taking up mountain biking

[cantthinkofone]

Well i sold my race bike (atv) a few weeks ago. Was to expensive for me to continue doing It's a the greatest adrenaline rush i have ever had that was legal.

But i'm not leaving the woods. The guys i raced with bought mountain bikes a while back and have been ridding them more than their atvs to try to cut down on maintenance costs from breaking stuff while practicing, and to improve their stamina.

Now the bug has fully hit me and i've started looking at bikes. I plan on getting a trek 3700. Its in my price range and seems to be a good beginner bike with room to improve it if i want too.

I'm still stuck with the mental perception if you will that i have with ATVs. I had aftermarket suspension that was setup for my weight and my riding style, had a higher compression piston, more aggressive cam, exhaust, etc etc.

So now I'm trying to apply those things to my future bike

What if anything, should i look into getting after i have put some seat time on it?

 

[juanster]

after you put some seat time on it you will see what it is that you want. couple of thing i want to point out... how much do you weight if you don't mind me asking.. what size of 3700 are you getting...huge rule of thumb with mountain bikes it's always spend the most you can on your frame, everything else can be upgraded or replaced when broken. If you are a very heavy guy or put your bike thru a lot then for sure you will ahve to upgrade your wheels at some point. The pedals that the 3700 comes witha ren't the greatest but they will do their job, you'll probably upgrade those if you get into some serious drops... same with cranks...

my point is, the 3700 is a prefctly fine bike to start out your love for mountain biking, if you really get into it and with some more experience you will probably get a better frame and use all the upgraded accesories you will ahve collected by then, the one you are buying? hydraulic or cable brakes? what fork are you getting,,, see belive me mountain biking will be as customizable as atvs i think...
after a couple of good trips and track you will know what you want from your bike, and then you can ask what to get to get what it is that you want.

I've never riden the 3700 myself ut i read soem review complaining about the gear components, no biggy tho everyone thinks teh frame is very solid, so tahst very good... also all the review i read were for th 07 one maybe for the 08 they may have uppep dthe gears on it..

 

[Gray-Wolf]

I second the weight issue, I'm 280, and lots of bikes don't like that much weight, especially on the peddles.

 

[cantthinkofone]

I weight about 160-165.

Peddles are defiantly my first upgrade. From what i head the local bike shop will upgrade them for free if you ask.

I don't think i need disk breaks, the regular breaks stop fast enough for my liking.

 

[beige matchbox]

One thing i'll say about rim brakes, they do tend to jam up if you like the mud

Disk brakes don't tend to suffer from the same issue


Heres a pic i took with my front wheel completely jammed up, thats with 1.95 tyres too, with my chunky winter rubber on I don't think I'd have made it to the next paved road

 

[juanster]

with peddles do we all mean pedals?
lol i think so,, yeah you can probably get an upgrade for not much of a difference.