The Term "freeriding"

[F1234K]

I thought about this topic the other day, so here are my thoughts:

Freeriding in my opinion is riding without the rules of style. What I mean by this is that in XC people generally ride up and down and technical sections, but there are no doubles or drops or airtime of any sort.

In 4X it is pump track action and doubles or tripples over a set track.

In DH it's speed and doubles with some drops etc, all going down.

etc. etc. You will notice each discipline has it's own set of things that make it what it is. Freeride in, my opinion, is the throwing away of such things and saying "Do whatever you want to".

A dude on his XC bike hitting water bars like doubles and launching of the rocks but then pedaling up some tight uphill sections is freeriding in my opinion because he is not sticking to the "rules" of XC.

Also a DH'er that pedals uphill and rides a skinny bridge is doing freeride.

Most of the time a compitition forces the "rules" of the discipline and you won't find any DH'ers riding that skinny bridge.

None of this means you cannot judge freeriding since all freeriding is is a discipline which says: "Do Whatever".

If you and your buddy's are out at the local hitting all your favorite trails which has some doubles, drops, tight corners etc. on it, don't you compare yourselfs to each other? One of you might be able to hit that 20ft gap and the other cannot, but then you might be able to blast through the corners at high speed and the other cannot. So you all look at each other and try and get better so that you can be as good as the other guy at whatever it is that he does well.

A freeride comp will be something similar in my mind. You are judged on how well you ride in a more generic sense. Just being able to go fast isn't going to win you anything. Just being able to go big isn't going to win you anything. Being able to ride really well is.

Imagine a DH comp where you get 2 seconds taken off your time every time you pull a sick trick over a double? So speed and style are equally important...

Anyway, I feel like I'm babbling so let's have some more opinions

 

[F1234K]

so if there was a local freeride event.such as the redbull ride like the one in 2004/5 or wsmtb(nsw) freeride event circa2005. or even at a club level would you (and i mean anyone) enter into such an event. if freeride was offered as a club or state disepline. would there be any takers or would ,
like mtnx there be mad rush(no pun intended) in the begining and then ebb away.

I would take a look at it

I think you will also find a lot of DH'ers and other styles of riders having a look as well in time. Similar to Rampage where you see DH'ers competing against freeriders against dirt jumpers etc.

 

[Howie66]

Watch The collective - Seasons.. theres some great freeriding footage and pretty much sums it up..

 

[jimmy-dh]

free riding is doing whatever u want on a bike i suppose

 

[Howie66]

So I ride DH.. but I dont compete..

I also ride DJ.. and I dont compete..

I ride my DH rig on DH track but also sometimes on the more harder , downhill XC track, and yet I ride my DJ on Dirt Jumps but sometimes on the easier DH tracks..

And as stated I dont compete..

I dont XC at all, and Im not a fan of pedalling uphill, infact I hate it.. I usually sticking to DH tracks, the proper ones, but also even if some of them arnt "DH specific", they still go DOWN-THE-HILL, ill ride them..
And also Dirt Jumps and 4X tracks for my jump bike..

Does this make me a freerider? Or a DH AND DJ rider?

Something ive wondered, as ive always thought of freeriders as dudes huckin massive cliffs etc, which I dont do..

 

[trust in gravity]

so. after many years in the wilderness,
freeride is no longer considered the relm of brainless huckers.
but the apex of high end riding.
the thinking mans(womans) riding style of choice?
to my mind. freeride is in fact a process.
it means many things to many people as we have seen.
but to me it is the process.
a process of getting to a point in the bush and forging the way to another designated point or natural out come. very slow , not flowy, not stylish ,unflattering ,unforgiving.
from this point it follows that when the optimum line is choosen then (eventually) there will emerge a pattern. a clear line. a track,trail or run. which others will follow.
will elaborate on. will build and redefine .
evolve into something which will set the pace for everyone else. from there it turns into genre specific disaplines. but thats just me.and thats not even taking into consideration of the actual riding of a bike! to me (again) its the others that push the boundries.(i'm old an sore from pushing through the unforgiving bush. i'm more builder nower days. but have ashitload of fun when i do get me leg over.)

therefore, if freeride is the appitomy of the best of the best. wouldn't it be interesting then to make a competitiion that measures all of these aquired skills which make up freeride.? as we've all testified. freeride is not all about hucking. there is that elliment sure but there are a million other defineing parts that make a truely outstanding rider.
what in your opinion are they? howand what, would you measure?

 

[professor_esky]

varied meanings for me....

doing whatever you or your bike can handle..

no set lines....

giving it a go... whether it be hucks, jumps, urban, down hills, single tracks or fire trails...


blah blah blah.....
you get the picture....


thats thinking about it too much in my opinion....
me.... i just do whatever.... if i cant handle it then i back off...

