MTB but not Road. Why???

A question to the VFTT community... There is often discussion on this board related to mountain biking and, in many threads, mountain biking (and kayaking and canoing) are related to hiking but road biking is specifically excluded. I'm curious why. Is the the spandex??

I can sort of see the off-road nature of MTB pulling it in but there are some of us who lean toward road who specifically look for hills to climb (for the views?) which, to me, is close to some of those steeper hikes. Something about the Mount Washington Hil Climb comes to mind.

I promise not to start any road bike threads and I know that there are road-specific boards out there... Just cuious. That's all...

I don't know, it kind of makes sense to me...mountain biking is to road biking like hiking and trail running are to road running. We don't spend a lot of time talking about road running here, either...

Stash,

Good question. A long time ago it was decided to keep the board to hiking.
Some morphing has happened as you mentioned....kayaking, photography.
Also related would be foot races and while kicked around a few years ago, it was felt it was off-topic to start another forum.
Perhaps the best answer is the one you provided - that there are other and far better places and board for it. Who knows....perhaps someday.

Peakbagr

That's not to say an occasional gathering for ice cream and a road ride is unwanted or off-topic, any more than the beer or food gathering are

Tim

If you are near Bangor or MDI and want to ride roads and eat ice cream, let me know.

I do both, although not usually at the same time.

spencer said:

I do both, although not usually at the same time.

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Slacker.

Ex roadie here. There was a time when I spent more time in the whites riding the roads than hiking the trails. It is an awesome way to see vast portions of such beautiful country in a day. And the sadist in me loved to suffer up climbs, much as I do hiking. But I found the descents on a bike a whole lot more forgiving on my body than hammering down trails. I've never found a rush quite like flying down Crawford Notch in the early morning air at 50+ mph. The expressions of the drivers sharing the road with you is priceless!

I gave up the activity when we had kids. Maybe someday I'll get back into it....

I've posted a few of my road-bike trip reports here. You see, from time to time, I walk out my front door, hop on my (road) bike, ride down to the Adirondacks, climb a peak and ride back.

To me, road biking and hiking go together hand in hand. These were my reports:

http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12401

http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=7769

See. Road biking

TCD said:

We don't spend a lot of time talking about road running here, either...

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As well we shouldn't...it's God-awful.

It's all I've been doing this summer (training for a half-marathon in October) and it's sapping what little sanity I have left.

Can't wait to get back to trailrunning later in the fall!

I have often wondered about a VFTT style web site for bicycling of all types for the northeast.

There are national web sites for bicycling in general and local clubs for local area cycling, but it would nice to have one place that covers all of New England and the northeast- like VTT does for hiking.

There is a somewhat broad "northeast" category for cycling in the northeast on bikeforums.com, I know Mookie and I are members there, I'm not that active but sometimes lurk in the NE forum...

Road and MTB'r here, as well as tourer and commuter..

Jay