Although Stand Up Paddle Boarding is hands down our favorite family fun fitness activity, we also enjoy many other activities together. Mountain Biking is definitely in our top 5 family adventures, and if you asked my 8 year old son, Payne, he’d probably say it was his favorite! Many of our fitness lifestyle hobbies are very inexpensive; quality snowshoe’s can be purchased for under $200, hiking shoes & a decent backpack are a fairly low investment, and time spent playing at our local park is free. Our Stand Up Paddle boarding hobby can definitely start to add up to some $$$ between the boards themselves, quality paddles, life jackets, etc. We “voted” as a family to make Mountain Biking a frequent adventure, but also agreed we needed to stay within a reasonable budget. Keeping a reasonable budget in mind, Michelle & I started off with matching HARO Flightline Mt Bikes, both with the standard 26″ tires. We initially purchased a Mongoose Youth Mt Bike for Payne. We started off with some easier local rides and a few trips to the Coast. Payne was 5 years old at the time, so naturally we kept things at a moderate pace and didn’t try any of the more challenging Mt Bike trails

We spent over half the time walking our bikes, with Michelle & I taking turns to come back for Payne’s bike on all the extra steep sections that he couldn’t push his bike up by himself. All 3 of us had blisters on or hands & feet, sunburns, and were exhausted by the time we got back to our truck. Payne was convinced we had a vendetta against him, and this Mt Bike ride was somehow a trick to see just how much punishment he could handle. He’s a tough lil guy though, and we all made it home in one piece. We learned a lot on that trip. A “high end” department store Youth Mt Bike was NOT made for Moab. I was at least 30 lbs too heavy for the suspension on my HARO, and my bars were much too small. All of us had problems with our feet slipping off the pedals, especially the more fatigued we got. Michelle’s hands were throbbing from the stock HARO bars & grips. We’re not the types to give up on anything, and we don’t like getting our butts kicked like that! After that trip, I was on a mission to get us the right gear to conquer Moab! I honestly don’t know how many different Mt Bikes I tested before finally purchasing myself a new Specialized Rockhopper hard tail 29er. As soon as I rode the 29er around the block, I knew it had to be mine. The Rockhopper was $850 as-is. Bone stock it came with push button lockout front suspension and the adjustable SR Suntour XCR-Air fork was just amazing!