Mountain bikers love to talk about dirt. When someone asks me how the trails are, the first thing I usually respond with is the quality and the state of the soil.

“It’s pretty dusty right now.”
“The clay is gripping well.”
“Man, it’s all loam out there… it’s perfect.”

We even pay pretty close attention to the things living in the soil as they pass underneath our tires.

“The roots are really showing, and they’re pretty slick!”

Dirt is on the forefront of our minds because it is our primary connection to the earth, and the very thing which makes mountain biking different from road or track cycling, or even possible in the first place. And the majority of the time, a successful ride means you come back wearing or having consumed a bit of it.