Background: Age 53, 5′ 6″ tall and 75 kgs, home in Austria. I have been a ‘Singletrack’ subscriber for many years but do not own a bike. For the last 6 years I have been riding 26″ and 29″ Mountain unicycles and have decided to take the plunge and try two wheels instead of one. Confused with the many options available I would be very grateful for help before I buy. My budget is 4000 GBP.
Planned Riding: The local area has a range of riding, it is very hilly with woods, other hills at 2000 meters + and mountains are close-by. I would like to go out for quick trips in the woods, that have some single track, day trips on the higher hills , long distance tours and perhaps take part in some endurance competitions.
Recommendations: looking forward to your thoughts on bike type, frame material, wheel size etc.
Thanks in advance. Dave

I think most are stunned with some kind of home & local riding envy…

Not sure I would pop 4k onto the first bike, are their bike shops that hire bikes out locally? It would be good to try out a few different kinds of MTB & try to form your own preference.

This is way outside of my wheelhouse but all I can add is I would not spend 4k on your first bike. Spend 4k on a bike, by all means but I think you need to ride a certain type (ideally types) of bike for a reasonable amount of time to get an idea of what you actually like. I wouldn’t want to drop that much without being sure I’m getting the right thing.

IME being told what a bike rides like doesn’t compare to finding out what it feels like to you.

A better question to be asking yourself, IMO, at this stage is, “what sort of bike do I want to be riding?” If you can decide if you want something for all day xc epics, a trail bike that will do a bit of everything, a hard-core hardtail, full on DH rig etc. You don’t even need to know the terms, just think about how you want the bike to feel. That will point you in the right general direction.

What you really need is the 650b mountain unicycle 🙂

Thanks, appreciate the comments regarding budget etc. Great idea to try renting, there is a good specialist retailer locally so I will try there. (I was looking to get some good independent pointers here prior to hitting the shops) Cheers.