By Mike Genovese

January '05

When my cousin Jay approached me in early November about creating a mountain bike devoted web site, I have to admit that I was a little skeptical.  The onset of such projects always seem to blind me from the actual amount of work and dedication such endeavors require.  I've created a couple simple webs in the past, but nothing with as much potential content as we've begun assembling for publication (or rather, will publish soon).  As we both work full time jobs and lead full time lives, it leaves little time for non-paying activities, but we committed to the notion of doing our best to keep the site informative and fresh. 

   When it was time to finally launch for the first time in December, I was convinced the hardest was behind us, what with creating and laying out the entire site and all, but boy was I wrong.  You see, my web creation technical expertise is what industry insiders label as "novice at best".  After spending a few days looking for a free host and spending a few more figuring out how to upload all of our content, we were informed after a mere matter of hours that we had been shut down due to overloading our set bandwidth limit.  Apparently free hosts don't offer much more than what you pay them.  Needless to say, the mission quickly changed to seeking another route and forking over the dough for some quality hosting. To quote my parents at this point "You mean not only aren't you making money for all this time and energy, its actually going to cost you to do it?!" Hey, if this doesn't prove our devotion to the sport, I don't know what does.

   After about a week of stressing about it, we were finally up and running. well sort of. I should rephrase: We were up and running to those who use Internet Explorer anyway. I am aware of the Firefox and Netscape browser incompatibility issues and am currently spending my few free moments in blissful research with how to fix it.  In the mean time, all you Firefox and Netscape users out there please hang tight or send donations. Kidding of course, although mom and dad wouldn't argue.  Also, again getting back to the whole "novice webmaster thingy" here, I know some might feel the site design and layout is on the simple side.  Jay and I just felt the importance of content over flash, so we are concentrating on that goal.

 

                    Now, to get back on topic.

 

   Before discovering mountain biking, I was an avid rider of a more motorized variety. Particularly in the power-sports class of off-road entertainment haze who don't quite race, but do more than trail ride either.  I used to spend 90% of my riding time practicing for that race that would never come.  My buddies and I would do countless laps on our homemade track, then go home and work out, eat carbs and drink Gatoraid.  We had all the flashy gear and fancy stickers on our machines, the whole nine.  Basically, we were posing-but it did lead to a wonderful discovery.  There was no better way to train than to mountain bike for cardio.  Don't get me wrong, we were fairly decent riders but as many racers who frequent this site are aware, the pressure of becoming a dedicated racer is a lot different in the mountain bike world.  In the realm of mechanical racing, there was this constant pressure pushing you all the time.  This pressure basically implied that if you didn't have the newest equipment, the trickest parts, or the fastest lap times, you were nothing.  It's a rather sickening feeling, as all these things come at a steep price.  As our dollars drained, so did our desire to try and fit in in this highly competitive division of super-humanity disguised as a hobby.  So to mountain biking aspect we turned, and thank Heaven for that.  Immediately, away went the nagging pressure.  Away went that embarrassing feeling of being judged by the year of your vehicle. Away went the endless dollars spent and time wasted trying to run with the locals.  The mountain bike scene was a breath of fresh air.  Although I'm sure there are these people out there, as I described above, that look down on you if you can't afford a $5,000 downhill or freeride rig and hence consider riders of anything less to be inferior, but it seems 98% less apparent out on the trails and 100% less right here. 

 

   The mountain  biking community is, in general, a lot more personable, from my own encounters anyway.  When I spent a lot of time on other sport forums, most, not all of course, were quick to put you in your place. It was always a put up or shut up mentality. At our forums and many other sites devoted to MTBs it seems that most fellow bikers are out there to help out.  They rarely look down or judge others simply on riding experience or equipment choices.  This sport welcomes riders with open arms, and to me, that is my favorite part of it.  I can now ride around on my sub-par equipment, and feel confident about it.  I can tell fellow bikers that I don't have the skills (or the nads) to drop that cliff without them turning their noses up.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not overly concerned with what people think of me as much as this article may suggest, I just wanted to point out one the finer elements of what separates our sport from most. 

 

Thanks all who contributed this month and last with the great articles and tests on Mountain Bike Tales.  Jay and I are happy to contribute our time, efforts and money to this worthy cause and it simply wouldn't be possible without our great contributors.

 

                    Until next month.