WHY WE RIDE THE THING

We go riding (and drinking) with a group of mtb addicts to find out what two wheels and the Great Outdoors brings to their lives

- Sim Mainey

A summer’s evening, a pub with a beer garden and a bunch of bikes stacked up against the wall. It’s a familiar scene for most riders, the inevitable conclusion to the mid-week razz around the woods with your mates. In amongst the usual post-ride buzz, beers and chatter, a topic gathers momentum. What’s the thing that you love most about mountain biking? For some the answer comes to mind immediately, for others it requires a bit more thought, and a bit more beer.

Considering everyone sitting around the table is in agreement that they love mountain biking, everyone’s ‘thing’, it turns out, is different. Sure, there are elements of mountain biking that are towards the top of everyone’s list of loves, but when it comes to pinning down the one single aspect that gets us going, the answers vary.

Character traits and backgrounds influence what ‘our thing’ is. For the ex-skateboarder with dodgy knees, bikes have replaced boards in delivering a demanding technical challenge, for the nine-to-five office worker, mountain biking gives much needed time outdoors, and the stay-at-home dad appreciates the time spent just chatting nonsense with mates – like we are doing now.