[Closed] Not “proper mountain bikers”

Where are you seeing this snobbery?

have heard and read many times that you can’t be called a mountain biker if you live down south

I don't think I've ever seen that view on here, and TBF I've read a lot of bollocks in STW threads over the years.

To all those that believe you need to live near mountains to be a “proper mountain biker” please answer me this.

I've been mountain biking for nearly 30 years and lived all over, and I don't think I've ever heard that

I habe never heard that! Something seems to have pulled your tail, but i dont think it was on STW

I have heard and read many times that you can’t be called a mountain biker if you live down south as your not near mountains

Northerner here,never heard or read that quote.^^^

the sooner people get back to school/work and stop trolling the better.

2/10 you really must try harder with you new login.

Hi, not usually one to post

Joined 7 April 2020 🤔

It’s around I have been searching out new routes in various locations across the south west. I’m wanting to ride to the highest points of Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset when lockdown is lifted. I have stumbled across a few threads whilst looking for these where people like me looking for info on these spots are being told you can’t take the mountain out of biking

Life’s too short to bother with such bollocks! Laugh/yawn/walk away. Do what you enjoy and stop bothering what Dave from Barnsley thinks. FWIW, I live in Aberdeen and always look forward to getting a ride in on Dartmoor when I’m down at the in-laws.

We should have plumped for ATB not MTB when we were on the fence about these things getting on for 40 years ago.

If you want to identify proper mountain bikers there's a simple formula that take head angle, reach and wheel size to tell you.

I think the question you got to ask yourself is, why does it matter whether someone else calls you a proper mountain biker?

Just enjoy riding your bike and lose the labels.

Someones winding you up, or you're trying to wind us up 🙂 Just call yourself a cyclist, fixed (although I reckon 'cyclists' will get a lot more ribbing that 'mountain bikers')

Long time stalker but only had an account for 12 days?

Geographical snobbery – what's all that about then?
bol
Member

I just read some guy in another thread make the statement that

If you are really into riding MTBs you simply wouldnt live in London.

Now I don't live in London, in fact, living in Norfolk I'm probably considered even further down the MTB pecking order by some. I simply can't understand why where you live can be seen to dictate whether or not you have the right to enjoy something or not?

I'd love to live in southern California, Canada or the Lakes for example, but I've got other things going on in my life as well as cycling. Am I being over sensitive here (because my local hills aren't very gnarly), or is this sort of geographical snobbery a bit silly?

Pasted from a previous thread on STW i have stumbled across pages and pages of it when looking for new trails.

Point being stop worrying about what everyone else is doing and get out and ride when we are able to

Unless you are above 2000' you are probably "hill biking". 🙂

https://www.go4awalk.com/uk-mountains-and-hills/a-mountain-is-a-mountain.php

I think you are making mountains out of molehills.

If you want to identify proper mountain bikers there’s a simple formula that take head angle, reach and wheel size to tell you.

Oh, now that's top trolling! 😂

If a man, woman or any other non binary being sit outside by a lake trying to catch fish for the day with a rod reel and tackle but they catch nothing is that person fishing or just sitting?

I dunno, there’s a fine line between fishing and just sitting there like an idiot

If you are really into mountain biking, you would probably want live somewhere with great 'mountain' biking. However life is compromises of job/family etc and a lot of us would probably move house if the only criteria was 'great mountain biking'

It’s only called mountain biking because the press borrowed the name from one of the earliest brands (who failed to trademark it). Off-Road Biking is what it is.

Long gone are the days of the Swinley wars, today its all about MTB v Gravel bikes

I’m not a mountain biker, they’re arseholes.

poly
Member

I think you are making mountains out of molehills.

That amused me.

To be fair, unless you’re on an ebike these days, you’re not a proper mountain biker as it’s the only way you’ll ride all the way up and down a few in a day.

Try to define a mountain and you will struggle as no definitive explanation exists

It's bigger than a hill. If you don't want someone to see a hill, you can hide it behind a mountain, but you can't hide a mountain behind a hill.

As long as people aren't riding electric motorbikes and having fun without earning it, who cares anyway?

I'm from Sheffield, so I'm a mountain biker and presently making mountains out of Bolehills until this is all over 🙂

You can do mtb in London
Street riding or trials then you have the canal network to make up a route as well as offroad routes along the Thames.some may say it's not proper mtbing but it is.just a different take on it A work colleague once told me I need to be near mountains to do mountain biking but I felt sorry for him as he was massively obese and couldn't think about doing it so I accepted what he said and did not argue. Let him think that.

I have not owned nor been on an ebike but have been on a few Dartmoor mtb events where they where permitted for use. At one a guy recovering from a double heart bypass he’d had 3 months earlier doing a 32miler and an 85 year old doing a 35miler. Legends the pair them. who cares who’s on what no one knows the individual struggles of their fellow mtbr

I've seen the idea of "no proper mountain biking down south" etc in articles on the mag that set out to disprove it, but never heard it said in real life or seriously on the forum.

have heard and read many times that you can’t be called a mountain biker if you live down south as your not near mountains.

