Are you thinking about getting into mountain bikes? Or maybe considering upgrading your 1983 Nishiki Alien for something modern? Read on!

Tasting Dirt for the First Time
Riding off road is unlike anything you have done previously on a bike. If you're anything like us, you will come home dusty, tired, hungry, and maybe with a scrape on you knee. You will also realize you haven't had this much fun since you came home in the same condition when you were 9 years old.

Mountain bikes are a great escape. No giant SUV's with drivers text messaging, eating, spilling, and attempting to clean a Super Chalupa Supreme, yelling at kids in the back seat, and completely unable to see anything at all because their dog is on their lap. No honking. No gridlock. No Diesel exhaust. No email. No bosses. Well, technically for us, there might be a boss if Charlie goes on the ride, but I'm talking bad bosses, like Lumbergh in Office Space.

You'll be rewarded with things like great views, amazing trails inaccessible by any SUV, a sense of astonishment that you haven't had this much fun since grade school, and a strange desire to want to eat energy bars. When you ride to the West Point Inn on Mount Tam and stare off into the distance, at San Francisco high rises filled with high powered, rich people driving fancy cars and living in amazing homes, you won't envy them one bit. You will pity them for the simple fact that they will probably never see this view. Looking out your corner office window is one thing. Seeing that window as a tiny speck from high atop a mountain with just your bike and your buddies is an entirely different and much more enviable experience.

If you haven't figured it out by now, the crew at Solano Avenue Cyclery is not merely into mountain biking, we live it. Most of us here have been into mountain bikes for over 15 years (Charlie was at Mammoth DH kicking ass on a Panda back when a “full face” helmet was actually a hockey goalie mask). Many of us have raced everything from cross-country to downhill and slalom, anywhere from local races to the National Circuit. If we'd spent the time and money that went into bike related activities on classes at some computer programming school we'd be in one of those offices in an SF high rise making the big bucks. Good thing we went with bikes! Bikes worth more than the cars we drive? Check. Willing to drive for thousands of miles to experience one epic ride? Check. Willing to schedule weddings around rides instead of the other way around… No comment.

Gettin' Your “Fix”
None of us started as mountain bikers. There was no mountain bike when we learned to ride. But there was dirt, and that was all we needed to get hooked. Some people see an uneven sudden rise on the trail. We see a perfect place to catch some air. The whole mountain bike thing can really be what makes you tick. It's like a drug, but a healthy one. We see it all the time, somebody breaks a part on their bike and it's threatening to prevent them from riding for a few days. Irrational becomes rational, “I need new brake pads ($15) to ride tomorrow, but nobody has them in stock. Maybe I should just upgrade to better brakes ($400) instead of waiting a week until the pads are back in stock.” Just wait, you'll get there.

Out with the Old, In with the New
To those thinking of dusting off your old steed and having us “Soup it Up” with some modern parts, we have some news. Whether it's good or bad news depends really, since replacing an old bike may well cost more than fixing it, but a modern bike is much easier (lighter, better shifting), safer (better brakes, suspension), and more comfortable (better body positioning) to ride than an older one.

Bikes do not, as many people think, age like cars. They age like computers. So when you come to Solano Avenue Cyclery with a 20 year old bike, it's not like taking a 1987 Ford Taurus to Albany Ford. It's like taking a 1987 Macintosh to the Apple store to get worked on. See where we're going with this? That's not to say that we can't work on a 20 year old bike, we do it all the time, however, when parts are worn out, finding replacements is often impossible. Modern suspension forks won't fit older bikes, old SunTour components are not compatible with current Shimano components (and SunTour is dead and gone), and your worn out Shimano BioPace chainrings have long been shelved in favor of round rings. If you need tires and a tune up, great. Beyond that and we can probably sell you an entire modern mountain bike for a hundred bucks more. “But my bike cost $1,000 back then, you're saying you can replace it with something better for $350?” I'll just say this: The 1984 Macintosh 128K had an MSRP of almost $2,500 and you can buy a 2006 iMac for half that.

Get Yer'self a New Ride!
So you decided that a new mountain bike is just what the doctor ordered. We can help. First of all you'll hear the word “Groupo” a lot. A groupo is generally the term used to describe the parts on the bike, mostly the drivetrain and braking components. There are a number of groupo's from both Shimano and SRAM ranging from 7- to 9-speeds. Going from top to bottom, they are:

XTR (Shimano): 90% as good as X0 at 65% the cost. .
XT (Shimano):The best bang-for-the-buck groupo. 80% as good as X0 at 40% the cost. .
X9 (SRAM): Very close to XT performance. For 2007 look for a new X9 to dethrone XT. 85% as good as X0 at 35% the cost. .
LX (Shimano): 60% as good as X0 at 25% the cost. .
X7 (SRAM): 55% as good as X0 at 20% the cost. .
Deore (Shimano): 50% as good as X0 at 17% the cost. .
SX-5 (SRAM): 35% as good as X0 at 15% the cost. .
Alivio (Shimano): 25% as good as X0 at 12% the cost. .
SX-4 (SRAM): 25% as good as X0 at 10% the cost. .
Everything else: Anything that is not listed above is going to be on bikes that looks like a mountain bike, but are not built to handle the rigors of actual off-road riding beyond the occasional trip to the park. X0 (SRAM): The new benchmark. Looks phenomenal, machined aluminum and carbon. High dollar, incredibly precise and smooth. If money were no object, everyone would ride X0.

