One of you biggest investments when considering taking on an adventure race is your mountain bike. Generally, the boat for the paddle section will either be provided for you by the race organizers or you will rent it. The gear for the trekking and navigating sections is minimal, and many races do not even include a climbing section anymore, so save the bulk of your budget for your bike.

The Schwinn mountain bike range includes excellent basic bikes, yet you don’t have to be too concerned about hefty price-tags. From the riding experience, to operating the gears, to applying the brakes, you are aware that Schwinn, biking, and quality are synonymous.

While every Schwinn mountain bike may not be well suited to very heavy off-road conditions, light trails are a breeze.

The Mesa Mountain Hardtail demonstrates that a quality offroad race bike, doesn’t have to bankrupt you.

Remember when you didn’t think about the gears on your bike? Your bike had a bike sprocket connected to the pedals and a small sprocket connected to the back wheel an that’s all you needed. Then you got a little older and got your first 10-speed. That bike had two sprockets up front and five on the back. In all likelihood, the shifters were a pair of levers connected to your bike frame near the handlebars. As time went on the shifters moved to the handlebars themselves and then became advanced-looking dials right beside the grips. And next thing you knew, instead of a paltry ten speeds on your bike, you were riding a 27-speed mountain climbing machine!

What an innovative, practical thing a folding mountain bike is! If space is an issue and leaves your regular bike out in the cold, one of these bikes will be your solution.

There are many versions of the folding mountain bike. They vary from heavier and less portable, to lightweight and tough. Transporting them in buses, trains, or airplanes, is easy. At your destination, you have your means of transportation at your beck and call.

The Hummer is a state of the art folding mountain bike, manufactured by Montague. This is the world’s leading manufacturer of folding bikes. It is modeled on a line of full sized folding bikes originally designed for the U.S. Marines as a military bike for tactical use.

Image : http://www.flickr.com

Mountain bikes can vary hugely in both price and quality, so it is important to be clear about what you are looking for when you go shopping and before you actually buy anything. There is a huge amount of choice so you need to know what you are looking for. If you want it for cross-country then you will need a light mountain bike, but even then you have more options. Do you want a full suspension or just the front shocks? Or would you like some thing a bit heavier such as a free ride? They are much tougher than the cross-country mountain bikes, but will also be a bit heavier to ride and you need to know if you really need it.