Long-time mountain bikers love to hate on flow trails, but I’m stoked

The Stoke is an occasional opinion series highlighting the things that get us stoked about mountain biking. 🤘 👍 👏 🙏

Flow trails. Depending on who you ask, they’re either the greatest thing to ever happen to mountain biking, or the worst. Flow trails are accessible to riders of all abilities and can be constructed relatively quickly with the help of trail-building machines. On the flip side, experienced riders complain that flow trails aren’t challenging enough, and every trail tends to look and feel the same. Me? I’m stoked to ride flow trails for one simple reason: they’re fun.

In a 2022 Singletracks survey, 24% of readers said flow trails were their favorite type of trail, leaving 76% of readers who either prefer another type of trail over flow trails or don’t have a preference at all.

Don’t get me wrong, riding steep trails, rocks, and roots is fun too. It’s satisfying to ride a challenging trail without putting a foot down, to solve a line that appears to be impossible at first glance. Technical trails require a combination of both skills and strength, and being able to ride them is a worthy goal, an affirmation of the time spent honing our abilities over many years. It requires an intense focus that blocks out life’s distractions, leading to a flow state when everything is clicking.

That being said, just because I like riding technical trails doesn’t mean I can’t like riding flow trails too. It’s not an either/or, and there’s no place for a scarcity mindset when it comes to mountain biking. Hell, it’s not uncommon to see flow trails and tech trails coexisting within the same trail system, not because riders want to be segregated by preference, but because both types of trails are wonderful for different reasons.

It’s been noted that flow trails — which are generally machine-built — are easy enough for younger and less experienced riders to enjoy, while still offering challenges for those who have been mountain biking for years. That’s true, but if I’m honest, I don’t usually ride flow trails looking for any sort of challenge, and that’s OK. I ride flow trails for the fun of it, to experience the wind flowing through my vented helmet, to feel my stomach flutter through roller coaster dips and rises in the trail. Sure, sometimes I’m locked in, railing berms at max speed and doing my best to double every double. But most times, I just go with the flow and enjoy the ride.

There’s some truth to the notion that almost every flow trail looks the same, and that’s by design. In order for a trail to flow, the grades must be just right, sight lines need to be open, and the surface has to be relatively smooth.

But if it seems like one flow trail looks just like the next, maybe you’re staring at your front tire too much. Look up, and you’ll see that though the trail surface is familiar, the world around you is not. I’ve ridden flow trails in the desert lined with cactus and wildflowers in winter, in rainforests surrounded by mossy tree trunks and fluffy ferns, and in city parks bounded by houses and businesses.

For me, taking in the scenery and immersing myself in a new environment is a big part of why I ride. Flow trails let me take some of my focus off the next rock or root in the trail, and in that way, they deliver an even more complete sense of place.

If you ask me, the flow trail is the best development we’ve seen in trail building yet. Does every trail need to be a flow trail? Absolutely not. Still, as long as I’m a mountain biker, I’ll always be stoked to keep riding flow trails.