I haven't read the rest of the replies, but isn't this a playground argument that got laid to rest back in the 1990s along with the whole thing about 'mountain bikes' not really being 'mountain bikes' because you can't ride them up the Eiger?

Obviously southerners aren't 'proper mountain bikers', but that's more because they're soft, shandy-drinking cockneys who wouldn't know what to do with a lush, pouting ewe even if it threw itself at them on a chilly autumnal evening with a dreamy, come hither look in its eyes 🙂

Living there, you'd be better with a gravel bike.

Surely the only thing you will find on here is something about ebikes
not being proper riding.it is of course and was probably a joke

I'll buck the trend and say there is a little bit of bias in most MTB circles (both on and off forums) against the South in general, and the Home counties in particular. It's always been there, and it's always been mostly tongue in cheek or self deprecating (mostly)

I think most folk realise that you either head North or West if you want "Hills that are nearer mountain sized"  but that's just geography. There's nothing to say the South hasn't got decent off-road riding in it, of course it has. I think most folk get that, it's a bit of gentle ribbing at worst...Having lived in both the Chilterns and the Pennines, both have their advantages and disadvantages. I'd also say that what most folk doing that they call mountain biking in most countries in "riding in the countryside" but hey, who cares really?

@colp wouldn't that be MountainS Biking?

To be fair, unless you’re on an ebike these days, you’re not a proper mountain biker as it’s the only way you’ll ride all the way up and down a few in a day.

 

I get that it’s usually tongue in cheek. To be fair the only guy to say it to my face was at the top of a red at afan. He was more concerned with telling everyone how much he had spent colour coordinating his hope parts to his alpine 6 and then himself to it than he was riding it as all the shouts of on your right proved. I just like to think that we share a common interest and we get enough abuse of hikers and walkers to have time to give it out to each other too!

Proper mountain bikers only ride gravel.

I'm a bit baffled that the OP refers to dartmoor as the south. Last I looked it's quite a long way from London.

So do you live on Dartmoor or in Norfolk?

As some one who lives on the home counties the amazing thing is that you can actually go "mountain biking".

I've probably spent more of my life thinking I was a rock climber than a mountain biker. There are huge parts of the country where there really is no rock to climb. The explosion indoor scene has really changed the landscape for what it needs to be a climber living round here. But from home it's at least 2 hours in a car to go climbing

So I'm very grateful for what we have in terms of cycling

I think some times carelessly or through ignorance confuse South with South East. As the OP says Dartmoor really is a location for a mountain bike

Finally I note that lots Mountainers don't live in the Alpes or Himalayas

I’m a bit baffled that the OP refers to dartmoor as the south. Last I looked it’s quite a long way from London.

And yet further south...

Do people on here actually ride mountain bikes, I thought it was something that we only typed about.

I need to go shopping.

And yet further south…

"The South" isn't really a geographical thing and shouldn't be confused with [just] South which clearly is.

"If a man, woman or any other non binary being sit outside by a lake trying to catch fish for the day with a rod reel and tackle but they catch nothing is that person fishing or just sitting?"

I'm only seeing one person Phishing fishing on this thread OP 🙂

I've off-road-cycled all over the UK and had many great rides in the South, both tech and non tech.

I've also bikes through Scotland in incredible scenery on what we're really pretty rubbish trails. So being in the mountains is no guarantee of good trails.

Best concentration of tech I know of is in the Valleys where ironically the local hills are referred to as 'mountains' due to linguistic heritage.

Good effort 👍🏻

I think this is all in the OP's head to be honest.

And whoever thinks that dartmoor isn't South??😳

Put this in your pipe and feel much better 🙂

https://www.themountainguide.co.uk/england/dartmoor

I’m still stuck at the difference between fishing and just sitting down.

This is all heading Soufflé.

I’m still stuck at the difference between fishing and just sitting down.

I think there’s a real difference

I’m still stuck at the difference between fishing and just sitting down.

About £3k Worth of kit to cart about and sit next to.

Do people on here actually ride mountain bikes, I thought it was something that we only typed about.

I need to go shopping.

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About £3k Worth of kit to cart about and sit next to.

Is that a wind up?

Nah. He's just feeding you a line. Back on your perch.

Ahh, I knew there must be a catch

He's trying to Ruffel you

I’ve had what the OP describes, on here and out on the trail, despite living in the north. I assume it’s because the person has low self esteem, has no social skills or has a tiny penis. Or a spectacular combination of all three.

The increasing Snobbery within mountain biking really grinds my gears though. Kit and bikes is one thing but I have heard and read many times that you can’t be called a mountain biker if you live down south as your not near mountains.

