps us choose the right tool for the job.
Now of course, we're not saying that you can't use most bikes for a lot of cross-discipline riding (outside of racing). And yes, you could argue that Enduro is just the racing discipline that corresponds to the All-Mountain riding type, but as mentioned above, we think there is an important distinction between the two. In other words, what we're saying is that there is a real and tangible differentiator between a Trail or AM bike, and an Enduro bike. Of course, many AM bikes are also great Enduro bikes and vice versa, so we're not arguing that there should be a black and white distinction between the categories, we're just offering that Enduro has enough unique attributes that it should be considered as a distinct riding type.
Of course, Park is also a riding type that should be added to the list, for those who live for the downs and the airtime but don't measure their fun against the clock. To make it all even more confusing, some people nowadays like to ride Park on their Enduro bikes...and many Enduro races take place on DH trails...
Measured in inches, it's all pretty clear cut.
XC - 3
Trail - 4
All-Mountain - 5
Enduro - 6
Park - 7
DH - 8
What do YOU think?
photo Sven Martin
As much as we all like to complain about labels, they are useful. Labels help us instantly categorize and classify stuff, and when it comes to something as diverse as mountain biking, that can be of great help. The rise of Enduro racing has led to much confusion and debate however, with many people wanting for it to be referred to as a racing discipline and a racing discipline only. It's easy to take the "well it's just mountain biking and we did it for years before Enduro came along" high road, but that does not actually jive with how we label the other disciplines of our sport.
The following are well-established and fully accepted riding types:
XC
Trail
All-Mountain
Downhill
The good thing about these riding types is that they translate nicely to a scale of technical difficulty that everybody can relate to. As you progress from one riding type to the next, your skillset needs to evolve. Trails get gnarlier, jumps get bigger, and so forth. Now funnily enough, two of the riding types listed here ARE ALSO RACING DISCIPLINES. If XC and DH can be both racing categories and riding types, why can't Enduro?
Diving deeper, we'd argue that there is a very strong case for maintaining Enduro as a riding type, and it has to do with the bike. There is a real differentiator between Trail, All-Mountain, and Enduro riding when it comes to the bike, and that in turn has to do with the kind of trails that correspond to each category. On the Trail and All-Mountain side of the equation, climbing performance and carrying speed across undulating terrain is an important part of the experience. You can ride loops with little elevation gain and still consider it a proper All-Mountain ride, if the type of trails and features warrant it. A solid 4-5" bike with good angles is going to be a better choice for most of these trails. Many riders in this category will also be concerned with uphill performance, actively seeking a bike that allows them to climb faster and tackle technical uphill sections.
When it comes to Enduro, the focus is shifted. The racing discipline defines the riding type (as with XC and DH), and Enduro is all about descending. Climbing becomes a means to an end, and the most important uphill performance aspect the comes into play here is the ability to get through a big day out with potentially lots of climbing without blowing up. Setting KOMs on the way up is never part of the story, and if you have to walk a technical climb to conserve energy, then so be it. The fun starts when you get to the top. The ideal Enduro bike is your 6", slack HA, long wheelbase slayer with a steep enough seat tube to help you get back up the hill comfortably. Many of these bikes are less fun to ride as soon as the gradient of the trail becomes too flat. And that is precisely why we think it's entirely justified to refer to this type of riding with a name of its own, that helps define it and more importantly helps us choose the right tool for the job.
Now of course, we're not saying that you can't use most bikes for a lot of cross-discipline riding (outside of racing). And yes, you could argue that Enduro is just the racing discipline that corresponds to the All-Mountain riding type, but as mentioned above, we think there is an important distinction between the two. In other words, what we're saying is that there is a real and tangible differentiator between a Trail or AM bike, and an Enduro bike. Of course, many AM bikes are also great Enduro bikes and vice versa, so we're not arguing that there should be a black and white distinction between the categories, we're just offering that Enduro has enough unique attributes that it should be considered as a distinct riding type.
Of course, Park is also a riding type that should be added to the list, for those who live for the downs and the airtime but don't measure their fun against the clock. To make it all even more confusing, some people nowadays like to ride Park on their Enduro bikes...and many Enduro races take place on DH trails...
Measured in inches, it's all pretty clear cut.
XC - 3
Trail - 4
All-Mountain - 5
Enduro - 6
Park - 7
DH - 8
What do YOU think?
photo Sven Martin
I would say
XC - 3-4 inches, 80-100mm
Trail - 4-5 inches, 100-140mm
All-Mountain - 5 to 6 inches, 140-160mm
Enduro - 6 - yes - 150/160mm
Park - 7
DH - 8
Trail is XC, but further removed from the roadie-image. Joe Blow can one day be riding the trails on a 5" 650b bike with low profile knobbed tires in his logo'd spandex, and people would categorize him as an XC rider. On the next day, Joe Blow can ride the same trails and bike, but with a meatier tires up front and baggier clothes, and people will categorize him as a trail rider. He could be doing the same routine on his ride, at the same intensity, just changing his image. Hell, if Joe Blow took his trail rider image and added a dropper post to his bike, he could call himself AM, and all it would take is a picture of himself getting air, to back it up.
