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Discover Ronda’s Mountain Landscape By Bike
Mar 26, 2021

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wineblog

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Your bicycle never fails to accompany you on your routes across Serrania de Ronda and its surroundings. However, to get the most out of your bike and enjoyment out of the experience, it is important to think about what type of cycling you will mainly be doing—cycling for transport, leisure, or competition—, as well as to consider the ground type—dirt, asphalt, or forest routes—.

For your outings around The Wine & Country Club, i.e. along local cycle paths and paved roads, and taking into account the value for money, market share, design, accessibility and R&D development, it is best to choose among the following bicycles:

  • Specialized
  • Scott
  • Trek
  • Giant
  • Canyon
  • Cannondale
  • Orbea
  • BMC
  • Pinarello
  • Bianchi

The aforementioned brands are endorsed by iconic cyclists and are benchmarks in the cycling world because of their prestige, technical service, permanent stock of spare parts, level of customisation, comfort, and safety.

However, if you are into mountain biking or are planning to hit off-road routes, you will need a radically different bicycle. Here are the different categories:

  • Enduro bikes are designed for the increasingly popular discipline of enduro racing—this is where rides are timed on a series of short(ish) technical runs, with untimed, often climbing sections between them—and are able to handle seriously gnarly terrain.
  • Cross-country (XC) bikes are the polar opposite to a downhill bike. They are designed for going fast, but also to fly uphill, so they are much lighter and versatile.
  • Trail bikes are perhaps the largest, most ubiquitous category of mountain bike, but can often blur the lines into other categories—the point being that trail bikes are a jack of all trades and a master of none—. Trail bikes nearly always have full suspension and are great for descending, whilst still being able to climb and hit the singletrack hard.
  • Fat bikes are those cartoon-looking mountain bikes with huge tractor type balloon tyres. Although they were originally invented for riding across mud, sand or snow, the vast majority of fat bikes are ridden on the normal trails that you ride any mountain bike on.
  • With power assist that help on tough hills, electric bikes combine the freedom of cycling but remove the strain.

After all is said and done, the decision is a personal one. The key is to be as realistic as possible in terms of the type of cycling and to know your limits. Some of the best bikes are:

  • Moma Peak
  • BH Spike 1.0.
  • Voodoo Bizango
  • Cube Attention SL
  • Trek Roscoe 7
  • Rockrider XC 900
  • Canyon Spectral AL 6.0
  • Merida Ninety-Six
  • Cannondale Scalpel Carbon LTD
  • Specialized S-Works Epic

Some of the features that make the above bikes stand out include endurance, hardiness, excellent performance with mid-range components, greater traction and inertia—perfect for going downhill—, stability, versatility, a slightly more reactive and radical driving, extra safety, greater agility at the rear of the bike, better balance, reasonable comfort, and more efficient suspension.

There is something for every taste, level and budget. Ideally, you will own two bikes to cover all types of outings – a city bike and a mountain bike.

The Best Accessories For Your Bike

 

In addition to cycling clothing, reflective jackets, bike helmets and cycling shoes to get the look you want and the functionality you need, a visit to your local bike shop will reveal that they do not just sell bikes but many other accessories; some of which are absolutely essential for security and safety.

There is nothing more important you can do to make yourself visible on the road than having a high quality set of front and rear lights. There are many different options available, from small watch battery powered safety-lights, to LED options that are rechargeable, have multiple modes, and are bright enough to rival the headlights on an HGV. Ensure you have lights that are suitable for when and where you are riding your bike for optimum safety.

It is also wise to use a rear-view mirror; it allows you to look behind you and in front of you at the same time because it just takes a small eye movement rather than a huge head movement to go from looking ahead to looking behind and back.

It is rare to see a cyclist riding without a cycle computer on their handlebars these days, so you will do well to purchase a cycling GPS unit for routing. They typically feature far-improved navigation, which allows turn-by-turn even off-road, clearer mapping and a touchscreen that allows you to pinch and zoom the map, just like on a mobile phone. In addition, GPS units will usually have a longer battery life and better reception than a mobile phone.

And last, but not least, you should exercise utmost caution and always carry some key tools along since they can not only come in handy, but also make an enormous difference between being able to comfortably continue on the route should an unforeseen event unfold, or having to cancel the outing and return home.