I'm mid thirties and have been bashing around on bikes for thirty years. I outgrew BMX when I was early teens and found the limitations that riding a BMX posed were soon forgotten when I found the joy and adventure that is mountain biking. I've never looked back and call mountain biking my main interest in life aside from the obvious joys of family, friends and being healthy.
I've raced, I've volunteered at events, I've been paid to be part of events and have run my own events. I've been on trail care crews, I've built trails that have been part of clubs for twenty years and have a host of my own trails that have weathered the test of changing times and changing scenes. In all of that, a few things have stayed the same. Firstly, the stoke is still there and thats the big reason you keep on riding. I've always been a gravity rider but have also always been a trail rider and even a roadie in the last few years to keep the legs tuned. Nothing is more exciting than being on a gravity fed trail, staying off the brakes and slaying some amazing piece of dirt art. Mix a few good mates into that and it's the best day out, memories are made on days like these. Chuck in the typical chatter with some people you've never met in the shuttle vehicle and you've made some new mates for life. The vibe that lingers and the things that remind you of those days are things to hang onto.
That brings me to the next point; the people. I have made some great friends through riding bikes and I've met tons of people that you recognise at the next race for a few high fives and a catch up on what you've been riding since you last spoke. The majority of people in the gravity side of riding bikes are cool cats that I'm happy to hang with. If it stayed that simple then life would be merry but I can give advice to anyone considering being the main trail builder or a person looking to set up a club entity: You will make enemies and people will always not agree with what you do or your ideas. You get that in any sort of leadership role and mountain biking is no exception. I would love to have all the trails magically appear and all the fun events be run for me to just rock up to and have a blast and not a day goes by where I wish I could be that person who just rides and gives not one fuck about the logistical side of how that stuff materializes but I made choices a long time ago to be that guy and here we are today.
Any sport will see new things, new adaptations of how to do the sport the exact same way, new technologies to seemingly improve what we do, new energy sources to achieve the same result. That's called progression and any sort of wheeled sport see's developments very quickly and perhaps even more than any other sport. The core business of what we do on our bikes will never change but the limits and capabilities are constantly being tested and pushed further by our elite riders and pinners who do it without number plates hidden in forests on secret trails around the world. What drives that development? What is the purpose of developing something that will achieve seemingly the exact result? Picture this: You have been riding a 2009 model 26" wheeled dual suspension mountain bike since new and the time has come to upgrade to a new bike just because you want to. You'll see straight away that some big changes have happened to mountain bikes in that time and you're left thinking that it is going to do the exact same thing as my last bike, it's just newer and I'll be X amount of dollars worse of. New wheel sizes, wider handlebars, no triple chainring, really big wide tyres, seatposts that go up and down, fancy little devices that beep and record your ride; it's mind boggling how much the mountain bike existence has changed in a handful of years but that's the course of development. A manufacturer cannot sit still and be content that you'll ride a bike to death for six years then buy a new bike "just because". A manufacturer needs to develop new things once or even twice every year to keep the supposed need to get onto something new every time a digit changes on your wall calendar. It's business and the brains behind the companies who've been marketing the changes for all these years are doing their job. You don't need to get whatever the fancy new part is every few months to be faster than the next guy but the desire to have it is always paramount. Face it, who wouldn't like to get something new every few months and have a new interest in riding it? That'd be great! I'd love to have a budget that allowed me to grab the latest gear and be stoked to put it on and shred with it. The desire is always there and without new things to bolt on or wear every time you turn the page, you'd lose the excited interest.
Of all the changes I've seen in the mountain bike scene over my quarter century of changing the layer of skin on my legs every weekend, the biggest and undeniably the most influential thing to have an impact has been the internet. That itself is a big deal. We used to wait three months to get the latest copy of America's mountain bike action magazine and we'd read race results and who was riding what when they won a race in another country when it was totally old news. That was the norm though, local (Australian) publications covered our scene as best they could but the news was still weeks old and forgotten about by the teams preparing for the next race. Still, that was the norm as we knew no different.
In the mid nineties, we'd begun huddling around your well off mates parents' computer hoping that that buzzing and beeping would reward you with a computer that successfully connected to the internet. The big deal in those days was seeing something gory or seeing some sexy girl that you'd seen four years ago in a newish magazine doing something that your parents would not approve of. The internet is awesome! Going to school and talking about the fresh things you'd discovered on the internet seemed to create a divide between some folks who had no chance to use it who didn't actually believe you'd seen or done the things you'd seen online. I'm almost positive that it created a new social existence where you were either one of the rad kids who used the internet or you were one of those guys that read books instead of watching TV, kind of like the groups of kids that played footy and the kids who didn't. That sort of divide.
