[Closed] What IS Enduro - seriously!?

What IS 'core XC riding style at race events-Seriously?.

Its the racing side of what most people would call a fun xc ride.

Nope...still no idea.

Best comparison is rallying- you have timed special stages, and untimed liaison stages so instead of racing over say 30 miles, you ride 30 miles but you're only racing on the good bits. So for me it's the race format that's most like how I ride anyway- bimble to the top, on a bike built mostly for the descents, and then charge down the fun bits.

Also you need yellow stuff

Enduro sounds like an XC race where only the downhill bits are timed. Probably makes them more enjoyable than my memories of XC races.

XC is mincing around in lycra.
Enduro is super gnarr riding for those not fit enough for xc or fast enough for DH (like me for example).
Its great 🙂

Racing for people who don't like climbing all that much?

I feel the same. A big part of Enduro seems to be the emphasis on the stuff, aimed at the disposable income crowd, rather than the riding.

I seem to meet people new to cycling who think the "Serious Enduro Attitude" is paramount and sneer at my reckless & fun approach to riding. Yeah I get off and push my singlespeed, what!?

Downhill may be considered for people too lazy to climb, but I still think it is the most exiting, purest form of fun cycling can offer.

Pop it alongside:

"All Mountain"
"Freeride"

Etc

You get the gist.........

Nah, think about a big day out in the hills. Only you race flat out occasionally. Remember how knackered you get on the big day out without the short full out efforts thrown in? Just enter one and find out how hard they are compared to what they look on paper.

Some of them, maybe - 'ard rock enduro in Swaledale seems to fit that pretty well. But others - the Gisburn one near me, just involved a shortened lap of the trail centre (less than 10 miles) with four couple of minute flat-out bursts.

Still fun, if that's your thing.

I hope folk don't enter enduro's thinking that there's no climbing!

It's a vibe dude.

I think there was a Rampant Rabbit or some such, called the Enduro. Possibly only with Duracell's inserted.

It might well have been yellow too.

The lighting was dim and it disappeared all too easily IIRC...

I hope folk don't enter enduro's thinking that it's a race!

enduro = to last longer than five thrusts

@ slackalice - lmfao!

It's more than just a race format..
It's a vibe, it's a feeling, it's a state of mind and a way of life..
It's saying hell yeah when others are saying hell no, it's a way to transcend the every day, it's a function, it's a process, it's reaching higher and further than you thought possible..

Its touching cloth while you touch yourself and then stretching out your hand to touch others

Least I get the gist now of what Enduro entails.

According to one bloke above sounds like I'm already an endurorer. Just without all the disposable income spent on yellow goodies.

Now am wondering whether it's enduro to take some more psi out of tyres to be IN with the crowd. ;-d

Reporting Yunki as that made me laugh so hard, I actually did just touch cloth haha!

I'm feeling it yunki.

Hell yeah!

Touching the cloth. Man you take me to places I've never been.

And to never revisit, but the nostalgia...

Enduro is the mountain bike equivalent of the Sportive.

In the case of the Crankworx EWS, it'll most likely be the hardest thing you'll ever do on a bike.

If you don't get it, enter an EWS. That'll sort out any confusion or questions you might have.

Enduro is the product of a dark meeting among heads of corps, a huddle of suits looking for a way to domineer the blind sheep, squeeze them dry, break families and create monsters on odd sized wheels. Enduro is not a kind thing. It's being held to ransom to carry on with what you always did. It's paying money to ride the exact same trails as 300 other people in a weekend instead of ruling your own trail. It's the creation of a world of stuff for two wheeled monsters to chow down on in the most vulgar way, one upmanship based on the ticket prices of the alloy and carbon that you own.

It's wearing silly looking helmets without figuring out why. It's wearing clothing that matches what we wore in the '80s, its spending more on your bike than your car and more on one bike wheel than 4 car wheels, it's deciding it's cool to camp.

Mleh.

Whoever that numpty is a few posts up that says downhill is for people too lazy to climb - you haven't a clue have you

Enduro = Aggressive XC

You need a special towel to clean your balls.
or is that golf?