Suspension Forks & Shocks
There are quite a few different manufacturers of suspension forks and rear shocks out there. We here are Solano Avenue Cyclery, like many in the bike world, like products by Fox Racing out of Watsonville the best. Very high quality, American made forks. There are three other major players in the world of suspension forks. They are, RockShox, Answer (Manitou), and Marzocchi. RockShox has recently done some serious revisions to most of their line-up, and now make a very nice product. Answer has fallen off a bit in the last year or two and now sees much less OE (original equipment - the parts that come stock on a bike) spec on bikes, mostly having been replaced by RockShox. Marzocchi has long been known for making excellent product, but mostly for longer travel bikes. A huge number of Freeride and Downhill bikes come with Marzocchi forks. In terms of rear shocks, Fox takes top spot on the podium again, with a little spec going to Answer, RockShox, Progressive Racing, and lots of no-name generic shocks.

Types-O-Bikes

Hardtails
The word hardtail refers to a bike with no rear suspension. The only real reason to buy a hardtail these days is a limited budget or being a super-hardcore racer. The little weight penalty you pay for buying a full suspension bike is far outweighed by the increased ride quality, comfort, and descending and ascending ability.

Full Suspension
Currently if you want a full suspension bike that is performance based, you should be looking to spend around $2,000 and up. There are shed loads of bikes cheaper than that out there, but they're, well, cheaper. What does that mean? To build a proper bike that one can ride fairly hard without overstepping the ability of the parts, and one that will perform to what most would consider a good standard, the manufacturer has to sink some bucks into the components. Generally that means an XT or X9 drivetrain, Fox front and rear shocks, Mavic rims, Avid disc brakes, etc. If you spend less than that, you will end up with a bike that is okay, but by no means great. The magic number is usually between $2,000 - $4,000 with a pretty big diminishing rate of returns after that.

Bike Categories

Cross Country: Most hardtails. Full suspension bikes with four inches or less of travel. Three front chainrings. Not meant to get more than a few inches of air. Anywhere from 21 to 29 pounds.
All Mountain: Full suspension bikes with five to seven inches of travel. Two or three front chainrings. Meant to be ridden up and down the hills. Very capable of getting up to a couple feet of air. 28 to 36 pounds.
Freeride: Full suspension bikes designed with descending in mind, but can be pedaled up provided you are strong and the hill is short. One or two front chainrings. Get as much air as you like, and ride drops up to six feet high. 35 to 42 pounds.
Downhill: Full suspension bikes with one thing on their mind: A ski lift. Single front chainring with a chain guide designed to keep your chain on the ring under any condition. Necessary for rough downhill racing courses. Will handle all the air and any size drop you provide. 40 + pounds.
Dirt Jump: Hardtails. Usually single front chainring, or a single speed drivetrain. Sometimes just a rear brake. Basically BMX bikes with 26 inch wheels and usually a suspension fork. Catch as much air and any size drop you want. 28 + pounds.
Mountain Cross / Four Cross: Hardtail or 3- to 4-inches of rear suspension travel. Relaxed geometry, beefy gussets to handle high loads. Essentially highly modified cross country bikes meant to race on a downhill BMX style track against three other rides. 32 to 38 pounds.

What to Spend
General rule of thumb: Spend as much as you can (within reason) because your money goes a long way initially, versus if you decide to upgrade later. For example a $1,000 bike (Specialized Rockhopper Pro) comes with a nice frame, decent components and a pretty good fork. A $1,500 bike (Specialized Stumpjumper Disc) comes with a lighter frame, great components and arguably the nicest fork money can buy. The fork alone has an MSRP of about $550, so to upgrade the Rockhopper with only that fork would put you over the price of the Stumpjumper, but you would still have a heavier frame and lesser components.

The More You Ride, The More You Should Spend
Where do you fit in? Plan to spend accordingly.
1-2 rides/month @ 1 hour each = $350-$500
3-4 rides/month @ 1-2 hours each = $500-$1,000
4-6 rides/month @ 2-3 hours each = $1,000-$1,500
6-8 rides/month @ 2-3 hours each = $1,500-$2,000
8 + rides/month @ 3 + hours each = $2,000 +

Over-estimate how much you will ride because then you may end up with a bike that is a little better than what you need, which leaves room for you to grow as a rider. If you under-spend and end up with too little bike, you'll have to start over which is more costly.

Now Check Out Some Bikes!