Mountain Bikes for Sale

Mountain bikers often like to maintain and do repairs to their bikes themsleves.  Below is an alphabetic list of the parts that make up a mountain bike.

1.  Bottom bracket – This attaches the crankset to the body of a bike.

2.  Brake cable – This is the cable that connects the brake lever to the brake mechanism.

3.  Brake lever – The lever on the handlebar to activate the brakes.  The left side is the front brake and the right side is the rear brake.

4.  Chain – The circular set of links that transfer power from the chain ring to the cogs.

5.  Chain ring – The toothed rings that attach to the crank to hold the chain.

6.  Crank – The lever that extends from the bottom bracket to the pedal, transferring the power to the chain rings.

7.  Derailleur – The mechanism for moving the chain from one cog to another.

8.  Down tube – The section of frame that extends downward from the stem to the bottom bracket.

9.  Front shock – The shock absorber on the front fork.

10.  Handlebar – The horizontal bar attached to the stem with handgrips on the end.

11.  Headset – The mechanism in front of the frame that connects the front fork to the stem and handlebars.

12.  Hub – The center part of the wheel that the spokes are attached to.

13.  Idler pulley – The bottom pulley of the rear derailleur that provides spring tension to keep the chain tight.

14.  Nipple – A threaded receptacle that holds the end of the spoke to the rim.

15.  Pedal – The platform to pedal on; attaches to the crank.

16.  Rear shock – The shock absorber for the rear tire on dual suspension type bikes.

17.  Rim – The metal ring that holds the spokes on the inside and the tire to the outside.

18.  Saddle – The seat.

19.  Seat post – Offers support for the seat.

20.  Skewer – The metal rod that goes through the hub, attaching the wheel to the dropouts of the frame.

21.  Spindle – The free rotating axle that the crank arms attach to; also a part of the bottom bracket.

22.  Spokes – The thick wires that join the hub to the rim.

23.  Stem – A piece that attaches the handlebar to the steering tube.

24.  Wheel hub – The center of the wheel that the spokes are attached to.

Knowing the names of the parts will help when you need help from a bike shop.  You will be better able to explain the problem your having and what you need to fix it or replace.

There are numerous ways that you can improve your mountain bike safety.  Many riders will tell you that wearing a helmet is the most important step to staying safe.  The second most important step is that you should always ride in control of your mountain bike.

By riding in control you’ll not only prevent crashes, but keep others on the trail safe as well.  When riding out of control you loose the ability to adjust to the terrain as you ride over it.  This can and usually does result in serious injury to yourself and others.

Follow these helpful guidelines and you’ll remain safe when riding your mountain bike.

Gear
Always make sure that you wear a helmet and other necessary safety gear for the conditions that you
plan to ride in.

Never Ride Beyond Your Control
There is never any shame in walking the areas of the trail that you don’t feel comfortable in riding and you should never let anyone else tell you that there is.

Keep Your Speed Under Control
Always make sure you keep your speed at a level where you can quickly adjust to any obstacles or change in the trail.

Know Your Trail
You should never push the limits on trails that you aren’t familiar with.  You should take trails you aren’t familiar with at slow speeds until you learn them better.

Slow Down Around Blind Corners
If you can’t see past a corner you should always slow down, as you never know who or what is around it.

Start Small Then Go Big
Work your way up to stunts or obstacles.  Practice in less difficult or dangerous situations before you move up to something more dangerous.

Playing It Smart
If you start to question what your doing, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.  Always think about what you are doing and go with your instincts.

A mountain bike is a lot of fun although it does require some maintenance.  You should always lube your bike 15 hours or so before riding, as quick jobs right before you take off normally doesn’t get everything lubed.  Some lube jobs will last for more rides, although if things get loud or shifting gets sticky, it’s time to lube.

Here is how to lube your bike:

1.  The chain
Apply a generous amount of mountain bike lube to your chain as you move the pedals around backwards.  It also helps to find a spot to steady your hand such as the frame while you move the pedals around and around.  Make sure you watch out for the cranks and chain rings as they move around.

2.  Front Deraileur
On the front defaileur, lube the pivots.  Use a spot of lube everywhere you can see movement when you move the shift lever.

3.  Rear deraileur
Just like the front deraileur, lube the pivots.

4.  Pedals
There are some types of clipless pedals that will need to have the release mechanism lubed.  You should only lube this mechanism if you have this type of pedal.

5.  Everything into motion
Pedal around, shift your gears, and bounce your bike around.  If you hear anything squeak, there’s a moving part there are it should be lubed immediately.

6.  Wipe it all clean
Once you’ve lubed everything and wiped it all around, simply wipe it all back off.  Use a rag to wipe away all the lube you used, including all the lube off the chain.  Wiping it away will leave the lube in between the parts but clean it away from everywhere it isn’t needed.  This will keep your bike from collecting dirt while you ride.

This time of year, mountain bikers love the rain.A little midsummer moisture on the dry, dusty trails of Central Oregon is a welcome sight.A thunderstorm pounded the region on Monday, so on Tuesday, I secured my mountain bike to the car and drove south through Sunriver and west to Cultus Lake.

The Olympic women’s mountain bike race has been pushed back one day to Saturday because heavy rain created unsafe and unsatisfactory course conditions.

A radically changed Olympic mountain bike course with freshly-added banking, drops and rocks is set to test the technical skills of the best women mountain bikers in the world on Friday.