It's simple - limp uphill and then race the fun bits. Basically normal riding but with the fun bits timed. Pretentious videos about enduro being a state of mind etc entirely optional.

I quite enjoy the events, but only when the race is held somewhere where the trails are interesting (e.g. Exmoor gravity enduro) rather than paying to ride the same trail centre I could ride any other time but with hundreds of other people.

I see a bit of whining above about the 'disposable income crowd' spending lots of money on their kit. Good for them I say - they supply the second hand market with nice stuff for me to buy in a year's time at half the price, which lets me spend the difference on a biking holiday 🙂

glasgowdan - Member

Enduro is the product of a dark meeting among heads of corps

Well no. Enduro is the product of riders and local race organisers doing cool things together. Of course the industry was always going to climb on board anything so popular and use it to sell things but they didn't create it. Anyone'd think it was a new thing the way some folks talk.

I was thinking about this earlier as I parked the Audi outside the LBS to try on some Mavic shoes for size that I've seen cheaper online.

For me it's a lifestyle choice, I've had to make significant sacrifices like only riding trails with 'enduro' in their name on Strava, but on the other hand my commitment to enduro means I've really pushed myself to new levels, for example I've now owned three bikes worth over £4k and I've never had so many riding outfits. It feels really great to be able to advise people online about tyre choice and offer strangers at glentress advice on their riding posture.

Maybe next year I'll enter an enduro race, I find it hard to ride more than once a fortnight but sometimes feel racing would really inspire others and allow me to say I have the race results to prove it when online.

http://singletrackmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/state-of-the-enduro-nation-chris-ball-replies/

It's to give people on All Mountain bikes a special website to put their times on so they can pretend they are racing like wot the proper racers do 😀

All of this was making me more interested in enduro. It sounds like fun. Then I read yunki's post and ordered some anti bacterial hand gel 🙂

It sounds like fun, but I still don't really understand the format.

So there's a lap, but you're only timed on certain bits.
That I get.

Do you have to do a certain number of laps?
Is there a time limit of any kind, or can you take as long as you like per lap?
How hard are the hard bits?
Can I just turn up with my 100mm XC hardtail and ride, or is it all scary downhill type stuff?
Is there a brass band? Or a disco? I've never entered a race that didn't have either a brass band or a disco.
And how expensive is it to enter?

Depends.

Fairly sure it used to be a long xc type race.

what are all the sub sections of cycling? who wants to have a crack at listing them all?

For me, it's the competitive discipline that most closely mirrors the kind of riding most people like, ie cruise up, blast down.

It's blown up recently not due to the evil lizard capitalist rulers as some on this site would have you believe, but due to the accessibility. At the top end, to do well you need the full skillset and bikes & kit are the best out there, but there's nothing stopping you riding your current bike on that same course as the pro's and having a laugh.

Couple the accessible nature with fun loving and friendlier riders than your average XC/marathon type person and you see why it's so popular.

I've not seen a single person say they've tried the format and not enjoy it.

andyrm - Member

Couple the accessible nature with fun loving and friendlier riders than your average XC/marathon type person and you see why it's so popular.

The only XC/marathon types I know are the ones I've met at Hit the North.
They're pretty friendly, tbh...... 🙂

Rusty Spanner - Member

Do you have to do a certain number of laps?
Is there a time limit of any kind, or can you take as long as you like per lap?
How hard are the hard bits?
Can I just turn up with my 100mm XC hardtail and ride, or is it all scary downhill type stuff?

Almost always just 1 lap. Occasionally you might do a stage more than once but that's not common.
Time limit- some organisers do place on a time limit (which ime is rarely actually enforced), some give you specific start times for your stages so you have to get to the right place at the right time
How hard- depends entirely on the race, some are aimed pretty low, some are damn hard
100mm hardtail- depends on you really. I've not done many events where I think I couldn't have done it on an XC bike, but it'd be a lot harder and slower. Never done an enduro where it'd really be the right tool for the job.

