All posts filed under: Round Up

The Best $1000 Hardtail Trail Bikes

Published by Matt Stenson

Hardtails are how most people get on the trails for the first time. Whether it is a $200 Walmart bike or a $2000 XC machine you can learn something and gain valuable skills on a hardtail. However, around the $1000 mark there seems to be a tipping point where you get quality components and geometry that you won’t want to immediately throw away after a year of riding. In this round-up, we’ll share our top best $1000 hardtail trail bikes. There are a couple of criteria that were used in building this list. First, we allowed a little bit of wiggle room on the MSRP price knowing that sales, dealer incentives etc would allow you to obtain any of these bikes for right around $1000. Second, if the manufacturer specced the bike with a coil shock they were disqualified. Low end coil shocks do not yield a capable trail bike that can be tailored to rider weight the way an air fork can. Finally, if the manufacturer specced the bike with a 2x or 3x …

6 Things To Do While Your Trails Dry Out

Published by Matt Stenson

This time of year can be frustrating for mountain bikers. Trails in many areas are muddy and going through freeze, thaw cycles that leave them unridable. All work and no play makes a mountain biker cranky, so here are some ideas on things to do while your trails dry out. Service Your Suspension This is an often neglected task that can greatly improve the performance of your bike and longevity of your suspension components. Doing a basic service on most shocks or forks is not an overly scary proposition. You’ll need a few tools, the right oil/lube, perhaps a basic service kit and YouTube to guide they way. I’ve picked up a basic service kit for my RockShox revelation fork  and I’ll be doing a service on the next rainy day in my neck of the woods. Work On Your Local Trails Spring time often reveals damage that winter’s harsh weather has done to trails. There are often trees to clear, dirt to move and drainage to fix. Garbage also tends to collect in the …

Best 2018 Mid Travel 29er Trail Bikes For Less than $3000

Published by Matt Stenson

The word is out. 29ers are no longer just for XC racing. 29ers have cemented a place in many bike makers lineups as do it all trail machines. These bike are extremely capable, able to tackle all day epic rides and hold their own in a bike park. The criteria we used to define “mid-travel” is  bikes featuring greater than 120mm of front suspension and trail oriented geometry. In this round-up we’ll be looking at some of the best value priced bikes in this category. While $3000 is still a ton of money we’ll try to cover an entire price range of bikes. I won’t be going into geometry specifics or linkage differences. With bikes in this range, you are getting a good linkage and good geometry with every bike and any differentiation is going to be nuanced personal preference. YT JEFFSY® 29 AL – $2,299 The YT Jeffsy packs quite a punch with a unique buildkit. You will find fox providing 140mm of suspension on the front and rear of this bike. Where things …

5 Tools and Workouts to Get in Your Off-Season MTB Training

Published by Matt Stenson

6 Minute Core Training For Mountain Biking This is one of my personal favorite workouts. One circuit is only 6 minutes and it does a great job of working multiple muscle groups without any equipment. Post-Ride Yoga For Mountain Bikers This yoga routine is a great way to increase your flexibility which is key to good riding and preventing injuries. Don’t be scared away by “yoga” there’s no crazy standing on your head or twisting into a pretzel in this quick 15 minute routine. Five Cornering Exercises These five exercises are designed to help you improve your balance and strength in cornering. Corning is obviously something you can’t work on indoors so try this workout instead. 45 Minute Indoor Trainer Workout Even if you don’t have a smart training, power meter or speed and cadence sensors you can still use a basic “dumb” trainer to get a good, structured workout without signing up for expensive spin classes. These free videos provide structured work around perceived effort, no fancy gadgets needed! Golden Cheetah If you have …

Mountain Bike Multi-Tools For Under $30

Published by Matt Stenson

Multitools are pretty essential in mountain biking. We mountain bikers beat up our bikes more than almost any other type of cyclists. Having a capable tool at the ready can easily mean the difference between a fun trailside repair and a very, very long walk home. Here’s our round-up of some quality multi-tools that can be had for less than $30. Crank Brothers M19 The Crank Brother’s M19 is a 19 function folding multitool that features almost every tool you could want for most trailside repairs. The m19 includes a chain tool, 7 hex wrenches, 8mm and 9mm open wrenches, 3 screwdrivers, 2 torx drivers and a selection of spoke wrenches. You will find that tire levers are missing from this list. If you carry separate tire levers in your flat kit though this tool may be the perfect fit for you. In addition it comes in a variety of colors to match your bike or kit. chain tool spoke wrench: #0, 1, 2, 3 hex wrenches: #2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 open wrench: …

2018 Specialized Chisel vs 2018 Trek Procaliber Alloy

Published by Matt Stenson

Both Trek and Specialized have recently released new budget minded XC race bikes. These bikes are hardtails than retail for under $2000 (with the exception of the Procaliber 8). All of these bikes would make a great choice as your first race bike. Today we’re going to take a look at the spec sheets and try to determine, on paper at least, which bike is the best value. Check out the table at the bottom to compare all of the specs for yourself! Analysis Both the Specialized and the Trek are 29ers in most sizes. The Trek does come with the option of 27.5 wheels in its smallest size. 29ers are the standard for XC racing today, so anything else would be unexpected. In regards to the frames themselves the Specialized features a D’Aluisio Smartweld M5 welded frame. While those welds may be fancy the Trek arguably has more tricks up it’s sleeve in regards to frame construction with its IsoSpeed decoupler that allows the seattube to rotate independently from the toptube.  This feature, borrowed …