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I toyed with the idea of a chest protector after injuring and then re-injuring my ribs last year, but never went through with it. The only riders around where I am that I’ve seen with them are at downhill parks. But if it would have that big of an impact on your life and it would help you ride more secure, I think you should get something that offers protection to your shoulders. Taking care of yourself and your body is never lame.
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Thanks for all the responses. The grips that came with the bike are clamp on. I had been leaning towards the ODI Rogue and looked at all the ones people here have suggested. I’m still leaning towards the Rogue, because they look pretty chunky and I’d like something more shock-absorbing than what I’ve been using the past two years, which look very similar to the other grips suggested.
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It’s a great time to be looking at bikes, especially used, since we’re close to the end of the summer. People trade in bikes to upgrade to new bikes, bike shops are clearing out inventory to make room for fat bikes, and ski/bike shops are doing the same to make room for skis and snowboards, so it’s a great time to get a really good deal.
If you can figure out a way to stretch your budget, I would suggest you do so for two reasons…first, trail riding is tough on bikes, especially the components, and cheap components break often. That means if you don’t know how to fix stuff, your bike will be spending time that you could be riding in a shop. That’s time lost and unexpected money spent. I know this from experience and my first bike was several hundred more than $300 brand new. Second, if you end up liking this sport enough to want to ride every week or more, you’re going to outgrow a $300 bike in less than a season.
In this sport, if you get the bug, you’re going to spend some money either way and my experience has been that often money spent upfront is less in the long run than the money I’ll spend down the line. Then there’s the frustration of repeated mechanical failures…that’s a whole other kind of cost I won’t get into.
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I’m seeing the same thing in Chrome on the laptop
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I haven’t ridden in Colorado, but this website has a TON of great information on trails all over the country and beyond. If I was going to Colorado, I’d start here…
https://www.singletracks.com/Colorado-bike-trails_6.html
Have a great trip and happy trails!
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Pre-ride, I check the tire pressure, test the brakes and shifting, do a couple bunny hops to check out the suspension and then I’m off. I don’t do much of a post-ride check unless I noticed something off or wrong during the ride.
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When I’m on the road, I want drivers to see me. When I’m on the trail, I want hunters to see me. Black, grey, brown, green, and tan just blend in. Riding a bright color bike might save your life.
I can understand this, but I ride with a bright orange helmet and during hunting season (or on the road, which I try to avoid) will wear bright orange or neon yellow shirts and reflective gear. I feel like if a driver or hunter doesn’t see you until they see the bike under you, it’s probably too late.
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I love the matte black finish with matte grey lettering on my bike. To me, it just looks classic and badass.
I also figure if it’s in a line of bikes at a TH or bikepark, the brightly-colored and flashy-looking bikes are more likely to catch a roving thief’s eye. 😉
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I started wearing knee pads after a bad crash that left my right knee stuck between my bike and a rock with my foot still clipped to the pedal and no easy way to unclip. The skin on the outside of my knee was entirely gone and I came real close to tearing the inside of my knee up. I was off the bike for over a month and the knee didn’t feel right for quite a while. If I’d been wearing the pads I use now, it wouldn’t have been more than a bruise and I’d have been riding again in the next day or two. We kind of need knees to pedal and I don’t want to stop riding, so anywhere I ride that has the slightest bit of technical feature I wear knee pads at now no matter how hot or humid it is and they’ve saved me more than a few times.
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If you’ve never tried mountain biking at all and don’t even know if you like it, I think this is a great bike to start on. It’s certainly better than what I started on. Once you get into it and figure out what kind of riding you like to do, you can start thinking about upgrading to another bike. As for upgrading components, I agree with renehlarue on the dropper post, but could go either way on the tubeless tires for a beginner. To me, that comes down to how much you want to learn all at once.
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I don’t find rooty sections to be particularly fun or enjoyable, but roots are one of the things that makes mountain biking challenging and, well, mountain biking. As Arebee alluded to, roots are extremely common here in New England and if you don’t want to ride on roots, you better stick to the roads and rail trails. NEMBA posts signs on some of our trails urging riders not to alter trails to fit their skills, but rather alter (improve) their skills to fit the trails they want to ride. If you have trouble riding roots, then keep practicing by riding them more. If you really hate riding roots, maybe find some trails that don’t have as many. Finally, if you really hate riding roots and live in a place like New England, maybe mountain biking just isn’t your thing.
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My front wheel is true and my rear wheel is slightly out. I take it to the shop, but I’m slowly learning and adding bike knowledge and tools, so I hope to figure out how to do this for myself eventually.
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Related side note: Of all the possible reasons to close a trail, building more trails is surely the best! 😀
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Interesting, re: no bar cap…
Why is that? are there pros and cons to both or is it just a personal preference you have?
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Both Trek and Specialized make great bikes, so which of those is better would probably depend on the components package you’re getting. Other things to consider….internal cable routing versus external routing, dropper posts, fork travel. Those details might be the difference in similarly priced bikes and help you decide between 2 different bikes. I agree with oldandrolling on the disc brakes. These days, for safety reasons, I don’t think I’d ride a bike without them, at least not on trails. Robjs1017 also makes a good point which I’ll add to….if you can find a shop that rents, you could get a sweet deal on a used rental bike that you know was professionally inspected and serviced regularly after almost every ride.
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I’ve always thought when I finally made it out west for a trip to ride I’d go straight to Moab, but in the past year or two, the more I read about and see photos of Crested Butte, the more I am leaning towards going there instead.
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Yep. Just recently happened to one of my favorite trail networks, FOMBA just outside of Manchester NH. What used to be a network of about 15 miles of twisty, flowy and sometimes technical singletrack loops off of fire roads has been reduced to less than 5 miles. That’s what I gather, anyway, from a few people. I just can’t bring myself to go look.
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if you were wise, you’d get grumpy too.
I am not going to get grumpy over bicycles. Bikes are my coping mechanism for the things that make me grumpy and I’m not looking for things to be grumpy about while riding. If someone in the woods is doing what they do while respecting others, I’m not going to get too worked up about it. I don’t have a need for everyone to do things my way.
The comparison between an e-bike and a motocross bike is interesting. Are there motocross bikes that don’t make a lot of noise and create no air pollution? If so, and the rider is safe and (again) respectful, I may not personally have an issue with it.
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why can’t the rest of us?
Interesting question to end a post in a series of posts that are basically attempting to dictate rules for everyone else.
My answer is, why should they have to?
As to FredCook’s point, I don’t really care whether someone “needs” an e-bike and, frankly, what right do I or anyone else have to tell another what they “need” for a bike? Come on.
This thread is sounding like a bunch of grumpy old men.
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