I could ramble on all day about the things the internet began providing us with but I'll stay on things close to mountain biking. One of the main talking points about the internet has always been about how it would affect printed publications (magazines, newspapers etc). Make no mistake, the internet has changed the way we source and receive our news. It has given us a freedom to refine what we want to read more than anything. We've all seen the demise of magazines that have ceased to exist whether they have stopped altogether or have turned into purely an online news source. A question worth asking though: Do we need magazines? You decide that, your desire will always vary. I for one have not picked up a magazine for years and have not had any intention of doing so. Why? I don't need it, I have everything I need in the palm of my hand instantly.
That's it right there, the biggest change in mountain biking ever and it's right there in the palm of my hand. It's on my phone, my laptop, my tablet, my remote, my PC mouse et cetera et cetera. Every device we shove into our pockets is connected to something that gives us instant information when we want it wherever we want it. Think back to lining up a ride with some mates before the internet and it was either knocking on their door or using the old wall mounted phone with that bunch of cords connecting it to the guy on the other end of the call. Nowadays, you text or video call or you tag a bunch of guys in an instant. You may not speak a word to anyone until you actually see them in person and it's all good, everyone knows whats going on, where and what time and what bike to bring. It doesn't stop with that though, you can give the new guy info on a trail by sending him a link to a video recorded on a tiny device strapped to a guys chest that he bought for $300 in a supermarket and it's incredible quality. Remember an old racecam from a car race back in the day? That shit was raw and it was edge of your seat stuff! Now? Pffft, you'd be nuts not to view anything in one hundred frames a second and on an LED screen! Once your mate has watched the video he can then jump onto any number of sites that also show some info that other folks have uploaded from tiny devices that show you how long the trail is, where the climb is, where the top speed is and where the nearby trails are. The new guy will have all the info he needs on a trail he's never laid eyes on and he's gotten it all on something the size of a business card.
The info at our disposal is amazing. The things we can record, upload, edit, view and share is incredible. We truly live in an age where being connected and sharing our lives with everyone else is so easy. It's so available that almost every walk of life needs to have some sort of profile or a way to be connected to enjoy things we desire. What you put out there is your choice but how it gets distributed is not, that's the risk you take.
Now, the point of my post today is to highlight what I think is the biggest change in mountain biking via social media and that's product placement, sponsorship, brand awareness, things like that. I've followed sports that have had billboards on them since the day I remember walking, any competitive sport will always require sponsorship in one way or another and most of it doesn't exist without it. How does a potential sponsor want to see their product advertised? It's usually on the top step of a podium used and worn by a person that's smiling that everyone in the world loves! If there's no room in that person's program for your product placement then whats' the next option? You could stick a banner across some scantly clad girl that catches your eye but that'll only go so far as it doesn't demonstrate the effect of the product and nowadays it'll probably show your company as a mob of pompous sexist pigs because (apparently) it's a crime to admire the appeal of a great looking person who looks after themselves but that's a topic for anther day.
What are your other options? You could get a former winner with silver hair to do what he or she used to do but on a recreational level showing that the product still makes your perform at your best? No? That's not that adventurous or overly interesting is it? What other avenue can you take to get good brand awareness that the whole world will see?
You pick a person that you think would be a good image for your loot, you send them some sweeteners and you tell them to do all the work themselves! Thats what! Open any one of your social media sources and you've got a spiraling amount of amazing athletes going huge on their bike using something that is shown in the tags in their text and you know what gear they are on to make them shred. Gone are the days of needing to be a winner or a great looking human to get product exposure, nowadays anybody can source a product or have it supplied and wham, a small edit later and that product is available out there in the hands of everyone swiping through their phone. Some amazing riders who don't and haven't even been near a race or a freeride comp are promoting products and places purely from their own stoke. There's not much need anymore for big time results when you can do what you want on a trail you want and raise your social affection purely by sharing something that other riders would love to see. One photo, one five second video and a few hashtags is all it takes for people with a big following to advertise the loot.
What effect has that had on the race scene, the freeride scene, the local scene? Are we seeing less people at races because the prizes may not be as rewarding as it was before social media? Does social media attract more people to an event purely for it's ease of getting the info out there? Do you avoid an event purely because you can watch it at home on your connected device with the accompanying discussion going on? There's a lot of things that social media has done to or sport, some good and some bad but more than anything it's raised the appeal of the sport and made it more available to anyone who wants to research it sitting on their butt's at home. As covered earlier, you can find out what bike you want and how much it will cost, you can buy in it online, you can pick the trails you want to ride and you can even pick the time you want to ride based on who has made it public when and where they'll ride.
