Today we take a look at one of the little mountain bike sayings that always brings a smile to my face: “Yard sale”. It isn’t so much the term itself, but an event connected with the term that actually was the idea behind doing this series in the first place.

The event was the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame induction ceremony of Travis Brown. As presenters Greg Herbold and John Tomac spoke, many “old” mountain biking slang terms were being bandied about while a befuddled Tim Grahl, (Blue Collar Mountain Biking founder and Crooked Cog Network owner) looked at me and said, “Yard sale?” Well, the explanantions had to wait until afterwards, but that was one of those “priceless” moments I don’t think I’ll ever quite forget. The thing is, Tim was a new mountain biker, and so, why would he know what that meant? Thus these posts.

Okay, so….back to the matter at hand! Yard sale is a term that was most likely pinched or transferred over from skiing. You know, when somebody crashes on a ski slope, and crashes good, parts are flying everywhere. A pole here, gloves there, skis flying down the hill, a hat, and a body, of course. To onlookers, the scattered accoutrement looked much like a “yard sale”. Thus the term came to be used whenever someone crashed spectacularly on the slopes.

Well, many skiers were mountain bikers in the summer months. The lingo was transferred over and voila! “Yard sale” became an ingrained term amongst early mountain bikers. Now you know!