Mountain Bikes

 My favorite form of exercise is biking.  I really prefer to ride on designated bike paths or off-road versus on the street.  I currently have 3 bikes.  

Hybrid Mountain Bike

My oldest is a 2013 Specialized Crossroads Sport hybrid (mountain/road) rigid frame, no suspension. I bought this bike in 2014.  At the time of this post my Garmin watch recorded 830 miles but I did not get the watch until 5 years after I bought the bike.  I would guess I have closer to 4,500 miles on this bike.

Full-Suspension Mountain Bike

In December 2020 bikes were scarce.  Most bike shops had very little available and even used bikes were hard to find.  I found myself looking for a full-suspension mountain bike at a very bad time.  I happened to be shopping at Walmart one day and they had a Kent Flexor in stock for $148 so I bought it.  

I was surprised how inexpensive this bike was, but it is also cheap.  I call it my Cheap-O-Cycle.  At the time of this post I have accumulated 676 miles.  I would say about half the hours I have put on this bike have been off-road.  I did have trouble with the freewheeling hub.  It fell apart on one of the early rides. 

Kent sent me a set of replacement wheels (which included the freewheeling hub).  The new one did it as well and I learned how to tighten it.  It appears they do not seat the bearings or torque the unit properly when assembling it.  I tightened it very tight and the issue seems to have been corrected now.  I did buy a replacement on Amazon for $16 and that was much better.  Overall though I did get my $148 worth.  

Electric Fat-Tire Mountain Bike

Riding the Kent Flexor made me realize that I needed a fat tire bike for off-road.  The narrow tires on the Flexor would sink it too much.  A fat-tire full suspension bike takes more energy to ride.  I also found steep or long hills to be not fun on the Flexor.  When riding downhill on rough terrain, the Flexor did not feel substantial enough either.  It does not have actual shocks, just springs.  The brakes are just rim brakes and I wanted hydraulic disc.  These things led to to wanting to upgrade to an electric assisted mountain bike.  

I ended up with a Rurui XT10.  Since it has electric assist, I call it my Cheat-O-Cycle.  This bike has a much more substantial frame, full suspension with real shocks, hydraulic brakes, and 4" wide fat tires.  

My first ride on this bike was great. I was able to ride a trail that previously took about 2 hours in 20 minutes.  This particular ride has about 1000' elevation gain and is mostly loamy sand and gravel.  I made about a 14 mile loop which also included some paved bike path.  Most of that 14 miles was rugged off-road riding.  I was in PAS mode 1 for most of the ride.  PAS mode 1 provides electric assist up to about 10mph.  I took it on a paved bike path for a bit as well and tested the top speed in mode 5.  I was able to get over 27mph which is plenty fast for me on a bike. The maximum assist speed in user configurable through the display. In high gear the pedaling cadence is the limiting factor.

It took a bit to get used to how the electric drive worked.  This bike uses a rear hub-motor.  Some other electric bikes used a motor at the crank.  Each have pros and cons.  The hub motor is simple and does not impact the chain or gears.  However, it lacks the multiple gear ratios of the gears too.  This limits the speed range where it is most efficient.  I am happy with my choice of bike having a hub motor.  One upgrade I may consider it going with wider gear ratios, mostly for first gear.

I am happy with the battery range versus weight.  My first ride was not many miles for the effort as it was mostly off-road with many hills and loamy terrain.  Since these bikes don't have regenerative braking, that really consumes battery.  Garmin reported the ride at 13.9 miles and I used less than half the battery. This will really vary based on the specific ride and how much the rider puts into it.  I ride for enjoyment but a main goal is also exercise. I plan to always pedal. The first ride was much more intense than off-road rides on the Flexor since the speed was so much higher going up in elevation, and through loamy terrain.  

The hydraulic brakes and actual shocks were big upgrades from the Flexor.  One issue I did have is the pedals hit the ground when riding in ruts or when there are rocks.  I measured the distance from the bottom of the pedals to the ground on this and the Flexor and found the Flexor had at least 1" more ground clearance.  I may look into raising the back suspension on this bike a bit.  The fat tire made a huge difference off-road.  I was able to easily go through stuff I would have to get off and walk the Flexor through.  Same with hills.  The fat tires also soak up some of the bumpiness.  

I had dirt bikes back in the day.  My favorite was  KTM 500MX.  Riding the Rurui was somewhere between a mountain bike and a dirt bike, but more towards the mountain bike.  Obviously the 1HP this Rurui generates is tiny compared to my KTM that had 55HP.  Of course the KTM was also at least 100lbs heavier.  I was able to push the Rurui up super steep hills which was not really possible with dirt bikes.