The Bike Buyers Guide

This one took a little more time in the oven, but better late then never – the official Hobby Wheel bike buyers guide! This will be split up into 3 sections – Recreation, Mountain, and E-Bike. Unfortunately, we don’t go through many road or gravel bikes, so they won’t be featured in here. Maybe someday if there’s enough demand for them, but not now. So, on to our first and biggest category – Recreation!

Recreation

Most (By a large margin) Of bike riders, will be best suited for some form of recreation bike. Don’t get it mixed up, recreation bikes are not always comfort cruisers that you can’t do anything other than paved trails on. Those bikes do exist, and are half of this category, but there are other options for people who want to do other things with their bikes.

Specialized Rockhopper, Trek Marlin, Cannondale Trail

The big three of the recreational bike world. These are what are considered to be entry-level mountain bikes, so they feature forks, large range drivechains, and bigger, grippier tires. They are found anywhere from the mountain bike trails in miners park, to the iron bell paved trail, or even just cruising around town. They are the closest thing to an all-purpose bike that you can get, and they get pretty close. On top of all of that, they come in a full range of price points, ranging from the base models for $599 up to the top $1500 model.

Specialized Roll, Trek Verve, Cannondale Adventure

For those who don’t need their bike to be able to go on every trail and on every adventure, they could be suited for one of these models. They are way more upright, so you sit very upright and very relaxed. They also come with smoother tires and more comfortable grips and seats to make them great for riding on the Iron Bell paved trail.

Specialized Sirrus, Trek FX

At the very other end of Recreation bikes are the ‘flat bar road bikes’. These bikes are built very similar to road bikes, just a little less aggressive and with flat bars, instead of the curved drop bars found on road bikes. IF you want to ride on the road and put down miles, for training or for commutes.

E-Bikes

Since their introduction a few years back, E-bikes have taken off and never really stopped growing. They are mainly more of comfort bikes, similar to the Roll, Verve, and Adventure from the recreation category. But don’t get it mixed up, they still do offer E-Mountain bikes, for those who want to get a little dirty with their adventures, but maybe struggle a little bit more on the climbs.

E-Comfort

The best selling bikes are in this category. This contains the amazing Specialized Como, the Trek Verve + , and the Cannondale Adventure Neo. All of these are essentially E bike versions of the Roll, Verve, and Adventure from earlier, complete with all of the comfort features, and all the E-bike assist you’d expect.

E-Mountain

While being a smaller category, the E-mountain bikes are no less important than the E-Comfort bikes. There is much more variety from the E-comfort, with many options from Specialized, Rocky Mountain, Trek, and Cannondale. So no matter if you want a short travel XC bike with a little boost for those long days, or a massive bruiser to crush the climb and destroy the downs, they all offer bikes to suit any type of riding. And if full suspension bikes are a little bit much for you, they do offer E-Hardtails, with just a fork to add even more efficiency to the bike.

Mountain

And last but not least, there is mountain bikes. With the addition of Miners park trails, mountain biking is growing even more than ever, and more and more people are hopping on and finding a new passion. The Rockhopper, Marlin, and Trail from earlier are considered to be ‘entry level’ mountain bikes, but this section will focus on higher end hardtails and full suspensions.

Specialized Fuse, Rocky Mountain Growler, Trek Roscoe, Cannondale Habit HT

The hardcore hardtails. This is what happens if you take the entry level hardtails, slacken them out, add parts to compete with the nicest of full suspensions, and these are what you get. They are designed to rip any trails that a full suspension can, while being more efficient with no rear suspension.

Cross Country

Cross Country(Or XC for short) Bikes are efficient. They are made to climb fast, and go for a long time without making you extremely tired. They include any bikes with travel from 100mm up to 120mm. There are some outliers, such as the Rocky Mountain Element, which has 130mm of travel on it’s fork, but those are outliers and not the norm. some people argue that the bikes with 120mm are considered ‘down-country’, which is a sub category of XC with longer travel and slacker geometry.

Trail

Trail is the best selling and most popular category of mountain bikes. Trail bikes have anywhere from 130mm of travel up to 150mm. This category features bikes like the ever popular Stumpjumper, the Trek Fuel EX, and the Rocky Mountain Instinct. These bikes are made to go both up and down well, and be enough for just about any ride. They are my recommended bike for our local riding.

Enduro

I personally ride a enduro bike, and they are the opposite of a XC bike. With travel from 160mm up to 180mm, these bikes are not designed to climb well. They are designed to rip downhill as fast as possible, and make it back up to the top eventually. These bikes include the Aptly named Specialized Enduro, the Rocky Mountain Altitude, and the Trek Slash

Man that’s a lot of bikes. I tried putting any information that someone might need to get an idea of what bike they need, but anybody who wants any more in depth information can just come stop in and ask

Happy Adventuring!

-Peter