Mountain biking advice
Hey all, I'm an avid skier and enjoy outdoor sports for fitness more than working out in a gym or running.
I'm considering getting into mountain/trail biking this year, but have some questions, so I'm hoping someone on Tildes has experience and can help me out.
First question: How common are injuries when mountain biking? I don't intend to do anything highly technical, mostly looking to do more casual trail riding for fun and fitness. When looking around on the internet some websites (blogs, reddit, YT, etc) make it seem like a serious injury is unavoidable if you bike often enough, but others say injuries beyond cuts and scrapes are pretty rare. In my experience with skiing, as long as you ski within your limits you're pretty unlikely to get seriously hurt, is the same true for mtb?
Second question: I'd like to be able to ride my bike on pavement as well, for rides with my family, exercise during work break, etc - is a "Trail" bike suitable for this?
ex: Specialized Rockhopper https://www.specialized.com/us/en/rockhopper
I did xc biking for few years with some buddies. It was great to go with others because they will push you to go farther and give you tips. Basic trail riding - like you said - is like skiing and if you don't go crazy and stay within your limits the worst you'll get is some scrapes and bruises. I was doing mild jumps and eventually some crazier stuff. I bought cheap armor off aliexpress, nothing special but once I did a steep drop and ended up hitting a tree at a high speed and all I got was a bad bruise for awhile. It's great fun. If you're not entirely sure yet about getting into it - I'd recommend getting an xc bike instead of a full downhill model as they're usually better for going up and downhill and are great to ride in town as well. I'd also recommend checking out the pinkbike website for your area and see if anyone is selling a decent bike in your area. Many people are deep into the sport and HAVE to have the latest gear, while you just want to get started or dip your toes into the sport. A slightly older model will be fine and will be heavily discounted as most people don't want to buy older models. Have fun and stay within your limits (one of my buddies busted his arm but he did crazy stuff and would always push himself past his limits).
This is a great comment, thank you!
This aligns with what i was hoping to hear, I was looking at the rockhopper which i think is considered both a "trail" bike and XC bike, so I may go that direction.
Injuries can happen, but it also really depends on the sort of trails you are riding, how well you are protected and the risks you are taking. Obviously a trail with a lot of rocks and such has a higher risk of you getting hurt when you fall.
I have seen injuries mostly from two groups of people. Beginners who want to go too fast and too technical too soon and fanatics who just take things to the edge and often slightly over it. Since you are an outdoor person you are slightly at risk, in my mind anyway, to be the former. My advice there is to really realize you are starting fresh and also just do a deep dive on things like YouTube about techniques, etc. There are a ton of good channels out there who go over a lot of the basics. Then at first go for the easier trails and even flat ground (parking lots) to just focus on techniques and understanding some limitations of the bike you are on. Certainly going down hill you want to make sure you are properly balancing on the bike and all that.
Having said that, an accident can happen when you least expect it. When I first started out we were on a flat bit of a trail in what was effectively a meadow with some brushes. Trying to avoid a hole in the trail I went off it by a bit, only to discover that under the grass there was another hole followed by a thick root. The way I discovered that was by getting launched over my handle bars performing involuntary acrobatics landing on my back.
We weren't going at that high of a speed, and I was fine (the bike as well).
Yes, but also no. A mountain bike has more resistance on pavement compared to bikes intended for them. Simply because the fatter tires at a relatively low pressure. They position you are in also isn't that comfortable compared to road bikes.
They also do require a lot more maintaining compared to regular road bikes. Certainly when you compare them to bikes with enclosed chains. Simply because you need to clean your chain and oil it on a very regular basis, certainly in wet conditions.
So yes, you can use them on pavement just know they are not ideal for that.
Not the case in my experience. My trail bike is way more comfortable than my road bike.
When I say "road bike" I mean a few wisps of carbon and aluminium on super skinny, high pressure tyres. I don't mean a Dutch style or commuter/hybrid bike. I don't ride drop bars because of a wrist issue but road bikes generally do have them.
If a trail bike isn't comfortable you might have a frame which doesn't fit, or isn't set up right. Road bikes tend to be less comfortable by design, in order to push you into a more aerodynamic position. Aero effects make a massive difference at higher speeds - something like 90% of your energy above 25mph is overcoming aerodynamic resistance!
My trail bike is certainly a bit slower around town, but that's not a big issue for me. It's more agile, which I find more useful/safer than raw speed most of the time. If I'm doing much on-road/cyclepath riding I just stick a bit more air in the tyres and that's plenty good enough. Also I don't need it to be fast when I'm riding with my family. The six year old is a heck of a good bike rider but we're not hitting 30mph on the roads (yet!).
