Travel to the top of the Inspiration Tower to experience the beauty of the Ozark mountains from the sky. It’s a gateway for those who can’t or simply don’t want to spend a lot of money to go mountain biking and have a good experience while doing it. It’s the kind of bike that sparked the love for the sport for some of us here at Mountain Bike Action and one that will bring many more into ozark trail canopy the sport in the coming years. It’s not the typical cutting-edge, high-performance model we test and all dream of. However, it pushes the boundary of reasonable entry-level performance to all-time record low in terms of price.
While it has a few shortcomings, these are generally easy to fix and overlook. If you want something easier to access, you could always drill a small hole in one corner of the tray table and affix the D-Ring there, but many people will balk at the idea of defacing their chair. Either way, adding a bit of storage is easy if you want or need it. Suppose you think you may be in a position where you’ll spend several hours in this chair. We blame the crossbar design, which runs front to back rather than side to side; this creates a lot of wobble from right to left, especially if the chair is not on perfectly even ground. This chair costs slightly more than the Coleman Cooler Quad Chair, but it’s still a budget-friendly option.
Aside from the impressive amount of weight the chair can support, the thing we like best about the numbers above is the width of the seat. At a whopping 28”, this chair can accommodate just about anyone. The good news is that there are options available, and the Ozark Trail XXL Director Chair is a great option. We’ll be quick to point out that it’s not perfect, but it definitely belongs on your shortlist of options to consider. Renetto licenses its patent to a company called Kelsyus, which makes cheaper versions of the chair.
We were somewhat surprised to see Presta-style valves after decades of Schrader style on bikes like this. Surprisingly, it has internal cable routing, as well as ports for a stealth-routed dropper seatpost. The rest of the frame is standard-issue spec with a tapered head tube, threaded bottom bracket, and ozark trail tumbler water-bottle bosses located on the seat tube and downtube. Tote your gear effortlessly with Upgo’s collapsible wagon, which is 50 percent off for Labor Day.
Everything feels natural and normal until you reach a certain speed, then the bike’s limitations make themselves known. Buying the Ridge was nothing like the bike-shop experience. We were helped by a nice lady who unlocked the bike from its rack and accompanied us to the register at the neighboring electronics section where they sold us the bike, and we walked out the door. A quick safety check revealed that all but one stem face-plate bolt were tight, the headset loose and the rear derailleur was pretty far out of adjustment. We explored the LivingXL Heavy-duty Portable Chair, a robust option for outdoor enthusiasts weighing up to 1000 pounds.