Old Trek Mtn Bike ok for Ninham?

chiefmatesam · Joined: 28 May 2011 Posts: 493 Location: Poughkeepsie

Hey all, I wanted to ask the pros for their opinion...I'm trying to get a friend of mine to come up from CT to ride Ninham with me. His trek is an older mtn bike (maybe late 90's, very early 2000's). Not sure what the fork is...but it has v-brake system. I'm sure the fork hasn't been serviced in a looong time...but does anyone think that combined with v-brake would make it unsafe for him to ride the tower side at Ninham? Probably wouldn't ride the red trail down...but most likely take blue up to the bail-out trail, head up the road, and down blue again.
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paetersen · Joined: 23 May 2009 Posts: 247

The quality of parts (trim level) is more important than the age of the bike. A hooptied out 820 with alivio, not so much. A 950 with full XT, absolutely. Also important is the general tune of the bike.

A lot of us mountain biked before suspension and disc brakes, I don't remember it slowing us down.

Tim845 · Joined: 02 Sep 2006 Posts: 3684 Location: Poughkeepsie

I find disc's more useful for the parking lot side trails. You might mention that he wear some shoes that he can hike in if needed -hard soled spd's are my last choice there.
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chiefmatesam · Joined: 28 May 2011 Posts: 493 Location: Poughkeepsie

Thanks for the advice guys! We'll do the tower side probably (I've gotten to know it fairly well), as I'm not quite ready to go explore the lot side with someone until I've been able to explore it more myself (never been there). I'm glad you think he should be ok...I've only ridden discs and a good fork shock as an adult. Last time I was without suspension and v-brakes, I was 14 and I jumped and went down stuff not caring if I could stop or not. I guess I've become a wuss in my somewhat older age...
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Studies have shown that riding a bicycle everyday makes you more awesome than the general population.

jmagik172 · Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 57 Location: Pok, NY

Just as a comparison, I recently lent out a Schwinn Moab 3 with V-Brakes and all XT components circa 1998 to a buddy and he has ridden the tower trails 3 times. He is a novice biker who started last September. He is riding flats though so keep that in mind as there are some sections that would probably have killed him had he been clipped in!