Mountainbiking Association of Dublin

[update in progress...]

Here are some terms you’ll probably encounter when you get involved in mountainbiking. Let us know if there’s a word you’d like to add.

General MTB Riding Terms

MTB – Mountain Bike

Bunny Hop – often an event in itself. The art of jumping your bike over obstacles without touching the obstacle.

Face plant – falling forward over your handlebars and landing face first in the dirt

Endo – Rolling along on your front wheel with your rear wheel off the ground, if not controlled this can lead to a face plant

Wheelie – raising your front wheel off the ground

Manual – similar to a wheelie but

Drop Off — a large ’step’ to drop down on a trail.
Air / Air time — the act of ‘flying’ the bike over bumps.
Single Track — a trail that’s only wide enough for one bike.
Switchback – a sharp corner where the trail turns back on itself
Hardpack — a trail with a particularly firm surface.
Wipeout — a spectacular crash.

MTB Equipment Terms

Block — another name for a freewheel/sprocket cluster/ cassette.
Knobblies — Real off road tyres.
Slicks — Tyres with no threads.
52-13, 46-15 or whatever — riders tend to refer to gear they are riding at a particular time. 52 -13 means the 52 ring at the front, 13 sprocket at the back.
Q Factor — the distance between the faces of the pedal threads of the crank arms.
Wheelbase — the measurement between the front and rear axles.
Transmission — the complete of chainset, gears, chain, rear hub and freewheel.
Elastomer Forks — the synthetic rubber option on suspension forks, said to be better than air/oil over smaller bumps.
Hydraulic Forks — air sprung / oil damped suspension.
Lockout — the ability to stop a suspension fork from moving.
Travel — the amount of movement that a suspension system has.
Granny Ring — the small inner ring on a triple chainset.
Hybrid — a mixture of a mountain bike and a road bike, usually with straight handlebars.
Hydraulic Brakes — Magura are the best known – oil operated sealed braking system.
Monocoque — a one piece frame construction technique, usually in carbon fibre.
Clunker — the original MTB, or any thing resembling it in terms of lack of efficiency.
Crud Catcher — simple plastic mudguards that clip onto the downtube or seatpost
E Stays — also known as raised chain stays. Avoids chainslap/suck but makes for a less rigid frame.
Big gears — those gears that are harder to push. — Small gear — ‘hill’ gears that are easier to push.
Spinning — pedalling. — Spinning out — not able to spin any faster.

Racing Terms

MTB Race – any race involving MTB’s.

Cross Country – usually an off road circuit of 3 to 10 miles, with multi lap options for different categories.
Single Loop – a single lap course.
Downhill – exactly as stated. Riders are timed from the start to the finish. Usually fast, technical and lasting between 4 and 10 minutes.
Uphill – exactly as stated. Hillclimb time trial.
Trials – a series of technically difficult marked sections of riding that bring out the best in skills. Points are deducted for ‘dabs’ (foot down).
Slalom – like in skiing, a downhill race between poles, often held as an elimination competition with two riders going down at a time.

Cyclo – Cross — an off road variation of circuit racing, now split between road type bikes with knobbly tyres and mountain bikes.

Some Road Terms

Time Trial (TT or Test) — a timed effort of a solo rider over a pre determined distance, most commonly 10, 25, 50 or 100 miles, but also as sections of a road stage race.
Road Race (RR) — a race on the open road, usually on country roads away from large towns.
Circuit Race, Criterium or Kermesse — all refer to closed circuit racing, often around a town centre or in a park or industrial estate.
Stage Race — a multi stage event, usually spread over several days, or even weeks, consisting of a mixed bag of all the race disciplines, but usually dominated by place to place road racing and individual time trials.
Prologue – the opening time trial of a stage race usually short and flat out.
Team Time Trial — a timed effort of a group of riders over a set distance.

Track Racing — there is only one cycling track in Ireland at Sundrive Road, Crumlin. The wide range of races are on bikes with a single fixed gear and no brakes.
Handicap Racing — In road racing, riders are set off in groups at timed intervals according to their ability / category. The idea is to give the “lesser” mortals a chance to beat the “scratch” group (the elite) to the finish.There are also handicapped time trials, where a rider is given a time bonus assessment on previous performances. The “bonus” is taken off their actual time in order to allocate handicap awards.
Hill Climbs — run as time trials, hill climbs are typically end of season events where the rider’s effort is against both time and gravity.

Racing Types
Amateurs — the vast majority of cycling, un-financed and unassisted in their sport.
Sponsored Amateurs — unsalaried riders who are assisted by a commercial organisation, often as part of a sponsored club.
Professionals — salaried riders who try to make at least part of their living from cycling.
Roadies – slang for road racers. — Testers – slang for time triallists. — Trackies – slang for track riders.

Road Training / Racing (Training Gang / Race Slang)
Off the front / up the road — as it says , riding away from the main group.
Off the back — the opposite
Blown out / blown off / shot off — all expressions describing the act of losing contact with the pace of the group.
Sitting on a wheel — staying close behind another rider for maximum slipstream.
Jump on a wheel — to react quickly to a chance of getting into a different riders slipstream as they come past.
Sit in — to take it easy in the middle of a bunch.
Coming through — moving off a wheel to come past another rider.
On the left / right — warning of an obstacle (pot hole etc.) to avoid , often just shouted as left, right,or middle.Also listen for other shouts, like ‘car’, ‘lights’, ’slow’ etc.
Swing off — to pull over ,without dramatic speed loss, to let riders through.
Bonk / hunger knock — a total depletion of food energy, causing a feeling of jelly legs and a pathetic loss of speed and strength.

Minute man — the rider who sets off one minute in front in a time trial or downhill.
© Peter Purfield 13/01/97