[SPINTECK]

If you look at the past, Dh has been up and down. It's obvious that riders are increasing, but racing is not growing. I'm not sure if that bothers me because I tend to like freeriders, dirt jumpers, filmers and hobbyists more than racers and promoters.

More people are finally giving back in terms of web sites, videos, camps, diverse products.

I tend to think this thing as surfing was when it started. We really just need more hot women if we want this thing to take off

 

[Huck Banzai]

We're all doomed.

Hoard water and bullets!

 

[BC VAN]

YAY STORY TIME ! ! !

I will relate to this through the long lost art of story telling..

About 15 years ago i was involved in a little known sport called Fly fishing. Now for those of you posers who watched brad pitt on the movies land monster trout in Montana ... SCREW YOU ! you ruined my sport.

Anyway. I had been fishing small local trout streams for about 7 years and by 13 i was pretty freakin good. A regular Grom if you will. Then ... someone made a movie. In about 4 years i watched small conventions full of the same old people ( i mean like 65+ years old) turn 5 and 6 times larger. technology Skyrocketted, Prices Jumped, Trends happened, people lost perspective and My dad and I got away from the sport. The best example is when i saw the state install 2 paved roads with paved parking lots and handicapped accessable fishing platforms onto a local trout stream because of local pressure.

Well guess what. 5 years after that all went down and people relized that all the money in their pockets, cool technology in their gear, trendy sh!t on their person and Club membership cards in their wallets STILL couldnt make them a better fisherman than i was @ age 15!. thats right hard work and dedication still pays off. So now the sport has come back down... there are still the old retired people who do it cause they love it and have nothing else to do with their time and there are still the people who do it because its not the bass master classics.

The point im trying to make is If you all wish for commercialization you will find a HUGE increase in price, popularity and... personalization. This sport is still small enough that MOST of us do it because we love it NOT because its cool or trendy. And if it ever becomes cool and trendy you will find a whole host of problems from poaching local spots, to lift line 3 times longer than your use to, to bikes that easily come out to 10K and trends in the bike world that 5 years later you will look at and say WTF was i thinking. And im sure a lot of us will quit it if it comes to that .... And start riding BMX street

Rant over.

our sport has already gone through what your talking about here. although not on the level of fly fishing....I'm sure % wise the increase relative to time frame of people getting involved would be similar.

i think all of what you say makes a bit of sense actually but i also have friends that are "handicapped" and think you sound like an ass when you put something like that up.
why should they not have a chance to participate? walk your able body 1/4 mile up stream and you won't have to see them.

thread derailment over.

 

[DBR X6 RIDER]

The future will have its good times and its bad times. Personally, f*ck the future - it's all about the NOW!!!

 

[Rover Nick]

We really just need more hot women if we want this thing to take off

Thats what we've been missing

 

[dan wask]

I think the sport is headed downhill.


get it?

 

[SVPPB]

I think we need to make it more Survivor based.
Claymores, pungee sticks, maybe bring back the VC for good times, and you get to race through all of it.

I promise you that will get us on TV

 

[[Tha]Shovla]

our sport has already gone through what your talking about here. although not on the level of fly fishing....I'm sure % wise the increase relative to time frame of people getting involved would be similar.

i think all of what you say makes a bit of sense actually but i also have friends that are "handicapped" and think you sound like an ass when you put something like that up.
why should they not have a chance to participate? walk your able body 1/4 mile up stream and you won't have to see them.

thread derailment over.