TIPTON — The fifth annual “Cruise the Blues” mountain bike festival is Aug. 30. The biking event, hosted by Palen Family Farms east of Tipton, is not just for performance racers, but the entire family.

Along with giving you a better selection and expert advice, bike shop personnel can you help you get fitted to the right size bike.  You can get the bike either too big or too small, which will cause your enjoyment to suffer.  Follow the tips below, and you’ll have the perfect fit for your mountain bike.

Standover Height
When you check the fitting yourself, the first thing you want to check is the inseam clearance, or the standover height.  You want to have plenty of room between yourself and the top tube when you come to a stop.  There should be around four to six inches of clearance from the top of your inseam to the top of the top tube.

Leg and Feet Position
There’s a formula for determining the leg position for riding a mountain bike.  When riding a mountain bike, the terrain constantly changes, raising you off the seat constantly, sometimes just slightly, and other times completely off.  Therefore, you’ll need to sit your saddle slightly lower than you would on any other type of bike.  Be sure you take this slightly lower seat height position into effect when you factor the size of the frame.

Riding Compartment
The next thing you’ll want to check is the rider compartment layout (the distance between the saddle and the handlebars).  Once the proper leg extension has been determined, be sure the handlebar is one to two inches below the height of the saddle.  You should never have the handlebars higher than the seat, unless there is some type of upper body problem.

Dual Suspension Bikes
With suspension being at both ends, you’ll want your weight more in the middle of the bike so that your height is distributed evenly between the front and rear suspension units, thus allowing the front and rear suspension to work as a unit.

This can be done quite easily by using either a higher or shorter stem to raise the hand height, which will in turn move the upper body up and the weight towards the rear.  The increase in rise shouldn’t be no more than two inches, then the decrease in reach shouldn’t be any more than two inches.

Test Ride
Once you have taken all of these steps into account, go out and test drive the bike.  Make sure you wear a helmet, even if you are going to be testing for a brief period of time.  Be sure that the tires are set to the right pressure, and the shop has adjusted the bike for you properly.

You should have a shop employee observe your body position and ride height while riding, to determine if any further adjustments need to be made.  Ride the bike around for a bit to get used to its handling and new equipment.  Start off slowly, then give the bike a bit of time to present its personality.

After a few minutes, you might notice that something isn’t working correctly or just doesn’t feel right in general.  If this happens, go back to the shop and have the problem corrected before you rule out the bike.

The more you ride bikes, the easier it will be to tell the difference in the ride types.  Keep in mind, it may take months and even years to appreciate the way a bike handles.  Talk to those who ride, and ask bike shop employees if they ride the bikes they sell.  This way, you’ll learn more about the mountain bikes you love so much!

Cross country mountain biking is cross country at its finest.  Where free riders and downhill bikers use four wheel bikes and ski lifts to get them to their destination, cross
country bikers get to the top of the mountain by the ride.  Though free riding is very popular, the life vein of the sport has always been cross country biking.

Just as cross country riders are a different breed, the bikes they ride are as well.  The cross country bike is completely different in many ways from other types of mountain
riding bikes.  The premise for cross country riders is speed.  Everything about their bikes revolve with the idea of making the bikes faster and faster.  Bikes used in cross
country mountain biking can be fully rigid frame, hardtails, or even full suspension frames.  Through the years, the cross over to full suspension has become very popular.

The weight difference between free ride bikes and cross country bikes are considerable.  You’ll be extremely hard pressed to find a bike that weighs more than 24 pounds, and
even that weight can be heavy.  Free ride bikes weigh close to 40 pounds, which makes the difference in weight pretty close.

If you’ve never tried cross country mountain biking, you’ll probably find it to be a break from the ordinary.  Even though this type of biking involves trails, it’s normally
the type of terrain that beginners wouldn’t want to ride.  Involving hills and rough terrain, cross country biking offers quite the rush.  For mountain bikers everywhere,
cross country is the way to go.  It offers you a new assortment of bikes, new areas to bike, and a new twist to mountain biking as you know it.  If you’ve been looking for a
mountain biking rush, cross country mountain biking is what you need to be experiencing.

As the name implies, downhill bikes are built to endure rugged downhill riding.  Riding takes place on steep, downhill terrain.   This results in high speed downhill rides and extended time in the air when you come to jumps and other obstacles.

The key to down hilling is relaxing your upper body.  The steeper and rockier the hill is, the more tightly the rider tends to put a death grip on the handle bars.  Most riders tend to slow down as they approach obstacles such as rocks, then apply both brakes.  If you don’t apply your brakes, the rock will stop your wheel.  This isn’t good, as the rock can throw you off balance and completely kill any type of momentum you have.

Relaxed riders won’t slow down as much.  The combination of extra momentum, no front braking at crucial moments will allow the wheel to bump over the rock and continue onward with little effort.  If you are going slow, it’s essential to release your brakes as much as possible when you approach an obstacle.  This may entail going a bit faster, although the result is much less painful.  On steep hills, going really slow will always make things much more difficult.

One exception to this is a very tight turn.  If a hop is out of the question, you’ll need to slow down to allow the smallest radius of turning circle.  This kind of thing takes practice, although track standing isa great way to improve on your balance.

Although down hill biking is one of the most extreme methods of mountain biking, it can also be one of the most dangerous.  If you’re new to mountain biking you shouldn’t start out with down hilling, as it takes a lot of practice.  With a bit of practice and knowing the right techniques, technical down hilling is something you’ll find fun.  It can provide quite a rush and a lot of excitement for those who seek adventure.