Comments on: What Makes an Epic Mountain Bike Ride

By: Di

Di — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 01:31:00 +0000

My epic ride so far was my first group ride on a mountain bike with a group of experienced road bikers. Forty miles, out of shape, like a tortoise in a hare race. It was agony but I made it all the way.

By: Ray

Ray — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 17:25:00 +0000

To read this post is a real waste of time!!!!! An Epic ride could happen in the park close you house and last only 20 minutes in a flat trail.

Maybe this guy is a MB guru and he feels like Superman but it does not Give him the right to avoid the people to use the Epic word to describe any ride.

All my rides will continue being Epic for me.

By: Riaan Coetzee

Riaan Coetzee — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 06:51:00 +0000

Speed – there’s few things in life as epic as pinning a long, technical piece of singletrack at breakneck speed, or flying of the drop-off that your mates just hiked down.

By: Singletracks Dot Com

Singletracks Dot Com — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:42:00 +0000

Great addition, Collin!

By: Singletracks Dot Com

Singletracks Dot Com — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:41:00 +0000

While I do agree that epicness can be a sliding scale, let’s be honest: there’s no such thing as an epic 15 minute ride. Even if you’re running straight up a mountain with a bike on your back for 15 minutes, it’s still only 15 minutes of pain….

For comparison, please see chukt’s comment above.

By: Singletracks Dot Com

Singletracks Dot Com — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:40:00 +0000

Broken friendships… that sounds serious! Yeah man, that is totally epic!

By: chukt

chukt — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:38:00 +0000

Oh…I forgot to mention angry wildlife encounters. This article describes a ride that could be called Epic…

http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/Archives/NewsArchive/2004/040901-News.html

By: chukt

chukt — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:11:00 +0000

Personally, the use of the word Epic to describe a ride means that the ride has to meet 4 of these 8 criteria…

1-Was the ride more than 8 hours? 2- Adverse/brutal weather; 3- mechanical failure w/o reparable recourse or w/ MacGyverable recourse; 4- Blood and injury; 5-Running out of water/food; 6-Discontent and Conflict w/in the group far beyond pouting…usually as a result of… 7- Being completely lost… and 8- Watching the sun set while still hours from trails end or unwillingly spending the night on the trail.

We came up with this framework on a truly Epic ride in B.F.E. Wyoming that met all of these criteria…a 13 hour hell ride that broke friendships

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:10:00 +0000

When you’re a novice rider, even 15 minutes on short mostly flat trail seems epic. Let’s remember that there are tons of people of all skill sets that have very different ideas of epic!

By: Collin Stringer

Collin Stringer — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 17:25:00 +0000

You did a great job of defending an important word. So many words today (such as the word awesome) are being watered down by overuse. I would suggest threatening animals could add to the epicness of a ride. When I lived in Colorado, I rode through mountain lion territory at times. I knew of several guys being stalked by them. I’ve also spooked (angered?) bears on rides there.