One of the strengths of enduro can also be a weakness- it's really flexible. So that means that organisers can more or less make it do what they want, meaning it's welcoming and rewarding for a wider range of riders, and can work in a huge range of venues. But it does mean it's a bit confusing, since you could enter 2 different races and have a fairly different experience.

Is there any element of head to head racing or do you set off at intervals that prevent one rider having to pass another?

Isn't it like going out on a ride and smashing a few strava segments?

Yes....whilst paying £50.

Ta for the response, NW.
I'll go and watch one in the new year and see how it grabs me.

Rorschach - Member

Yes....whilst paying £50.

HOW MUCH?!?
It'd better be a bloody good brass band for £50.00.
Besses o'th Barn at HtN - I'd expect Foden's for £50.00, possibly even Tredegar.

You missing getting heckled at HTN Pete ? Just have a go, better than watching.

Peter and Jane, missing HTN also.

rsvktm - Member

You missing getting heckled at HTN Pete ?

Hiya!

Yep.
🙂

Big HtN shaped hole in my life - I should be panicking round about now and assembling a huuuge list of excuses.

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enduro_(mountain-biking)

HtN is what Enduro would love to be.......

So you don't know what it is but you're already sneering at it OP?

Well done you.

I don't even ride....and I sneer at it.

I applaud you Sir!

Considering I have been a biker for as long as I remember and keep relatively up to date with new info.
This one has me stumped!

Whilst you're busy sneering at enduro I'll sneer at how massively thick you are.

For me Enduro is another aspect of MTBing that I just can't afford. File it alongside most of the stuff that appears on Fridays fresh goods. £50 tyres, £100 shorts, £1000 wheels etc. Now I'm not being bitter but I feel like mountain biking is just becoming another middle class consumer driven past time. It feels like some people are obsessed with having the latest this or that, thinking it'll make them or the experience better. The last round of the SES had a few people throwing toys out of prams when their mince tanks (copyright Northwind) didn't help them when the going got tough. At least as somebody else said it does mean that there's lots of second hand stuff out there. If it wasn't for that and the likes of On-One I'd probably pack it all in and take up something less expensive like power boat racing.

YELLOW!?! YELLOW!?!

FFS. And all this time I thought it was about blue.

And yellow is 15% more gnarr. No wonder I'm slow.

For me Enduro is another aspect of MTBing that I just can't afford.

Don't think you need to have an expensive bike to get involved. Surely the whole point of it is its accessible. Sure you could spend 6k on a bronson, but equally you could compete on a 1k giant trance and you wouldn't be massively disadvantaged

You're not wrong Steven... But I reckon for every carbon fibre wonderbike being ridden by an incompetent there's at least a handful of battlescarred "all mountain" bikes with #nonduro obsolete 26 inch wheels and no primary colours... The bikes don't have to be expensive but the entry fees do add up.

Sure some folks will think they "need" something else but twas ever thus, to me it still feels mostly run what you brung- you see xc bikes, the odd downhill bike...

(Is mincetank one of mine? It's good, I'll take the credit...)

It's still £40+ to enter a race, add a few quid on top for bits and pieces and then time off work and I'd be about £200 worse off. I find it hard to justify spending money on bike parts as it is so that kind of money for a race is hard to swallow.

I have done 1 enduro ( tweedlove king of the hill ) so feel some what of an expert on the matter . Basically i got to spend two days riding a slection of pretty fun trails , some of them were a bit harder than the trails i was use to but i just about managed to get down in one piece .
The second day i had to dib a timer at the top and bottom of the trails and this made me want to go as quick as possible , this was not as quick as the lots of people who overtook me but they were all very nice about it .To get to the top of the trails i had to ride up the hill , by the last time up i was pretty knackered .
I just rode the bike i had but i did use it as an excuse to get a dropper post .
All in all it was a really good weekend and when you looked at all the effort the organisers had put in i thought it was pretty good value for money . Give it a try you might like it

For all the blinged up mince tanks I see at enduro races, those on cheaper older bikes (including hardtails) seemed to be having as much fun - and not always slower either! Earlier this year at a local race a guy a occasionally ride with managed top 15% on an old Sovereign with old Pikes - I was miles behind him on my enduro compliant 27.5 Piked/CCDBA'd super slack full-sus. The one thing everyone seemed to have in common was big grins once we'd passed the finish line and caught our breath.

