[Closed] Has mountain biking become the new golf

I know its a joke on here but am I the only one trying to avoid

Were you ever a surfer mike?

Bore off. Knob.

If people buying expensive bikes and kit keeps the bike shops open then who cares how they spend their money.

Unclear point and lack of punctuation. But let down by lack of caps lock, no swearing and it too short. 4/10

I know its a joke on here but am I the only one trying to avoid Audi driving financed to the bollocks Santa Cruz riding mtb'ers

Maybe the best way you can avoid them is to go and play golf?

No. But road riding feels like it is sometimes.

So you dislike other people having fun?
Or the other option is - gasp - don't cycle at trail centres. Last non-TC ride I went on I encountered exactly zero other MTBers in about 25 miles.

Serious point....how long have you been MTBing? Because IME it tends to be those who have come to the sport more recently, who then themselves look down on other less 'worthy' cyclists.

Oh and I just bought an Audi. Guess you hate me too.

The

Audi driving financed to the bollocks Santa Cruz riding mtb'ers

Golf club membership is falling and in Scotland where there are lots of clubs, 30% have closed.

Road bike sales are booming and all clubs report growing memberships.

Mountain bike sales are flatlining; neither growing nor falling.

If the answer is yes, isn't that a good thing, ie folk riding bikes, having fun, pushing themselves, having thrills and getting fitter rather than fatter?

I see what you did there globati.

For the record I started in 1994 Ajantom and I don't mind people having fun I mind them being in my personal space and being nobs, even the quality of nob has gone down

I'd wager if this were 5 years ago and some flouncy tufty was writing about the soliude peace and inner karma of being one with the trail, the invasion of the forum sanctioned nob would be overlooked for artistic purpose.

I mind them being in my personal space and being nobs

Mike, when do you ride a bike, you post here on this forum constantly ,when do you fit riding in?

I'd be interested to know what proportion of rides are done straight out of home/door compared with putting bikes on/in cars to go and ride.

It does feel like the former is less likely to end up clique-y

C

Could you publish a list of car and bike brands I am allowed to own please. I dont want to fall foul of the rules of mountain biking.

Where, up mt Wellington today, great little 25km lap, saw nobody was a shame nice to see other riders out. It is 8pm here so the time difference masks how much I'm getting out

philxx1975 - Member
Mike, when do you ride a bike, you post here on this forum constantly ,when do you fit riding in?

I'm calling troll. Thread closed 😀

Golf club membership is falling and in Scotland where there are lots of clubs, 30% have closed.

You got a source for that? I live in an area that has more courses than ye can shake a stick at, and since the global recession not one has closed. Lots are struggling and have had to cut prices, but none have shut up shop.

I live in an area that has more courses than ye can shake a stick at

Ironically, that's just how you play golf.

I saw Mike riding last week.

wrecker - Member

Bore off. Knob.

What he says.

https://www.strava.com/athletes/324374

Yeah, cheers John, might join you next week... Might need to dig out the jacket and sunscreen though.

philxx1975 - Member

For the record I started in 1994

bloody newcomers to the sport, only doing it because it's the trendy thing now 🙂

Probably jacket going by the long range forecast.

Reckon I'll be OK on my carbon sc?

Depends. Do you have an Audi to put it in?

Ok I'm confused, I'm riding a Santa Cruz and own both an Audi and a T5.
I've been riding mtbs since 1989.
Please can you classify me?

If we base the premise of it being the new golf based purely on silly outfits* then yes it most definitely has...does it matter? Does it buggery! All ****ting about on bikes is fun and inherently silly, the only things that get my back up slightly are when folks take themselves deadly seriously (usually trail centre heros riding over the top of kids and slower riders)

if more riders offends you, then ride cheekier singletrack ir more out in the wilds, there is plenty if open country and its very easy to plan a decent ride where you are lucky if you see another rider

*silly outfits being taz defined as dayglo enduro jimjams with matching colour coded helmet etc.... or long socks with shorts...ffs its as bad as socks and sandals! At least wear a nice set of plus fours in tweed if you are going for such a look and maybe a matching Oakley monocle

** based purely on my opinion that the only acceptable colour is black with some skulls and shouty punk soundtrack 🙂

Don't tell anyone I've got a Yeti. I only drive a Ford though.

I did but it was a 10 year old a4 and the bike lived on the back seats till the car died.

It isn't mountain biking, but it is road cycling. The only reason I have thought of getting a road bike is that most of our directors and clients thrash out deals at the weekend while trying to do a ton. 5 years ago they talked golf before meetings now it's di2. But it's all money going into cycling which is all good imo.

And to answer the original question - No, definitely not.

