Berm Peak, on YouTube, has a great video every aspiring mountain biker should watch before buying a bike. The video is regarding the differences between a 400$ mountain bike and a 13,000$ mountain bike. I’m going to spoil it right here, so if you want to watch it for yourself, watch now…
The guy making the video does a good job going over the differences without too much bias. He says a couple of illogical things. I’ll forgive him for those, but I’ll also explain them here. At the end he admits he probably could’ve bought a cheaper bike. Long before, he throws one tongue-in-cheek joke in there which could be interpreted as baiting, but I’d give him the benefit of the doubt and say he meant it as wry humor. His cheeky joke is when he says the 400$ bike has some features the 13K bike doesn’t have, like nifty L and R indicators so you know which pedal goes on what side. Narf!
One illogic: he acts as if bikes have skills. Only the rider has skills. If anyone ever said, “I got a spendy bike so I can be a better rider,” they might also say, “I bought an expensive soccer ball so I can be a better soccer player.” See how that doesn’t actually make any sense? Now, you might be asking what the similarities are between a soccer ball and a mountain bike. You might be thinking the bike can be upgraded but the ball can’t. That’s true, but upgrades don’t translate into skill either. One similarity is that both the mountain bike and the ball get kicked around. Another similarity is the fact that both really do come in a variety of styles and prices. If you don’t know what you’re buying, then you may be the one who gets kicked around.
Another biased illogic: He outright says, if you don’t have tubeless tires you’re going to get a flat. What?! People can do all the same things with tubes as tubeless. Here’s another secret you might want to know is that lots of people who ride tubeless bring a tube along with them, just in case. Keep in mind here too, every thing you take with you adds weight—a point our Berm Peak YouTuber brings up several times.
Riding tubeless tires is no warranty against flats, neither is riding tubes. Probably the best defense against flats is knowing how to fix them. Before you buy tubeless, understand there is a substance, sometimes called slime, which is terrible horrendous to work with when doing a repair. Don’t get it on you, or you’ll regret it.
He talks about hydraulic brakes and how he loves that sort of system. Hydraulics aren’t a necessity. In my case they are a liability. I like adventuring. I like going off trail. I’ve gone off some crazy stuff. If that sounds like you, then you should realize you’re going to do better with mechanical brakes. When adventure riding, cables are superior. Beginners and daredevils will be better off with mechanical brakes.
He even talks about wifi, or bluetooth, seat poppers AND brakes. Those are fun toys—until your battery dies, or you hit something, or you get some interference—so many ways they stop working, then you can’t do anything. Your expensive toys suddenly are worth 0$ in every imaginable currency. Why even waste your money on that? Again, stay with what is reliable, and that would be cables. Cables may weigh ounces more than wireless devices, but consider how much the whole bike weighs when you’re hiking it back up, or back down, the hill.
In his comparison, one bike is aluminum, another is titanium. Get this fun fact: the value of titanium fluctuates up and down depending on the demand in the market. Some years it’s worth more, some less. An ounce of titanium at early 2025 prices is only worth 12$ per kilogram, so that’s around a penny per gram and 24$ for that 2kg bike frame. This, of course, is the price of unprocessed, unshaped titanium. What do you think? Is the manufacture of that material worth what this YouTuber paid for it. I’d say he was following his dream, so maybe. If you love your bike, it’s worth every penny you paid for it.
He’s dead right when he talks about plastic pedals. Those are how the bike manufacturer keeps the overall price of the bike low. They cost like 10 cents to make and they’re sold to you for 10$. You are not getting a deal on the plastic pedals, only on the overall price of the bike.
As I said already, our Berm Peak YouTuber admits he feels a bit silly making the video and finding out he paid way too much for a mountain bike. A person can definitely fall into the wrong persuasions. There’s no need to spend 10K to 20K for a mountain bike. Especially if you’re just starting out. If so, get the less expensive model. When you find out you love the sport, go ahead and get some actual upgrades to the less expensive bike—such as metal pedals instead of plastic.
For more insight on the subject, try checking out Matty Active, a YouTuber with similar topics.
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