When I decided to start biking to improve my health all my friends told me that mountain biking is so fun and I believed them, so I started mountain biking and I couldn’t believe how fun it is.
If you consider starting mountain biking you can’t even imagine all the reasons why this can be the most fun thing you can do in your life.
Mountain biking is so fun because it gives you the adrenaline rush you need to truly feel alive. Riding your bike with friends and enjoying all the amazing landscapes that mother nature has to offer is one of the most fun activities you can do.
In this article, I will share with you all the reasons why mountain biking is so fun, and reasons learned from years of riding on the trails. So let us begin:
1. Connect with Mother Nature
Mountain biking is an outdoor activity and this means that you will enjoy everything that mother nature has to offer, there is no better way of feeling the fresh air pouring into your lungs.
There isn’t a more relaxing feeling than riding through nature and enjoying the majestic views that surround you.
Many of us live all our lives in the cities and do not enjoy all the beauty that surrounds us. Believe me, you get an incredible feeling of calmness and joy when you hear the wild birds singing while you ride your bike.
One of the great advantages of mountain biking is that you can encounter wildlife while riding. Dears, birds, rabbits, foxes, turtles, and squirrels are just a few examples of wildlife with which you will share your trails.
2. Adventure and Exploring
Mountain biking is a great way to explore all the places around your home or the places you travel to because you can cover a lot more ground than on foot.
Packing your bags and mounting your bike on the car rack is a great feeling because you know that a great adventure awaits you. Go with friends or with your family and you will have a ton of fun and you will strengthen the bounty between you.
You will be amazed how many incredible places are there that you haven’t explored and finding trails is easier and easier these days, just use a dedicated app like Trailforks or Komoot if you have a Garmin device.
If you have a little bit of extra cash to spare then buying a Garmin GPS will help you find new trails almost anywhere in the world and you don’t have to worry about getting lost because your GPS has the capability to guide you back regardless of how complicated your trail path was.
The best part of mountain biking is that you will never run out of new places to explore.
3. Good for Breaching Mental Barriers
At first riding on trails is intimidating and you will always have a voice over your shoulder that tells you that is too hard and the risk isn’t worth it.
The reality is that most of us are living boring and unfulfilled lives because we lack the confidence to do fun things, mountain biking will force you to get out of your comfort zone, and if you push yourself just a little bit you will be able to conquer trails that seemed to be too hard at first.
This is especially true when you ride with friends, they will give you the push needed to become a better rider, and this way in time you will become more confident, and with the increase of confidence comes the increase in the amount of fun you can have.
After a few years of mountain biking, you will enjoy the challenges that riding on rough terrain brings because you know the feeling you get after overcoming them.
The satisfaction of achieving goals and overcoming obstacles are related to the release of dopamine, this will give a state of joy and happiness.
4. Adrenaline
Encountering more dangerous portions of the trails will give you a rush of adrenaline and this will cause your body to release dopamine when you overcome the danger.
Dopamine controls mental and emotional responses but also motor reactions and it is responsible for experiencing happiness (this is why it is called the “happy hormone”).
The best part of mountain biking is that it allows you to control the amount of risk you are willing to take, there are trails for every rider’s skill level but if you are an adrenaline junkie this will come with a higher risk of injury (but you will have more fun).
If you what to know more about the effect of adrenaline and dopamine you can read this article written by Steiner A, Denac M, and Ballinari U on PubMed.
5. Dependent on Your Skill Alone
Riding your mountain bike is dependent on your skill level, everything is natural and you don’t depend on a motor like on a motorbike or a car. Of course, you depend on your mountain bike but if you want to go faster you need to pedal harder.
One of the best parts of mountain biking is that is a complex discipline and always you have new things to learn this will keep things fresh, you won’t have time to be bored.
The more you improve your skills the more fun you will have on trails and because there is more than one riding style you will always have the possibility to try and learn new things.
You can start with cross-country mountain biking and progress from there, you have many options to try:
- Cross-country
- Trail mountain biking
- All-mountain/Enduro
- Downhill mountain biking
Always progressing and learning new skills will give a great amount of joy and satisfaction, with mountain biking the fun never ends.
The better you become the more options you will have on trails and with time this will become a journey, you will set goals and your confidence will be given a boost when you achieve them, let us not forget that your skill level will become something with what you can brag about to your friends.
6. Stress Release
All outdoor activities have a common point (nature), when you are in the heart of nature all the day-to-day stress melts away and you suddenly become more relaxed and happier.
Mountain biking will bring you back in time to your childhood when you had no worries and you could ride your bicycle all day.
