Having spent the last few days looking at different bikes to buy ,i am amazed at the mount of different configurations you can go for.
Now am a big mountain bike fan, and although there are lots of different makes models and manufactures, it is very easy to get good advice from lots of different bike shops in the southwest, there are some very good guys who are willing to give out good free advice on what type of bike is good for your riding style etc, without trying to get you to buy from them!
Now onto my point, in the southwest to my knowledge there isn't any shops that sell a range of trial cycles or for that matter are even that intreasted, i suppose this is down to the fact that there isn't that much intreast in the sport in devon/cornwall so they wouldn't make any money at it!!
So i need more help from you guys from vast knowledge of the sport
1. wheel size......this doesn't matter to much?
2. why do some have gears?
3 .single speed, what ratio to go for?
4. buying new bike from a shop....is this a good idea?
5. brakes...disc or rim
6.is it good to buy various bits and build it yourself?
there are hundreds of other questions but i realized i have sent half of you to sleep already! so i will stop......
Anyway a conclussion i have come to is the that this aspect of cycling seems very much left for a hardcore few trying to keep it from the masses,which seems a bit strange because, the more people that get into it, the more bikes that sell which means the cheaper they become, which has to be a bonus for eveyone?