[P Escobar]

After looking for a MTN Bike for a while and reading though this site, I finally picked up a Specialized after getting some advice from a buddy of mine who is a HUGE Specialized supporter. I mainly wanted something to use for excercise and a little fun since i haven't rode a bike in over 10 years. We starting looking on Craiglssit and ran across several hardrocks that had seen better days for the price until we found a 2002 Rockhopper that had been babied. My buddy picked it up in Florida and had it shipped to me. A local bike shop down there boxed it up inthe same boxes bikes are sent to them in and he was able to mail it to me.

Question--what tire pressure is recommended by you all? the bike is a 17" and i weight 155, it has Specialized Tires, not sure of exact type but they are trail tires.
Any suggestions for me on how to tune the bike myself vs. paying a shop to do it; that way i will know what to do and when to do it for myself.

Thanks for any help and i look forward to reading and learning more on this site.

 

[Jevin]

Welcome to the Specialized World

 

[Thaumaturge]

Tire pressure is very dependent on riding conditions (rocky? wet? loamy?), tires, and personal preference. Probably a good place to start would be 40 PSI front and rear. From there, add a bit of pressure if you find yourself pinch flatting often. Otherwise, if the ride seems harsh, try it with slightly less air pressure until you find a happy medium.

A decent resource for bike repair is a book called "Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance". Often you can find advice online, too, but I don't like to get my grubby hands on my computer when I'm in the middle of a repair and need to look something up.

Even if you're doing basic maintenance and repairs yourself, you can never go wrong establishing a good relationship with a local shop. If you don't have riding buddies yet, a great way to find some would be to find a LBS that does a weekly group ride and join that once or twice.

Hope some of that helps!

 

[ROCKHOPPER703]

Welcome