Hi,
I am a new member. I have ridden off and on for a long time, but it has been awhile. Looking for a new bike at the moment. I appreciate quality and don't mind spending a little extra for it. I am older, about 63 years, but still pretty fit for my age. I want to start riding again for extra fitness and fun. Also, I enjoy hiking and photographing and would like to take a bike with me to cover more distance on available trails. I am about 6-3, 230 lbs, although I am trying to get down to about 200.

I have a Trek 9300, which is about 15 years old, but haven't ridden much because of a shoulder problem due to an old rugby injury. It seems that if I ride in the typical MTB position, it puts too much weight on my hands and my shoulder starts hurting for a couple of days. I would like to get myself into a more upright position, with most of the weight on my seat.

I typically ride to and from the gym, which is about 5 miles each way, instead of driving. This gives me more exercise and saves gas - plus it is fun. This is just pavement, and I can see myself pushing the pedals quite hard, just to get a workout (speed doesn't matter). About once or twice a year I like to go on a trip out west to visit places like Moab and Zion, take some pictures, and do some hiking. I have often thought of taking a bike with me because I could see more in the same amount of time, but I am afraid it would punish my shoulder too much.

I have considered modifying my Trek with a new suspension fork (currently a rigid fork), adding a steering tube extender, an adjustable stem and riser handlebars to get the grips up about 6" above where they are now. That would cost me about $350. This is the cheapest option, and would allow me to test my theory that if the bars were higher and I had a suspension to cushion the front, my shoulder would be fine.

The other alternative is a new bike. I have been looking mainly at Specialized because it seems like they have more models and types of bikes to select from. I like the riding position of the comfort bikes, but I don't want to go that route because I don't know how well they would do in the dirt and sand, and because they don't offer very high levels of components. So I have been thinking about a Crosstrail Pro a higher-end Rockhopper. Maybe a lower-end Stumpjumper. Like I said, I like a good bike with nice components. I could spend up to $1500 or so. In either case, I would probably have to modify the bike by adding the fork extender, adjustable stem, and higher-rise handlebars.

My question is - by raising the handlebars to this height (adding about 6"), would I be compromising the handling to such a degree that the bike would be unridable? I don't care about speed - just easy shifting, moderate comfort, and dependability. Also, it appears that the larger the frame, the better - because then I could keep the seat down lower in relation to the handlebars.

I'm sorry if I have rambled, but I think you get the idea. MTB or Crosstrail? How feasible is my idea? Any other suggestions?

Thanks, I look forward to hearing from any of you.
Jim Meyer

The Crosstrail sounds like a good option for what you are wanting to do. I don't see any reason to spend the money on a Stumpjumper unless you are racing. The Rockhopper would probably be overkill also, but if it is comfortable for you that is what's most important. You'll find that newer mountain bikes have higher handle bars than the older ones, partly from the switch to riser bars and partly because of the longer travel forks raising the headtubes. Most that I have test rode have the handlebars at or slightly above saddle height stock.

At 62 years old, I bought a Crosstrail, as a do it all bike, and absolutely love it. Do a search on Crosstrail for the last week or 10 days, and read more.

p.s. I came off a steel road bike, and sold it after I rode the Crosstrail for a week........

Have you taken the Crosstrail into rough Jeep roads? If so, how does it to there? Thanks again,
Jim

Hi,
I am a new member. I have ridden off and on for a long time, but it has been awhile. Looking for a new bike at the moment.
....
I have a Trek 9300, which is about 15 years old, but haven't ridden much because of a shoulder problem due to an old rugby injury. It seems that if I ride in the typical MTB position, it puts too much weight on my hands and my shoulder starts hurting for a couple of days. I would like to get myself into a more upright position, with most of the weight on my seat. ...
Have you seen the RANS "crank-forward" bikes?
http://www.ransbikes.com/
The Dynamik is the "off-road" model.
Figure they start at about $1K for a bike, but some models have bare framesets available and (at least for a while) they were willing to sell the crank-forward bikes through mail-order. All the recumbent bikes are dealer-storefront-only sales.

I have a Fusion and the hand pressure and neck strain are very minimal. The seat doesn't require padded riding shorts either.

If you do much technical riding or jumping then I'd guess these may not work out well, as the longer wheelbases reduce the practical ground clearance over obstacles and the longer frames might not take hard pounding well. It's tough to beat them in riding comfort over flatter ground however, and they "feel" basically like riding an upright bike, so they are easy to ride. People who have tried riding mine can get right on and get going easily, unlike with the recumbents I've let friends and neighbors try out.

There's basically two different crank-forward frames, and the difference is in the head tube angles. The Fusion, Cruz, Citi and Street are the more laid-back angles, and the Dynamik, Zenetic and 700X are more-upright.

One thing I will note right off with these bikes is that it's generally not possible to stand and pedal them very well, like a "normal" bike,,, so you are stuck sitting on the seat the whole time you ride. The seat is bigger and more supportive than a upright saddle, but there's only really one riding position. On an upright bike you can stand up to pedal to get a quick burst of acceleration, but with these you can't--you have to drop a couple gears lower and just keep cranking the pedals. To that end, one of the BEST modifications I did to mine was I replaced the lower-end ($16/pr) Grip-Shifters with some Sram X-7 trigger shifters, which are the ~$50 "medium-level" triggers.

There is a manufacturer website specifically for these bikes, with its own forum: http://www.crankforward.com/

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The Fusion is more maneuverable, but is not as comfortable as the recumbent (http://www.cyclegenius.com/ltx.html) I own, however. If I had to own only one bike, I would definitely keep the recumbent.

I had upright bikes before I had recumbents.
I don't own upright bikes anymore.
I don't own any more padded riding shorts or riding gloves, either.
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