Steel mountain bike?

[Irulan]

Maybe a clinic would give you some confidence. I've said it a hundred times. The basic skill set for mountain biking is simple to learn, yet for a lot of folks it's not intuitive. You don't have to be all aggro and all that to enjoy trail riding. I've seen gals go from completely freaked out about riding over a foam noodle to totally confident beginners in a matter of hours.

[indysteel]

Maybe a clinic would give you some confidence. I've said it a hundred times. The basic skill set for mountain biking is simple to learn, yet for a lot of folks it's not intuitive. You don't have to be all aggro and all that to enjoy trail riding. I've seen gals go from completely freaked out about riding over a foam noodle to totally confident beginners in a matter of hours.

You're probably right. Generally speaking, I'm an athletic person, but there are a few things that easily freak me out. I love to hike, for instance, but I'm very extremely afraid of falling, slipping, tripping, etc. That's why I've always assumed that I just wasn't mentally set up for MTBing.

[Catrin]

For me the clinic gives me a safe place to learn the basics - while the skill set might be "simple" the odds of my getting hurt by heading out there to learn on my own are pretty high...

Indy, it sounds like we both could benefit from this - and with Jonathan as one of the instructors that says very good things about the caliber of the instructors!