I've had a mountain bike for a month now and I think I've found another addiction. Missed a week of riding because I was given a work truck while the guy was on holidays. But back at it again and loving it!!! It think I should change my name to shehatesmyhobbiestoo!!!! Already looking at upgrades to my month old bike and all sorts of tools stands and manuals. Found out that there is a mechanic school in Ontario that looks fantastic, but can't seem to find one near me. Good thing the fella in town that is huge on bikes told me to ride my bike till stuff breaks before upgrading, cause this could get really pricey fast. :wee:

I hear ya Shaggs. Mountain Biking was my primary outdoor pastime until I moved and have less access to awesome riding trails. You got some excellent advice. I'll just add one extra consideration: ride hard, ride until components break, and then check out:

www.pricepoint.com
If my linky no worky then just cut and paste it into your browser.

Sorry if I'm adding fuel to the fire. :roll:

Good advice from your friend there. The most important part of the bike is the frame, everything else can be upgraded.

Psyched that you're getting out and are hooked on riding. I was my main occupation before kiting and now it's my mian occupation during the snowkite "off season' =)

Here's a shot from some Drift footage of some of the high alpine riding we have here. Sure it's only 4000' in elevation but when you start at near sea level it makes for a #@%$#! of a climb. :wee:

An hour of hiking with the bike on your back but then you get 4 hrs. of ridgeline riding to glades to technical single track. Totally worth the pay off.

Yeah its gonna be a fun experience learning the ins and outs of biking. Really gotta build my legs that's for sure. My ride to work started out at 23mins at first, but yesterday did it in 17minutes. A real good way to wake up before work. A lot of fun but can't wait to get out to the local ski hill and play around. Knocked my rear wheel out of true though, so going to get help tomorrow fixing that. While its on the stand gonna see if he can help me tune the gears a bit as they are a bit out too. Its a whole different world the more and more I read into everything. The toy closet is about to become a shed with everything I'm looking to slowly get. :bouncy:

A year or 2 from now if you stick with it, you will put the wheel on your own truing stand and not blink an eye at spinning the spoke wrench to straighten things up. Rear derailleurs are just black magic though!:puzzled::shocked2:

you poor man, literally...if not poor now, in a little while with kiting *and* biking. ;-)

I gotta take it one tax return at a time I guess

It's awesome how fast your fitness level come in on a bike. It helps that its fun to do so it doesn't seem so much like work. Minor truing of wheels (within 1mm or so) is pretty easy with practice. The key to a strong wheel is maintaining even spoke tension and stressing and destressing the wheel a few times when it's first built. I've got DH wheels that I laced 12yrs ago that are still going strong. Wheels are amazing when you think about what they do.In fact the wheels on the bike in the still shot are a set that I built 8yrs ago and rode Lift access DH on for 5 yrs 3 days a week. Man, I wish my bikes would last as long as my wheels!

Dialing in shifting can be a black art. But by and large most shifting issues come down to two culprits, cable tension or cable contamination. Tension issues are usaually because the cable is slack. With the new bike cables will bed in and need to be adjusted after a while. (I usually tell people to come back in 30days) Once it's retensioned it's good for a long time. You can tell if the cable is slack when you have to double shift to get to an easier gear or if you shift all the way to you hardest in the back and there's play in the cable itself. If the cable is contaminated it will likely be slow to shift to the harder gears. So she'll shift to easier pedalling with a little effort but when you shift to the harder gears it delays or you have to double shift down.

The hardest part of mountain bikeing is finding the good trails. There are soooooo many trails in the world!

Here's a short video segment of the ride the on the ridge. One of my favorite trails ever and one of the least ridden. Maybe 10 people in the world have had a bike up there. I love how pumpy the trail is and all the little droppy bits and things to ping off of.:wee:

http://youtu.be/IbeZM1YJh44

I gotta get on my computer to see that video my phone won't let me see it. It is amazing how fast he was able to get my wheel straight. Took it off put it on a stand, gave it a spin a then began adjusting spokes. He tweaked everything on the wheel then put it back on the bike all in maybe ten/fifteen minutes the whole time explaining what he was doing. Made a couple adjustments to the gears and off I was. Looked at Park Tools website and found a nice kit I'm gonna save for. At the same time I'll get a stand and wheel stand so I get it all at once. Gonna tag along one evening in the next couple weeks for a ride at the ski hill. He promises that you definitely pay for the ride down getting to the top. Can't wait!!

Before you know it you'll have a rack built to carry all your kiting gear, then you'll be able to pedal to your flying destinations

I already priced out a small trailer to tow behind for that and for camping.

Shaggs there is a wicked book out there I would recommend you look for it

Zen and the art of mountainbike maintainance

Has tweeking hints for most makes

There are other books that concentrate on handling hints but cannot remember the name.

www.pinkbike.com

I was a downhiller until I crashed and busted a collar bone and then found it was too hard to match pre accident pace then kiting took over.

great site for vids hints and for sale.