If you want to know what the riding is like, look at who the older competitors are - very few retired XC racers, lots of retired DHers.

Has anyone here done an enduro race and not enjoyed it (apart from when the weather was so hideous it turned into a reenactment of The Somme)?

[img] [/img]

Enduro = a sportive where you can wear colourful clothings and looks cool and also bling bikes... Purple seatclamps ..things like that.. ( the riders who are riding upfront in the race in lycra's have no idea what is all about..duh! 🙄 )

Enduro = a sportive where you can wear colourful clothings and looks cool and also bling bikes ( the riders who are riding upfront in the race in lycra's have no idea what is all about..duh! )

Are you the OP under a different login?

Nope.. My other login is banned for 900 yrs iirc

Love enduro format event though.. Cant wait next year 😀

ntykint - Member
Whoever that numpty is a few posts up that says downhill is for people too lazy to climb - you haven't a clue have you

Bite. I said "may be considered". As in some people think that, not me.

Meh.

It's fun.

This is Enduro.

What you're talking about is poncing about in the woods with flouro gear and a bottle cage. 😉

I know what Enduro is, and it's much better without the STW haterz 🙂

Perhaps they should run their own niche core SS Semi Hard Mostly Fat Try Hard races for 37p entry with a gazillion pound prize pot and free grumpiness for all entrants with extra mocking and scorn lessons available. There would need to be a lot of bridges for the trolls to hide under too.

^^Love it!

Spot prizes for beard merit and a handicap system based on how many hip flasks and woodpile axes carried...... 😉

A late entry for "post of the year" from mikewsmith. 😀

mikewsmith

There would need to be a lot of bridges for the trolls to hide under too.

See the current "bridges i ride under/over" thread for details! 😉

singlespeedstu

This is Enduro.

jeez, those^^^ bikes take a beating eh!

Is it as gnarly as this?

Enduro = gullible folks spending shitloads on bikes/kit* they don't need !!!!!!

* shut up and take my money !!!! 🙂

After a years research, and absorbing all the media and marketing on Enduro, i can now categorically state that:

This IS enduro:
[img] [/img]

These ARE enduro:
[img] [/img]

This IS enduro:
[img] [/img]

This IS enduro:
[img] [/img]

This IS enduro:
[img] [/img]

This ISN't enduro:
[img] [/img]

😉

Careful now, the fat-bike fashionistas will be along shortly to tell you how a rigid fattie is all the bike you'll ever need, how they're faster on the trails than an Enduro-gnar machine, how they instantly put a smile on anybodys face etc etc yawn....

That blokes socks... Fantastic

It's a woman isn't it?...plaited hair coming out from the back of the helmet.....fat bikes; androgynous riding for those who like to blur the gender lines.

I do find it funny all thelse fat bike riding, lumbersexuals picking on #Enduro for being a ridiculous dayglo fashion fest full of Audi ****ers... People in glass houses hurling breeze blocks, etc...

The truth is that all these little recently added sub-niches have there relative merits, drawbacks and mindless fashion followingsbut I think they all add to the overall strength of cycling and the broad church that MTBing is IMO...

It's all equally ridiculous and awesome all at the same time. Carry on...

Thing that confuses me are local "Enduro" races near me, Gorrick and Brass Monkeys, seem to be XC races (aside from the races they actually describe as XC). Lycra guys, 29ers, short travel, nothing gravity, trails not super gnarly. They are based on amount of laps completed within the time I think. I'm no racer so don't know how a true XC race works by comparison.

Seems there's Enduro as in timed stage races, Gravity Enduro is the same but the stages are all downhill but ridden on trail and AM bikes, and then Enduro meaning Endurance which is different.

?

And then there's Enduro as in the lifestyle branding. Actually racing Enduro is an option. The look is everything.

And then there's Enduro as in the lifestyle branding. Actually racing Enduro is an option. The look is everything.

This only happened in your head though, didn't it?