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If you’re looking for a mountain bike you can show off to your cycling buddies – and upstage them with in the bargain – you usually go for the brand name bikes. Bikes under the Intense, Ellsworth, Specialized labels are known for their excellent performance on the track. Trek is among the more popular of these big-name brands. Trek mountain bikes are especially known for being durable and highly maneuverable. They’re also sought after for flexibility of design.

As with trendy car owners, bike enthusiasts relish the worth of a good name. Trek lovers get their enthusiasm’s worth when this particular bike brand blazes its name across various sports and recreational media. For example, Trek mountain bikes are featured in Downhill Domination, a popular arcade game for Playstation 2. This game is similar to many racing games that involve luxury cars and the like, only this would possibly be more appealing to hardcore mountain bikers, because it involves labels they are sure to recognize, such as Giant and Trek.

And Trek has quite a name to live up to. Consumersearch.com’s March 2006 report puts the Trek 4500 in its top picks for entry-level, full-featured, front-suspension bikes. The page also mentions that Mountain Bike Magazine’s 2004 Buyer’s Guide billed the Trek Fuel women’s bike rather highly. As a matter of fact, the Trek womens’ bikes also invite a good long look.

Womens’ bikes made by Trek are probably known for one thing best – adopting to small physiques. Smaller Trek bikes that are nonetheless built for maneuverability and speed works out well for petite women who are comfortable with an active lifestyle. In fact the manufacturer has come up with a codename for this considerate sort of engineering style: WSD or Women Specific Design.

And you must admit, not a lot of mountain bikes are being built for women nowadays. With their generally slighter physiques, some women will have problems adapting to bikes built for much larger and physically stronger men. We can’t deny that comfort is a big thing, especially for high-activity and potentially high-risk sports like trail biking.

What distinguishes Trek mountain bikes from the competition is their ability to suit different body types and take weight into consideration. If budget is not a matter of concern, feel free to literally give Trek bikes a spin around the block and see how they could serve as a wise investment for you as a true biking fan.

At this article you will read what mountain biking is as well as how to get the information on various kinds of mountain bikes.

The most commonly used Mountain Bikes are:

Downhill Bikes:Most prominently used for competition in which one goes down the hill. So with that speed, bikes need to be with tough frames and with heavy-duty brakes such as disc or hydraulic brakes.

XC Bikes: This is another kind of bike which is highly used for competition in which one can go both down and climb hills. So its frame should be light but reasonably tough. Brakes used in this particular bike are v-brakes and light disc brakes.

Hybrid Bikes: This category of bikes is a good option for those who want to ride on both mountains and road.

These bikes either run on front suspension or on full suspension (which is a combination of both front and back suspensions). Various kinds of brakes employed in these bikes are:-

Rim Brakes: They are both light and powerful but their power decreases in muddy terrain where they become slippery.

Disc Brakes: They are light and powerful and are not affected by weather.

Hydraulic Brakes: They are very powerful and don’t need much maintenance, but are expensive than other brakes.

Frame Materials: The bikes can be made of aluminum, steel or titanium. These are very important elements of the bike as their composition determines the weight, strength, responsiveness and life of the bike.

Size: Like conventional bikes, mountain bikes come in small, medium and large sizes. But different manufactures use different reference point of measurement therefore sizing is not always consistent.

Latest Trends:

All Mountain Bikes: The “All Mountain Bikes” are characterized by 5-6 inch (125-150 mm) rims to take on very rough conditions.

29er Bike: This uses 700cc-sized rims and is suited for tires of 2 inches (50mm) width or more, so that it is able to roll over the obstacles.

Singlespeed: This is a blend of simplicity with innovation in suspension design.

Some of the other trends includeStable Platform Value Suspension Technology. Here the compressor shim stack has been replaced with a pair of overlapping cups. It also employs VPP suspension designs to balance different forces thereby eliminating unwanted compression without limiting bump absorption.