I'm keen to see your opinions on this. I want to hear from young dudes who have never known otherwise and people like me who've been on the scene before the almighty internet arrived. What positives and negatives do you see social media having on mountain biking?
I've raced, I've volunteered at events, I've been paid to be part of events and have run my own events. I've been on trail care crews, I've built trails that have been part of clubs for twenty years and have a host of my own trails that have weathered the test of changing times and changing scenes. In all of that, a few things have stayed the same. Firstly, the stoke is still there and thats the big reason you keep on riding. I've always been a gravity rider but have also always been a trail rider and even a roadie in the last few years to keep the legs tuned. Nothing is more exciting than being on a gravity fed trail, staying off the brakes and slaying some amazing piece of dirt art. Mix a few good mates into that and it's the best day out, memories are made on days like these. Chuck in the typical chatter with some people you've never met in the shuttle vehicle and you've made some new mates for life. The vibe that lingers and the things that remind you of those days are things to hang onto.
That brings me to the next point; the people. I have made some great friends through riding bikes and I've met tons of people that you recognise at the next race for a few high fives and a catch up on what you've been riding since you last spoke. The majority of people in the gravity side of riding bikes are cool cats that I'm happy to hang with. If it stayed that simple then life would be merry but I can give advice to anyone considering being the main trail builder or a person looking to set up a club entity: You will make enemies and people will always not agree with what you do or your ideas. You get that in any sort of leadership role and mountain biking is no exception. I would love to have all the trails magically appear and all the fun events be run for me to just rock up to and have a blast and not a day goes by where I wish I could be that person who just rides and gives not one fuck about the logistical side of how that stuff materializes but I made choices a long time ago to be that guy and here we are today.
Any sport will see new things, new adaptations of how to do the sport the exact same way, new technologies to seemingly improve what we do, new energy sources to achieve the same result. That's called progression and any sort of wheeled sport see's developments very quickly and perhaps even more than any other sport. The core business of what we do on our bikes will never change but the limits and capabilities are constantly being tested and pushed further by our elite riders and pinners who do it without number plates hidden in forests on secret trails around the world. What drives that development? What is the purpose of developing something that will achieve seemingly the exact result? Picture this: You have been riding a 2009 model 26" wheeled dual suspension mountain bike since new and the time has come to upgrade to a new bike just because you want to. You'll see straight away that some big changes have happened to mountain bikes in that time and you're left thinking that it is going to do the exact same thing as my last bike, it's just newer and I'll be X amount of dollars worse of. New wheel sizes, wider handlebars, no triple chainring, really big wide tyres, seatposts that go up and down, fancy little devices that beep and record your ride; it's mind boggling how much the mountain bike existence has changed in a handful of years but that's the course of development. A manufacturer cannot sit still and be content that you'll ride a bike to death for six years then buy a new bike "just because". A manufacturer needs to develop new things once or even twice every year to keep the supposed need to get onto something new every time a digit changes on your wall calendar. It's business and the brains behind the companies who've been marketing the changes for all these years are doing their job. You don't need to get whatever the fancy new part is every few months to be faster than the next guy but the desire to have it is always paramount. Face it, who wouldn't like to get something new every few months and have a new interest in riding it? That'd be great! I'd love to have a budget that allowed me to grab the latest gear and be stoked to put it on and shred with it. The desire is always there and without new things to bolt on or wear every time you turn the page, you'd lose the excited interest.
Of all the changes I've seen in the mountain bike scene over my quarter century of changing the layer of skin on my legs every weekend, the biggest and undeniably the most influential thing to have an impact has been the internet. That itself is a big deal. We used to wait three months to get the latest copy of America's mountain bike action magazine and we'd read race results and who was riding what when they won a race in another country when it was totally old news. That was the norm though, local (Australian) publications covered our scene as best they could but the news was still weeks old and forgotten about by the teams preparing for the next race. Still, that was the norm as we knew no different.
In the mid nineties, we'd begun huddling around your well off mates parents' computer hoping that that buzzing and beeping would reward you with a computer that successfully connected to the internet. The big deal in those days was seeing something gory or seeing some sexy girl that you'd seen four years ago in a newish magazine doing something that your parents would not approve of. The internet is awesome! Going to school and talking about the fresh things you'd discovered on the internet seemed to create a divide between some folks who had no chance to use it who didn't actually believe you'd seen or done the things you'd seen online. I'm almost positive that it created a new social existence where you were either one of the rad kids who used the internet or you were one of those guys that read books instead of watching TV, kind of like the groups of kids that played footy and the kids who didn't. That sort of divide.
