The Term "freeriding"

[lsmith21-2008]

So, i have this question, "what is Freeriding"??????? is it hucking off 40+ feet cliffs like josh bender or smashing ya fav trails with huge jumps and wooden bridges, or haveing a great time with ya mates and riding the rtails ya love doing what ever ya want?? The term "freeride" seems such an open term, that it doesn't really describe particular form of riding...... to me anyway, so in the eyes of farkiners out there, how do you define "freeriding"??????

Leigh

[Tye_B40]

"Riding big stuff with speed, and a little bit of grace...." Andrew Shandro



PS: I'm pretty sure this was done not too long ago.

[SMIIISH]

Freeride is one of the most popular and fastest growing sports in mountain biking today. Freeriding is a term used to refer to riders who aren't focused on one area of mountain biking, but rather attack all aspects of the sport with great vigor. Freeriders can be seen riding downhill, technical X-country, dirtjumping, North-Shore style raised trails, urban assault and any other form of mountain biking that produces a rush. Freeride bikes range from small hard-tails setup for jumping, to full-suspension downhill rigs that have been reduced in weight and will sometimes have as many as 27 speeds as opposed to the standard 9-speed downhill setups. Freeriding is all about the rush!

-urban dictionary

[Lorday]

^^^cheat...

....but awsome definition none the less.

[lsmith21-2008]

wicked, lick the term SMIISH come out with. now i know what other define it as, so i understand what the definition is. cheers guys.

[Lorday]

wicked, lick the term SMIISH come out with. now i know what other define it as, so i understand what the definition is. cheers guys.

Sorry, but LOL.

[SMIIISH]

wicked, lick the term SMIISH come out with. now i know what other define it as, so i understand what the definition is. cheers guys.

...I'm lost for words.

[lsmith21-2008]

Haha, oopsi, my bad dude, lol, badtyper, as you can see, lol.

[Plow King]

Doesn't answer your question. But does it matter?

Go out and ride your bike, doesn't matter what genre it is so long as you're having fun.

[castillo]

The term "freeride" seems such an open term, that it doesn't really describe particular form of riding

I think that's kinda the point. You are free from race course outlines and timing lights. Kinda like freestyle bmx, only on a hill with trees. Bumps, too.

[tprmc78]

I would have thought Freeride means exactly that free riding. Doing whatever you like when and where you like.............

A bit of topic but didn't Cannondale try and trademark the term a few years back:rolleyes:

[trust in gravity]

as the t-shirt says..
FREERIDE ISN'T FREE!!!



but seriously, it may have all been said an done in these forums a thousand times but it is always good to revisit age old topics as new blood and perception changes
its kinda like mtb theology.
i'm interested in your thoughts.(for my own evil plans of course!)

if freeride is about being free........ to do what ever it is you perceive freeride to be.
then how does freeride competition sit? is it not somewhat of a misnomer?

[INRI]

Freeriding is a buzzword and nothing more. Basically all I can see in it is riding for fun and not for competition. At least it's not called Third Force or Out of Bounds or some other crap. Definitely enjoy the fact that Cannondale tried to trademark the word in the nineties.

[lsmith21-2008]

The reason i ask the question about freeriding is because i wanted to know how others viewed freeriding, weather it was Canadian Hucking or just having a great time out riding your fav trail with no bounderies, no clocks and no rules. Its cool to know that others see it in a similar way i do. but thanks for the replies.
Happy trails.

[INRI]

The quasi motocross jock thing that has come out of it is the worst thing ever. I can't vibe off that.

[trust in gravity]

the word "curry" is trademarked to a company in asia! maybe spaggetti too.


so, can there be or is there such a thing as a freeride competition? are the redbull's the konahees or any other sponsered events around the world, really freeride comps?
would there be any need for local event organisers to source and promote such events? would the freeride community participate?
i mean if freeride is just ridding your bike an all?

[INRI]

Sorry, maybe I should have said riding that is considered progressive? I can't see a 'freeride' comp as freeride. I have nothing against these events but it just ain't right.

[trust in gravity]

no,no. thats good .thats why i'm asking. i would only ask why?
why do yourself and others with more or less the same angle of thought say
"it just ain't right" or you can't judge freedom of expression or you cant put a number on an infinate thing! how long is a piece of string?
the origional question asks is freeride a 40+ ft drop? is it? is it more?
is competition merely a way of measuring standard skills within a routine set of manouvres?
in order to enjoy "freeride" we all strive to attain certain skills to enable us to complete set tasks which we set before ourselves on any sat or sunday.i.e drop correctly, manual, drift. pump, preload. all in aid of completing any set task so that we may acheive "the rush!" the notch on the belt etc.

[INRI]

I like your last sentence about achieving "the rush". That is basically it. No matter what obstacle it came from, no matter how big or small it is, it is still about achieving the rush. Competition does place too much of an emphasis on standard skills imo and, as much as I hate this cliche, loses some of the soul associated with the sport.

More self progression is key.

[trust in gravity]

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.

[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]

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:D

[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 :cool:

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

[Derka Derka]

"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]

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[shcotty]

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

[ale_xan_der]

I think freeriding is just riding your bike, having fun. Isn't that why we ride?

[Ride.Dirt.Wake.]

Watching movies like seasons really gives you an idea of what freeriding is. you see the WC dh guys go out and compete against each other, with rivalry and determination, but when you watch the freeriders, they're out competing against themselves, pushing the limits of our sport. they're not out to show everyone, or have a label of being the best (not to say they dont want it :D) , they just want to achieve something and discipline themselves, enjoy it.

Thats the way it looks, but I just do it for fun :)
No need for a deeper meaning, until things get serious.