The Dictionary of Mountain Bike Slang

Compiled by Doug Landauer and Jim Frost (jimf@frostbytes.com)

Based on the MTB Dictionary, version 1.8 26 Jul 1995 10:03:06

Introduction

Many of the slang terms used in mountain biking come from the off-road motorcycling culture, from "trials" bicycling and BMX, and from road cycling. And some of the (numerous!) terms for "crash" came from skiing, snowboarding, surfing, or skating (inline or boards). Other subcultures have also contributed terms now used in MTBing -- for example, the word unobtanium had been used for decades before the advent of mountain bikes, both in auto racing and in the space program. bissell cleaner suncast deck boxes escali scale Dyson

There's a little Internet history behind this dictionary. In February ('95), Tom Purvis, from Colorado State, posted a message to the rec.bicycles.off-road newsgroup that said, in part:

Offroading needs more lore. More culture. More vernacular. [...] Let us use the 'net for something really valuable -- let's compile a list of bikey slang. Biff, face plant, gravity check, endo; those are pretty good terms, but let's get some of the really clever ones.

So a lively thread ensued; and I assume Jerry Dunn made another, similar request a bit later. He (Jerry) summarized some of it in April, for a book he has in the works...

Thanks so much for all the responses to my request for off-road bike slang, for my book ( -- to be published in fall 1995). Here's the summary I said I'd post. (Any corrections? Please e-mail me: jerryd@rain.org). Thanks for everything! You're a great group of people, very helpful, articulate, and funny. All the best -- Jerry

Jerry's summary is in the exact style of, and is almost a total superset of, a list that my (Doug Landauer's) brother Mike sent me by e-mail in May or June (some of the entries were edited down; only one was added). He said he'd found his list in the LA Times Sunday magazine. The format and wording is too similar to be a coincidence. So ... a question for Jerry Dunn, I guess: did the LA Times Mag article appear under your byline? (I'm just curious.)

Jerry's original chapter title was "Off-Road Bike Riders Offer a Crash Course in Slang".

During the mountain biking craze in the mid-1990's the Dictionary was excerpted in a number of print publications, including Time Magazine.

Over the years many people contributed to this dictionary; see the Cast of Characters for a partial list.

The Dictionary

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

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