99% of the time when I'm riding around town or out with the family I will grab my trail bike from the shed. Very rarely does the road bike come out unless I'm going on a "proper" ride out into the country to do serious distance.
Again, opposite experience here. My road bike is much twitchier, mechanically. The brakes on my trail bike take marginally more effort because hydraulics are slightly more involved than cable brakes, but having one fewer derailleurs to worry about simplifies the drivetrain a great deal. The more robust parts on my trail bike are considerably happier being muddy and dirty between washes, and modern lubricants really do limit the amount of "oil" needed (I haven't used actual oil on any of my bikes for a long, long time - apart from in the brake system).
In the winter I don't enjoy washing my bike so it mostly doesn't get cleaned until the weather improves and it manages just fine with daily riding in all conditions. I don't think my trail bike has been washed or particularly maintained since October and it's pretty grubby but mechanically it's still running nice and silent and smooth. Really need to get that job done soon though, it's nearly time to start doing some proper off-road riding again!
To be clear, I was talking about a Dutch style bike ;) Or more generally a bike for daily use and errant as I read the question in that context.
Compared to those, a mountain bike is less comfortable to ride and takes more effort as well given the tire width and inflation level. As far as maintaining goes, by oil I was also meaning lubrication in general. I find I can put it off for a little while but not the entire winter if I am riding as my bike will not keep running silent. This might depend a lot on the terrain, specifically the material under the soil itself. Here in the woods under it you will mostly find sand, so on trails that is what you get a lot of in your chain. I can imagine that in places where the underground is more rock or possibly clay the wear is less as there is less sand involved.
I possibly could have worded things slightly better, but I think we are more in agreement than you might think :)
I had a beach cruiser for a while, which is basically a Dutch bike with extra curves and while it was certainly extremely comfortable, it was relatively slow due to limited gearing (although hub gears are ROCK solid), didn't like to turn and took quite a lot of effort because it was quite heavy compared to something optimised for a little more sportiness. You also couldn't really bunny hop up and down kerbs or take shortcuts through bumpy fields, so in the end I sold it.
Trail bikes are at almost the ideal position between comfort, speed and agility for urban/family riding, at least for me. My wife has a hybrid/commuter bike and she will pick up her trail bike almost every time for urban riding too. But of course everyone's needs/preferences are different, and it's great there are so many options.
I used to call Dutch bikes "granny bikes" ;-) although these days most of the grannies near me ride e-bikes these days and leave me in the dust!
At the edge, there’s more injuries in mtb, but less critical than skiing at the edge. Away from the edge it’s scrapes and bruises.
If you are mechanically inclined @astrospud s purchase advice is sound, but you might benefit even so from buying your first bike at a good shop.
If you’re putting more than a few miles on either, it’s worth having a dedicated mtb and town bike.
(Coming back after writing up the comment, this got long. There is a lot of info here, much of it might not be helpful to you. Take what you want and feel free to ask anything you might want to know. I love talking about mountain biking, which may be annoying here :)
There is a lot of good advice on here already but I'll weigh in with some of my own. First off, riding to get injured is a choice not an imperative. But that said, you can absolutely find it if you go looking. I've broken my hand riding. Friends have broken their backs, collar bones, shoulders, etc... But for the most part all those things happened when folks were pushing the envelope. As one of our friends in his early 40s who broke his back riding 5 years ago says "I keep it semi-rad these days. The goal is to keep the rubber side down." Like skiing if you push it too hard, or go off things you have no business dropping, you're inbound for an injury. Ride smart, keep off the big jumps, keep an eye on trail conditions and you'll be fine. And you can absolutely ride on pavement, it just won't be a quick due to your knobbies.
As to what equipment you'll need, it depends on a bunch of factors:
Terrain Access
Terrain access will probably dictate more than anything else. Do you even have access to gnarly downhill trails. If so, are they mostly flow track or more technical terrain like rock gardens. Variations in terrain can cause you to be under or overbiked, making it more or less enjoyable to ride. The plus to mountain biking is that there should be some amount of difficultly in what you're riding, so going with a full squish bike on a really mellow trail won't feel very exciting. At the same time, a rigid or front suspension bike on a gnarly rock garden might send you over the bars or just make your butt pucker so hard you never want to bike again. So also not ideal. Finding the middle ground where you feel comfortable and exhilarated is key. This is helpful info for us to provide insight on equipment.
Current Comfort
So off the back of that, how comfortable are you riding now? Are you comfortable on single track? Are you more likely to be excited about fire roads? Are you looking for technical features like rock gardens or drops? This will dictate a lot of what you ride and as a result, what you should buy. If it's for fitness on pretty mellow trails then there is no need for excessive suspension. Hell you could probably get away with a cost effective gravel bike on most trails. I ride my rigid, steel Surly on most of our local trails when I want a bit excitement in my life and burn in my legs.
