Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
To be fair, the bike you posted does not actually have pedals...
If you arent going to ride bike parks get the Jeffsy, if you are going to ride 90% XC get the Izzo. Jeffsy can do XC descent but if thats 90% of your riding the Izzo will be much better.
So I will probably make the occasional bike park trip. Nashville has some places, so does birmingham and we have friends there we see alot.
We also have a lot of trails with smaller jump lines and stuff. I'm not totally informed either. I know there's lots of xc riding. I have a hard time believing that I will not find some other stuff when I make a couple friends and meet some other bike guys. I don't want to end up with "not enough bike" but I understand that I can end up making my riding inefficient and unpleasant which sucks too. I know nothing is perfect or always optimal but just want to make a good choice. I hope what I said makes sense and you understand what the tension is about.
I think the main thing to consider other than the suspension travel is the frame geometry. Yeah, you can lock out the suspension on an enduro, but if the geometry is more XC oriented then it will still climb or go long distances better. You still get a lot of travel out of the jeffsy and will be able to hit jumps no problem I'd imagine
The Shop
Free shipping: VITALMX
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Are you kidding me? Both of those statements are completely false. The respective communities are everything. Advocacy. The AMA is not just a card you are forced to buy to compete at certain events. The MTB Community, not local government, is the reason certain trails allow ebike or not.
The Jeffsy sounds like a good fit then, will be a bit much for XC but will handle mountain stuff and flowy bike park stuff fine. Will get a little overwhelmed in the fast techy bike park stuff but that sounds like a very small part of your riding. You can just PM the link to the bike you are looking at I can look at the components and see what your working with, theres quite a few other bikes in that category that are great bikes so comes down to to components and price.
I spoke with YT a little yesterday and they recommended the Jeffsy 100% without reservation based on the information I gave them which mirros what is posted in here.
To be honest, I aspire and desire to ride more enduro and gravity based stuff but it's just not hugely accessible here whatsoever. So it does not make sense to gear my equipment that way. This bike is supposed to be a time saver and create opportunities not more trips to bike destinations.
I've done both most of my life and I feel that besides the adrenaline rush they are two different type of experiences. Moto is more hyper focused the whole time and MTB is a mixture of that and enjoying nature. I do also have an e-bike and enjoy that when there are a bunch of steep climbs, but I like my acoustic bike better on rolling trails and downhills.
First two pics is from my trip last weekend to Santa Cruz - trails were amazing!
The last picture is 2 miles down the street from where I live. I have a 16 mile "GP" loop that I do on my e-bike a couple times a week that has some really fun black diamond rocky downhill sections on it. For the Moto guys I think a coil rear shock and a smashpot coil conversion for the fork (which I have on my Levo) is a must for more of a dirt bike suspension feel. Not as much pop of hits like air springs but way more of a planted feel.
The issue is they have e-bikes classified as a motor vehicle, the forest service only either has hiking/biking/horse trails or motorized vehicle trails. AMA does a lot of advocacy but its a hell of a lot easier to advocate to keep things open or expand than it is to convince the forest service to change non motorized hiking and biking trails to be classified as motorized.
Alot of people were advocating for the ebike stuff but the overwhelming majority of mountain bikers did not want to allow ebikes in forest lands for reasons I mentioned in another post so they dont waste time fighting the government on a futile issue.
Man... I never thought I'd wish to live in california lol. that's something special.
I was already thinking about coil vs air and whether or not it would matter. I have already promised this will not be like MX and that I would not spend a lot on parts etc. We'll see how long that lasts.
LOL yep you are correct I like that one better
From what you have said the jeffsy is the model I would get if I was you and I was buying a YT. Skip on the coil for now. You can play with your air pressure until you have your setup figured out. Coils are best on steep loose stuff where you can use the most traction. I run coils on all my bikes just because of the terrain I ride and how I ride.
Good luck man I can’t wait to hear about your first ride! Go ride Brown County park in Nashville (Kentucky) the trails there rival the trails anywhere. I’m sure it’s to cold right now tho lol
Did you mean this place? https://www.browncountystatepark.net/mountain_biking_trails.htm
This goes for everyone, if you have any places to ride near West KY, please suggest. A major part of the draw to the mtb is that I'll be working weekends every weekend until I die in the near future so accessibility to things on a random monday is important and is something you can do on a bike. Never seen any tracks open monday lol.
Probably good advice on the coil, the only place I ride the bike with the coil set up is bombed out, loose, rocky and has steep spots (mission trails in SD).
Yes that’s it! sorry my memory was a little off on the location lol
But if you can make it to Bentonville Arkansas that place is insane, the whole town is like a Mtb playground. Plus’s it’s a super cool town.
