It's worth it for me. Nothing gives me more joy at this time than (my lame impression) of ripping on my mountain bikes.
TLR if you are curious:
There's a saying: It's not a matter of if you will fall, but when. I usually have a couple of unplanned exits every year. I have been riding MTB since 2010, and so far no major injuries. The last ejection was the worst. Came around a sharp corner that dives down between two hills and got slapped in the face by a branch. This knocked me off my line causing my front wheel veer off the trail into soft dirt on steep incline. I was going pretty fast right at a small tree with nowhere to go. The bike basically high-sided and slammed me down face first on the trail. My lower lip was packed with dirt and my helmet was pulled down over my face. The bridge of my noise was skinned and a considerable amount of blood and clear yellowish fluid was oozing from the wound. I gathered myself and decided to finish the ride even though I was near an exit to the parking lot. I consider myself very lucky.
I don't ride super difficult trails, but I do ride fairly close to my limit. You don't have to push the envelope.
I would say the MTB hobby is pretty darn GAS inducing. The industry constantly pushes technology forward and bikes usually get major refreshes every 2 to 3 years. You don't necessarily have to fall victim to this. My 2010 Trek EX8 has been maintained and still rides great, despite being almost 15 years old. I bought this bike new and it was Trek's top of the line alloy frame bike. I think I paid $2.3K. Trek offers a range of EX9 builds that are pretty much the same geometry in carbon fiber; at a much higher price.
Pretty sure if you do some research, you can buy a decent full-squish trail bike for about $1000 retail; maybe less if you catch a good sale. A lot of people rave about a $500 full-squish you can buy at Walmart. I think the Walmart bike will most likely need upgrades for an adult if they have any real desire to ride trails, specifically the fork.
In 2010 29ers were starting to become popular and eventually my gas started to build. I bought my 2014 EX8 29er off Ebay around 2016 for less than half the new price. It did have some wear and tear.
What I have bought for the Treks:
- Pedals--MTBs don't typically come with pedals. My 2010 came with candy clip ins. For trail riding I prefer flats.
- The 2014 is difficult to get into the air, so I bought a carbon handle bar, which did not help much.
- The original (wider) handle bar for the 2014 is now on the 2010.
- The stock seat post on the 2014 was a few mm to long. I bought a shorter post mint off Ebay.
- Tires and routine maintenance.
Trek used proprietary Fox DRCV shocks on these bikes. New spares are no longer available and you can't just buy an off the shelf shock for these bikes as the length and stroke are non-standard. Fox no longer offers factory service for the IFP part of the shock. Trek was able to service the IFP on both of my shocks last year, but they had to be sent off. I bought a spare shock for both bikes.
I never really thought I would go for a carbon bike due to the cost. I came across some YouTube videos on the Revel Rail that really spoke to me, but the X0 build with carbon wheels that I wanted was almost $9K. I had GAS but couldn't justify spending that much. When Revel offered the build I wanted at 40% off during a Black Friday sale, I gave into the to GAS. After I placed the order I noticed the sale build subbed a lower spec fork and handle bar.
A week or so later Revel called to let me know they had accidently oversold and were out of frames. They gave me the option of a refund or I could wait till the next frame order came in. Since it was mid-winter and I felt I had gotten a really good deal, I decided to wait. I wound up receiving the bike in the following February. The bike had the lower spec alloy handlebar but the top end fork (ZEB Ultimate).
I ordered a carbon handle bar, which was not really necessary. Since I have short legs, I also had to order a 125mm dropper post. Stock for a large frame is 175mm. I already had a spare set of Shimano Saint pedals.