Future Riding
This bike should fit what you currently do, and at least a bit of where you hope to go. So if you're hoping to get a little bit more wild and out maybe consider starting a little overbiked. It might be a good idea to go to a local bike shop and see if you can rent a few bikes and put their cost towards buying a bike. Most good shops will let you do this. If not, it might be a good idea to bite the bullet and rent anyway. See if you can pick out 2 or 3 really different bikes and ride them throughout one day for the price of one rental. Again they might let you do this, particularly if you're going to buy from them. Bike people will want you to do happy and comfortable on your bike.
Alternative Activities
One of the rapidly expanding activities is bike packing - backpacking on your bike. I'm a long time bike tourer, so bikepacking was a natural expansion when I got introduced to it. It is so freaking fun! There are expansive trail networks, a vast collection of gear, and more confounding consideration when you're thinking about equipment. Right now I use my old rigid, steel Surly Disc Trucker. But for some of the trips we're planning this summer it might not cut the mustard. I'm looking at a new bike for it, and am between the Salsa Timberjack and the Surly Karate Monkey or Krampus. I'm a disciple of the Surly Gang, so they hold a special place in my heart.
Buying Bikes
We're at a weird time in the industry. Covid saw incredible spike in prices, used bikes were going for more than their initial new price, new bikes skyrocketed, the industry decided it was a goldrush and many of the big players overbet and ended up going out of business. We're now in the reformation and restabilizing stage. It means that bikes are still a bit more expensive than they should be, but that there are some screaming deals if you can find them.
The bottom line is you can ride on almost anything, all the other consideration are just to make the ride more enjoyable. If you have some capacity with balance and don't push too hard you shouldn't get injured. There are usually folks in the area you can connect with my helping out on trail maintenance days. I'm so stoked you're getting after it!
Edit: Also adding the outdoor gear lab budget MTB recommendations (I'm a big endorser of their reviews). Also, outside of the naming coincidence, I really like the Trek Roscoe series for budget hardtails. My first quality moutain bike was a 10 year old, hand-me-down 1993 M2 Specialized Stumpjumper and it still rips today (I build it back up for my dad). Just to say Specialized does make a great bike. But If given the choice between a Rockhopper and a Roscoe, I'd take the Roscoe.
Lots of useful opinions in here already, as is typical on Tildes. I'll try to keep my input short.
Injuries
You're on a bicycle, you can fall off. It can hurt. You can break stuff. The more aware you are of what you're doing and what your boundaries are, the less likely you are to hurt yourself. For reference, I prefer falling off on trails to falling off on the street. Concrete always hurts, but dirt can be quite soft!
In my experience, whilst the worst injuries happen when you're pushing boundaries, it's far more frequent to have a small off caused by loss of attention.
I can't/won't tell you that you won't hurt yourself, but it is in your hands...
Road use
All bikes are a compromise, pick the best compromise for your situation... Or buy more than one! I should probably add a warning here that cycling can become obsessive, and there's a healthy chance that you will end up with more bicycles than you ever thought any sane human would ever need.
I can not overstate this!
You can go downhilling on a TT bike. It will suck. It will be worse than a proper DH bike, by a huge margin, but you can do it. Similarly, you could take a monster DH beast and do a TT on it. You will come last, and you'll use at least 200% more energy than someone on a TT bike, but you can do it.
If you want light trail use, don't buy a bike with rear suspension. It adds weight, and you won't need it. Consider whether you want front suspension. It's not required for light trail use, and will only really make itself known when speeds/complexity increases.
When you're on the road, even if you can lock the shocks out, you're still carrying that extra weight. If you can't lock out, you're spending energy pushing the shocks instead of going down the road... Which might be fine, that's up to you!
Comfort & agility
Maintenance
Do not buy crap from large retailers or online stores. The bikes are made to a budget and are much more likely to break. There are exceptions to this, but they're few and far between... And often end up becoming reputable manufacturers of budget line bikes!
Assuming you have purchased a half-decent ride from a reputable manufacturer, maintenance is required. And the types of maintenance are broadly similar unless you have something from the ends of the spectrum.
Road bikes are tough! Even fancypants carbon race bikes can cope with the abuse of a TdF or a Criterium. Have you seen the cobbled sections? over 100 riders doing 40+KPH along a cobbled road that's shaking them to bits?