You are exactly correct about my comments for "handicapped" accessability. However that was not my intent. I was trying to explain that the paved roads and huge platform only add to the fever because now people see a welcome and open parking lot opposed to a gravel area. Think of your local shuttle road ( asuming you have one) and imagine on a weekend when parking really controls the amount of shuttle trucks on the hill because there are only so many pull offs. Now if DNR made large pleasant looking parking lots you would have every tom, dick and harry running up and down because there is so much more parking and thus more people. Fishing, especially a trout stream is NOTHING like shuttles though because if some walks through a spot and spooks fish and disturbs area the whole stream can essentially be done for the day. So more parking means more people means more activity means more stress mean less fish. Just like more parking means more riders means more trail abuse and then trails are messed up. I pray that this sport never sees the trendyness and explosiveness that flyfishing


Quote:
Originally Posted by SPINTECK
We really just need more hot women if we want this thing to take off

TRUE ! ! ! ! Its so hard to start a conversation with a cute chick at the bar when she doesnt want to discuss Tire sizes or Tripple Crown Vs. Single crown and the advantages to both. oster_oops:

 

[BC VAN]

You are exactly correct about my comments for "handicapped" accessability. However that was not my intent. I was trying to explain that the paved roads and huge platform only add to the fever because now people see a welcome and open parking lot opposed to a gravel area. Think of your local shuttle road ( asuming you have one) and imagine on a weekend when parking really controls the amount of shuttle trucks on the hill because there are only so many pull offs. Now if DNR made large pleasant looking parking lots you would have every tom, dick and harry running up and down because there is so much more parking and thus more people. Fishing, especially a trout stream is NOTHING like shuttles though because if some walks through a spot and spooks fish and disturbs area the whole stream can essentially be done for the day. So more parking means more people means more activity means more stress mean less fish. Just like more parking means more riders means more trail abuse and then trails are messed up. I pray that this sport never sees the trendyness and explosiveness that flyfishing


Quote:
Originally Posted by SPINTECK
We really just need more hot women if we want this thing to take off

TRUE ! ! ! ! Its so hard to start a conversation with a cute chick at the bar when she doesnt want to discuss Tire sizes or Tripple Crown Vs. Single crown and the advantages to both. oster_oops:

that just hit close to home...i have a number of friends that are rolling in chairs now.

i feel what your saying...i got a local jump spot that i kept super low key...

couple of 50 kids found it and about a month and half later i had moto friends telling me about a "new 50 spot" right by my house.haha...showed up the next weekend and there were 3 trucks with 10x10's up doing the whole bbq family day at my little jump spot that i put a couple years into to.

 

[Rip]

6" fully's make a comeback.

 

[SK6]

The "In the Closet" metal heads the musicians that have made it in other words, or whatever “famous” people, yell just a bit louder about the sport…

Create an interest…

 

[[Tha]Shovla]

6" fully's make a comeback.

I think this is almost the most accurate statement made yet. I think lighter, better tuned, 6" rear suspension travel with either 6 or 7" single crown forks will be more popular and you will find the general public riding these bikes more and more and the 8" dual crown race bikes will be ridden by mostly people who compete on whatever level they are on. But you will find the general non competetive riders on beefy 6" single crown mini DH bikes.

 

[slothy]

its growing, hopefully not too big, and all the top guys will have no personalities or charisma (like tennis players) because they train too much to socialise oh, and they will all wear lycra and take themselves too seriously........

 

[bent^biker]

I think this is almost the most accurate statement made yet. I think lighter, better tuned, 6" rear suspension travel with either 6 or 7" single crown forks will be more popular and you will find the general public riding these bikes more and more and the 8" dual crown race bikes will be ridden by mostly people who compete on whatever level they are on. But you will find the general non competetive riders on beefy 6" single crown mini DH bikes.

much as I agree with you I think he meant 6" wheels. those are the pimp rigs for sure

 

[SK6]

So, no real solution except for the "Spend more money" and help with "Trail Building" etc... etc...

Don't you think the cost of the equipment is a bit exorbitant? How many people can get a decent MX bike for what they paid for their DH bikes? And yet someone suggested we pay more money...

 

[PhilipW]

Ugh, reading old threads in the middle of the night...might as well start hypin' up the new season...

I have a secret dream about getting on MTV's Made for being a DH racer...

...that might get some exposure to the kids! Better than learning to do a backflip for the cameras...jeez.

But seriously, as a member of the East coast, I would like to see more 'festival race' weekends. Race a little DH, ride some slalom, have a dj jam, maybe have a silly contest (e.g. bike throw). It would be fun to have like a 3 stage DH race, and plan it so the start and end points are the same, so timing equipment doesnt need to move.

