What is Mountain Biking?

The Fat Cyclist has just highlighted how ambiguous the term Mountain Biking can be:

So here’s the thing. If someone tells you they went out road biking, you have a good idea of what went on. You may not have an idea of how far, how fast, or how steep, but you know what road biking looks like.

If someone tells you they went Mountain Biking, on the other hand, you still don’t know anything.

He’s right of course. In fact, many people who go Mountain Biking don’t have a clue either, what with all the Singlespeed / Cross Country (XC) / Freedride / Enduro / Race niches and so on out there.

I just hope they have fun, whatever their flavour happens to be. And I just wish I was riding where he was riding, just look at those photos!