Rockhopper
I don't know how they did it, but whoever was in Specialized's marketing department who managed it deserves a raise. Every time I see these discussions, the person looking has decided to base their opening request on a Rockhopper. Now don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the Rockhopper. It's an excellent middle of the road bicycle... But it's also the type of bicycle that you will upgrade from, and it's not good enough to really upgrade if you get serious.
This leads me on to generic buying advice for bicycles for all walks of life:
Generic buying advice
Once you've decided on a manufacturer, buy the most expensive frame you can afford with the shittest components to get within your budget. Using Specialized as examples, if you are looking at a Rockhopper Comp for $900, can you stretch to a Chisel HT for $100 more?
The components will be worse, but the frame will be much more capable, and will likely last you much longer as it will give you a good sound base for upgrades.
If you don't know fit, buy from a shop with experts on hand. Talk to them. A lot. Make friends with them. Drink coffee with them. Learn from them. They have a wealth of experience to assist you in your purchasing process and will want you to leave with the perfect bike for you! Arguably, even if you do know fit, do the same. Support local businesses!
Final suggestion for @OP
I know you are looking at a MTB, but for your usage I would suggest a gravel bike. They're amazing for trails, and much, much, much better on road than even a rigid MTB. They're tough, capable, and really fun to ride!
Specialized do several including:
Diverge E5 - White
And my final recommendation is - Do it! Getting out on a bicycle makes you feel like an 8 year old again. Feel free to ignore all the advice above and buy a pink shopping bike with ribbons coming out of the bar grips if you like, just get out and ride!
Hey, thanks for the amazing comment! I'll keep a lot of this in mind.
I did go to my local bike shop yesterday to test ride a few bikes and ended up buying a rockhopper, primarily because it was 20% off and it was what the shop guys recommended.
I think i'm glad I did though, rode a few miles on it yesterday and really like the feel of the shocks. If I ride enough this year I'll probably end up buying a second bike in the future anyways
May your choice lead you to childlike glee (and the long and windy road towards having more bicycles than you know what to do with)!
A lot of good, much more experienced advice here already. I only mountain biked two season before deciding that the risk/reward wasn't aligned with my own priorities. That isn't to say I think it is particularly dangerous, but there are other physical hobbies that are more important to me.
Did you grow up skiing or pick it up as a young adult or older? If the latter, then you will be well equipped to learning how to mountain bike safely. In the case of the former, just take it easy with flatter stuff and be willing to walk the bike around technical sections.
I think it's more a when and how bad than an if. Take precautions against the how bad and like with skiing learn to bail out safely and early.
If you live near a specialized experience center, you can rent any of their bikes for the day. I rented a couple of e-mtb's, fell in love, fell off the bike in the most embarrassing manner possible, and was hooked. I haven't fallen since, but I always wear a full face & gloves just in case.
The biggest thing to figure out is what you will ride. If you want to go over rough and bumpy trails, and if you have the cash, you might want full suspension. If you want the full suspension, and if you have the cash, you might want a stump jumper. If you want a stump jumper, why not just buy the Turbo Levo? I don't know, could be a slippery slope.
You aren't going to be able to ride trails when it is wet and muddy, but there are plenty of other places to ride if you enjoy it.
Like others have suggested, its as risky as you want it to be. When I was a kid we would ride on trails near my house that were sort of like general purpose walking and biking trails. I've only gone mountain biking a few times of the last bunch of years and I just stick to those kinds of chill trails. If I encounter anything iffy I just walk it. If thats the kind of thing you're doing then injuries should remain minor.
I feel like everyone I know that was seriously or critically injured while mtb-ing was doing it on dedicated mountain bike trails. Also I feel like with mountain biking people have a habbit of going out in a group and doing dumber things than they would normally do leading to serious injury. I feel like skiing didn't really have that same dynamic, or just way less of it.
Progression is important. There are rating systems like skiing, start with greens and work your way up.
There is a sliding scale in the mountain bike world, from gravel bike which are basically road bikes with slightly beefier components, all the way to dedicated downhill bikes which are intended for taking a chairlift up and riding downhill, heavy bikes with super squishy suspensions, huge knobby tires. For family rides you could absolutely ride even a downhill bike on pavement, although that's not really what they're meant for. I have an enduro bike (basically one step below a full downhill bike), and I use it regularly for bar crawls, riding around the campground, cruises on the bike path around the lake, etc. If you want the most general purpose bike possible, start with a middle of the road XC bike, like a Trek Fuel EX, and figure out what you like from there. Get a used one, or a new in box version of last year's model to save some money. The Rockhopper is also a great bike, but depending on where you live you might want a soft tail. I had a Stumpjumper, which was a great hard tail for riding flowy Midwest trails, but when I moved to Colorado I destroyed it on the rocky steep stuff out here, had to switch to a soft tail.