By the Enduro Community, for the Enduro Community

Why do We Ride Enduro?

Motorcycles started to become popular in the early 19th century, in the beginning it was a way of moving from one place to another, quickly and conveniently. Already back then people were intrigued by the feel of freedom, great adventures and possibilities these vehicles were able to provide to the users.

But somehow just riding the bikes on the roads wasn’t enough. Finding the limits of both the riders and the bikes felt fascinating after people got more and more used to the regular riding from the roads.

In August of 1913, the world witnessed its first organised off-road event, International Six Day trail, in Carlisle, Cumberland, England. This event is seen as the beginning of Enduro motorcycles because, it’s the first event that had bikes specifically intended for Enduro competition, and the great thing is it only happened 10 years after the first production motorcycle got introduced. So, it is safe to say that Enduro is one of the oldest forms of Motorsport.

The Auto-Cycle Union (First International Touring Trail)

Many things have changed since the very early days, and the whole world has developed into something completely different. In the beginning motorised bicycles were one of the only ways to move quickly and efficiently from one place to another. During the decades their purpose has evolved into something else, before they used to be something useful but nowadays, they are more for leisure and fun.

There has been times where motorcycles get trendy for a certain period, but the overall interest towards them has decreased, the whole motorcycle industry is starting to look like its not part of the modern society anymore, its starting to look like an old ancient relic from the past, and off course the same things applies to off-road and Enduro as well.

Nowadays more and more people live close to big cities where every corner of the streets have pavement. Riding off the roads on the gravel, it’s not a necessary thing to do, you can do it, but for most of us is not a must anymore. As human beings we are not forced to do something, we tend to stick with the more familiar and more comfortable ways by our nature, this feature is part of our survival instincts and its programmed deeply into our DNA.

You can never learn everything about off-road riding, its like a constant learning experience. When you think you have mastered something, it really distracts you fast and it just strikes you so hard, and soon you are down on the earth again. The constant challenge you get from off-road riding, is one of the most powerful things that keeps people riding and doing the sport. Off-road riding is extremely demanding for your body and your mind, there are thousands of things to concentrate on while riding, analysing the terrain, changing your body position, thinking about your settings of your bike and so on..…it’s definitely not a sport for everyone. Most modern people get offended easily when someone disagree with their beliefs, especially on online forums and platform, for the people riding outdoors this would be a nightmare because you are not in control of everything that comes your way. Everyone who rides off-road Motorsports has a different meaning of why they do it, some of us do it for fun, some wants to learn more skills and some of us do it for adventure and freedom.

I think in the end it doesn’t matter why people ride, the most important thing is that people do ride, both now and in the future. I started this by telling you about the International Six Day Trial, that event which is still in the same format as it used to be back then, has been organised every year since 1913, which was 107 years ago. In 1980 the name was changed to International Six Days Enduro, which might be more familiar to you.

You and I, we have a massive part in keeping this fantastic off-road sport alive. We don’t know anything about our future, it might be electric or not. No matter what it is we have an essential task to deliver to the upcoming generations, just like the generations before us did, and that that task is sharing the passion of riding on 2 wheels.

We won’t be here the year 2125, but I hope there are still Enduro riders that will be spreading the message.