Know your Sport: Mountain Biking – The Bike

Mountain biking, just like all other forms of two-wheel recreation, requires good balancing skills. The need to balance is not just limited to physical time on your bike, however, balance is required in choosing a bike, the type of riding you want to do, the type of equipment you may need and the level of joy you want to experience.
Yes, you do need to find a bike, but what bike should you be looking for? A good starting point could be to decide what type of riding you want to do, recreational and fun on dirt roads and easy single track, more technical single-track and competition riding like cross country, downhill or enduro riding, longer distance marathon riding or long distance gravel travel and touring.

Today, there is a bike specifically designed for each type of riding and, although almost all types of bikes will work in one way or another, answering the first question will greatly improve your enjoyment of riding a mountain bike.

Irrespective of the type of riding or the bike you plan to ride, the next most important decision to make is around frame size. Do you require a small, medium, large or extra large frame? Remember, components can be changed and upgraded but frame size and your body geometry are rather fixed. You need to find a frame size that will “fit” your body.

Your quality local bike shop (LBS) or a quick look at a good website can provide guidance. Now, the next big question? What bike (brand and colour scheme) do you like? This is a more important consideration than most people think. The premise is that you are more likely to ride a bike you like than one you don’t. Once the above issues have been covered, more detail on components, bike handling skills and basic bike maintenance will follow in the next edition of this series.