I Spent a Fortune on a Mountain Bike… Then Reality Hit

Trek was the first mountain bike I started out on, particularly the Trek Marlin 6. This was my first step into mountain biking and I love this bike because without it, I don't think I would have come to the realization that I have now. Now I'm not trying to single out Trek, I'm just most familiar with them and I'm sure a lot of other people are doing the same thing. You see, when you first start mountain biking and you don't know anyone who actually mountain bikes, you know very little about bikes. After the Trek Marlin 6, I eventually moved up to the original Trek Roscoe and people would always tell me that's a great bike but it doesn't have a rear through axle and a rear through axle is something I never knew anything about and once I found out what that meant, I was thinking to myself, how did I pay over a thousand dollars and my bike doesn't have that? But the fact that I like this bike so much, I didn't think anything of it, I just kept riding it. But it wasn't until I got my dream bike, the Trek Remedy, when I realized something was off. All right guys, we got the rock garden right here. We're gonna come down on the Trek Remedy 8 and see if it can handle some chunk. We just did the top of Rainmaker, you know that thing was made to jump, but can it handle the tech? We're about to find out. As much as I enjoyed this bike, after spending almost $4,000, you would think there would be no issues whatsoever and the bike would have no hiccups. But even at almost $4,000, that's not the case. I'm not a fan of these SRAM brakes at all, so I would like to get these off at some point. Now remember, I'm still fairly new to mountain biking and all the components and such, but I know some brakes are personal opinion. But this bike came with SRAM Code R brakes. I never really knew about SRAM brakes until now. These were so bad, it literally made me not want to ride the bike anymore. And after spending so much money, there's no reason to have to be concerned about getting brakes situated. This is really when I noticed a lot of riders get handicapped into spending a whole bunch of money to get everything they need on a bike. And this is kind of why I strayed away from the expensive bikes, because after spending all that money, you should have everything ready to go. Shortly after purchasing the Trek Remedy 8, Bikes Online reached out and wanted me to check out the brand new Polygon Siskiyou T7. And after riding this bike and not having to deal with any issues at all, and it's more than half the price, I was officially done with expensive mountain bikes. Man, this bike is sick. I actually underestimated this bike for the situation that I'm putting in here right now. And it just, it just shreds. It was very hard for me to come to the realization that I worked so hard to get that Trek Remedy 8. And once I finally got it, it hit me that there's no reason I should be spending $4,000 on a mountain bike to feel like I truly have a capable mountain bike. And now that we have companies like Polygon and even Walmart putting out bikes with everything you need for a fraction of the price, it really makes me wonder if these companies actually think about their customers. After realizing what you could do with the bike for more than half the price, this ultimately led me to sell the Trek Remedy 8. And this sent me on a mission to really see if we actually need as much bike as the industry wants us to believe. Once I started exploring different types of bikes on mountain bike trails, it opened my eyes to a whole new world. And I completely lost interest in all the new mountain bikes coming out nowadays, because in my eyes, for the average person, it really makes no sense. I started trying out rigid mountain bikes, and I realized I've been missing out on so much fun, thinking I needed the best mountain bike possible. I remember thinking if I had less than 140 millimeters of travel, that it wasn't a good enough bike. I slowly began to realize that I didn't need any of the things I thought I did to have fun, and it honestly felt like I was paying a lot of money just to fit in. It's very easy to get caught up into thinking you need to have the same, if not better, bike than other people on the trails. But what I learned is there is no right or wrong way to mountain bike. And when I learned this, it changed my whole perspective on mountain biking. It's funny, this dude just said, you crazy for riding drop bars out here. That's funny. I love how people think this is just so bad or just so crazy. It's just riding a bike. Riding practical bikes made me really appreciate the trails and everything they had to offer, turning what would normally be considered easy trails into nonstop action packed trails. I think it's awesome that companies like Walmart have decided to step up and make modern mountain bikes more accessible to the average rider, without handicapping them into having to buy a brand new bike once they decide they want to upgrade. It really turns mountain biking from being expensive into investing into it at your own pace because you were able to get a good platform at a very low cost. If it wasn't for you watching my videos and supporting the channel, I wouldn't have been able to ride so many bikes and come to this conclusion. So I'm very thankful for that. I know a lot of people have been wondering why I haven't ridden my Trek Roscoe 9 as much. And even though that's still my favorite mountain bike at the moment, it makes me way more excited to ride bikes that I feel aren't out of the realm of possibility to obtain. So when I see you on the trails, you'll know I'm just like you. This bike actually feels good. It feels nimble. It actually rides pretty good. Oh, this is sick. This thing is sick.