B y N ate R a n d o l p h Mountain biking is a sport that allows you to entangle yourself with nature and learn more about yourself. Instead of staying in and watching TV or playing Video games you go outside, get fresh air, meet a new community that is passionate about what they do. Mountain biking exercises your body and mind and elevates your general mood to improve your mental health.
M T B M e n ta l i t y You start your journey looking up at a beatiful and cascading mountain with dirt fire roads and a huge uphill that you convince yourself to climb. Pedaling harder as you ascend, but the uphill looks increasingly steep. But that doesn’t matter; you turn your gears down low and haul yourself, working your legs to the bone. Feeling the burn as sweat runs down your face. Yet as the hill gets steeper, the bike starts to lose traction and you start to slip. You feel yourself going backwards but you catch yourself. You keep pedaling until you get to the top, eventually reaching the peak of the mountain with it’s beautiful overlook separated from the rest of society, it’s just you and the mountain creating an isolation from you and the stress of life. You look down, and the whole city – the people, cars, and buildings – spread out before your eyes. You think about your life and what you have accomplished.
Then the fun begins, the downhill. You see a nice one track ahead of you and you dive deep into the unknown trail and you just go for it. Seeing technical terrain with tight turns, steps, and trees
in the way but instead of going back up and taking the easy way down you know how hard you worked going uphill.
MTB Mountian biking is not only a sport for adrenaline junkies or stupid teenagers; it’s evolved into a sport for everyone no matter what age or gender, mountain biking is a sport that you can do when you are old or young because you can choose the intensity you want to bike at and it can make anyone feel better about themselves. There are many types, such as downhill, cross country, and trail and at many different levels of competition you can race at as well. With the emergence of the CoronaVirus, it is more important than ever to get outside and be active, and mountain biking is one of the best ways to do that. Essentially, this sport is like a vaccine for the shelter-in-place blues. Mountain biking is very rare that you don’t need a field or a pool, you just need a trail and trails are always open even during the CoronaVirus. The sport of mountain biking can benefit anyone from competitive riders to riders who go every once in a while for fun.
MTB History The sport of mountain biking started modestly in Marin County where people would take whatever bikes they found such as old paper boy bikes from the 20’s and 30’s and would just go down mount tamalpais, the sport started to grow especially when specialized got in the mix and was the first company to mass produce mountain bikes by introducing the stumpjumper in 1981, this made the sport grow immensely and many other companies started to join the trend by making their own mountain bikes. As the sport grew, bikes became more and more complex with the addition of disc brakes, motorcycle-like suspension, and stronger and lighter frames similar to the bikes you see today. With this new wave of popularity cross country mountain biking became an event in the Atlanta olympics in 1996. The humble beginnings of mountain biking are still celebrated to this day in Maring as the Marin museum of mountain biking mentioned “The racing started us on this journey that we’re still on,” he says. This fall, on the 40th anniversary of the first Repack, a group of cyclists will gather at the top to celebrate just how far their goofy hobby has come.”
“Having something to look forward to, like getting out on your bike, can be a real booster. When you’ve experienced those endorphins, the freedom and the community of mountain biking, you can’t help but look forward to the next time. It reawakens the joy in life and brings hope for the future.”
About The Author
Nate Randolph Is a junior at Mountain View High School and Freestyle Academy who recently got into mountain biking during the CoronaVirus. Nate spends his time mountain biking with his friends, finding trails all around the Bay Area to stay in shape and have fun while coping with the Shelter in Place Blues. Nate enjoys playing Waterpolo and spending time with friends. Nate takes his 1971 VW bus with his Mountain bike in the back all around the bay area finding new and exciting trails.