Finding the Right Mountain Bike

"Hi. I'm Aaron Phillips for Expert Village, and we're looking at how to buy the right bike for you. I'm standing here with the full suspension mountain bike. A lot of us who want to get out there and get active do some trail riding, check out the outdoors with a little bit of speed and exhiliration, and maybe adrenaline mixed in, will pick a bike like this. You'll see people out on the trails increasingly dual suspension, with both rear and front suspension, is the norm for trail riding. And this bike will tackle pretty much any kind of trail you want to throw at it with ease. A plum, if you will. So, similar to a motorcycle, or a car, you've got suspension on both wheels, which allows you to kind of float over obsticals. This is a very high-tech suspension, it handles very well. This is a bike that you could go trail riding on, you could also race. It's fairly light at around twenty-six pounds. The pedals here; this is a clipless pedal, it's a very simple design and it clips in on all four sides. Two, three, four sides, that allows really easy entry into this pedal. It's called an eggbeater, and I'm fond of that pedal just for it's ease, and it's convenience of getting in and getting out very easily. Now, the saddle; most mountain bike saddles, most cycling saddles in general nowadays, you'll have a pretty contour design, pretty narrow, but it will support your sit bones on either side, and you've got what's called a pressure relief channel in the middle that takes the pressure off some of the stuff that you don't want to have a lot of pressure on when you're sitting on a bike, because that can hurt. This bike is equiped with what's called a rise handlebar. It gives you a little more upright position on the bike, a little more confidence when you're cornering and you're going downhill, and it's also a little bit wider, and the width gives you a lot more control on that front wheel as you're braking, cornering and doing some of the moves in mountain biking that can be a little bit dangerous, and you want as much control as you can have. Of course, like most mountain bikes, you've got a nice, knobby tire up front. This one might be a little bit worn out. It is fall afterall; I've been riding this all summer. Nice side knobs here to allow you to, when you corner, to roll over on those side-knobs, and those side-knobs keep you from sliding out. It's kind of nice. You want to keep this side of the bike down, not that side. The suspension fork here, like I said, can kind of turn on and off whenever you want it to. You can lock it out and you won't have as much suspension. These shifters work by just, you shift to and easier gear this way, and a harder gear this way. Shifting is one of those things, when you buy your bike, just give yourself a chance to cruise around in the neighborhoods and practice your shifting because you don't want to be putting a lot of pressure on the drive train on really big hills when you start mountain biking, because that can really play havok with the drive train; you can end up breaking a chain. If you've ever been out on a trail and broken a chain, it's kind of a bummer. You've got, basically, just linear pull, or V-brake, that gives you a fair amount of stopping power, but a lot of people prefer the stopping power of disk brakes."