As a result, the mis-mitered tubes could be used to build a fun bike to be given to friends, and after some happy accident, I ended up with one—a steel, single-pivot, long-travel trail bike or, perhaps, a slightly sketchy enduro bike. While I’m not going to pretend to have ridden enough trail bikes or enduro bikes to be able to make nuanced observations about suspension kinematics, I have ridden enough bikes over the past two decades to have a good idea about what worked for me and how the bike felt to ride. It’s a bold move to build a deliciously dynamic and forgivingly flexy steel trail bike in Germany, the heartland of stiffness being touted as the grail of bicycle manufacture in cycling media. I stripped the bike down to the carbon frame (2 pounds 13 ounces) and rebuilt it from the ground up.
The frame was welded just outside of Dresden, Germany. While we discussed a basic bitch build kit as an intro to mountain biking, when I collected the bike it was built with some of the most esoteric, decently high-end made-in-Europe parts out there. The biggest problem I’ve seen is improper assembly and setup. Even a big-name bike can give a miserable experience if it isn’t set up properly. And sadly, this is an area in which most big-box stores are lacking. There are instances where that may be somewhat accurate because there are certainly some questionable bikes I’ve seen on the shelves at big-box stores.
Bikeyoke is relatively obscure outside of Germany but I hope that changes, as everything they specced on the bike looked great and was a joy to use. I’ve always been a fan of Dresden-based Acto5 and their absurd CNC-machined frames. Conceptually wild and, in the flesh, a sight to behold. I will never need the performance that they offer, so thankfully, they make cranks for fanbois.
This might mean that I have never owned a mountain bike because a mountain bike, in modern times, is so separate from the uncomplicated machines of the ’90s that I grew up riding. The mountain bikes that I have owned have mostly functioned as off-road tourers. Most notably, a 1998 Specialized Rockhopper (on balance, perhaps the best bike ever made), a Rock Lobster Team Tig 853, a first-generation Surly Krampus, and a slew of other bits and bobs I made myself. I have a great local bike shop, and I shop there regularly. It’s always a good idea to seek out a good bike shop, even if you own a big-box bike.
I ride it every week on the local mountain bike trails. And I shopped around for a month or two until I found deals on all the parts. The reality is that each new feature has to either increase price or take away from something else to compensate. That’s how bikes end up with a front disc brake and a rear rim brake. Most people don’t hyper bicycles ride on mountain bike trails, so make sure you avoid bikes with features you don’t need. The Day Pack Collection covers a broad range of single-day activities whether it’s a few hours outside, all day off-trail excursions, peak-bagging, bikepacking, summit pushes, or your day-to-day adventures between home and work and back.
It’s something in the middle, for a kind of riding I’ve never really experienced, and which I need to make a six-hour round trip from my house in a car to attempt. In many ways, it’s the bike least meant for me, at least on paper, and I’m the rider least meant for it. I recently purchased this bike for my son’s 7th birthday, and he absolutely loves riding it. He constantly asks if he can use it, even if it’s late at night. The quality of the bike is amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to purchase a great gift for their child. That said, there is also some truth in “you get what you pay for.” If you want an off-the-shelf, bulletproof mountain bike, you need to be ready to pony up some bucks and head down to your local bike shop.
I was overbiking for sure, but simultaneously, I was pushing myself to ride new things rather than pushing my fitness as I’d expected. The lack of anything fun to ride locally and my deep desire to ride the bike all the time instilled a sense of being lost and bored, which seemed to always result in play. I’d cruise around looking for things to ride up, down, off, or onto. I could go out for a ride with no aim and no idea where I was going and have a great time just repeatedly trying to hop over a log or riding down a set of steps fast enough to be able to ride up again on the other side; just playing around by myself, having a nice time.
Remember, we’re all ambassadors for cycling, so be polite on the road and the trails and observe the leave no trace principles. The bike started life with Berghaus flat pedals, because I felt like that was what I should run. However, a couple of months in I gave up on learning to hop things properly and switched to Hope XC pedals, hoping that they’d help me get some air. In fact, they didn’t as the sensation of jumping through the suspension was completely new, and my poor technique bunny hopping did not translate to a bike with suspension. Regardless, I did continue to run the Hope pedals because I felt more secure clipped in, which inspired greater confidence which in turn improved my riding, even if it was for the wrong reasons.