Mountain Bike Demo Days... Why?
With the bewildering numbers of mountain bikes on the market from a growing number of manufacturers all of which making similar claims of 'The Ultimate' Trail/Enduro/XC/All Mountain Bike *delete as appropriate*. It's become a much harder decision to make, that is which mountain bike do you choose? There's endless magazine columns reviewing all these amazing bikes, let's be honest there isn't many shockingly bad bikes out there so a quick scan of the reviews is well worth the time. The reviewers are constantly riding different bikes and making comparisons but there's always a tinge of brand/bike preference in there which is only human. Then there's the bikes the stars are riding.. Put Steve Peat on any shonky old bike and he'll give any one of our crowd a reet good pasting uphill and down obviously! Athertons were absolutely amazing riding GT and now riding a Trek Rachael is still wiping the floor with everyone. Now this may be a bit simplistic but it seems to me the virtues of the various suspension designs ie 'virtual pivot point' against 'horst link' against 'single pivot' against 'DW Link' blah blah blah ain't going to make a jack of difference to how well you ride! That said, I would suggest what will make the difference is how much your bike makes you smile, how well it's set up and how good the fit!
So, Mountain Bike Demo Days... Why? Don't know about you but I want to see the bike in the flesh, it's curves, it's corners, it's paint, it's decals, it's components and it's colour. Often falling between sizes I want to check extra large against large frame sizes to get the right fit. I want to ride it on proper trails.. Does it pedal strike every stealth rock I ride past, climbing the steep stuff is the front like a lazer guided weapon holding it's line or a meandering river wandering aimlessly. Point it downhill does it feel plush and planted or squidgy and unstable. On the pedally rocky stuff is it soaking the hits with ease or pogo'ing uncontrollably.. BUT! Most of all does this mountain bike make me smile? The only way to find out is to ride it and that's why a Demo ride for me is a must!
Here at Dales Bike Centre part of what makes us smile is keeping it local... From the cheese we buy in the cafe to the mountain bikes we sell in the bike shop buying British and buying local is important to us. So when it comes to what bike makes us smile part of that is about buying British. Buying British in most cases you should be buying a bike built for riding British Trails and withstanding the British weather. For me riding Orange Mountain Bikes and Cotic Bikes for over 10 years has been making me smile everytime I hit the trails. So here they are 2 mountain bike demo days coming up and they're FREE:
Cotic Bikes Demo Day - 1st October
Orange Bikes Demo Day - 15th October
Interested? be sure to book ahead, get your name on the bike and size you want to ride. While you're here check out the other sizes, bikes, models etc and just see if a bike from Orange or Cotic put that smile into your ride:-)