Hello and welcome to the Pink Bike Value Field Test Special Edition podcast.

Joining me is Sarah, Mike and Dario who have have spent, well, a good chunk of time testing

some value mountain bikes. Caz, this field test, obviously apart from being just value,

can you just explain the premise and how we've ended up with a mix of full suspension

bikes and hard tails in the same category? Yeah, I mean, basically we kind of start

with a price cap, just an overall price cap. It kind of varies depending on how it's going.

I think last year was 3,500, but we were able to bring it down a little bit this year, down to

$3,000 US dollars, just because the prices have actually dropped a little bit compared to the

post-pandemic and pandemic pricing. So basically, $3,000 price cap is the initial starting point.

And then we kind of start looking at what bikes might pose a good value.

I do like bringing hardtails in because a lot of times you can get more,

just better parts for the price.

So obviously you don't have to pay for the rear shock or the suspension components.

So, you know, a $2,000 hard tail theoretically should have better parts on it than a $2,000

full suspension bike. So that's why we bring them in just to kind of let people know what they

might be able to get by foregoing rear suspension. And Sarah, what is a value mountain bike?

Is it a $3,000 proposition or is it a $500 proposition? What do you think?

Well, I think we said that value value you have to want to ride it.

And it has to, you know, if your fork doesn't work at all or your brakes don't work and it's, you know, scary to ride, that's not good value.

So we're looking at bikes that kind of hit that, you know, the best value, but still with being a fun mountain

bike that you would recommend to somebody. You know, it's not a bike that, you know, is from Walmart

or is from Costco or that kind of bike is just, you know, a bike-shaped object, which is not what,

...