Mountain Bike Tours: A Good Mountain Bike Is A Major Investment

A mountain bike is perhaps the most important investment you will be making when thinking about hurtling down the slopes of a mountain biking trail. The mountain bike is really a specialized bike whose design caters to the various needs of bikers for use on dirt trails or unpaved surfaces. It is common to find wide and knobby tires on a mountain bike that make for added traction and good shock absorption for the rough ride the bike is subjected to while mountain biking.

Front Wheel Suspension Is Becoming Standard Equipment Today

Of late, even the front wheel suspension has become standard equipment and having both rear and front suspension is finding wider application in mountain bikes today. There are also some of these bikes that come equipped with bar ends on the handlebars, though riser handlebars are very popular as well. The diameter of the wheels on these bikes is a little over two feet, though a bit larger wheels are also becoming common.

There are broadly speaking four different categories of mountain bikes including fully rigid, hardtail, and soft tail and dual or full suspension. The fully rigid bikes have a frame with a rigid fork as well as a fixed rear and come without suspension. The hardtail too does not have rear suspension though they do have a front suspension. The soft tail comes with a frame having limited rear suspension and is activated with the help of flex of the frame rather than using pivots. The full suspension or dual bikes have a front suspension fork as well as rear suspension and it also uses pivots for moving the rear wheels.

Essentially, the design of the mountain bike depends on the type of terrain it is going to be used on, and it is usual to find bikes that are meant for cross country (XC), endure/all mountains (AM), freeride (FR), downhill (DH), trial, dirt jumping - urban and street, single speed, mountain cross or “4-cross racing” (4X) and north shore usage.

Of late, mountain biking is becoming a mainstream activity and the riding styles are becoming increasingly more aggressive, which means having newer frames that are of better design, lighter and also much stronger than earlier ones and they also have a geometry to facilitate overcoming obstacles. Today’s mountain bikes are available in 21, 24, 27 speeds along with three gears towards the front while there may be 7, 8 and 9 gears on the back wheel.