MTB and Beer

Fully Rigid, 7/28/22

Riding mountain bikes and drinking beer after the ride, and sometime during it, have pretty much been part of the culture of mountain biking from day one. Over the years, as craft/independent breweries came onto the scene, and as mountain biking moved from the fringe to mainstream, parking lots outside of breweries saw more vehicles with mountain bikes mounted on them in some way or another. We wanted to go have a beer and food at the brewery, not only celebrating the ride by sitting at the trail head eating chips and drinking beer. In time, breweries and mountain biking clubs/associations forged relationships and partnerships that have led to community building and fundraising for building new trails and getting more people on bikes, among other efforts.

In short, MTB and beer is part of our history and is part of our DNA, like it or not.

I say like it or not because in more recent years, I’ve been hearing from people and seeing on online MTB forums that beer has too much of a presence in our community. Beer is a drug, of sort. It’s not good for us. Some even go far as saying that we shouldn’t include beer sponsorships for events. Keep beer out of mountain biking.

Huh? What?

Thanks for your thoughts, but get off my lawn.

The view from my front porch:

Beer is not inherently bad.

Independent, locally-owned breweries are great generators of building local economies and they support causes far beyond mountain biking.

Sometimes, believe it or not, we don’t even want a beer after the ride, reaching for water/other rehydration after the ride.

It goes without saying, but I better do so since I’m writing this on my Substack: drink responsibly, everyone.

Enjoy the ride and the beer … Cheers!