The Cycology.fm Philosophy

The cycling philosophy that informs and inspires Cycology.fm is rooted in the dirt. It technically started with BMX, but the true core is mountain biking. That’s how we fell in love with the sport and what became a gateway to all aspects of cycling.

The addiction, as it were, started by getting hooked on singletrack descending. It felt like mogul skiing on a bike. This was 1990, so there was no suspension, nor were there any chairlifts. So we sucked it up and begrudgingly became endurance athletes. It was really a means to an end, though; namely, getting to the descents and the adrenaline fix we so craved. Over time, though, we sought out the climbs and embraced the suffering. That’s when we became true cyclists.

The golden age of mountain biking started in 1990 and lasted until 1994. If you were fortunate enough to be in the sport during these four years, then you experienced something quite remarkable. You were privy to a secret and a part of history. You witnessed the birth of a global subculture, together with an explosion of innovation. There was no internet to spread the information, so the sport evolved in isolated pockets. We made it up as we went along. A couple print magazines were the only means of common bonding. Otherwise, the sport really existed at the bike shop level. That’s where the mountain bikers of this era gathered to learn and share.

The list of products and technologies that debuted in this period is voluminous. Much of what we use today was pioneered during this time, along with the various competitive and event formats. The destinations of Moab, Utah, and Crested Butte, Colorado, earned global recognition, and the sport’s first stars were born at the inaugural 1990 UCI World Championships in Durango, Colorado.

By 1994, the sport started down the path of rapid growth and mass-market commercialization. The Volvo Cannondale team is perhaps the greatest symbol of this shift, as it recruited a powerhouse team with the biggest stars and eclipsed all previous budgets for a professional mountain bike team. It started to look more like road cycling. Indeed, the sport as we knew it would never be the same. But this was inevitable, and it wasn’t a bad thing. It was simply a natural progression in becoming a mainstream sport, which it officially became with an Olympic debut in 1996.

Of course, the backlash against this more commercial direction was also inevitable. Though many of us competed in cross-country events, as these were the primary ways mountain bikers gathered in big groups, the competition is not what initially captured our collective imagination. Rather, it was the broader experience of riding bikes on singletrack in amazing places...at very high speeds. In crystallizing this ethos, the sport branched off in a new direction. This led to the start of BIKE Magazine, which celebrated that raw experience, and ultimately laid the foundation for today’s bike parks, tour operators, big mountain events, and even the enduro racing format.

It came full circle. While all of this was happening, the parallel world of road racing went through its own share of ups and downs. The Lance Armstrong era sucked the oxygen from all other forms of cycling. And then 29-inch mountain bikes with modern suspension designs and purpose-built trails allowed the dirt discipline to surge again. Most recently, the pendulum has swung in a new direction entirely: gravel bikes and unsanctioned gravel events. This new frontier combines many of the best aspects of road riding and mountain biking into a format that has the broadest possible appeal to the public at large.

This is our lens. If you say Lycra, we’ll counter with baggy. If you say bike park, we’ll counter with classic road climbs. If you say XC, we’ll counter with shuttle rides. If you say 700c, we’ll counter with 29-inch. If you say enduro, we’ll counter with Grinduro. If you say competition, we’ll counter with Ebike commuting. It’s all the same. It’s cycling. What really matters is the stoke you get from pedalling...or coasting...and the psyche you get from cycling.