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MTB upgrades and components such as pedals, shoes, handlebars, tires, stem and wheel set can have a huge positive or negative effect on your riding! Choose the components and equipment for you, the conditions and your purpose that day. On a technically easy course like the 24 hours of old Pueblo a racer will be concerned more about rolling resistance than control so she runs a semi-slick tire front and rear. The same racer on a more technical course would likely run a knobbier tire that rolled a little slower but gave her more control. Some things to look out for: 1. Light weight components, light bars, light wheel sets, light tires, light cranks etc.. Our obsession with shaving weight off our bikes needs to end. Yes, given the exact same performance I would rather have a 22 pound bike than a 32 pound mountain bike but right now that doesn't exist.
Here's to the passionate ones! Those of you like Jackie and Dante Harmony who gladly live out of a van and occasional hotel room for half the year so you can challenge yourself and chase you dreams of World Cup glory. Whether you are a surfer chasing good swells around the world, a snowboarder living on ramen noodles and caffeine as you chase your dream of making the US Team, a climber living down by the river in your Subaru wagon so you can wake up and scale a tougher wall or a parent (also a lawyer/ and volunteer soccer coach) who still sleeps in a tent on non-soccer weekends so you can ride one more day in Moab you are a friend of mine. Life is so much better with passion and challenge than simply trying to get by. We (mountain bikers) are fortunate to have found something that we love so much that we will give up the “necessities” that so many people can’t do without to chase our passion. Next to spending quality time with my family and loved ones the happiest, most rewarding and most fun times of my life have been spent out there, often on the edge, not in front of a TV set.
A heart felt thank you! BetterRide has helped more riders reach their riding goals than I ever dreamed it would! It has been an amazing 13 years for me. I now help 14 other people earn a living as well as helping over 500 riders a year greatly improve their riding with our skills curriculum [...]
As I write this, it’s late November out there. For most of us, riding-wise, we’re in some version of the “off-season”. While there are many important things that we can be doing in the off-season to get us prepared to go-for-it when the new riding season ramps up (which I’ll go into in future articles), [...]