I'd also throw in some twists, like have two of the tracks average out to be either the same time or very slightly different. If you race faster on the 2nd track, then you get 10 seconds or somthing off your combined time for all 3 runs. Or you get thrown in for a raffle for some swag.

Keepin things interesting

 

[FCLinder]

Ugh, reading old threads in the middle of the night...might as well start hypin' up the new season...

I have a secret dream about getting on MTV's Made for being a DH racer...

...that might get some exposure to the kids! Better than learning to do a backflip for the cameras...jeez.

But seriously, as a member of the East coast, I would like to see more 'festival race' weekends. Race a little DH, ride some slalom, have a dj jam, maybe have a silly contest (e.g. bike throw). It would be fun to have like a 3 stage DH race, and plan it so the start and end points are the same, so timing equipment doesnt need to move.

I'd also throw in some twists, like have two of the tracks average out to be either the same time or very slightly different. If you race faster on the 2nd track, then you get 10 seconds or somthing off your combined time for all 3 runs. Or you get thrown in for a raffle for some swag.

Keepin things interesting

Cool thinking!!!! A DS/DH race. Like X-Games does with the Rally Racing. Maybe have both course cross over at a few points. Now bake in the day when the X-Games had DS racing and Mountain biking the courses did cross over each other. That was way back when!!!!

 

[urbaindk]

But seriously, as a member of the East coast, I would like to see more 'festival race' weekends. Race a little DH, ride some slalom.

That's the general idea for most of the Racer's Edge Mid-Atlantic Race series at Wisp in MD this past year. There were generally two DH races (one Saturday, one Sunday) on separate courses and a dual race Saturday night. Enter any one race and get lift access to all the trails on mountain from Friday morning 'til the lifts close Sunday afternoon. The only thing that would have made it more fun in my opinion would have been to allow onsite camping...

 

[FCLinder]

That's the general idea for most of the Racer's Edge Mid-Atlantic Race series at Wisp in MD this past year. There were generally two DH races (one Saturday, one Sunday) on separate courses and a dual race Saturday night. Enter any one race and get lift access to all the trails on mountain from Friday morning 'til the lifts close Sunday afternoon. The only thing that would have made it more fun in my opinion would have been to allow onsite camping...

May have to try out one of their race weekends this year!!!! Good info to know, thanks.

 

[FlipFantasia]

ride your bike, have fun, and don't worry about it......

 

[Heath Sherratt]

Why do bike company's not give loans? You can take out a 5k car loan. If they gave a loan with good interest rate, say less than 5% I bet they would sell more bikes. I bought a Slayer last winter for 1800. At the time it was a great deal. Almost 1k off the pricetag. But I ended up knickel and diming the bike I really wanted. I swappwd out the fork, bars,ETC. Now I love my bike. But at the time I did not have all the cash to buy my "Dream" bike. In the long run it would have cost the same and would have been easier to just get a loan. Plus I could afford to buy exactly what I wanted. Yes I could have gotton a personel loan, but the interest was to high. If say Santa Cruz had a great loan plan I would be riding a nomad right now. Or maybe a higher end Rocky.

Trek does offer financing-90, 180 or 12 months same as cash!

As for all the other whiners and groaners, I'm with Spoon and Todd, you have to Be The Change you want to see. This essentially though is what is wrong with Humans at large. It is easier to read about serving, hear about serving and even write about serving than it is to actually serve. Trail maintenance is an obvious glaring hole in our responsibility. These are our trails, the trails we ride and enjoy yet we do nothing to care or maintain them, much less to build them up and make them more fun. Put on a race, build a pump track in your local lot, help at the organized events in your area. Approach you local shop with an idea for an event and get your community involved. This is OUR fight, this is our sport, this is OUR FUTURE. It will be what we make it. We live in the best country in the world and we have the freedom to do whatever we want...so do what you want, if you want a better race-do it yourself and get folks involved that will make it happen with you. This is the way of change my friends. Our future is in our hands, no one else's.