Some Thoughts About Choosing a Mountain Bike

There is really no limit as to how much money you can spend on a new mountain bike. To help you keep your spending under control, you should figure out what your price range is and how much your willing to pay for a new bike.

When you buy, you shouldn’t buy from mass merchant stores such as Wal-Mart. You should instead support your local bike shop and get a much better bike and much better service. Here are some tips that can aid in deciding what kind of mountain bike will suit your needs.

Mountain Bike Designs

The designs for mountain bikes can be classified in four categories based on suspension:

1. Hardtail – A frame with no rear suspension, often containing a front suspension fork.

2. Fully rigid – This is a sub type of hardtail, with a rigid fork.

3. Dual or full suspension – These bikes offer a front suspension fork and a rear suspension that are integrated into the frame.

4. Soft tail – Offers a frame with a small amount of rear suspension, normally less than a full suspension frame.

Frames and Frame Materials

The cost of a mountain bike frame is proportionate to its material, as well as the treatment that material has received. Currently, there are five types of material used in mountain bikes – high tensile steel, chromoly steel, aluminum, titanium, and carbon fiber. Oversized diameters, heat treating, and butting are tubing material treatments that will increase the cost of a frame as well.

Types of Mountain Bikes

Below, you’ll find tips on the different types of bikes available.

1. Cross Country: Almost all mountain bikes will fit into this category. Cross country mountain bikes are light weight, making them easy to ride over most terrains, even up and down hills. This is the most common mountain bike and it can be used with ease for riding on the path or even commuting.

2. Downhill: These types of bikes are for serious bikers who crave the ultimate adventure. Downhill bikes have front and rear suspension, strong parts, and disc brakes. Rarely available off the shelf, most riders like to custom build their own.

3. Trials: Trail mountain biking involves a great degree of skill and is classified as the precision riding of the sport. Similar to downhill bikes, trial riders will often build their own bikes rather than purchase one off a shelf. Generally very light and very strong, these bikes require a lot of discipline.

4. Jump and Slalom: Slalom and jump bikes are very strong and designed for jumping, street racing, and slalom. They offer a front suspension and use very strong components dedicated to what they do. These bikes are very popular with the sport of mountain biking.

Sizing

Along with giving you a better selection and expert advice, bike shop personnel can you help you get fitted to the right size bike. You can get the bike either too big or too small, which will cause your enjoyment to suffer.

Product Reviews

Product reviews and bike reviews are some of the best ways to find out about a mountain bikes reliability and overall performance. You should always look at what other owners and reviews think about a bike before you make that final purchase.

Cost

As mentioned earlier, costs for mountain bikes will vary all over the map according to the materials and design you wish. In any event, you can really save on costs by looking over the bicycle auction listings on eBay which we’ve assembled for you here at BicycleWinners.Com.

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June 18 2008 | Mountain Bikes | No Comments »

So, You’d Like To Buy A Mountain Bike Online

If you know what you’re doing, there’s no reason you can’t buy a good mountain bike online. However, it’s important not to buy the first thing you see that looks appealing. It can be hard to tell what you’re really buying over the Internet. What you’re looking for is the fight fit. Your first task is to learn about mountain bikes before you begin shopping, including the important factors in making an informed decision. In the final analysis, buying a mountain bike represents a long term investment.

Before doing anything it’s critical to get a professional fitting to indicate the correct type and size of mountain bike for you. These may be free, or they may cost you up to seventy-five dollars. However, in the end, they’re worth it. Any good bike shop that you get a fitting from won’t pressure you to buy there.

When you’ve finished with determining the sort of frame and size you need, you’ll want to begin looking at mountain bike brands and the variety of features offered. Browse a lot, and learn as much about every kind of bike as you can. Decide what kind of frame material you like best (steel, aluminum, titanium, and carbon are the most common, with steel and aluminum often being the best deal). You can find much useful information about mountain bike purchases at this discussion about top mountain bikes.

Determine what kind of suspension is being included – no suspension, front and rear suspension or just front? More suspension costs a bit more, but it also gives you a gentler ride. Think about brands that appeal to you. Brand name may not be the only consideration, but those with proven reliability such as Cannondale, Trek and Specialized have stood the test of time. One thing you can be sure of is that a proven brand like Specialized Mountain Bikes will provide you years of good service.

Begin collecting retailers that you’d like to buy from. While you shouldn’t rule out Ebay, it and other sites of its type require special caution. If you choose to go with eBay, be very careful to make certain that the bike you’re buying is the one you want. Return policies can be tricky, and individual sellers can misrepresent their bikes, intentionally or not. If you exercise some caution, you can save a lot of money on an otherwise expensive mountain bike purchase, by paying close attention to the bike’s condition and the nature of seller feedback and shipping and handling costs.

You might be a little safer purchasing from an established online retailer. It’s always important to check up on the online store and make sure that they’re reliable, too. Find out about return policies and warranties, if available. Doing the sort of homework suggested here can take a lot of the hesitation out of buying a mountain bike online.

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June 11 2008 | Mountain Bikes | No Comments »