The Santa Cruz/Audi thing was going at least 10 years ago so it's nothing new. People who have money to spend enjoy outdoor activities as well as people who have less money to spend, or who choose to spend less. I know a couple of multi-millionaire mountain bikers who've been riding for 10+ years. Are they not allowed out as they have more expensive cars and bikes than others?

All sports have newcomers at some point - road riding is a more obvious "new golf" as there are significant numbers of people from the business world who would have been associated with golf, but now ride bikes. Which is a lovely thing. Look at some of the sponsors in the road riding world (and I include sportives in there): Dimension Data, ING Direct, Maserati, Tag Heuer, Jaguar. They are sponsoring cycling because that's where their customers are going.

not at all - the skill set required is completely different for one thing.

If you area duffer at golf then you generally just hack around the course, get frustrated loads, and hit one or two decent shots which is enough to keep you playing on and believing that, one day, you will be able to hit balls with that butter-like sweetness all the time. You constantly buy magazines that offer the secret to not fading/slicing the ball all the time. The frustration can be offset by the comradery of playing with all your duffer friends.

To be good or even reasonable at golf generally requires tons of ongoing practice.

Your level of skill is immediately apparent by the quality of the shots you play and the percentage of time you spend away from the cut of the fairway.

You can be a duffer on a road bike and still wear all the kit, avoid hills, and pretend you are 'the real deal'.

You have to have slightly more skill to get away with it on a mtb, but you can choose your trails.

But you would have to have one heck of a bad day on a bike to be anywhere near as frustrated as your normal golfer gets during a round.

You should read some of the PG Wodehouse short stories to understand why people get hooked on golf, and to understand why it is nothing like bikes.

cycling will never replace golf in the business world - the idea is that if you take someone out on the golf course it is very difficult for them to hide their true character as the mental rigors of golf will expose it, whereas there is nothing like this on the bike.

The new golf, most likely. Road has become the home of St Andrews of this trend, MTB trail centre poseurs the local's course that thinks it's St Andrews. Everyone else are just people that enjoy riding bikes.

The major difference I've noticed in the last 4-5 years has been trail centres getting busier. Easy to avoid the crowds though, just turn up early on weekends and do the long, less used routes or go midweek when they're all in work. Out on the natural stuff the poseurs get found out by their lack of fitness, lack of navigating skills or just by scaring themselves stupid.

Ok I'm confused, I'm riding a Santa Cruz and own both an Audi and a T5.
I've been riding mtbs since 1989.
Please can you classify me?

Gullible fashionista who follows every trend but secretly wishes lycra and purple anodising would make a comeback?

I don't have and Audi and a Santa Cruz, but I do have a Skoda and a Cotic.

Is that OK, or should I get something else?

I don't have and Audi and a Santa Cruz, but I do have a Skoda and a Cotic.

I have reported you to the mods...

Yes.
Fewer people coming to MTB from other tradional outdoor activities, more switching from other pursuits.

Both a good and bad thing, IMO.

To cross pollinate threads audi and Santa Cruz are a bit more nespresso.

*sneaks away from the thread*

Nobeerinthefridge - Member
Golf club membership is falling and in Scotland where there are lots of clubs, 30% have closed.
You got a source for that? I live in an area that has more courses than ye can shake a stick at, and since the global recession not one has closed. Lots are struggling and have had to cut prices, but none have shut up shop.

Golf is cheaper than mountain biking, so if anything it's more of a working mans sport.

OP how about you introduce an advanced skills test so that unless riders pass it they can't buy a decent bike and are not allowed out on "your" trails ?

My local municipal course is 25 quid a go. Do that once a week, adds up to £1300 just to play. Then there's all the bats and silly clothing to add on.

If anything I would think that the decline in golf numbers over the last few years has been to do with the reduction in disposable income rather than a swap to mtb.

I gave up mountain biking about four years ago so I'm not 100% sure about the current trail centre demographic.

The main issue for me is mountain biking used to be viewed as an extreme/alternative/cool sport, and it defined who I was; it was a lifestyle.

"brave" "daring" "fearless" "really something quite special" are just some of the buzz words that used to get bandied about by friends/family/co-workers when they were referring to me.

Unfortunately, it's all gone down the swanny. Mountain biking is no longer viewed as it used to be. It's no longer extreme/alternative; it's no longer a lifestyle - it's just "played at" by the middle aged men with Audis and Santa Cruz's who can't even do a bunny hop.

It's galling really to think. I remember back in the day, I used to ride at Grizedale alot; I'd often pop a wheelie and wave if I cycled past a family with young kids. They'd love it, it's not often you get to witness real skill "up close and personal" - I liked to think of myself as a bit of an inspiration for the next generation. I wasn't on my own either; this was standard fare.

Nowadays though, what do they see? Someone who should know better, wheezing up a hill.....