 

[Cuthbert]

For me freeride is more of an attitude/approach to riding than a discipline in itself. However, if I had to define 'freeride' as a riding style it is one that encompasses a range of disciplines, as has been mentioned above. With this in mind, the true freerider is one who does it all on the one bike, hits 15 km of flowing singletrack to get to the gravity stuff and likes nothing more than screaming along the DH track, hits a few built stunts/jumps along the way and pedals back to the top to do it all again.

Thus, to me the ultimate 'freeride' contest would be based on a time trial on longish track that is mostly DH but includes a number of flat sections and climbs - maybe something that takes about 20-30 min to complete. That way you get points for both DH skills and XC fitness. However, the track would also include a number of technical sections consisting of jumps/stunts/drops etc with multiple lines. Through these you would be judged & get points on the degree of difficulty of the line chosen x points for style and tech of the moves pulled (like slopesyle). You'd need to select a track and allocate points in such a way that no one discipline is favoured, with the winner being the person with the best all round bike ability. Would love to see an event like this.....

 

[trust in gravity]

For me freeride is more of an attitude/approach to riding than a discipline in itself. However, if I had to define 'freeride' as a riding style it is one that encompasses a range of disciplines, as has been mentioned above. With this in mind, the true freerider is one who does it all on the one bike, hits 15 km of flowing singletrack to get to the gravity stuff and likes nothing more than screaming along the DH track, hits a few built stunts/jumps along the way and pedals back to the top to do it all again.

Thus, to me the ultimate 'freeride' contest would be based on a time trial on longish track that is mostly DH but includes a number of flat sections and climbs - maybe something that takes about 20-30 min to complete. That way you get points for both DH skills and XC fitness. However, the track would also include a number of technical sections consisting of jumps/stunts/drops etc with multiple lines. Through these you would be judged & get points on the degree of difficulty of the line chosen x points for style and tech of the moves pulled (like slopesyle). You'd need to select a track and allocate points in such a way that no one discipline is favoured, with the winner being the person with the best all round bike ability. Would love to see an event like this.....

on the nail there mate!!
and most definatly will be taking that one to the board and giving that one a nudge in the right direction!!

 

[Northern Hemi]

The absence of competition.

From motocross in the 70's and snowboarding in the 80's, you'll find the origins of this term.

The originators used it to describe the absence of competition.

"Are you going to the comp this weekend?" "No. I'm going freeriding."

The guys who started this thing in biking were mostly snowboard / ski types, like Tippie, Schley, Simmons, Oleson and the Kamloops crew. Not at all pumped with the idea of competing, they used a term they were all comfortable with to describe what they were doing.
Because they were dropping cliffs and riding steeps (far more intense than the DH courses of the day) what they did was classified by the industry through what they saw and what the poineers told them they were doing.
"We're freeriding."
As anything outside of racing in those days wasn't on the radar of the industry, they found this crazyness notable, so they wrote it down.

Nobody would have cared what they were doing if it weren't for the fact that it was so off the charts. Tippie was dropping cliffs. Ritchie, from his BMX background, was doing dirt jumps, unridden by all but the 20-inch set and Wade was on the Shore, pioneering that style. Craig Oleson (Watch "Pulp Traction" if you can find it. The pre-cursor to the "Kranked" series to see his action) was doing it all.

A "Freeride competition" seems to be an oxymoron, given the spirit of these first riders, but it is, rightly, identified with aggressive MTB, outside the tape. There has been some industry backlash against the term being used to describe a competition, as even RedBull describes the Rampage as "Big-mountain slopestyle."

 

[KALBO]

..freeriding to me is do what 'ya like. I started out XC'ing but found myself doing jumps and small drops as well. I have now built a bike for this discipline.. I love free riding but my XC buddy cant understand what I'm doing

 

[slowmtb]

Freeriding - title says it all. You get/build a bike that can do it all , it will not do any individual thing perfectly but is capable of incorporating a bit of each currently known discipline.
You can crank it up hill, hit single track , nail jumps of all types, do drops/step downs - big as you dare, rip through berms, descend any DH trail - hell you dream it up and go get amongst it.

Freeriding - riding without boundarys

PS: Pity you Aussies didn't get the IH 7 pt 7's - awesome machines. Mine takes me everywhere

 

[Derka Derka]

Freeriding

"riding with style off anything"

 

[woody 14]

free riding to me, is being on a bike, doing wat ever u wanna do, wat evr makes u happy.

