Go forth and ride, then bring back pics

**The SnowShow** · Yesterday, 03:19 PM

Originally Posted by raisingarizona13

Welcome to the world of mountain biking! You are about to spend all of your money on this if you get hooked but the investment is for health and happiness so it's worth it.

No kidding. Love that 2-3k mtn bikes are considered “budget”.

**Dantheman** · Yesterday, 03:27 PM

Hiking is less boring if you run the descents. RunDowns are fun.

Today was fun.

**SchralphMacchio** · Yesterday, 04:29 PM

Originally Posted by AK47bp

Good point on the ski pass savings. I guess it just feels like more gear since I’m buying most of it all at once. I’ve accumulated ski gear over 35 years of skiing so just feels like less.

Both are pretty bad depending how deep you go down the rabbit hole. Having great shops with solid technicians for each - bike and ski - definitely helps reduce the gear burden if you can tolerate some downtime - then you get to outsource a lot of repair tools, bench space, and most importantly time spent fucking around debugging / tuning. Of course even if you outsource everything except for basic maintenance, you are still looking at a decent set of gear …
-shoes, gloves and eyewear every couple of seasons,
-pads and helmet every 4-5 years,
-shock pump, tire pump, ideally a tubeless inflator canister if you don’t already have an air compressor
-basic set of metric allen wrenches and torx if necessary
-chain lube, tire sealant, valve core removal tool, sealant injector, spare valve cores
-tire levers and a tube
-spare chain quick link and a chain breaker tool
-spare derailleur hanger, shift cable, and brake pads are really really nice to have too, can often be the difference between walking or riding home

That’s basically my minimum list for being able to ride and get home and not have downtime over really simple things. Welcome to the club! Oh yeah, don’t be afraid to take lessons or clinics at a bike park, even if you have very little interest in the gravity/Freeride aspect of the sport, it’s just like skiing in that some lessons and observations on form go a long way!