Welcome to the page dedicated to my first "real" mountain bike! This bike is my mountain bike, and I also have a road bike. I wanted to make this page so that I could maybe enlighten you on what I went through picking out a bicycle.
If you are at all like me, you probably have some interest in mountain biking, but don't really want to do anything insane (well, at least not yet anyway) and are looking for a bike that is great on the road and singletrack, but also decent doing easy to moderate rock hopping. That is what I was wanting going into bike stores. What I then found out was that to get a bike that could do all that cost more than I was willing to pay. But first let me take a moment and say, man, can these manufacturers make some EXCELLENT rides!
Since I'm a computer nerd, I kinda went about buying a bike like I go about buying computers. I don't buy the top-of-the-line, because you are going to definitely be paying for that, but you definitely don't want to be on the low end of things by having some outdated, unsupported bike. Usually, if you are new to computers, you should go with something right in the middle, and if you are a more advanced power user, and know exactly what areas you want turbo-charged, then you can purchase accordingly. So that's how I went about choosing this bike. I went in, found a decent bike, that had good components (or so the guy said anyway) and was moderately priced.
Trek 4900:
Here is a picture of my bike.
Ok, this bike is what one would call a hardtail, and it took me about 10 seconds for that to sink in before I realized that they called it that because it didn't have rear suspension (hence, the hard tail, because the front did have suspension). I didn't need a full-suspension mountain bike as I wasn't going to be jumping off any cliffs just yet, and I had no clue exactly how good a Shimano Deore was compared to a Shimano Alivio. So, I had to do a lot of trusting of the sales guy (Nick) to help me out in that area. He started going off on all the good features of the bike, and I had to stop him and ask him what were the negatives to the bike, and the better he told me about the negatives the more I would be interested in the bike. I must admit, he did a pretty good job bashing this bike. Of course, then again, Nick did ride around on a $2,000+ bike himself. :P
Frameset and Controls:
Frame: Alpha Aluminum. Oversized power tubes. New Bi-axial downtube. Wishbone monostay. Replaceable derailleur hanger. Disc mount. 4.2 lb.
Color: Starry Night
Size: 19.5"
Headset: AHS 1 1/8" sealed
Handlebar: Bontrager Crowbar Sport, 25mm rise, 5 degree angle. I added bar-ends.
Stem: Bontrager Sport
Shift Levers: Shimano Alivio RapidFire+
Brake Levers: Alloy, direct pull.
Grips: Oasis, dual density.
Fork: RockShox Judy C, Coil Spring/MCU, Al crown, preload adj., 80mm travel
Drivetrain:
Rear Derailleur: Shimano Deore SGS
Crankset: Bontrager Sport 44/32/22
Cassette: SRAM 5.0 11-32, 8spd
Front Derailleur: Shimano Alivio
Wheelset:
Rims: Bontrager Corvair rims
Hubs: Quick release hubs, DT 14G stainless spokes
Tires: Bontrager Jones AC 26x49/54 front and rear
Other:
Pedals: The pedals that came stock on this are really lightweight and I have no problems with them and the crankshaft is pretty light and smooth as well.
Saddle: It's a Trek ATP. Some people think it's bad, but really after a couple of rides it softens up really nice. Bontrager Sport seatpost.
Add-ons: I've added a nice bike pump that has a psi gauge on it, don't want to get caught somewhere with a flat! I no longer keep the chain to lock it up on my bike. I don't want to park this thing anywhere where there's a chance for it to be stolen! I've also added a Cateye computer and a water bottle cage.
Final Thoughts:
The first thing mentioned about this bike when Nick brought it out to me was that it had a Judy C 80mm front fork. That didn't mean anything to me, probably like a GeForce3 means nothing to somebody who doesn't know about video cards. I guess the Judy C is the middle of the road as far as front forks go. I've been online and read a lot of reviews where people have said this suspension is really mushy, and yeah it is if you go off something big, but these are nice as you can adjust the stiffness of them by turning the preload knob on the top of the fork. I have now had this bike a year, and it works great. I have ridden this bike for a year now and have discovered that it's a pretty darn good bike. It is really light and really efficient. Much more so than any Wal-Mart bike could ever be. (that's an inside joke, click here to read about that POS bike I owned at one time) The frame I went with is 19.5" and while that is big for my height (5'8") it felt more comfortable than the 18" which was my "size" according to the bike techs. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. Yeah, my bike does feel a little bit of a stretch for me, and maybe down the road I will be mad that I didn't go with the smaller frame. But I have yet to feel uncomfortable on this bike. The position I'm in while riding feels natural and not cramped. Sometimes when going up hills I am unable to balance correctly, as the front pulls up off the ground or the back tire skips because I don't have my weight there, but generally it's not a problem. I'm happy.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