 

[Perpetual-Motion]

When I free ride I get up as high as I can and find my own way down the mountain. I will ride the trail to the top and I may cross the trail several times. But what I'm looking for is the landscape "showing me the way" I may find a fast flowing section between trees that suddenly ends with a rockface that drops 10 feet. If there is no natural transition and it looks safe I may walk down and "hand-make" a landing. But if I think I can pull it off without one I,ll give it a go. Theres plenty of tech. sections to get through I may come across a succession of step downs leading to a root strewn jumpsection I love to find the natural lines in the mountain, You know like when your bush walking and you stumble across a path way that is there but no-one has actually made it. As my skills progressed {I used to do this with a mate both on xc bikes we used to look for natural xc trails}I bought a bigger bike and went on more challengeing terrain looking for more extreme action. But I'm just your average rider and ten foot is around where I like to keep it But ocasionally I try larger if the tranny is good or safe. Knock your self around too much and you'll pay for it later. That's not to say there's any thing wrong with intelligent risk taking is there! But to me free-riding means also free to ride again.

 

[andrewG]

When I free ride I get up as high as I can and find my own way down the mountain. I will ride the trail to the top and I may cross the trail several times. But what I'm looking for is the landscape "showing me the way" I may find a fast flowing section between trees that suddenly ends with a rockface that drops 10 feet. If there is no natural transition and it looks safe I may walk down and "hand-make" a landing. But if I think I can pull it off without one I,ll give it a go. Theres plenty of tech. sections to get through I may come across a succession of step downs leading to a root strewn jumpsection I love to find the natural lines in the mountain, You know like when your bush walking and you stumble across a path way that is there but no-one has actually made it. As my skills progressed {I used to do this with a mate both on xc bikes we used to look for natural xc trails}I bought a bigger bike and went on more challengeing terrain looking for more extreme action. But I'm just your average rider and ten foot is around where I like to keep it But ocasionally I try larger if the tranny is good or safe. Knock your self around too much and you'll pay for it later. That's not to say there's any thing wrong with intelligent risk taking is there! But to me free-riding means also free to ride again.

thats deep

 

[komodorider]

IMO Freeriding is going out on your bike, to your local trail with your mates. Building new lines progressing and becoming super stylish. There are guys in the industry that truly optimize freeriding. well for me two in particular Matt Hunter and Thomas Vandernham (however it is spelt). Matt Hunter rides purely for the love of it and i have never seen him in a competion, and T.V is a freeride nut he enters contests but just rips the courses apart with huge moto whips and stylish riding. So really what im trying to say is no matter if you ride a cheap hardtail or are a sponsored pro as long as you ride for the progression and great feel you have when you ride 2ft drops to 20ft drops small table tops to huge doubles, you are freeriding. Now just go ride your bike.

peace

 

[l +Jarrod+ l]

When I free ride I get up as high as I can and find my own way down the mountain. I will ride the trail to the top and I may cross the trail several times. But what I'm looking for is the landscape "showing me the way" I may find a fast flowing section between trees that suddenly ends with a rockface that drops 10 feet. If there is no natural transition and it looks safe I may walk down and "hand-make" a landing. But if I think I can pull it off without one I,ll give it a go. Theres plenty of tech. sections to get through I may come across a succession of step downs leading to a root strewn jumpsection I love to find the natural lines in the mountain, You know like when your bush walking and you stumble across a path way that is there but no-one has actually made it. As my skills progressed {I used to do this with a mate both on xc bikes we used to look for natural xc trails}I bought a bigger bike and went on more challengeing terrain looking for more extreme action. But I'm just your average rider and ten foot is around where I like to keep it But ocasionally I try larger if the tranny is good or safe. Knock your self around too much and you'll pay for it later. That's not to say there's any thing wrong with intelligent risk taking is there! But to me free-riding means also free to ride again.

thats deep

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

(I now have milo spilt all on my precious precious key board thanks to you!)

 

[lyjg1218]

性病淋巴肉芽肿等在生殖器部位也都有病变

梅毒、软下疳、性病淋巴肉芽肿等在生殖器部位也都有病变。 性病除了损害生殖器官外，还会引起内脏和全身的病变，例如淋病、梅毒都可能发生内脏损害。其中梅毒引起内脏损害多而严重，可以影响心脏、肝脏、肾 脏、大脑和脊髓等，因此表现出的症状也很复杂。 发现可疑的性病症状时，应立即去医院就诊。性病中有一部分只要及时正规治 疗是可以彻底治愈的，如淋病、梅毒、非淋菌性尿道炎等。但是如果患者不及时到医院去接受有规则的抗生素治疗，而是自己不规则用药，就会因不能彻底治愈而耽误病情，转变成慢性过程，严重损害健康。

 

[shcotty]

going hard . using anything as a possible jump, drop, run etc. having fun having an open mind and not being to serious