Hey guys. I've been mt. biking for quite some time now, and try to get out at least a few times a week, but this was my first year doing winter riding, although its rather challenging with the snow storms we've been having here in New England. I even managed to go down my street with someone riding by in a snowmobile. Mind you I've never seen anyone riding a snowmobile here in Rhode Island before.
In any case it has deffinately has become one of my favorite pasttimes appart from programming, computers in general and music (i play drums). With that in mind I'd have to say that although it isn't required, if you do take up mt. biking, you deffinetely need to work it into your yearly budget as it can get quite costly with even half-decent and more or less equiped with current generation of componentry beginer mt. bikes (i'm not talking about Wal Mart Huffy or Mongoose which used to be a decent brand until it was bought out a few years ago here) running upwards of $400, but more realistically $500 and easily going over the $1000 mark. In addition there are plenty of accessories which one might want to consider such as helmets(which is really a must if you go off road), gloves, shorts, jerseys, shoes, hydration systems, lighting systems (for those night rides), spare parts and tools( you know you are going to tinker with it if you're on anandtech in the first place) etc...
I'm a little sleepy to provide the arguments in favor of going with such and "expensive" bike and all the gear when you can just go to Sport Authority, Target or Wal Mart and have a bike for $200, but let me just say this, its only worth it if you're actually going to ride. So I suggest borrowing, renting or test-riding someone's half-decent bike in actual off-road conditions for an hour or so at least.On the other hand I've seen a few arguments against all this from people riding in cut-off jeans, sneakers and a Hanes T-shirt. Speaking of riding, you will probably want to ride along with someone either to show you the ropes, trails, but most importantly for safety (you'll want smeone to call for help if you take a spill when you hit a root and get your lights shut off by a stubborn boulder that just won't budge ;-) )
In either case its a fun, but exhausting and sometimes expensive activity. I probably would not be to much out of line if I compared the cost factor to downhill skiing, minus the cost of a lift ticket (although some alpine ski resorts allow you to buy tickets for use of their lifts in the summer time)
I'll finish my mad ramblings by pointing you all to a site called
Mountain Bike Review which will give you some more insight into this activity. It includes a message board which if my memory serves me right has a section for beginners in addition to great user reviews of actual products not unlike epinions.
Have fun and ride on!