Editor’s Note: “Over a Beer” is a regular column written by Greg Heil. While Greg is the Editor in Chief for Singletracks.com, any opinions expressed in this column are his alone and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Singletracks.com.
Mountain biking isn’t a means to an end. Its purpose is not to be a vehicle by which I make a living or achieve some other goal, it is the end goal in and of itself. Mountain biking isn’t a step in the journey, the journey is itself the destination. If the journey was to end, that would mean that the destination was not successfully reached. A conclusion would mean failure.
The question “why do you mountain bike?” presupposes that mountain biking is instrumental in achieving an end goal for you, like fitness or something of the sort. For me, fitness is a pleasant byproduct of riding my bikes in the mountains—a byproduct that I value, but one that is subordinate to the main goal nonetheless.
It always amuses me when I talk to friends who feel like they can only carve out the time to get away and mountain bike if they have some sort of excuse—that excuse is usually training for a race. Somehow, it’s easier for them to tell the world that they can’t participate in a social event or whatever it may be because they “have to train.”
I make no such excuses.
Rather, I ride my mountain bike because I enjoy riding it. Maybe then “happiness” is the answer to the question “why do you mountain bike?” but happiness seems to me to be the root answer to the majority of life’s questions, if we take the time to be honest with ourselves.
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More to the point, I don’t feel like I need to create an extraneous excuse in order to justify my time on the mountain bike. I don’t need to be training for a race. I don’t need to be trying to lose weight or gain fitness. I don’t need to necessarily be socializing with a group of friends or filling some sort of obligation. I ride my bike because I like to ride it.
And that is enough.
Mountain biking is an intrinsic good because it is worthwhile all by itself.
11 Comments
Aug 9, 2017
Unfortunately, the world is full of people who are on a mission to tell others how to live their lives. Those are the people I cheerfully ignore because I realize that not everyone's opinion matters.
Aug 10, 2017
Greg said: "It always amuses me when I talk to friends who feel like they can only carve out the time to get away and mountain bike if they have some sort of excuse—that excuse is usually training for a race."
I see this all the time, esp among younger, married friends, where "training" is acceptable to spouses, as opposed to "I just want to go goof off on my bike with my buddies".
Aug 10, 2017
Aug 11, 2017
Because I like it!
Enough said.
I truly enjoy MTB just because I do.
I don't know why and I am not going to go out and psychoanalyze my feeling. I don't have time for that.
That's like asking, why you like spending time with your children.
Quick answer is "it cool, they are cool."
Done story over!
Aug 10, 2017
Aug 9, 2017
On the contrary, I was into mountain biking before I went off to school. I did it throughout and I still do. I've met tons of people, made many friends, traveled, raced and had many adventures through my mountain biking adventures. If all of the people, races and everything disappeared I'd still do it. I stopped trying to influence anyone on getting into it years ago. I need no more justification than I like it and it's fun. Sure the health benefits and all the other stuff is swell, but honestly I don't give a rat's tuchus about that. Mountain biking for me is riding a human powered roller coaster on an shifting track. Most don't want that kind of craziness in their life, but I thrive on it.
Aug 9, 2017
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Aug 9, 2017