Road Bike, Touring, and Mountain

Hello and welcome to BikeCentral.net. We are a website designed to bring you the latest news and info on the great world of cycling. We cover numerous topics like Bikes, Mountain Bike parts, Road Bikes, Bike Racks, Bike Tires, Bike Frames, Bike Wheels and much more.

BikeCentral.net is a purely informational website and we do not endorse or promote any one particular product or method. Please make sure to check back with the site often as we are always updating it to make it the most relevant bike site on the web.

Bicycles were introduced in the 19th century and now number about one billion worldwide. They are the principal means of transportation in many regions. They also provide a popular form of recreation, and have been adapted for such uses as children's toys, adult fitness, military and police applications, courier services, and competitive sports.

A mountain bike or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling, including jumps, and traversing of rocks and washouts, and steep declines, either on dirt trails, logging roads, or other unpaved environments. Bicycles typically used for mountain biking need to be able to withstand off-road use and the surmounting of obstacles such as logs and rocks.

Most mountain bikes use 26 inches bicycle wheels with wide, knobby tires for extra traction and shock absorption. In the current century, front wheel suspension has become the norm and full front and rear suspension has become increasingly common. Some mountain bike frames are also fitted with bar ends on the handlebars to give extra leverage for hill-climbing.

Mountain biking is broken down into four categories: cross country, downhill, free ride, and trials/street riding. Each has differing levels of safety-consciousness with different types of mountain bikes and riding gear. A combination sport named mountain bike orienteering adds the skill of map navigation to mountain biking.

This individual sport requires endurance, bike handling skills and self-reliance, and can be performed almost anywhere from a back yard to a gravel road, but the majority of mountain bikers ride off-road trails, whether country back roads, fire roads, or single-track (narrow trails that wind through forests, mountains, deserts, or fields). There are aspects of mountain biking that are more similar to trail running than regular bicycling.

Because riders are often far from civilization, there is a strong ethic of self-reliance in the sport. Riders learn to repair their broken bikes or flat tires to avoid being stranded miles from help. This reliance on survival skills accounts for the group dynamics of the sport. Club rides and other forms of group rides are common, especially on longer treks.

A road bicycle is a synonym for the term racing bicycle. In general road bicycles have drop handlebars and multiple gears, although there are single and fixed gear varieties. It is also used less formally for any bicycle designed for use primarily on paved roads, as opposed to off-road terrain. Racing bicycles are designed for road bicycle racing: they are fast, lightweight and aerodynamic.

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