Hi, my name is Vincent Cheng.  I have been reading the rec.bicycles.* 
newsgroups for a few years and have been participating on the mtb mailing 
list for about 18 months now.  Every week, I see the same questions about 
mountain biking, however, no one has ever taken the time to write a FAQ 
for mountain biking.  Since I have nothing better to do, I have compiled 
this little FAQ file.

Now, you might ask...  How is this the official Mountain Biking FAQ?  Did 
someone gave me permission to make it official?  Of course not!  No one
else would take the time to do it, and I'm the first one to actually complete
the whole FAQ, therefore, this is the official one.

FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO USE THIS FAQ FOR THEIR OWN WEBPAGES, PLEASE
CONTACT ME FIRST.  THIS IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AND I HAVE 100% LEGAL 
RIGHT TO THIS.  

This FAQ is different from most FAQ's you have seen.  Most FAQ's are a
compilation of articles posted regarding the topics.  In this FAQ, most
of the material are written by myself.  The articles are then later 
published on the mtb mailing list for editing and revising.  In the 
following sections, the parts that were written by others will have their
names on them.

I am no expert in the area of mountain biking.  I'm only 19 and I have
only mountain biked for about 3 years.  However, I have been involved in
the technical side of cycling for over 6 years.  I have worked in various
shops and jobs.  Because of this, you will see, IMHO, better articles in
the tech section of this FAQ by me than in the riding section. 

I should, however, list my biases about some topics.  I ride an older
suspension fork.  I ride without an expensive bike (relatively speaking). 
I ride with top mount shifters and discontinued parts.  I might not have
the latest info on products since I can never afford them, but I try to
gain as much info as possible by reading, testing, and listening to
others.  Remember that this FAQ is not a product review.  I try not to
list any specific products if I can, however, sometimes it is impossible
to do without.  Please do not get offended if you are wishing for
something different. 

This FAQ is not very complete.  If you see a topic that you think should be
covered in this FAQ, please cross-check the rec.bicycles.* FAQ to make sure
that it's not covered there.  If the article has never been covered, I will
try to get enough articles together to publish a FAQ section for it.
My e-mail address is: vccheng@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca  Please include the 
words--"FAQ" on your message.  e.g. "FAQ--*** info".  I have received
complaints about not replying to some mail, but please be understanding.  I
get over 200 e-mails a day from various people/groups/lists.  It is very hard 
for me to fish out the FAQ mails without this "FAQ" subject heading.

Before I end this, I would like to thank Mike Iglesias
(iglesias@draco.acs.uci.edu) for helping me with the new text format of 
this FAQ.  He is the maintainer of the rec.bicycles.* FAQ and he has 
agreed to lend me his wonderful format for me to use.  Thanks Mike, I owe 
you one!  And to Brian Adams (adams@cs.unr.edu), who edited my FAQ 
so that it is actually somewhat understandable.  I would also like to thanks 
all you folks out there in cyberspace who have commented on the FAQ.
I would especially like to thank the people on the mtb-mailing list 
(mtb@cycling.org, for subcribing info, please  see http://www.cycling.org
and look under mailing lists.  read on for more info)  The people on the 
list are very helpful to my "quest" for a better FAQ.

Note to foreign readers, I believe the FAQ has been translated into
French, Finnish, and German.  If you would like to translate the FAQ into
other languages, feel free, but please tell me so that I can keep track.
Please do not ask me where these FAQ's are located, because I really have
no idea.

Well...that's all.

Have fun and ride hard.