Front Suspension Mountain Bike

Do You Need a Front Suspension Mountain Bike?

For those who are about to take up the sport of mountain biking, the number of choices and decisions to be made can be a little daunting at first. You have to look at all of the bikes and decide which one offers the best options for your budget and the type of riding you plan to do. One of the choices you will have to make is the type of front suspension the mountain bike you are going to ride needs to have.

The main purpose of your mountain bike's front suspension is to absorb the shocks that you will experience as you careen down the side of the mountain in the pursuit of your sport. These shocks can not only make the ride less pleasant by jolting your arms and shoulders but can actually cause you to lose control. This can cause you to get knocked of your bike or worse end up with you being taken to the emergency room with a serious injury.

When you are in the bike store looking at mountain bikes you are going to see front suspension mountain bikes and rear suspension mountain bikes, each of these is designed for a different purpose.

In some cases you will find bikes that have both, you might think that having a full suspension mountain bike might be the best option, but in truth it probably is not.

If you look carefully at the professional mountain bike, a front suspension is likely to be the only one that is used. This is because having both adds a lot of extra weight that can slow you down especially on flat surfaces.

The extra weight can also make you far more tired as you have to pedal harder to compensate for the extra weight.

Mountain bikes with front suspension are definitely the best choice as they will make the ride more comfortable and less tiring overall as they reduce the shock that your arms and shoulders are subject to on the average ride.

There are a couple of different styles of front suspension available, the basic one is a spring loaded tube fork similar to that of a motorcycle and can go a long way to reducing the effect of a day going down the mountainside.

One of the newest and most expensive types of front suspension is the hydraulic front fork. These forks make use of sealed hydraulic tubes that provide a much smoother and more controlled action. They work much in the same way as a cars shock absorber allowing the fork to travel up and down rapidly, but without bottoming out like some of the spring loaded forks. This can give you even more control for when you hit the really big jumps and do not want to crash on landing.

If you really need to give your back a break from being jarred while hitting the trails you might want to consider using a suspension bike seat. These seats are designed using springs to absorb some of the shock of riding down the trail and give you more comfort than the standard bike seat. They can be an ideal solution for someone who has a back problem but does not want give up mountain biking.