On The Pedals

By Jason Giacchino

All Mountain Appreciation

Like many of you out there, my introduction to the sport just so happened to coincide with the zenith of the gram- counting, hardtail pushing, Cross Country racer, mind set. Flat bars with bar ends, spandex riding gear, shaved legs (fortunately not here), water bottles, and dietary supplements all reined supreme just a few years ago. Today’s racers may argue successfully that this life style is still alive and well, but there is no denying that our relatively young sport has witnessed a whole plethora of evolution in a very short period of time. Namely with each passing season, bicycle manufacturers are managing to create more specialization and a more segmented market; whereas once a mountain bike was any bicycle that could survive leaving the pavement, now it is not uncommon for a rider to require three, maybe four different models for various disciplines. Trail bikes are suddenly very different from Cross Country designs, Down Hill and Black Diamond bikes may look similar but have very different agendas, jump bikes are broken down by nuances such as ramp materials.. Specialization has swept the industry.

To make matters worse for the buyer, these markets are then broken down into dozens of sub categories: Rigids, hardtails, dual suspension, 4", 5", and 6" travel configurations. Single, dual, and triple crown forks, air springs and coil overs, stable platform valving, remote lockout, Horst links, rising rates; there are certainly no shortage of factors to consider when trying to isolate one’s place in the mountain bike hierarchy. Now very rarely do I rag on technological advancements, especially those that are directly concerned with making our sport more versatile and enjoyable to a wider range of enthusiasts. While endless spec options may confuse newcomers at the time of purchase, veteran riders are having a hay-day with all of this voverlapping technology.

I’m personally drifting ever deeper into All Mountain appreciation; technology from the various disciplines of Mountain Biking are being mixed and matched by manufacturers with amazing results. A section of one of my favorite loops switches from relatively flat singletrack to urban concrete stair wells, to small dirt mounds with flat landings, before transforming back into singletrack. Yet my dual suspension All Mountain daily commuter adapts to the changes even quicker than I can process them. This is a very fortunate time for off-road bicycle enthusiasts, we are benefitting by this vast spread of model design by having an unprecedented selection of trail bikes built up with components brought in from all over the spectrum.

Is there a downside to the All Mountain bike’s popularity when compared to the Cross Country trend of yesteryear? Perhaps in the form of weight. Dual suspension setups, hydraulic brakes, and beefier frame tubes all result in added poundage. It is a burden that I for one, am more than willing to accept in exchange for the terrain versatility factor. A while back it occurred to me, while pounding along a trail in attempt to avoid every rock in sight, that I had no intention of using my finicky bike to actually race XC. By removing the imaginary score keeper from the equation, I’ve been able to spec my mounts for comfort and durability, even at the expense of lugging around five extra pounds. Apparently I was a bit ahead of the industry as today’s All Mountain rigs seem to follow this same line of reasoning right out to the local bike shop floors.

Too much of a good thing is definitely in and of itself, a good thing. In this case that good thing is choice; all of this specialization can be credited to growth. The pond of Mountain Biking is far from stagnant, which is a good thing considering it’s a lot more fun to ride the currents anyway.