Buying A Mountain Bike

It can be a bit frustrating as well as time consuming when you buy a mountain bike. Below, you'll find some tips and things to be aware of before you lay down the cash and buy a mountain bike.

Determining your price
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 houldn'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.

Finding your style
All mountain bikes are designed with several different riding styles and terrain types in mind. You'll need to figure out what type of riding you will be doing
the most. Smooth riding, cross country racing, mountain cruising, or lift accessed downhill is something you need to figure out. Make sure that the bike you select fits your personal style and not that of the sale's staff.

Full suspension or hard tail
If you can afford it, a full suspension mountain bike is always worth the purchase. A hard tail, without rear suspension, is much lighter weight and pedal more efficiently, although full suspensions offer more comfort and overall better control. You'll want to make that decision based on your price range,
riding style, and the type of terrain you'll be riding on the most.

Finding your favorites
Comparing mountain bikes component to component is nearly impossible, as there are far too many combinations available. The best way to go about doing this is finding a few components that are the most important to you and making sure the rest or the minimums fall within your price range. You can start with the fork then look at the wheels and rear derailleur.

Sales and seasons
During the year, the prices of mountain bikes can fluctuate quite a bit. Spring through summer is the main buying season. If you can wait until the right price pops up, normally in the fall and winter, you can save a couple hundred dollars. Many bike shops will also offer discounts or other accessories if you buy from them.

Finding a good dealer
Finding a good bike dealer is more important than finding the best price. You should always find a dealer that cares more about selling you a great bike than selling you
a high priced one. A great dealer will have a clean repair shop and give you the impression that you can really trust them.

Test ride
You should test ride as many bikes as you can within your price range and riding style. You'll find that some bikes will feel right, while others won't. The more
bikes you can test drive, you better you'll understand what works and what doesn't.

Doing the research
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.

Beginner Mountain Bike Skills

Mountain biking is an exciting sport that can be enjoyed by anyone who knows how to ride a bike. Compared to the average bike ride, it does present some danger. Therefore, you should master these basic skills before you hit the trails or the dirt.

You can practice these beginning skills at a local park, school, bike path, or simply around your house. If you can, try to find a location with a steep hill.

Get a feel for your pedals
Practice moving your foot away from the pedal, first while sitting on your bike with one foot on the ground. Next, move on to releasing and replacing your foot while pedaling around for a bit. Those with toe clip and clipless type foot pedals will want to spend a bit more time practicing.

Sit and spin for position
Simply sit on your bike and pedal around. You should keep your arms slightly bent. You should also adjust your seat height so your leg is 70 to 90 percent extended at the bottom of every stroke on the pedal. Keep your body relaxed, as there will never be a position where you should have either your knees or your elbows locked.

Shifting gears
Get a feel for shifting gears with your bike. The higher gears are harder to pedal and will go faster while the lower gears are easier to pedal and will help you ascend hills. As you get to steeper hills, its best to shift before you get to the hill rather than while your on it.

Coasting
You should spend a bit of time coasting while standing on your pedals, without actually sitting on the seat. Keep your arms bent but don't lock your knees. Now, try experimenting with shifting your body towards the rear end of the bike.

Pedal while standing
You should get as comfortable as you can with pedaling while standing on your bike. Try lifting yourself off the seat while standing on the pedals, then crank them around. You should try this in higher gears on flat ground then again in lower gears while on a hill.

Dropping down a curb
Try finding a curb where you can easily get to the upper portion of it. Practice at a moderate speed, standing and coasting right off the curb from the upper level to the lower level. Try this at different speeds until it becomes second nature.

Once you practice these techniques and get the hang of them, you'll be able to hit the trails feeling comfortable on your mountain bike. Even though it may take some getting used to, it'll become second nature before you know it.

Mountain Biking Extreme Sports Stock Footage - AdventureImagery

Cool mountain biking footage from AdventureImagery.com. Cycling, or bicycling, is a form of transport, recreation and sport. As a sport it has many specialties such as racing, mountain biking, road, track, touring, and freestyle. Endurance and speed play a major role in most of the disciplines.


Mountain Biking Extreme Sports Stock Footage - AdventureImagery. - The most amazing videos are a click away

Extreme Mountain Biking Skills And Spills

This is a little too extreme for a bike


Extreme Mountain Biking Skills And Spills - Funny video clips are a click away

Macam-macam

Manggis Rider Team at Telok Bahang

The 2008 Specialized Stumpjumper

Specialized has started from scratch with the 2008 Stumpjumper. It bears no resemblance to its predecessors, though looks a little like a much slimmed down 2007 Enduro. It's a 120mm trail machine that'll do all-round trail use, the occasional race, the odd rocky foray, but overall to just be 'a bike' - which all the Stumpjumpers have done well over the years.

Starting with the sculpty frame, this shows how much things have moved on in Specialized's carbon dept, with slim, curved tubes that appear to owe more to their carbon road bikes than any mountain bike heritage. The result is a pleasing (and doubtless 'love it or hate it') organic shape. Oh, and the bike here should weigh 23.2lbs out of the box.


The carbon crown and steerer helps to keep the weight of the Futureshock 120 light - down to 3.1lbs claimed weight. And all the gubbins - damper and air spring are contained in one leg.

The front and rear of the bike are designed to compliment each other. To this end, both feature 'Flow Control' Brains. This is the newer, trail-tuned Brain that first appeared on the Epic. A small brass weight keeps the suspension under control (though still moving) until the bike hits a bump. After that, the weight is moved away from the oil circuit and the fork or shock is free to be active and react to the bumps. Having ridden the previous carbon Stumpy with this system on, we can confirm it works very well.

Specialized rear shock is linked by a hose to the Brain at the dropouts so that it's activate the moment the rear wheel hits something. 120mm rear travel, room for a bottle cage and a cool red rocker to match the Magura Marta brakes on the S-Works model.

There's even a carbon fibre drive-side dropout to save weight. The non-drive side one, with aluminium disc mount is equally svelte