freeriding

Freeriding is the term people have given to the riders that like to tackle extreme obsticals and highly technical sections of terrain. Freeriders are the guys you see dropping off of 10' ledges and what not.

A freeride bike is typically fairly heavy, and designed to survive large impacts. It usually has 5-8" travel front and back, double crown fork, chain guides, 36+ spoke wheels, large volume tires and extra beefy parts such as the frame, stem, rims, handle bar, ect.

Freeriders do not tend to ride at very fast speeds, so the weight of the bike is less of an issue.

Cheers,
Juba

Whats the difference as opposed to pure downhill bikes?

Fram geometry and gearing have substantial differences between downhill and freeride. Downhill bikes have very relaxed geometry, to turn predictably at high speeds, freeride bikes have more traditional geometry in their frames designed to handle a 8"'ish travel front fork. Also downhill bikes are geared large, for high speeds, where as Freeride bikes are geared lower, as Freeriders are usually riding pretty slow. Saddles are also another big difference. Downhill saddles tend to be very big and very long, allowing the rider lots of room to slide around, where Freeriders are never on the saddle, so it is usually dropped all the way down and out of the way.

Cheers,
Juba

Freeriding is a sort of riding philosophy that says "i'll ride wherever I damn well want to"

That can mean a bit of light downhilling one day, urban rides over stairs and ledges the next or tackling a jump park.

I've got a freeride bike and its (just) light enough to go XC riding with and then you can swap to fatter tyres and hit the DH tracks.