The advice being given, although the point may not necessarily be being made too clearly is that a better bike will give you more room to develop your skills and confidence. A cheap bike, while it will get you going, will fairly quickly begin to reveal limitations in its components, which in turn will hold you back from trying to push your skills further. A better bike is designed to do more demanding stuff, so you do not need to worry so much if the bike will handle it. Therefore you can put more thought into developing your skills.Brotality wrote:It is very good advice and I've learned far more that what I would've imagined here. What I think the problem is, the difference in our points of view. I Imagine that you see mountain biking as going through a very rough terrain with pumps and challenges, but for us as beginners we wouldn't dream of tackling such terrain, if its not because of our lack of confidence in our bikes, it would be because the lack of confidence in our skills. Building our skills and understanding the bike capabilities is what I mean by first steps.mitzikatzi wrote:Not sure what you mean by this.Brotality wrote:..snip...
What I feel from everyone's responses here, that they are so far up the ladder they can't quite see the first steps.(or is it just me?)
..snip...
I don't make the rules. Mountain bikes are expensive.
If you want a bike that will handle the rigors of off road riding and handle well you need to spend closer to $1000. New riders/ first time posters often don't like this advice.
Many only want to spend $500 on a bike to do everything well. $500 buys a nice fork or set of wheels.
I think as new forum members you have both been given good advice.
I hope this makes it a bit clear, my apologies if it sounded offensive in anyway.
cheers.
FWIW, my first MTB was a $2000 duallie (I'm not by any means saying you have to spend that much though!), and I was previously a dedicated roadie. That bike gave me plenty of room to grow as a rider, and handled everything I was willing to throw myself at without complaint. That capability instilled an enormous amount of confidence to push myself further.