Mountain biking is a continuing growing sport, which is a great way to excise, and there are a lot of benefits if you want to start on this hobby. We found a lot of reasons, why it is so great.
Maybe we are a little biased at Best Sports Lounge when it comes to mountain biking, but we know for a fact, that this booming trend is worth a try.
Is mountain biking a good hobby? Yes, mountain biking is a good hobby, but always remember, safety first. Mountain biking is a great way to exercise, but there are many other reasons to start biking. Besides a full body work-out, with a focus on balance and coordination, it is out in nature, and there are a lot of friendly communities.
Are you already hooked? There are a lot of benefits if, you wanna start biking, and it can affect your health and mood in a positive direction. If you want to know more about mountain biking, and how and why to start, then keep reading.
How to Start Mountain Biking? What to Know Before You Start
Many people have the opportunity to start mountain-biking, and they also do. The sport has been popular for many years, and research from Outdoor Industry Foundation stated, that around 40 million people in the U.S. are mountain biking every year, so it is not that difficult to start.
There are a lot of opportunities in great mountain bike areas, to rent both bike and gear, so you can try it before you invest in your own. Like many other sports, mountain biking is not without danger, but this should not be a reason not to start.
How to start
You should always start out slow, and mountain biking doesn’t have to be an extreme sport, especially not from the beginning. So, you should just start out slow, and maybe try to rent some gear the first couple of times, so you don’t invest too much in something, that you are not that interested in.
There are a lot of friendly communities, where you often can find them easily on social media, and they are welcoming new members if you are looking for local advice and someone to bike with.
Before you start
You cannot do the sport without a bike, but depending on, what experience you want, and where you are biking, you definitely need some gear. At the bottom of this article, you can find a list of different mountain bike gear.
Mountain Biking Is a Great Hobby – Here’s Why
Mountain biking can be fun from day one. Even though you cannot drive at difficult trails, you still can get out and drive in amazing nature and on beautiful trails. You don’t have to invest a lot of money to try the sport, and when you have your own gear, the possibilities are almost endless.
If you take out crashes of the equation, mountain biking is a low impact sport meaning, that you won’t get a lot of injuries compared to run due to it is putting less stress on your joints.
At Best Sports Lounge we think mountain biking is a great hobby, and we collected 14 reasons why.
14 Reasons Why You Should Start Mountain Biking
Are you in doubt, if you should start biking? Read this list, with 14 reasons why you should start mountain biking.
- Experience nature in a new way
- It continuing to be challenging
- Full body exercise and a great cardio workout
- It can positively affect a lot of health benefits
- Improving balance and coordination
- Friendly communities to create new connections
- Easily combined with other activities
- Less stress on your joints due to low impact
- It can improve your happiness and mental well being
- It can boost your self-confidence
- Helps you explore new places
- Coasting is nice on a good bike
- You can always upgrade your gear
- A great way to personal development
We could come up with way more reasons why mountain biking is amazing. All the health benefits are pretty individual, and there are a lot of other places, where you can read about that, but there is no doubt, that mountain biking is a great form of exercising.
Combine biking with other activities such as traveling, camping, fishing or enjoy a cold drink or beer after a good ride. You can also use your mountain bike for other things than only biking on nice trails and mountains. Use it for work, and you will actually save money if you replace it with your car.
Where Can I Find Mountain Bike Gear? See Suggestions Here
A lot of people I discuss mountain biking with, really want to get started, but many of them never get started because you both need a bike and some gear. It is pretty sad because it is actually not that difficult to find.
As I mentioned earlier, you can always find someplace to rent some gear, but for the best experience with mountain biking, you should ride often and with your own gear.
Find great gear on Amazon
You can find a lot of gear by searching for, what you need, on Amazon. So, if you already have a bike, but you need new shoes, you can just search for shoes, and you find a lot of examples of quality and prices. See different suggestions on shoes for mountain biking on this link » Mountain biking shoes
Find used gear online or visit your local shop
If you are lucky, some other people are selling their old bike for a fair price. A lot of places online for example social media, provide a market place, where you can find used gear or where you can sell your own if you need to upgrade your own.
So, there is a lot of opportunities to find new mountain bike gear, especially online, but there is also the possibility to go to a traditional physical store.
List: Mountain Bike Gear
You cannot go mountain biking without a bike, but you probably already know that, but there is a lot of gear and accessories, which is a huge part of the experience, not to mention the safety as well.
We have put a list down, with some of the gear you either should or could use before you go out there riding your new bike.
Helmet (You should not ride without a helmet)
Backpack (there are a lot of small and good backpacks to your extra gear)
Hydration system: Hydration packs and water bottles
- Shoes (Amazon link)
- Sunglasses
- Sunscreen
- Gloves
- Shorts
- Tire Pump
- Multi-Tool
- Spare tubes
- Patch kit
- Tire lever
- Shock pump
- Chain lube
- Lip balm
- Rain jacket
- First-aid kit
- Phone
- Money
- Lights
Recommended Mountain Bike Shoes
Fizik X5 Terra Mountain Bike Shoe
You don’t always have to bring all of this gear, and not all are completely necessary, but some of it is, like the helmet, but maybe some of your mates also have things to share.
This was just a list of inspiration, and we hope that you got inspired to start riding a mountain bike. The conclusion must be, yes, mountain biking is a good hobby
