If only I was Canadian...

Cody 26, Austin 18 If I win a jersey, I'll still wear it! No use hanging something like that on the wall!

Or some I9s

"All the PMBI course instructors are a minimum of CASI/CSIA (Canadian Snowboard Instructors Association) Level 4 certified." As a ski instructor, I feel like it is important that mountain biking has its own certification for teaching and coaching, but I'd like to see it develop a little more separately from whats already going on with snow sports. I think there is definitely a lot we can learn from other certification programs and we should use them as a resource. However, someone doesn't need to be good at teaching snow sports to legitimize them as mountain bike coaches. Plus, there is a lot PSIA and others could improve on. Creating our own certification programs separate from snow sports will allow us to bring in fresh thinking and ideas.

If you really think its garbage, give us a reason why... The old cop-out, "it looks like some other bike" isn't really a valid reason because it just shows how much you don't know about the bikes in question.

Being able to carry a helmet is definitely one of the deciding factors whenever I'm looking at bags.

Your friend ran XO and died?!

Wait. Two seasons old and the bike is totally trashed? Just try doing some of your own mechanic work and you'll find that maintaining a bike is not nearly that hard or too expensive. So many people live in such a throw away world. If he's such a genius with the bike, then teach him how to fix it, so in ten years he won't be another idiot bringing his bike to the shop for every little thing that goes wrong. This kid is going to grow up thinking that he will only be good if he has the newest and best equipment. Besides, from what I've seen, anyone who has learned on a hardtail first tends to ride a lot smoother than people who learned on a softy.