I could ramble on all day about the things the internet began providing us with but I'll stay on things close to mountain biking. One of the main talking points about the internet has always been about how it would affect printed publications (magazines, newspapers etc). Make no mistake, the internet has changed the way we source and receive our news. It has given us a freedom to refine what we want to read more than anything. We've all seen the demise of magazines that have ceased to exist whether they have stopped altogether or have turned into purely an online news source. A question worth asking though: Do we need magazines? You decide that, your desire will always vary. I for one have not picked up a magazine for years and have not had any intention of doing so. Why? I don't need it, I have everything I need in the palm of my hand instantly.
That's it right there, the biggest change in mountain biking ever and it's right there in the palm of my hand. It's on my phone, my laptop, my tablet, my remote, my PC mouse et cetera et cetera. Every device we shove into our pockets is connected to something that gives us instant information when we want it wherever we want it. Think back to lining up a ride with some mates before the internet and it was either knocking on their door or using the old wall mounted phone with that bunch of cords connecting it to the guy on the other end of the call. Nowadays, you text or video call or you tag a bunch of guys in an instant. You may not speak a word to anyone until you actually see them in person and it's all good, everyone knows whats going on, where and what time and what bike to bring. It doesn't stop with that though, you can give the new guy info on a trail by sending him a link to a video recorded on a tiny device strapped to a guys chest that he bought for $300 in a supermarket and it's incredible quality. Remember an old racecam from a car race back in the day? That shit was raw and it was edge of your seat stuff! Now? Pffft, you'd be nuts not to view anything in one hundred frames a second and on an LED screen! Once your mate has watched the video he can then jump onto any number of sites that also show some info that other folks have uploaded from tiny devices that show you how long the trail is, where the climb is, where the top speed is and where the nearby trails are. The new guy will have all the info he needs on a trail he's never laid eyes on and he's gotten it all on something the size of a business card.
The info at our disposal is amazing. The things we can record, upload, edit, view and share is incredible. We truly live in an age where being connected and sharing our lives with everyone else is so easy. It's so available that almost every walk of life needs to have some sort of profile or a way to be connected to enjoy things we desire. What you put out there is your choice but how it gets distributed is not, that's the risk you take.
Now, the point of my post today is to highlight what I think is the biggest change in mountain biking via social media and that's product placement, sponsorship, brand awareness, things like that. I've followed sports that have had billboards on them since the day I remember walking, any competitive sport will always require sponsorship in one way or another and most of it doesn't exist without it. How does a potential sponsor want to see their product advertised? It's usually on the top step of a podium used and worn by a person that's smiling that everyone in the world loves! If there's no room in that person's program for your product placement then whats' the next option? You could stick a banner across some scantly clad girl that catches your eye but that'll only go so far as it doesn't demonstrate the effect of the product and nowadays it'll probably show your company as a mob of pompous sexist pigs because (apparently) it's a crime to admire the appeal of a great looking person who looks after themselves but that's a topic for anther day.
What are your other options? You could get a former winner with silver hair to do what he or she used to do but on a recreational level showing that the product still makes your perform at your best? No? That's not that adventurous or overly interesting is it? What other avenue can you take to get good brand awareness that the whole world will see? You pick a person that you think would be a good image for your loot, you send them some sweeteners and you tell them to do all the work themselves! Thats what! Open any one of your social media sources and you've got a spiraling amount of amazing athletes going huge on their bike using something that is shown in the tags in their text and you know what gear they are on to make them shred. Gone are the days of needing to be a winner or a great looking human to get product exposure, nowadays anybody can source a product or have it supplied and wham, a small edit later and that product is available out there in the hands of everyone swiping through their phone. Some amazing riders who don't and haven't even been near a race or a freeride comp are promoting products and places purely from their own stoke. There's not much need anymore for big time results when you can do what you want on a trail you want and raise your social affection purely by sharing something that other riders would love to see. One photo, one five second video and a few hashtags is all it takes for people with a big following to advertise the loot.
What effect has that had on the race scene, the freeride scene, the local scene? Are we seeing less people at races because the prizes may not be as rewarding as it was before social media? Does social media attract more people to an event purely for it's ease of getting the info out there? Do you avoid an event purely because you can watch it at home on your connected device with the accompanying discussion going on? There's a lot of things that social media has done to or sport, some good and some bad but more than anything it's raised the appeal of the sport and made it more available to anyone who wants to research it sitting on their butt's at home. As covered earlier, you can find out what bike you want and how much it will cost, you can buy in it online, you can pick the trails you want to ride and you can even pick the time you want to ride based on who has made it public when and where they'll ride.
I'm keen to see your opinions on this. I want to hear from young dudes who have never known otherwise and people like me who've been on the scene before the almighty internet arrived. What positives and negatives do you see social media having on mountain biking?
