How to Choose Mountain Bike

Series Summary

Mountain biking may seem like an extreme sport, but even a beginner can easily get started with mountain biking after watching this video. First you’ll learn how to pick out proper mountain biking gear, including gloves, apparel, safety equipment, bike repair tools, and shoes. Then you’ll learn the most important part of getting started in mountain biking – how to pick out the right mountain bike for you. Once you have the right equipment, a professional mountain bike instructor will teach you about ascending, descending, climbing obstacles, and some mountain biking safety tips you might need when you’re out on the trail. You’ll also learn some basic mountain bike maintenance tips, like hour to repair a flat tire on the trail, a common occurrence on rough mountain bike trails.

Video Transcript

"When you’re deciding what mountain bike to pick out, features such as disc brakes, gearing, and pretty much everything else are a very personal choice. The most important thing is getting a bike that fits you properly. For a mountain bike, its generally easy to get pretty good stand over height. When you stand over the mountain bike you want about 2” before you have a disastrous encounter. If you can have 2” when you lift the bike up, the stand over height is pretty easy to accomplish. As important as stand over height is what’s called the reach. The reach is when you are sitting on the bike, how far it is to the handlebars. You want to be in a comfortable reach at a 45 degree angle. If you are too upright you aren’t going to be able to lift your wheel up an negotiate stuff, If you’re too stretched out, which is a common problem, again you aren’t going to be able to maneuver and control your bike as well. To gain the comfortable reach, if the frame is too big, you can use a shorter stem. It’s actually better to have a smaller frame, and adjust the micro aspect of the reach with the length and the height of the stem. To adjust your saddle height, you want your down foot leg to be at about a 10 degree bend at the knee for the correct saddle height. If you are too high, you are going to have knee issues. If you’re too low, then you’re ending your knee too much, also leading to knee issues. Remember, getting stand over height is the easy part. Getting the proper reach is a little bit harder but every bit as important when picking out a bike that fits you properly. "