When you look into the sport of mountain biking, you soon realize that there are quite a few different variations involved. From relaxing scenic mountain trails to challenging cross-country riding and to the more extreme downhill racing; all are popular with thousands of people worldwide.

.Downhill biking in particular is proving to be popular and there have been many people who have chosen to specialize purely in downhill biking.

Why Downhill Mountain Biking?

The main reason why most people choose to take part in downhill mountain biking is because it really gets the adrenaline pumping. You go at extreme speeds downhill and you also take part in various tricks and jumps too. It is certainly not a sport for the beginner and the chance of having an accident is extremely high. Whilst you may not pedal as much in downhill biking, due to the high speeds involved, when you do pedal it makes the sport even more dangerous. The reasons why downhill bikers choose to pedal even though it may seem that they don't need to, is to gain an advantage over their opponents.

There are two things which could happen in downhill mountain biking. The first is that you race against an opponent and the second is that you race against time. When you choose to enter races where you race an opponent, it is known as a dual slalom. You set off at the same time as your opponent and you have to race them to the bottom to the finish line. When you race against time you usually take part in the same course twice at least. You see which one is your best time out of the two races and from that you see whether you have qualified to the next round.

No matter which type of downhill racing you do take part in, you should always wear protective gear. This helps to protect you in case you do fall off the bike. However as downhill mountain biking is a potential danger to the whole body, it is not possible to protect every single part of yourself. So there is always the risk of injury even if you have got the right protection on.

Overall as long as you wear the right protection you will have a lesser risk of hurting yourself. However you can never fully guarantee that you won't get hurt and that is why downhill biking is such an extreme and dangerous sport to take part in.