"hey mister; do a trick!"

"I can't sorry; I have yet to pass my skills course and I don't want to have to call out the air ambulance again as I've never been so embarrassed in all my life"

It's bleak isn't it, it's bad for the sport. Who is there now to inspire the kids? Where's our next world champ gonna come from?

Golf is cheaper than mountain biking, so if anything it's more of a working mans sport.

You can buy a bike for next to nothing - though none of us do this- and riding it is then free

You have to be trolling /trying to get a reaction here as that is just silly

Golf has that corporate feel.

Putting my Canyon in my Lexus and getting out in the hills is a different experience.

I'm back into my MTBing after a couple of years off. Encountered hardly any riders over the last 12 months despite multi-day trips all over the country - but, walking onto a campsite near a Trail Centre after a weekend in the hills with g/f, found it was mobbed with loud, middle aged gentlemen, their very expensive (and very clean) bikes loaded onto the backs of Audis and VW vans parked next to cheap, gay Wendy House tents. G/f thought it was funny.

There are elements in any sport that require a commitment of cash, that you get some fetishisation of that equipment, and in that way cycling (not just mountain biking) is just as prone to that as golf is, but you see it in sailing, triathalon, and so on equally as much.

There is a massive industry based solely around making us feel bad about the lack of spangly bits on our bikes, and an element of that is driven by jealousy, just check out the currency of videos promoted by the bike manufacturers driven by lifestyle, and location, and shiny kit...

T'was ever so, TBH

Audis and VW vans parked next to cheap, gay Wendy House tents. G/f thought it was funny

WHO CARES???

GO RIDE YOUR BIKE & STOP WORRYING ABOUT WHAT ANYONE ELSE THINKS.....

🙄

edit: 40+ Santa Cruz & Porsche owner been riding since 1997. Yes, my bike is clean because I spend a lot of money on it & I like to look after it. Problem for you? See if I care what you think!

edit edit: I'm really crap at golf...... 😳

Put simply, cycling now has a greater proportion of tossers with no manners and more money than sense than it did a few years ago.

Hope this helps.
🙂

This thread is littered with awesome little bombs; I'm going with 14 pages, 3 accusations of homophobia, 2 flounces and closed thread.

This thread is littered with awesome little bombs; I'm going with 14 pages, 3 accusations of homophobia, 2 flounces and closed thread.

Oddest xmas song ever

'And a Santa Cruz on an Au-di'.
😀

I've been riding since 87 and seen a few changes. More money coming into the sport is always a good thing, if the rich folk think it's the new golf that's great, no problem here!

However - and I might be wrong here - has it become more expensive at the bottom end? When I started an entry level bike and a helmet (or not!) and you were set. I'm hoping that teenagers and newbies don't get put off by the magazines and websites who do seem to show most people spending thousands on kit. And why does no one smile in magazine and website pics?

I like the money coming in, I just hope it's not getting too "serious".

Bravo Rusty. Bravo.

However - and I might be wrong here - has it become more expensive at the bottom end?

It's full of mid life crisis sufferers in their vw vans now,20 years ago they would have been driving around in their Porsche with some golf clubs in the back,its depressing seeing a fat guy in lyrca step out of a van a 20 year old surfer should be driving,i usually go over and give them a hug and maybe a penis squeeze.I'm not gay though.

Mikey,3 - lol!!

I'm hoping everyone has got the day they started on a mountain bike tattooed on their arse.

Like all outdoor activities mtb is/has been commoditised with everything that goes with that - the same way that climbing etc went (the growth in bolted routes) etc . My mtb for is just another means to get me into the hills for others its other things, willy waving etc.

What tyres for a deep sandy bunker?

Was just making a point, you can buy a set of brand new decent golf clubs for £200. Far cheaper than an equivalent bike. It's by no means clear MTB-ing is cheaper than golf.

All the Audi hate makes me laugh too, it's a Volkswagen (people's car) with a few better quality finishing parts. It's entirely consistent with a decent mountain bike brand and product placement wise.

Sport is more accessible, the kit is better, the knowledge is better so biking is more of a mass participation sport. Look at skiing on the narrow skis I learnt on in 1970's skiing off piste was quie tricky. With the modern all mountain skis it's so much easier so many more people can enjoy it. What's so wrong with that ?

What if you're a chubby middle aged guy of middling fitness with a couple of nice bikes and a van that used to be a chubby twenty something guy of middling fitness with a couple of nice bikes and a van, where does that leave you?

At what point are you supposed to stop doing the things you enjoy for fear of being judged?

Guessing this is a trail centre thing? I have ridden MTB for 25 years and can't say I have noticed any difference where I ride but then I have never been to a trail centre and probably never will.