Xc
Trail
Am
Enduro
Park
DH
Obviously there's no hard cut line in travel but the 3, 4, 5, etc is a pretty good guide. I get the feeling people don't like being pigeon holed but anything that helps us differentiate between one bike and the next or even equipment and their intended uses is a good thing.
The jokes start when you see guys riding mellow trails with goggles and an xc lid, etc. There's a time and place where such things may be necessary and not just a fashion thing.
People say 'let's just all ride our bikes, blah blah blah' - we all do that. That's why we're here. Why not enter the debate with an opinion, it's chucking it down and second best to riding is chatting shit about riding, get off your high horses.
I personally consider enduro a race format. I don't go enduro-ing when I ride, I go trail riding. All trails are created differently; some more uphill, some more down the hill, some are real tech and some are not. I race enduro events and when people ask me what enduro racing is; I tell them its exactly like riding trails with your buddies, you putter on the uphills and hammer the downs, but with a stop watch for the downs. I think specific bike disciplines are only truthful if the bike must be so heavily skewed to one style that it would otherwise be useless for competive use for the other style. DH vs XC. You could race a DH bike in a XC race but you won't be near the top. Good luck making the podium on a carbon hardtail with 2.1" race tires and 80mm fork down Mont Saint Ann DH course. You could be competive racing enduro on a "trail bike" or an " all-mountain bike". Some bikes are speced for more aggressive trails
It's a race format.
XC - Hardtails and sub 120mm FS.
Trail - 120-140mm
AM - 140-160mm
DH - 180-220mm
Two caveats. Hardtails can run rigid to moron travel but anything beyond 120mm is for guys with ginger beards who eat used tampons and live on boats. Second, Freeride and Park bikes are shit DH bikes for guys who look at your dick in the swimming pool showers.
Unfortunately the mountain bike community is very image focused, so we'll always be plagued by fads for the sake of fashion.Thankfully this fad is producing some amazing bikes and allowed us as riders to try ever more exciting things.
The race format works superbly and has encourage so many more people into racing. There's so many great events now (Trans-Savoie, Enduro2, TransNZ, Trans BC... not to mention the Mega) that its super easy to get involved.
Call it what you will and be a dick about it, as long as you enjoy riding it doesn't matter. For those that are jumping on the bandwagon for the sake of profit/image, they won't last long. So let them have their moment and they'll be pissing someone else off before you know it.
"Thankfully this fad is producing some amazing bikes and allowed us as riders to try ever more exciting things."
So, which is it? They just got lucky or what?
In my mind Park bikes are very similar to DH bikes, so too are Enduro to AM but there are subtle differences that warrant a separate category.
As for whether you're going out 'Enduroing', does anyone actually say they're off out to do some All Mountaining? Or even say "I'm off out DHing" no. We all just say we're off for a ride regardless whether DJ or XC or whatever. But we all have bikes from a certain one of these categories and that's where I think Enduro should be recognised as not only a race type.
So I've copped out an compromised on my original idea but it is Christmas after all. Merry Christmas peeps
There is a huge amount of marketing using Enduro to sell stuff. Some of it (the products) is amazingly good, but equally some of it is amazingly bad. Its not luck, but it is allowing companies to sell more... look how many people are buying SantaCruz at the moment (in the UK at least).
Remember the marking hype around 'free ride' years ago. That was another fad that the marketers overused to sell product, to the point were you could hardly say the word without someone sneering at you.
People are already starting to turn their noses up at Enduro... the term at least.
Marketing is not a fad, but the way they are pushing Enduro is (worst case) ultimately going to bore people until they stop buying anything with that label anywhere near it.
Not sure if thats any clearer, but I think your reading between the lines too much and have misinterpreted my point.
There are specific bikes designed to race at a high level, which have significant compromise for more general use outside the template they are designed.
Competition formats:
Xc
Enduro
Dh
Slope style
There are also more general use bikes that are not as specific to a particular style of racing, but can be used by a non-elite rider to compete in these race formats, or just generally have fun on in a fairly broad range of trails.
Those would be:
Trail bikes
Park bikes
Dj bikes
There are also terms that have fallen out of favor but mean pretty much the same thing now as something else
All mountain = enduro bike
Free ride = park bike
On the other side, for the industry's labels sakes: I agree that Enduro is the racing discipline that corresponds to All-Mountain riding, so why not save ourselves some time and energy and confusion, and retire the "All-Mountain" label and call it "Enduro"?
I still cringe at what I just suggested, but.. It seems logical.
By the way, Yo taldfind, I'm really happy for you, I'ma say that triangle graph is pretty good, but you forgot Freeride on that graph, one of the best riding types of all time!
i also agree with Iceman.
Enduro to me is a race event mainly, and same type of riding as all mountain. big day with friends, not racing climbs, and pushing hard in the downhills, preferably long, even if there could be little climbs in it.
Enduro races in the Bike Parks, are just multi DH runs, new event created in the US, where it is hard to get permits in the back country.
I agree with the word enduro overused, just like mentionned above, the same happenned in the 2000's with Freeride.
Go ride bikes, whatever you call it!
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