What Should You Wear for Mountain Biking?

Mountain biking means branches, rocks, mud, and the odd fall. Road kit is built for smooth pavement, and it does not hold up out here. Trail clothes have to handle rough ground and sudden impacts, and what you wear changes how comfortable, safe, and fun the ride is.

None of that means a wardrobe full of gear. You need a helmet, a sweat-wicking jersey, baggy shorts over a padded liner, mountain bike shoes, full-finger gloves, socks and eye protection. Nothing more complicated than that until the trail gets rough.

First bike or fifteenth, that short list is what we end up talking through at the counter most weeks. Below is what our staff, all riders themselves, recommend, piece by piece, plus what changes with the weather and with the kind of riding you do.

Your Mountain Biking Kit

The list is shorter than most people expect. Seven pieces handle almost any trail ride, and none of it needs replacing every season.

The essentials:

• Helmet
• Jersey that pulls sweat away
• Baggy shorts
• Padded liner underneath
• Mountain bike shoes with grippy soles or spd cleats
• Full-finger gloves
• Wool or synthetic socks

What to add, and when

Eye Protection - For anything dry, fast or overgrown

Light Jacket - Cool Mornings and high country

Knee Pads - Rocky trails and bike park laps

Base Layer - Cold rides below about 45 degrees

Body Armor - Downhill, enduro or bike park

 

A bottle is enough for a quick lap. For anything longer, a hydration pack carries more water and somewhere for a tube and a tool. Dry air at elevation pulls water out of you faster than the temperature suggests.

If you are a beginner, start with the helmet, shoes and gloves. Those three affect how safe and confident you feel, and the rest of the cycling apparel on both lists can wait until you know what riding you enjoy. Most people buy pads after their first real fall.

Helmets

Your helmet is the one piece to buy properly. Trail riders wear a half shell. For bike park laps, downhill and enduro racing, riders switch to a full face, which adds a chin bar.

Mountain bike and road helmets meet the same safety standards. What differs is the shape. Trail helmets reach further down the back of the head, since a trail crash tends to send you backward over the bike rather than forward onto the road. They also come with a visor for low sun and branches.

Most riders own a half shell and stop there. You want a full face once the speeds are higher and a crash is less forgiving. 7 iDP, Troy Lee Designs and Fox all build both.

Head shape matters more than size, so two helmets in the same size can feel completely different. Have a look through the helmets we carry across road, gravel and mountain, and you can match the shape and the coverage to how you ride.

Jerseys and Layers

Whatever goes on your top half has one job: moving sweat off your skin. Cotton does the opposite. It soaks up sweat, stays wet, and turns cold the moment you stop climbing and start descending.

The cycling jerseys we carry split three ways for mountain riding. MTB short sleeve is the summer default. MTB long sleeve is worth owning year-round, since it takes the sting out of branches and gives sun cover on exposed climbs without adding much heat. DH and freeride cuts are looser again, cut long in the back and sleeve so they sit over pads and body armor.

Synthetic dries fastest. Merino dries more slowly, but it holds warmth when damp and does not hold smell, which suits long days and cold mornings.

Below roughly 45 degrees, add a cycling base layer under your jersey. It traps a little warmth and keeps pulling sweat away. That breaks the usual pattern: sweating hard on the climb and then freezing on the way down.

The layer riders most often wish they had brought is a shell. A wind shell folds into a jersey pocket. A waterproof one is heavier, and earns its place when rain is a real possibility. Both sit in our cycling jackets range. A cycling vest falls between the two, blocking wind across your chest while leaving your arms free.

Shorts, Liners and Pants

Baggy shorts over a padded liner are what most mountain bikers wear. The outer shorts take the slide and hold your phone. The liner does the comfort work.

Road bibs will do, and cross country racers often ride in lycra alone because it is lighter and cooler on a long climb. What lycra will not do is survive contact with the ground or a passing branch.

The pad matters sooner than people expect, after about 45 minutes. Some cycling shorts come with a built-in liner. Others are shells you pair with a separate liner, which is easier to wash often.

Either way, nothing goes under the liner. The pad is designed to sit against skin. Underwear adds seams and traps moisture, which is exactly the chafing the liner exists to prevent.

Cycling pants make sense once the weather turns or the trail gets rough. They keep mud and brush off your legs, add warmth, and cover knee pads. Look for a tapered leg so nothing catches the chain.

Shoes

Running shoes are the most common mistake here. The soles are soft, so pedal pins chew them up, and your foot rolls off on rough ground. Mountain bike shoes have a stiff sole, so your power goes into the pedal instead of flexing the shoe, and rubber built to stay put.

Five Ten built its reputation on flat pedal rubber, and Sidi is the name most riders think of for clipless.

Start on flats if you are new. You learn better foot position, and you can put a foot down without thinking. Plenty of very good riders never switch. Move to clipless when you want a fixed foot position on long climbs, or when you start racing.

Whichever you choose, the pedals have to match, and clipless pedals and cleats are usually sold separately.

Gloves, Socks and Eyewear

Gloves

Full-finger is the standard. They give grip once your hands sweat, take the scrape when you put a hand down, and stop branches catching your knuckles. Look for a thin palm, since too much padding dulls the feel through the bars. The cycling gloves we carry run from thin summer trail gloves to insulated winter pairs. In cold weather, you switch to a warmer glove rather than doubling up.

