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who's into mountain biking?

TrueBlueLS

Platinum Member
Today was the first real ride of this year for my best friend and I. Michigan's weather has been pretty decent for the past month, but we hadn't paid to get into the good parks yet. Here are some from today.
 
Mountain Biking is something I definitly want to get into but I just haven't had the funds laying around. Looks like you had a lot of fun though.
 
I'm really good at falling off and getting hurt, if thats what you mean.
I've got some really good scars too. 😀
 
Sorta. I haven't had a chance in awhile, but tomorrow is going to be about 13 celcius up here, so i was planning on it.
 
gonna start biking more soon...was muddy as hell when I went last week...

couple pics:
#1
#2

annnnnnd its snowing now..... 😛
 
Loads of fun, though I really need to get my front brakes fixed, as they squeal for no reason, even with a toe-in correction, new pads, sanded rim... arg, hope I dont have to get a new rim.
 
I love Mtn Biking. I'm gonna do some this spring. Two summers ago I took the train up to the Blue Mtn Reserve and did those trails. Unbelievable.
 
I used to go every weekend. Although this last month and a half I have only been once. I have an old school Rock Hopper FX. I dont think they even mkae it anymore. I like it though. I have put over a thousand miles on it so me and that bike have a connection. Although it needs a whole new transmission set (bah expensive). I probally wont get to go biking for sometime though. Like not for another month or something.
 
Hey guys. I've been mt. biking for quite some time now, and try to get out at least a few times a week, but this was my first year doing winter riding, although its rather challenging with the snow storms we've been having here in New England. I even managed to go down my street with someone riding by in a snowmobile. Mind you I've never seen anyone riding a snowmobile here in Rhode Island before.

In any case it has deffinately has become one of my favorite pasttimes appart from programming, computers in general and music (i play drums). With that in mind I'd have to say that although it isn't required, if you do take up mt. biking, you deffinetely need to work it into your yearly budget as it can get quite costly with even half-decent and more or less equiped with current generation of componentry beginer mt. bikes (i'm not talking about Wal Mart Huffy or Mongoose which used to be a decent brand until it was bought out a few years ago here) running upwards of $400, but more realistically $500 and easily going over the $1000 mark. In addition there are plenty of accessories which one might want to consider such as helmets(which is really a must if you go off road), gloves, shorts, jerseys, shoes, hydration systems, lighting systems (for those night rides), spare parts and tools( you know you are going to tinker with it if you're on anandtech in the first place) etc...

I'm a little sleepy to provide the arguments in favor of going with such and "expensive" bike and all the gear when you can just go to Sport Authority, Target or Wal Mart and have a bike for $200, but let me just say this, its only worth it if you're actually going to ride. So I suggest borrowing, renting or test-riding someone's half-decent bike in actual off-road conditions for an hour or so at least.On the other hand I've seen a few arguments against all this from people riding in cut-off jeans, sneakers and a Hanes T-shirt. Speaking of riding, you will probably want to ride along with someone either to show you the ropes, trails, but most importantly for safety (you'll want smeone to call for help if you take a spill when you hit a root and get your lights shut off by a stubborn boulder that just won't budge ;-) )

In either case its a fun, but exhausting and sometimes expensive activity. I probably would not be to much out of line if I compared the cost factor to downhill skiing, minus the cost of a lift ticket (although some alpine ski resorts allow you to buy tickets for use of their lifts in the summer time)

I'll finish my mad ramblings by pointing you all to a site called Mountain Bike Review which will give you some more insight into this activity. It includes a message board which if my memory serves me right has a section for beginners in addition to great user reviews of actual products not unlike epinions.

Have fun and ride on!
 
Originally posted by: FrustratedUser
Originally posted by: trek8900
gonna start biking more soon...was muddy as hell when I went last week...

couple pics:
#1
#2

annnnnnd its snowing now..... 😛

Ahh, a fellow Rocky Mountain rider. How do you like it?

It's great, no problems with it at all!

hope yours is treating you right as well 🙂
 
Originally posted by: TrueBlueLS
Today was the first real ride of this year for my best friend and I. Michigan's weather has been pretty decent for the past month, but we hadn't paid to get into the good parks yet. Here are some from today.
Have you ventured over to Pinckney State Park yet? Excellent trails. I try to hit them with my brother whenever I visit.
 
I was getting into it last year and then when mrsskoorb moved down we tried one of the trails I'd been doing and she couldn't ride it (what a girl!) so now we stick to more clean-cut trails 🙂
 
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