downhill, freeride, and crosscountry?

im fairly new to mountian biking. been out like 7 times with my trek 820 it does the job.
Anyhow, Ive been going to alot of bike websites and i see downhill freeride and cross country, and well whats the difference. Im assuming downhill is only built for downhill. heavy frame i assume with good shocks. but whats freeride and cross country. What would my trek 820 be considered? And im i wrong on the downhill?
thanks for your help.

Welcome! DH bikes are just what you were saying, pretty much. Many folks "free-ride" on DH bikes, also most of the freeride bikes you are likely to find offered are "lightweight" (term used loosely) DH bikes. They will/should have very sturdy frames, wheels, long-travel forks/rear-ends (6-8 inches). You can (and many do) DH on FR rigs and, as mentioned above, the reverse is also true. There seems to be another division within FR riders: huckers/all-mountain/DH/ramp and trials. That is, of course, NOT a complete list, but seems to represent the majority of the FR scene. Both FR and DH bikes are sturdy, a bit heavier than XC, and mostly designed to be stable handlers. XC bikes are obviously lighter, designed to go uphill at least as well if not better than it goes down, etc.

This next part is just some rambling: understanding that some bikes are designed specifically for one task or another (DH, trials, DJ, etc) the rest of the stuff is just a label. 8 years ago me and my friends were considered free-riders since we just rode whatever, where-ever on FS bikes and tried to descend everything we could get a bike on top of. These days folks seem to not call it FR unless you are on an 8" DH bike and hucking 20' drops. I'm glad you enjoy your bike because *that* is what it's all about!

K.

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Disciples Of Dirt

All Mountain is made for aggresive trails with the ability to handle small jumps jumps and stuff, freeride is going of huge jumps, MX (also called 4X) is going of good-sized jumps and racing abount 4 other people. Dirt jump/Urban assault is mainly BMX on real bikes.