Don't see many others on MTBs and the ones I do see don't look like they have come from golf (or if they have they have tamed their trousers down a fair bit)

I played golf on a corporate type thing once. I was shit obviously but I did quite enjoy it (nice walk in the green, bit of a chat).
Back in the changing room, a proper golfist (who was playing behind us) looked at me and complained that it had taken him 4 hours to get around. Apparently "well that's a big bag of tough shit" isn't an appropriate response. I got asked to leave by the golfists club!

Some of the apparently skill-les middle aged men, fat or otherwise, with good or expensive bikes and cars may once have been young, thrusting, fast and fearless twenty year olds with endless energy, riding and driving acceptably inexpensive or old bikes and cars, with no more responsibility than attending a few lectures a week or finishing up their apprenticeships.

If you reach middle age and don't have expensive things or haven't made the decision to live out your dreams in lue of expensive things, then perhaps you should be more worried about yourself than others.

That is my judgement, for what it is worth 😉

Was just making a point

was just explaining why it was wrong,

you can buy a set of brand new decent golf clubs for £200. Far cheaper than an equivalent bike

http://www.americangolf.co.uk/golf-clubs/package-sets?srule=priceasc&sz=12&start=12

It's by no means clear MTB-ing is cheaper than golf.

I have ridden MTB for 25 years and can't say I have noticed any difference where I ride

I assume cheap lights are part of that but its pretty rare to do a ride without seeing another rider at some point - though I only saw two on the last one.

So one minute we're trying to encourage more people into the "sport" and the next, we're annoyed that some have nicer bikes than us and complaining that the trails are busy?
Envy is an ugly emotion.

I am not trying to encourage anyone part of the joy for me is to do things away from other human beings

Thats harder to do when more of them have the same idea 😉

I assume the golf thing means its trendy and the type of person who does the latest thing is now doing cycling and in 5 years ,or whenever, they will be doing whatever it is then

FWIW I dont mind on the road as there will be people there anyway....see I am a giver 😉

So one minute we're trying to encourage more people into the "sport"

I remember around 5 years ago I was chatting to a well known skills coach. He thought back then that MTB was the new golf, as in it was being taken up by affluent the "middle classes " with plenty of disposable income and these people were his target market.

I'm not a middle-class man and I don't drive an Audi so I don't know or care where I fit in. I just love riding my bike. Most other MTB-era that I encounter are friendly, so who cares about their income or what bike they ride?

I had to s**** about the accusation on page 1 that Mike is always posting on here so how can he have time to ride? The fact that you are noticing that someone is supposedly always posting on here, suggests you are doing the same! 😛

Junkyard - lazarus

FWIW I dont mind on the road as there will be people there anyway....see I am a giver

Rumour here is you push back 😯

Ok OP, I'll bite.

Should all newcomers to the sport ride heavy steel rigid bikes with road geo, canti brakes and skinny tyres for a few years before they are allowed to graduate to an Alu hardtail with elastomer forks and v brakes, then after proving their worth on that, be allowed a short travel f/s with discs and only the best of the best of the best being allowed the best kit of the day?

It is odd, but it does seem that then only snobbery in mtb is inverse. I can count on my thumbs the number of times I've heard folk on bling bikes sneering at those on less shiny machinery, whereas it seems like every other week there's a thread like this, or when a mag posts a review of an expensive bit of kit online thee are always folk commenting on it being too expensive and not for real riders. I've had a fair few snidey comments about my bike vs my ability (or lack thereof) to ride it.

Is it the same in other sports?

is it the same in other sports

Yes, loads of other sports. (Sadly)

It's a real arseholes view of things, but sadly it exists in many different sports.

Of the 4 in Dumfries 1 has closed and returned to farm land. I know from a committee member of another that it has been losing members and money for the past few years and is now in trouble. Others are advertising for members, something they've not needed to do on the past.
There are visibly more road bikers and I think there are more of " us "

Counting very quickly, I can come up with 27 golf courses within 20 miles of me, granted some are struggling, but not a chance that any will close. Unless the council sell off land from the municipal courses, but right now they are making far too much money and keeping quite a lot of people in jobs.

the old Audi driving/ Santa Cruz riding stereotype is so old

you do know its nowadays its

T5 Driving Fatbike Riding, thats where its at

JY I spend more on MTB-ing than I ever did on golf. Golf clubs don't need maintainence and my Nike clubs cost £200 and I hit them just as well / poorly as I did the £1000 Calloways I tried. You also don't tend to have a summer/winter/holiday set of clubs. A significant amount of the golf I played was as a client or host for business so free, in fact that's why I took up the game as there where so many business opportunities. I've never heard of a corporate invite for mtb which is definitely a good thing of course.