What winds me up is the snobbery about mountain biking snobbery. I'm sick of people looking down at me just because I look down at people without the right kit or bike. And don't get me started on a a rant about people getting angry on bike forums. And really don't get me started on a rant about people saying it should be bike fora.

So you're at the level of meta-snobbery. Well I'll raise that to meta-meta-snobbery - I'm a snob about not being a snob about being a snob about people who ride crap bikes.

So you’re at the level of meta-snobbery. Well I’ll raise that to meta-meta-snobbery – I’m a snob about not being a snob about being a snob about people who ride crap bikes.

I've got so much spare time on my hands at the moment I can't actually remember what I'm supposed too be getting angry and snobby about. I'm off out now to ride one of my crap bikes but wearing fancy kit. Tomorrow I'll do it the other way round.

I've always thought off road cycling is a much better description, should have stuck/started with that tbf

Exactly that ta11pau1 😂

Mint always has it covered!

There was a thread on here back in 2012 where a lot of people moaned about the Olympic MTB course because it wasn't anywhere near a mountain. I think they shut up once somebody tested the track and described exactly how hard it was to ride.

scotroutes
Living there, you’d be better with a gravel bike.

That's the irony. Living up here with mountains all around, and the most useful bike is a gravel bike.

Living there, you’d be better with a gravel bike.

There is not enough gravel there to be a proper "gravel biker"

kersey
There is not enough gravel there to be a proper “gravel biker”

However we RSFers find gravel bikes the most useful for riding up in the Northern Highlands, surrounded by mountains as we are. Fatbikes are also useful, as are MTBs and CX bikes, but if you want to stitch together a route, the so called gravel bike is often the most appropriate for the variety of surfaces.

For those who refer to MTB, I've got news... the T doesn't stand for Tain.

It's Multi Terrain Bikes, like the French VTT - Velo Tout Terrains.

It’s Multi Terrain Bikes

So a downhill specific bike isn't an MTB then?

Where bouts you based on Dartmoor?

One fellow non proper mtb'er to another 😛

I just like the idea that somewhere out there there is a "Binary" man mountain biker and a "binary" woman mountain biker.

Wonder what they would look like?...... LOL

Aren't we all "non-binary" unless you are some Swarzenegger wannabe or Paris Hilton lookalike?

Do I HAVE to call myself "non-binary" cuz i was born with a penis but like to wear pink socks?

"Non-binary!" LOL What does that even mean?

I'm 95% a mountain biker

BigJohn
For those who refer to MTB, I’ve got news… the T doesn’t stand for Tain.

It’s Multi Terrain Bikes, like the French VTT – Velo Tout Terrains

I didn't know that was what the acronym was. Makes sense, Ta.

We’re all cyclists.

Binary "Mountain Biker"

077 111 117 110 116 097 105 110 032 066 105 107 101 114

Well..... The nearest I could get was ASCII.

Sounds like the best kept secret for mountain biking in the UK is full of douchebags who the OP needs to stop listening to.

Exactly that ta11pau1 😂

Mint always has it covered!

Damn- beat me to it! and-

Binary “Mountain Biker”

077 111 117 110 116 097 105 110 032 066 105 107 101 114

Well….. The nearest I could get was ASCII.

The forum needs a 108 105 107 101 button 😎

The 'Mountain' part of Mountain Bikes has always had to be taken with a pinch of salt.

It's a bit of nonsense really, there isn't a single, confirmed definition of a 'Mountain' for a start.

The name was probably a result of a marketing brain storming session.

For me 'Mountain Biking' = riding off road.

If I fancied being a dick and calling people "not proper mountain bikers" I'd probably say people who just have a flat-barred bike for riding cycle paths etc, but if they want to be Mountain Bikers who am I to say they're not.

I thought I got wound up by minor gripes at times but 'really'?? I can't say I have ever heard anyone say if you live 'darn sarf' you aint a proper biker...

I thought you were going to rant about the cost of bikes and kit... 'Mountain' biking for me at the minute is a local wood with around 20m vertical slope. Still mountain biking.

2/10.

I thought I got wound up by minor gripes at times but ‘really’?? I can’t say I have ever heard anyone say if you live ‘darn sarf’ you aint a proper biker…

However it appears that most Northern STWers think that there is no decent riding down South. Which is clearly rubbish.

I’ve also bikes through Scotland in incredible scenery on what we’re really pretty rubbish trails. So being in the mountains is no guarantee of good trails.

Agree with molgrips. I live here and some of the best riding is in the Borders, broad gentle Speyside / Cairngorm unsurfaced estate roads or forest trails in the less lumpy parts of Argyll. The more dramatic glens (Glencoe etc) are way too gnarly for a bike and quite often have one big trunk road through the middle, reducing riding options.