Windrock Tennessee is also bad ass. Actually Neko Mulally has a couple shuttle DH parks he’s started in your general area, any of those parks will be worth a trip.
But now the whole point of saving money by riding MTBs is kinda getting screwed lol. I’d be rich if I didn’t spend so much money traveling to ride new spots and hit new jumps lol.
But I do agree with you, a long travel bike with a rear coil shock feels just like a moto bike. Very planted compared to air.
Brown County is a lot of fun. Griffin Bike park also in Indiana is fun, and would probably be a couple hour drive from you.
I've rode the mtn bike trails at Land between lakes and they are good, but not as good as the places above. I have friends in evansville who said there are trail all around there, but I've never been mtn biking around that area.
The app "MTB project" is good for finding trail systems, I'd recommend checking it out.
LBL is 5 mins from my in laws and 25 for me. It'll be the primary spot. I'm not afraid to pack a shovel and work on some hillsides either but I'm not sure thats cool. I'll have to learn the laws of the land when it comes to mtb stuff because I have noticed alot of the people into like "biking" are pretentious and obnoxious like horse people for whatever reason.
When you were out there, did you see anything other than the loops? Is there like any side attractions/jumps/lines? We have a pump track down the street lol!
Pit Row
Let the discussion continue but I wanted to say thanks a big bunch to everyone for being kind and helpful walking me through some of this stuff patiently. Appreciate you all. Cant wait for it to arrive! I got the Jeffsy.
Of course you can’t dig in the state park stuff, but as you continue to ride you will probably spend time digging in spots for sure. Some days I’m tired of riding so I go out and build trails just because I want to have new features to ride and because I want to be out in the sticks.
Brown County park has lots of jumps built into the parks trails. Also cool rock features etc. I wouldn’t recommend it if it wasn’t super fun. Find somebody to ride with and use either Strava or Trail forks to find the best stuff to ride.
Check out Crooked Creek loop, go clockwise. Pretty fun loop. You can find it on trail forks app
Once you get into it definitely give Windrock a try. Riding downhill is the closest you can get to MX on a bicycle IMO. After a full day of DH riding I feel like I just came of the moto track; I'm beat, hands are sore, and it gives me almost the same buzz as moto!
You're going to dig it.
In case you didn't know, here are some things I learned about MTB that I didn't know, coming from an MX background:
-You need pedals. Bikes don't come with them, in most cases. Yes, it is weird. I like CrankBrothers Mallet E, but they're the clip-in kind, and I wouldn't recommend that at first. Get some good, flat, platform pedals at a local bike shop (LBS is the slang term). Note that the one on the left is left-hand thread.
-Make friends with the dudes at the LBS. They are way cooler than the dudes at your local moto emporium. They'll tell you where the good sports to ride are and hook you up when you need help.
-You need shorts. Seriously. You think you get monkey butt from MX? Haha. Almost all the moto brands are making MTB stuff these days - TLD, Alpinestars, Fox, Fly. Most people run the MTB shorts over a bicycling chamois or "liner."
PS:
Here are some websites to check out-
www.vitalmx.com (duh)
www.jensonusa.com (online retailer)
www.chainreactioncycles.com (online retailer)
www.worldwidecyclery.com (online retailer and comedy gold)
www.mtbproject.com (trail maps and discovery)
www.trailforks.com (trail maps and discovery)
I actually get more fulfillment from MTB than moto, mainly because there’s more people to link up with and you can talk to each other while riding
Man, where is this in SD!? I can't think of any spots with trails that close to the water.
Maybe you could split it down the middle and get a sur-ron. Its pretty close to a mountain bike but with an electric motor and its silent so youd have more places to ride closer to home. You can also get a pedal kit to put on that turns it into an e-bicycle, but one thats fast af. Id definitely consider this as a happy medium for the time being.
All I know of LBL is the regular loops. No jump lines/side hits to my knowledge. Nothing super technical.
Download "mountain bike project" for your phone, almost all public legal trails will be on there, download the info for all the states near you or ones you aspire to visit some day.
Biking is not as fun as riding motorcycles, you have to find satisfaction/enjoyment from the grind. Headphones with a good 120bpm mix and you can be in your own little world for 2 hours. It's not the same but I does get your blood pumping with the mild risk of eating shit so that's fun.
For your area a YT izzo would probably be fine but I can understand the draw of wanting to get the jeffsy. Either way it looks like there's alot of trail systems around the lakes there that are not super high level, might even be more fun riding on a hardtail.
Looks like Encinitas
You ride lots different than I do
Post a reply to: Mountain Biking Cross-Satisfaction?