[igorc]

Sure, I will let you know. For now, I guess I will need a few months to read more forums/books, ride more, try some bikes, break my current bike even better, warmup to spending more $$$ and do more maintenance : ) Lots of stuff to do.

Thinking about it… knowing that 25mph on dirtroad is "rad" stuff feels good (now need to learn to sustain the speed and balance better), and the first jump felt awesome (even though I hardly remember any details, other than horrible metal sound of my bike, and left leg hitting the pedal and burning from big scratches, but I didn’t fall!). My wife said that road biking is probably safer, but a) I think it’s boring without bumps, b) I don’t want to ride hundreds of miles at a time, c) my coworker said they ride 50-60mph, which I think is plain scary. Mountain-biking between the trees is also very scary, imo.

Thanks for sharing experience and advice. I just can’t imagine how people lived before. Where would they find so much help, good info, and on top of that do it at 00:30AM – you guys Rock : )))

[igorc]

Hmmm, sounds like a "Specialized" may be the way to go… for a clearly well-designed bike, and I will keep your $2,000 threshold in mind. For example, FSR xc Pro sounds like a decent bike, and it’s $1,900 MSRP. This may be a silly question, but do you mean MSRP or discounted price? Those are sometimes very different…

And yet another newbie question – what is "plbs"? I was searching on Google and cannot find. I know lbs, and pounds, of course.

[igorc]

Thanks a lot guys, this is really useful! One of the unexpected things – now I know how to search for more and more answers – "clydesdale"!!! Just searching for the right word and can see lots of useful discussions – bikes, parts, techniques, everything. And I like those images on Google : ) … will spend a few more days (nights?) reading the info. Will look into the parts you’ve suggested here.

For now, I’m planning to keep using my current bike for a while to improve a) balance, b) mechanical skills : ))) Will take the fork apart and put it back together – if a bike shop can do it in 1 hour, I hope to do it in 6 (the cheapest MZ fork cannot be too complicated?). Also need to fix the chain that I broke on my last ride. In fact, I learned that not having a chain when going downhill (slower of course : ) tends to teach balance.

The biggest worry is that if the fork goes belly up, I may get some serious 215lb-over-the-handle type of experience, and a good helmet may not be enough then…

And yes, it looks like a new bike is in order… Financially, I guess I could warm up to the idea of parting with ~$1,500 in 4 or 6 months. It’s just hard to think that a $600 bike was only good for 1 year.

[igorc]

Wow, I thought I was doing the very basic riding and it turns out I’m just driving the bike into the ground : )))) Could you help me understand where is that line where I started doing it?

I spent about 7 full days over last couple of months learning/doing maintenance, talking to mechanics, etc, and it doesn’t look like I could have saved fork (very cheap one, nothing to maintain there?, no oil leaks, manufacturer says I cannot/should not take it apart), or shifters (which broke half a year ago, before any abuse at all), or crankset (which was fairly clean but had 1.9 review score on MTBR.com). The whole issue of maintenance is trickier than I thought, though. Even mechanic at the local perf bike did not adjust front derailleur correctly (how difficult THAT can be? I did it much better by myself) and he did not tell me about any problems two months ago. That’s why I’m learning how to do most of the maintenance myself (books, online, and just getting my hands dirty).

Assuming that I do all the maintenance now, is it an entry level bike by design, or upgrading a few parts will make it considerably better for more 25-30mph riding down fireroads and more 2 feet jumps? If I upgrade fork and crankset, what in the bike sounds not suitable to what I’m doing with it – frame, HT, or something else?

Besides of "having" a bike, I want to make sure I do not drive _myself_ into the ground with it : )))

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