Believe me, this is a tested thing, when I feel stressed out I take my mountain bike on a short ride when I arrive home I am stress-free.
Stress is one of the biggest reasons why we aren’t happy and having a way to release yourself from it is like having a superpower.
7. Brings People Together
The community formed around mountain biking is incredible, there are many Facebook groups that are filled with friendly people for beginners and because mountain biking is so popular you can easily find friends that share this passion with you.
Mountain bikers have a spirit of comradery unrivaled by other disciplines, believe me, it doesn’t matter at what skill level you are, everybody will be happy that you are there and share the same passion with them.
When you ride with friends it is so much more fun and you will be amazed at how happy is everyone to help you if you encounter technical problems on trails.
When I catch up with old friends and tell them that I am a mountain biker now (if they are interested in the sport of course), their faces light up and after a ride or two, we become like brothers. And I am surprised at how many of them are mountain bikers right now.
The community formed around mountain biking is one of the best, don’t miss out, join it as fast as possible!
8. Allows You to Enjoy Your Favorite Meal
Mountain biking is a demanding sport that helps you to burn many calories and because it relies on short bursts of energy it will consume all the glucose stored in your muscles, which means that you can eat more carbohydrates.
So you need a lot of energy to ride the trails, this means that you need to increase your calorie intake so that your body can repair itself after hard rides. For these reasons before or after a longer mountain biking ride, you can incorporate one of your favorite meals.
After a long day of shredding the trails with my friends, we stop at the local pizza shop and we treat ourselves without feeling bad about the number of calories that we eat, so yes once in a while you can eat a pizza or a burger without feeling bad.
If you will ride for longer periods of time you will need to replenish your sugar levels and this will open another fantastic opportunity, here you can eat a chocolate bar or drink your favorite soda.
But you should not overdo it, treat yourself with your favorite food one time a week and if and only if you will have at least one 3-hour mountain biking ride.
If you are interested in how many calories you burn mounting biking, I have written an article where I compare mountain biking with other outdoor sports regarding the total number of calories burned.
9. Make It as Hard or as Easy as You Like
At first glance, mountain biking seems to be really hard and you need to be really good to be able to have fun on the trails but the reality is a lot different. If you are able to ride a bicycle on the road then you are able to ride a mountain bike off-road.
There are mountain biking trails that are good for a total beginner and there are trails where you need to be an experienced rider to be able to ride them safely. The trails are marked with colored signs so you can ride how you like.
| Trail Symbol | Rider Skill Level | Trail Difficulty |
| white circle | total beginner | easies |
| green circle | beginner | easy |
| blue square | intermediate | more difficult |
| black diamond | advanced | very difficult |
| double-black diamond | extremely difficult | expert |
It doesn’t matter how experienced you are to have fun mountain biking and believe me you will have a lot of fun if you as just starting out, just don’t expect to ride like a pro any time soon.
10. Everyone Can Do It!
Yes you heard me right everyone can do it, it doesn’t matter how strong, how old or how experienced you are. Start with the easy trails and progress as you can.
Mountain biking is a lot of fun regardless of the level of skill on which you are, don’t beat yourself up too much, just have fun.
There is no age limit when it comes to mountain biking. If you are older, ride as you feel comfortable. The best thing about mountain biking is that it will not put too much stress on your joints as running does.
If you think that you’re too old to start mountain biking, then this article will help you a lot!
11. You Can Ride in Any Season
At a first glance, one will think that mountain biking is only for the warm weather but with all the improvements made by the gear manufacturers, we have the possibility to ride our bikes almost in any weather conditions.
This adds many new layers of fun to mountain biking, riding in the cold season is totally different than riding in the summer, you will never get bored if you are a mountain biker.
Final Thoughts
I hope that by now you know that mountain biking is a ton of fun and this comes as a bonus over the many health benefits.
The only drawback to mountain biking is the fact that it is expensive, yes you can ride a cheap mountain bike with as little gear as possible but you won’t have the same amount of fun as the guy with a more capable bike enjoying the more technical trails.
A cheap mountain bike can help you just to get your feet wet in mountain biking if you want to enjoy the whole experience then you need to open your wallet a lot.
Maybe you will like to read the following articles:
- Mountain Biking vs. Road Biking
- Mountain Bike Vs. Hybrid Bike
- How dangerous is mountain biking
- The 5 Types of Mountain Bikes You Need To Know About
I started mountain biking many years ago to improve my overall health state. After my first ride, I fell in love with the sport. Now I spend dozens of hours a week researching and training to compete in local XC and Enduro events.
