Downcountry Mountain Biking, Explained
Singletracks Mountain Bike Podcast
Singletracks.com
4.7 • 574 Ratings
🗓️ 11 April 2023
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Downcountry category has been around for a few years now, and by this point most mountain bike brands have a bike in their lineup that fits the description. Not only that, there are downcountry tires and shoes available now. But what does downcountry even mean?
In this episode, Matt and Jeff take a stab at defining downcountry, taking into account geometry, suspension travel, weight, and components. Other questions addressed include:
- How do downcountry bikes differ from cross-country and trail bikes?
- What were some of the earliest downcountry bikes?
- Which popular mountain bikes today can be considered downcountry?
- Are certain trail types or race disciplines well suited to downcountry bikes?
- What are your impressions of the downcountry bikes you have tested over the past few years?
- Where does the downcountry category go from here into the future?
The Singletracks podcast is brought to you by TPC -- The Pro’s Closet. Spring is the perfect time to upgrade, and TPC has an industry-leading selection of new and Certified Pre-Owned bikes, plus frames, wheels and accessories. Each Certified, Pre-Owned bike is inspected, tested and serviced, and every bike includes thirty day returns. Visit tpc.bike/singletracks and enter code Singletracks40 to save forty dollars on every order over two hundred.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Single Tracks podcast is brought to you by TPC, the Proz Closet. |
| 0:04.6 | Spring is the perfect time to upgrade, and TPC has an industry-leading selection of new and |
| 0:10.0 | certified pre-owned bikes, plus frames, wheels, and accessories. |
| 0:14.7 | Each certified, pre-owned bike is inspected, tested, and serviced, and every bike includes 30-day |
| 0:20.6 | returns. |
| 0:21.7 | Visit tpc.bike forward slash single tracks and intercode single tracks 40 to save |
| 0:27.6 | $40 on every order over 200. |
| 0:30.6 | That's the pros closet at tpc.bike slash single tracks and look for the link and coupon code |
| 0:37.4 | in the show notes. Hey everybody, welcome to the single tracks and look for the link and coupon code in the show notes. |
| 0:39.0 | Hey everybody, welcome to the single tracks podcast. |
| 0:42.0 | My name is Jeff and today Matt Miller and I are going to be talking about downcountry |
| 0:47.2 | mountain bikes. |
| 0:49.3 | What do you think about this topic, Matt? |
| 0:51.3 | Are you excited to talk about downcountry bikes? |
| 0:58.0 | Yeah, I mean, you know, I guess so. It's been a fun category to watch over the past few years and, you know, just watch it develop and |
| 1:03.9 | everything from being somewhat of a new term to being ubiquitous with like this travel category now. |
| 1:13.0 | So yeah. |
| 1:14.0 | Well, so I think a lot of our listeners, I mean, they've probably heard the term before, |
| 1:18.7 | but what does downcountry mean? |
| 1:20.7 | What does it mean to you? |
| 1:21.5 | I don't know that we like have a actual like dictionary definition of what it is. |
| 1:26.5 | But but like, yeah, where does it come from what do we |
... |
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