MOUNTAIN BIKE BUYING GUIDE

What Terrain Do I Plan to Ride? What Is My Riding Style?

These are two important questions you need to think about to help you choose a mountain bike. There are a lot of options, and each model has characteristics that make it best suited for specific terrain and styles of riding. Are your trails relatively flat and rolling, or do you take a chairlift to the top? Do you tend to be more aggressive or conservative in your riding? Do you plan to get out and enjoy the trails or is your calendar already filling up with races? Will you just be riding during the summer or do you want to get out in the snow?

Mountain bikes come in three styles when it comes to suspension, which is a crucial factor in what type of terrain a bike is going to excel at.

Rigid Mountain Bikes: A rigid mountain bike has no suspension. These bikes are not as common anymore, but they are the grandfathers of mountain bikes. The original Specialized Stumpjumper, the first major production mountain bike, had no suspension. Most fat bikes fall into this category. True rigid mountain bikes are for the purist looking for the simplicity of no suspension.

Hardtail Mountain Bikes: A hardtail mountain bike has a suspension fork, but no suspension in the rear. By adding front suspension to the bike, you allow it to flow through rougher terrain faster with more control, and make the ride more comfortable. This setup is most commonly found on cross country bikes as they’ll be lighter than their full-suspension brethren, or on entry to mid-level bikes as they’re less expensive than a full-suspension bike. With larger tire size options, there are some great hardtails that are capable of tackling very technical terrain.

Full-suspension Mountain Bikes: As the name implies, a full-suspension bike will have suspension in the front and rear. The suspension allows the bike to tackle rough terrain with ease, providing more control, speed, and comfort to the rider. Full-suspension setups are found on many different types of mountain bikes, with shorter to longer travel depending on the bikes intended use.

One common misconception is that by having suspension in the rear, you’ll have a slower or less efficient bike. This has been proven untrue. Suspension helps you get over obstacles by absorbing impacts that would normally slow you down and allow you to flow over the terrain smoother and faster.

The first thing to remember about frame materials, is that the material is only as good as the engineering behind it. You can find great riding bikes made from any of these materials and poor riding bikes just the same.

Carbon fiber is an excellent material for building a bike for two main reasons. One, it has incredibly high strength and stiffness to weight ratios. Second, unlike steel or aluminum, it can be manipulated in almost endless ways. This means a frame can be made incredibly stiff in specific areas or directions, like areas that impact turning pedal power to moving you forward. It also means a frame can be made to have forgiveness in other areas to reduce trail vibrations and impacts from reaching the rider.

Aluminum has a better strength-to-weight ratio than steel. This allows manufacturers to manipulate tube shapes more than is possible with steel, resulting in remarkably lightweight and strong bicycles that still have great ride qualities both regarding efficiency and comfort.

Steel has a high strength and durability rating, and its properties generally yield a very comfortable riding bike. Of three materials listed here, it’s also the heaviest, which is why you don’t find as many mountain bikes made from steel today.

While there are nearly endless ways a mountain bike could be configured and setup in terms of the parts you find on a frame, the good news is that manufacturers put a lot of thought into what components work for different riding styles and bikes.

Regarding gears, today you’ll likely find 12, 11, 10, or 9-speed cassettes (the gears on the rear wheel) and one or two chainrings. Though there might seem like a dizzying number of setups available, bikes will come with gearing setup to match the style of riding the bike is designed for.

As you move up in levels of components and wheels, you’ll see a common theme – lower weight and higher performance. Regarding shifting, this will mean faster, crisper shifts. At the top end, you’ll even move from mechanical to electronic shifting, which offers the pinnacle of performance. Top end bikes will feature carbon rims that are incredibly strong but also remarkably light.

Almost all mountain bikes today have disc brakes. Disc brakes have some big advantages. First, and most importantly, they offer better and more controlled stopping ability in a variety of conditions. So, whether the trail is dry and dusty, wet and muddy, or covered in snow, you’ll have the braking performance you need. They also allow the rider to apply braking power more accurately, which means you’re less likely to apply too much power and skid, losing traction, control, and braking performance. A final advantage is that disc brakes allow for wider tire and rim options. Without disc brakes, we probably wouldn’t have fat bikes or other wide tire options.

Disc brakes come in two variations; hydraulic and mechanical. This refers to what converts your pull of the brake lever to moving the brake pads. Hydraulic brakes use a fluid between the lever and pads. They have a very smooth, precise motion and are less susceptible to the elements as they’re a closed system. Mechanical disc brakes use a cable, much like a traditional rim brake, and are less expensive than a hydraulic setup.

Wheel sizes. Where to begin? First, let’s clear up some confusion. The name of the wheel size isn’t actually the size of the wheel (stick with us). The wheel size name is instead an approximate measurement of the diameter of the tire, not the wheel. This started with the original 26” mountain bike wheel size and has stuck with us since. Now, on to the actual sizes.

26 Inch: It wasn’t long ago that mountain bikes came with one wheel size, which was the 26” wheel. A 26” wheel refers to the approximate outside diameter of the tire. This wheel size is still available but is far less common now. It is, however, the standard wheel size for fat bikes.

27.5 (AKA 650b): Situated between the 26” and 29er size is the 27.5” wheel. This wheel has an approximate 27.5” diameter when measured to the outside of the tire. This size has become popular because it rolls over terrain better than a 26” but provides more maneuverability and faster acceleration than a 29er. The 27.5” wheel size is now found on all types of mountain bikes for nearly all kinds of riding.

27.5+: A 27.5+ wheel also has an approximate tire diameter of 27.5” and has similar handling to the 27.5” wheel. The ‘+’ refers to the width. These tires are typically 2.6” inches wide or more. The increased tire volume means that the tire can be run at a lower pressure. This provides for incredible traction for all sorts of technical terrain and obstacles. The high volume and lower pressure also give the rider a more comfortable ride as the tire can absorb all sorts of impacts.

29er: 29er is the common name for the 29” wheel. This wheel size is excellent for rolling over obstacles, and it holds its speed very well, making it very popular on cross country bikes.

Most cyclists associate bike fitting with road or triathlon bikes, but mountain bikes, with their technical suspension systems, dropper posts, and competing demands of efficient climbing and plush descending can benefit as just as much if not more from the fit process. No matter how great a bike is, if it doesn’t fit you well you’ll never get the most out of it, or you.

At ERIK’S we offer Mountain Bike Fitting. Our professionally trainer fitters help you get more comfortable and efficient on the bike. To start, we learn about your riding style. Then we adjust your bike to meet the needs of your body and how you ride. You can read more about a Mountain Bike Fit here.