Socks

Wool or synthetic. Merino holds warmth when damp, and synthetic dries fastest in summer. A taller cuff sits under knee pads without bunching and keeps grit off your ankles, so most of our cycling socks come in a couple of heights.

Eyewear

Cycling sunglasses are what most riders wear day to day. A lighter lens beats a dark one on wooded trails, where the light keeps changing. Goggles come out for bike park laps and anything muddy, since they seal against your face and pair with a full-face helmet the way sunglasses do not.

Pads and Protection

Knee pads are the piece riders resist longest and regret skipping fastest. Knees hit the ground first in most low-speed falls, and low-speed falls are the ones you actually have.

Soft shell pads are what most trail riders wear. They are flexible enough to pedal in all day, and enough for the scrapes and glancing hits that make up ordinary crashes. Hard shell pads add a rigid cap. That is what you want at bike park speeds, where you are more likely to hit rock than dirt. The rule is simple. If you would be nervous falling there, wear pads.

Elbow pads work the same way, though fewer riders wear them. Body armor, meaning a chest and back protector, is heavy and hot on a climb. Buy it when your riding calls for it, not before.

What to Wear by Riding Style

Cross country is the one discipline where lycra still makes sense. Downhill is the outlier, because no climbing means no reason to stay light. Everything between is trail kit with more or less protection added.

If you are not sure which you are, you are riding trail. The mountain bikes we carry are grouped the same way, so the bike you ride is usually a good guide to the kit you need.

Dressing for the Weather

Season labels are less useful than temperature, since a 60 degree morning in the foothills and 60 degrees on a high pass are different rides.

Spring and fall are the hardest to dress for, since one ride can cover 30 degrees, which is what arm and leg warmers are for. In winter your extremities go first, so a cap under the helmet matters more than another layer on your chest. In rain, a clear lens beats a dark one, because wet roots are hard to read in flat gray light.

Elevation changes things. Temperatures drop roughly 3 to 5 degrees per thousand feet, so a summit can be 20 degrees colder than the trailhead before you add wind chill on the way down. The sun is harder than it looks above treeline, and summer thunderstorms build fast, so plan to be off high ground by early afternoon. The rule most riders here settle on is to dress for the climb and carry for the top.

What Women Should Know

Most mountain bike clothing works the same regardless of who is wearing it. Three things differ enough to matter.

Chamois shape. The pad in a women’s liner is cut wider at the back, because sit bones sit further apart. A properly fitted liner makes the biggest comfort difference on a long ride. If you are sore in the saddle, fix the liner before you blame the saddle.

Cut. Women’s jerseys are shaped through the waist and shoulders. Shorts vary more in rise and inseam than men’s do, so it is worth knowing your measurements rather than your size.

Pad fit. Knee pads are the piece most often bought too big, and a pad sized for a wider thigh slides down mid-descent. Look for a women’s specific pad rather than sizing down in a men’s one.

Everything else comes down to head shape, hand size and foot shape rather than anything gendered.

Common Mistakes

• Wearing a helmet tipped back. The front edge should sit about two finger widths above your eyebrows.
• Dressing for how it feels at the car. You warm up within ten minutes of pedaling. If you are comfortable standing still, you are overdressed.
• Loose laces near the chain. Tuck them into the shoe. It only has to happen once.
• Wearing a backpack you do not need. A hip pack carries a tube, a tool and a bottle without the sweaty back.
• Taking new shoes or new pads on a big ride. Both need a couple of short rides to find the hot spots first.
  

Common Questions

Can you wear gym clothes mountain biking?
On an easy trail on a warm day, yes. Gym shorts and a running top will get you round. They just will not keep you dry on a long climb, survive a slide through gravel, or keep your feet on the pedals.

Should mountain bike clothing be tight or loose?
Loose on the outside, close-fitting underneath. Anything that moves sweat has to touch skin to do it, so liners and base layers sit tight while the shorts and jersey over them stay roomy.

Can you wear jeans while mountain biking?
You can, but you will not enjoy it. Denim does not stretch where your knees need to bend, it holds water instead of shedding it, and the inside seam rubs in the worst possible place. A pair of baggy shorts over a liner fixes all three.

What should kids wear mountain biking?
The same kit, scaled down, with pads earlier rather than later. Kids fall more and heal faster, but knees and elbows still take the impact. Fit matters most on the helmet, and one that is too big is worse than one slightly too small.

How often should you replace mountain bike clothing?
Helmets after any crash, and every few years regardless, since the foam hardens with age. Liners when the pad flattens or the seams start rubbing. Shoes when the sole stops gripping the pins. Everything else lasts until it tears.

Before You Ride

It comes down to three decisions. What you wear every ride, how much protection the trail calls for, and how you handle the temperature between the parking lot and the summit. Get those right, and the rest is preference.

Start with a helmet that fits, shoes that grip, and clothing that keeps you dry. As your rides get longer, faster, or more technical, the kit will evolve with them.

If you are ever unsure where to start, ask someone who rides. Our team does, every week, and they are happy to talk it through.