Mountain Biking

[cjwally]

As I sit here at work, I keep on thinking back to the ride yesterday in the San Gabriels. The feeling that mountain biking gives me seems to stick with me wherever I go...Even when not on the trail, I can almost close my eyes and imagine myself on my SS swooping through a perfectly groomed corner. I can't get the feeling out of my head and the grin off of my face. Combine that feeling with the camaraderie of STR and you got the best feelin in the world!

I love mountain biking!

I thought I would just start this thread to write about why we all mountain bike and the feeling that it brings us! Please share....

[guero]

Good thread Craig.

The camaraderie is great, flowing buff s/t is great, coming out of a chunky section in which you nearly dabbed/went down on is great, cleaning that climb that used to own you is great, facing your fears and doing a new drop and landing it, or even crashing on it but getting up and doing it again to land it is great.....the friends made via mt. biking and str is PRICELESS!!!

[BrewMaster]

MTB is more emotional than physical for me in most ways. I can go to the gym and wear myself out, but it's just not the same.

I love the feeling in my legs after long rides. It makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

I love climbing. Pushing for something higher and challenging keeps me sane.

I love the instant camaraderie with total strangers out on the trails.

When I don't feel like riding (like yesterday) I end up having some of my best rides. Riding cheers me up and puts my mind and body back in the groove.

I love the speed of the fast singletrack. It's therapeutic.

I love that my wife and I are diving into a hobby together. Now my parents are into MTB too! It is really brining our family together like few other things could.

[cbHarping]

Mountain biking is the one activity I do that I can totally escape from everything else. When I'm at the gym, I still think about outside things going on in my life. When I'm on the bike, I'm thinking about NOTHING else but riding my bike, not work, not things I have to do, etc. It's a total mental escape.

I also love the challenges - overcoming my fear of trying something difficult, or just looking back on what I can do now that I couldn't do a year ago.

And I've met so many fantastic people through the sport...major bonus!

[mtnbkrdavid]

cjwally, guero, BrewMaster and cbharping well said!

MB for me is very therapeutic, in fact I refer to it as my therapy.

[slayer]

for me it's about being out in nature, the dirt, the trees, hearing the earth beneath your tires. also it's about pushing myself, see how far i can take my body and mind. i love a good hard long climb, probably more than desending, the way my legs feel and the way my lungs burn when your pushing yourself up a hill. mountainbiking is truely awesome!!!

[CPATCRASH]

I like the BEER when I'm done!

[bjammin]

It's proving all those doctors wrong...

[PacMan]

It's about exercising and de-stressing. Most of all--it's effing fun!!

[Pain Freak]

About 8 years ago I got into a real deep funk. I was clinicly depressed and was having a real hard time of it. I would catch myself thinking about what it would be like if I wasn't here, stupid stuff like that. It was a very dark time in my life. I went to the doctors and tried to get help, but not much happened there. I got put on a anti-depressant that helped a little, but the underlying feeling of hopelessness was still there.....

Then I found mountain biking. It was as if someone had turned on a switch. My first ride was brutal and I loved it! For the first time in months I had broke thru the fog. I knew I was on to something. I went a couple days and that old blue fog started to envelope me again. I called my friend who was a mountain biker and asked him if he'd like to go for a ride, but he couldn't and that's when I just started to go, either by myself or with a group, but it helps even today and it keeps me grounded. I'm serious, I have to bike to keep my sanity.

Just like mtbkrdavid said, it's my therapy.

[mtnbikerfred]

It pushes the "happy button" in my brain.

[denmother]

Freedom!!! I work indoors at a desk all day.

[KeepsWhatHappens]

When I'm riding there's no time to think about anything else but that moment. Living for and enjoying that moment...forgetting all the worries and details of life is why I ride.

Not to mention it keeps me from getting too fat and I get to hang with all sorts of cool people.

KeepsWhatHappens

[chauvinist_youth]

'Cause it's fun, duh!


It is kinda cool though expecting to say "hi" to everyone on the trail and get a response back and not a weird look.

[26'er Zen Master]

Well for me its like what everyone else has said. It helps me know i can accomplish things. I know as long as i try I can probabally do it. I was a drug addict and no mountain biking didnt get me clean, rehab did. But I can say this much the friends I have made and the peers I have now are like nothing I have ever had. The self confidence and feeling of accomplishment I have gained thru the sport and knowing these people is unreal and an instrumental part of my happiness everyday. I am not trying to sound corny in any way but I owe the people I have met in this lifestyle and the rewards it has given me my deepest gratitude I truely believe that without these friends and this new addiction I wouldnt be where i am. When I graduated the drug court program friends of mine that I bike with came to court and watched me graduate. This was something way new for me I have always had family that were amazing but to have peers that supported me and were real friends was a new thing and something that meant the world to me. I love this sport and same as others have said I know when I am feeling like crap I can jump on my bike go to oaks and the trail and my bike make me feel better.

[bajamtnbkr]

To me mountain biking is my last chance for a healty lifestyle, I was never any good for sports, being a chunky couch potato most of my life untill I found this sport on my late 30's and fell in love with it (I'm now 42), four years later and 40 lb less and still cutting some more.
I will never be the best climber of faster downhiller and I never intend to be but because of this sport I'm the best and heltier person I had ever being.