Mountain Bike Disciplines Explained

Mountain biking is a lot of fun and thrilling. There are a few disciplines in mountain biking that distinguish the riders. There are the riders who enjoy doing tricks and stunts in the air and those that enjoy the thrilling rush in adrenaline as they race in high speeds. All these riders can be accommodated in mountain biking depending on the discipline they prefer. Here are six mountain biking disciplines explained in detail.


All mountain/Enduro

Are you looking for a challenging action to take part in? Then trying out the all mountain discipline could just be the thing for you. This takes the normal cycling to the next level and allows you to enjoy the rush in adrenaline and pumping of energy in your body.

All-mountain biking involves riding through more challenging terrains and overcoming extreme obstacles. Although, trails are available and set to guide the bikers the rough terrain is quite challenging and not easy to maneuver around those turns. An added advantage to this is the availability of the mountains all natural features which make the riding more fun like the drops and jumps.

All -mountain requires to be set and focused at all times as you may never know what challenge or obstacle could be at the next turn. This requires one to have great skills, bike control, and balance and to have the fearless courage to take on whatever comes their way.

Cross country

This is the most common discipline in mountain biking. Cross country involves riding on trails set for an extended period of time. Though it does not involve some challenging obstacles like other disciplines it still requires one to endure the hardship in order to survive.

Incorporating time trials and races make the biking experience even more challenging and fun. Sometimes there is the introduction of mud and gravel paths to allow the riders to show their bike handling expertise and bike confidence. A significant amount of bike control is required in order to be able to maneuver smoothly around the corners and all the obstacles.

In cross country biking the rider experiences all the challenges and gains full control of the bike as there is sometimes the involvement of mountain climbing and ascending. However, in cross country racing sometimes the riders can ride in the open field instead of parks and forested areas.

Dirt jump

In this discipline mountain, bikers take their bike to the park. The park is filled with different types of jumps set across the park. The obstacles are of different heights and are located closely together to allow the rider to have easier access to them from one challenge to the other.

The major event of this discipline is to show the riders skills to be airborne and some impressive acrobatics movement. Dirt jump requires someone who is daring and has bike confidence to handle all the challenges. The most challenging event in this discipline is achieving the right speed to be able to perform various tricks and safely land on the other side of the ramp safely.

For you to be good at this discipline it requires you to have enough strength, bike control and belief in themselves that they can achieve the give challenges. To perfect in this game it requires a lot of commitment and practice without quitting or giving up at any point.



In this discipline, it is sort of a combination of dirt jumping, downhill and trail biking. It involves riding through the natural terrains and the art of biking tricks. When taking up freeriding you will be sure to meet very challenging riding areas and different types of trails all through the journey.

An interesting fact about this discipline is the fact that there is no trail to follow and the riders let their creativity to lead them in overcoming all the challenges. This type of mountain biking takes advantage of the natures natural terrain and some added features like ramps, trail, ladders, and beams to make this riding more enjoyable.

In freeriding, you can choose to go faster in order to achieve great height or slow to be able to maneuver around all the obstacles in your way. Most of these trails incorporate a lot of jumps and drops which make the sport more fun and challenging for everyone to enjoy it.


The main aim of this discipline is to ride downhill at high speed.  Downhill is different from the other disciplines in that it involves a straight trail downhill unlike the rest of the mountain biking styles which involve curved trails and obstacles to tackle.

In this mountain biking style, most of the bikers don’t use any distinctive trail they just use their creativity to go downhill at high speed. The trick to achieving and accomplishing this trick is to have bike control and confidence when rushing downhill.

This is a very thrilling discipline as it gives riders the rush in adrenaline as they speed downhill in high speeds to achieve their goals. The riders don’t race up the mountain instead they walk there or taken up there via a lift system. This is to save up on their energy so that they can race at high speeds.

Riders are faced with challenges and obstacles as they have to keep evading challenging obstacles and be able to jump over huge mountain rocks which make the discipline more interesting.

High end Downhill bike brands can cost thousanads of pounds like Yeti MTBs.

4x- four cross

In four cross-discipline it involves four riders who race on BMXs in a circuit with a downhill slope. The discipline involves racing on a BMX style track with the entire features installed in the track like rollers and corners to make the race more interesting.

They use full suspension bikes or hardtails to give you that extra speed and push when racing. The bikes used in this discipline have quite a strong frame that makes the bikes strong to handle the extreme jumps and obstacles. This discipline requires one to be strong and focused and to have amazing bike control to be able to do all the tricks.


Make biking more interesting by trying out these amazing disciplines and feel the incredible power and freedom of biking. Try out one of these disciplines and have fun with it.

As always all the best, have fun and be safe!