That’s because the MTB community isn’t as clicky as roadies.
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Ummmm… MTB riders are not immune to that in any way, shape or form that I have seen. There are plenty of “us vs them” groups in the dirty fat tire world as well.
Pick a wheel size…
That bit of satire is just a small window into the reality that just about any group you can mention will have “classes” within and “ranking” among them. Raw human nature at play there from what I see.
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True, but in my experience and from speaking to others, the mtb community is a lot more friendly than the road community…in my part of there world anyway.
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Maybe, but that hasn’t been my experience. From Canada to Germany to Japan, I felt that people were less competitive and more welcoming. E. g. from the very beginning I was “taught” to wait at regular intervals for others on climbs, which made it much easier for people of different ability levels to ride together. Fawning over someone’s nice bike was also never a problem if they had knobby tires. Whereas that caused problems with roadies every once in a while (my brother and I were in “civilian” clothing). Mountain bikers would also more reliably greet back whereas some of the roadies here seem confused when I raise my hand or give a nod.
Perhaps if you find competitive groups of mountain bikers that changes. I can imagine it does when you want to go for a fast ride and you are stuck with someone much slower than you. But usually that’s fine.
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There are a whole lot of new riders out there.
Don’t be a dick is the #1 rule.
If I wear roadie (?) Gear on the MTB trails, I’ll get loads of weird looks from all the dudes hanging out at the bottom of the trails.
None of them are welcoming. They watch your Strava run as you hit the bottom. If you’re fast on an XC bike they’ll make a point of smashing your time in full face helmets and armour.
Impressive.
It’s similar to the looks I get with my muddy MTB shoes on the road bike.
In general, the biking community needs to do better if they want more.
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Dont forget eBIke vs “normal bike” (See what I did there?)
This is absolutely true (South UK) half of roadies don’t even acknowledge each other, let alone any other discipline (and they think they own the road too).
100%
I do see this but at the end of the day, the goofballs at the bottom of the trail should move on and get over it.
I think thats a huge and unfair assumption. “None are welcoming”? Maybe they just dont really care but are watching someone on an XC bike riding a sketchy trail. I highly doubt they really will “make a point” of smashing a Strava time, its just because they’re already faster. Just another POV.
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Fair point on the first bit. Maybe I wasn’t interested in being welcomed.
I stand by my comment about MTB folks being dicks. They’re not immune.
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Unfortunately, there are dicks everywhere, in every walk of life. You just have to watch the way you phrase stuff and make sure you don’t tar everyone with the same brush 
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Quite the opposite. I’d like to tar everyone with the same brush.
Cyclists can be very tribal IME. That includes all disciplines.
I wasn’t making stuff up about riders hitting trails at the end of the day. It’s the MO where I live.
I honestly feel impressed if one of them destroys my best effort.
In this day and age, no matter how you phrase it, you’re offending someone 
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Its quite easy to just say “some” or “half of”, rather than “MTBers are dumb” etc.
So in this day and age, its easy to tread more lightly 
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I find the same but to be fair to them, most people will start to chat when I nail the jumps and a DH section (on my XC bike) aka, showing them up 
Whenever I ride with a new road club for the first time, I take the fixed gear and weather depending, go without lycra. It’s a a good test of tribalism and openness.
Plus dropping most people on the climbs is kind of fun 
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@Crownan
i totally agree with you!. My comment wasn’t to counter what you said. It was meant as a commentary on how easily offended everyone has become. You can’t say or do anything w/out offending someone.
@spinnnout
Dressing like a fred is always fun when hitting up a new group. I remember showing up for my first roadie group ride in bike shorts, no shirt, no socks, and sneakers on a tri bike. The sneaker bit was accidental, forgot my shoes at o’dark thirty to drive to the ride. Group of 30-40 riders. It wasn’t until after the ride before anyone said a word to me 
Made some great friends for life that day!
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Rule 11 is King. Can’t buy Rule 8. I have 3 KOMs total to my name. Two riding, one running. If and when I loose those I will be crushed. I lost one for a day until I found someone beat me on an ATV, 30 mph on a 2 mile gravel segment would be Phil worthy, I was working on reporting them and their event went away, I’m the King again.
Old guys can get KOMs, just not many.
- That is a particularly ugly example (that I had in mind but didn’t mention), and quite possibly the worst one I have seen in my nearly 3 decades of MTB riding. I don’t even think the anti-roadie sentiment (the prior “common enemy” of hardcore MTBer’s) comes close to the digital vs analog crap we see today. Tribalism at its worst indeed.
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Here, fixed and non-fixed didn’t mix on group rides but not because of any us vs them but rather the fixed gear scene here runs brakeless for the most part and is too sketchy and dangerous to run together. That isn’t to say there isn’t cases of animosities usually directed at fixed gear riders and most fixed gear guys are also avid roadies and groadies.
Round here it’s already beyond MTBers and is as much e-bikers vs pedestrians as it is e-bikers vs regular MTBers unfortunately. Which is a great shame as offroad cyclists, walkers, runners and the occasional horse rider have always got along remarkably well on our local trails. Sadly the trend I’m seeing with too many e-bikers is that the relative ease with which their bike enables them to climb and cover the miles means they’re in more of a rush and haven’t developed as much respect and consideration for other trail users as regular bikers. Hoping that’s a temporary thing as e-bikes have tempted a bunch of new people onto 2 wheels and their behaviour will improve over time.
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I really like these rules. I don’t really follow Phil but he’s right on the money. We all began this sport not knowing everything. Being nice goes a long way.
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Yeah, that one is weird, both on- and off-road. If a motor allows someone to enjoy our sport, I’m all for it.
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