Going downhill fast is fun. But if the only way you can manage to shred the descents is to literally cut corners, that doesn’t make you a monster on Strava or a winner by any stretch. It makes you a douchebag.
The rising popularity of enduro is the best thing to happen to mountain biking in ages. The bikes are incredibly capable and forgiving when pointed downhill yet still remarkably spry when it comes time to pedal. More importantly, there’s less emphasis on reducing weight and more focus on having fun, and rider skill levels everywhere are increasing exponentially.
Naturally, better bikes lead to faster riding and there’s no shortage of YouTube videos to show off the talents of the properly skilled. As has always been the case with big leaps in bike technology, though, such baked-in proficiency can also make up for a lack of skill if you’re feeling lazy. Whereas once you descended like a bag of anvils, now you can descend like a bag of anvils cozily strapped down in the bed of a monster truck and just hang on.
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The easy way, and the best way
There are lots of ways to get down a mountain quickly, particularly when there are lots of twists and turns to contend with. The best way – and arguably, the most impressive – is to figure out how to navigate the trail with a combination of speed and finesse without straying off the beaten path. The easy way is to ignore the various twists and turns that lay before you and just straight-line everything.
Much as I love the effect that enduro has had on bikes, it unfortunately also seems to be inadvertently cultivating poor behavior on the trail. Unlike traditional downhill or cross-country events, enduro courses are almost impossible to complete tape off; they just cover too much ground in too short a time to make comprehensive marking practical. As a result, some riders are taking increasingly liberal line choices to save time and with placings, prizes and sometimes money on the line, it’s all too easy to follow in someone else’s footsteps.
Left behind afterward is plenty of trail damage and the bruised spirits of riders who maybe didn’t do as well on paper but mostly stuck to the straight-and-narrow.
Skirting the rules
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