ABSTRACT
How do the historical trajectories of ideas of authenticity, and the socio-political conditions that frame them, inform contemporary mountain biking multimedia, and what can this media tell us about mountain bikers and the broader contemporary mountain biking sportscape? In this chapter, we investigate these questions through an examination of two exemplars of mountain biking multimedia. We argue that these films do not simply reflect mountain biking experiences but are co-constitutive of experiences in ways that both solidify and perpetuate constellations of authenticity and also reproduce socio-culturally situated forms of inequality. In other words, mountain biking films do not just give us something to watch, but give us ways to experience mountain biking. Throughout our analysis, we call for mountain bikers to critically rethink problematic ideals of authenticity and to strive to understand the ethical implications of their actions.
