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

Hey all. I just bought my first mountain bike. I don't know much about mountain biking but when I've taken a hybrid out onto logging trails it's been super fun so I'm sure I'll enjoy it. I have a few questions before I head out into the mountains:

1. What kind of mountain-biking specific gear do I need?
2. Where should I go as a beginner? Ideally somewhere with not too many hikers or other cyclists. I have plenty of stamina from my regular uphill cycling routine, but I don't want to get into intense steep riding and jumps right now.