This MTB modality does not follow any specific rules and it does not adjust to any specific style either. The rider himself sets the limits... but his prudence, experience and mastery on two wheels must face the powerful desire to do something ‘crazy’ and progressively more risky, to be the protagonist of an impossible leap or give one’s name to a new stunt.

Freeriding was a consequence of a natural evolution of mountain biking and – just as in other sports such as skiing and snowboarding – it aims at attaining complete freedom of movement, without following specific rules, a chronometer, a circuit or any other established limits. This free cycling style or ‘freestyle’, as it is also called, is intended to surprise spectators with spectacular air and land stunts upon  natural or artificial obstacles in a mountain, a city or any place you can imagine.

This ‘discipline’, if we can apply this word to what many riders consider ‘a way of life’, has different variants too: Street or Urban biking, which consists in manoeuvring and making tricks or acrobatic jumps amidst urban fittings; ‘dirt jump’, long leaps using ramps; ‘flatland’, acrobatics upon flat terrain; ‘park’, biking through a series of ramps and obstacles making different acrobatic tricks; or ‘vert’,  using the bike to fly through the half-pipe like ramp, the skateboarding U-shape.

Another way of practicing freeriding, and possibly the most original, purest one, is choosing the wildest, roughest place you can imagine, a place no one has ridden through before – or at least one in which only few people have done it – and crossing it with your MTB. For instance, Southern America’s plains, the arid African lands or the thick Canadian forests, just to give a few examples of the places that fit the ‘freeride ideals’ best.

‘The North Shore’, the birth place of the first ‘mad men’

In fact, it was in the land of the maple leaf and of the mounted police that the first ‘freeriders’ were born. In Canada, although there are many other places, one can find those vast forests, which are the perfect place to create “northshore” circuits of great technical difficulty.

The ‘North Shore’, placed in British Columbia, in Vancouver, which is the Mecca of this extreme sport. Here there are plenty of places in which one can practice this sport, but the most outstanding ones are Mount Seymour, Mount Fromme and Cypress Mountain, which were the first places to have ‘downhill’ circuits and to incorporate natural and artificial obstacles.


The main association to promote this MTB discipline in that country is the 'North Shore Mountain Biking Association' (NSMBA), and there is also an international one, the ‘International Mountain Bicycling Association’, which focuses on promoting freeriding and on protecting the most appreciated circuits, because urban expansion and the norms for the preservation of natural areas are eliminating or placing strict restrictions upon those freeriding ‘paradises’.

No rules… yet, under control

Even though the freeriding spirit appeals to the absence of rules, it is also possible to find certain rules in this sport during the official championships, yet, the number of norms is very low and they have to do with safety and with ‘fair play’ among competitors, only, and they are recommended to wear shin pads, an integral helmet and a protection.

Thus, we can find the RedBull Rampage, which is the first and most important freeriding competition in the world and which is held since 2001 in the red steppes near Virginia (Utah, USA); in this competition, riders such as Kyle Strait, Davie McGrat or Cedric Gracia must jump a 500m vertical gap, and they are free to choose the way how to do it.

There are also other competitions that focus on artificial or natural jump stunts, as is the case  of the Adidas Slopstyle, which is attended by the best riders of this discipline, namely, Sam Pilgrim, Lance McDermott or Andreu Lacondeguy, who must prove which of them can make the most spectacular, original trick.

A different bike

Specific bicycles or those which are more oriented to this type of MTB variant are usually provided with adjustable double suspension (front and rear) and their frames are usually  a little bit smaller than those of pure or downhill MTBs.

The frame is usually made in carbon, in the case of high performance bikes, or in aluminium, which is the most habitual material among non professionals, and with a 100-180 mm stroke. One of the most important aspects in this type of bicycles is lightness, thus, state-of-the-art carbon technology, which reduces the weight of ‘double’ bikes to nearly 10 kilos, is the most desired feature.