After beating up a Huffy for a few years, the Trek 6500 became my first legitimate mountain bike in the fall of 1995. I immediately began racking up the trail miles and learning the sport by trial and error. Given the location, a large majority of my riding is done at South Mountain Municipal Park in south Phoenix. Once my electric truck is complete and things have settled down a bit, I will consider abandoning this front-suspension bike for a newer and nicer two-wheeled, rock-jumping toy. This bike was originally purchased as a fully-rigid mountain bike for a sticker price of $600. As a high school student with no part-time job, that was a great deal of money at the time! But in 1995, this was also a relatively nice ride for $600. For the first 5 years, I rode the bike exactly as it was and didn't break or change a thing. Recently, I have been upgrading some components and conducting some "failure analysis" on other parts. Thanks to the generosity of my Aunt Beverly, I now have a donated Rock Shox Judy XC front suspension fork on the bike. I have also upgraded to clipless Time A.T.A.C. pedals... the greatest things since sliced bread! The bike was purchased with simple flat pedals and toe straps, which were then upgraded to Shimano 515 SPD clipless pedals after about 5 years. When a friend grew tired of his Time A.T.A.C. pedals, I tried them out and immediately fell in love with them. I gladly purchased them from him and sold my Shimanos to another riding buddy. After testing several different types of tires, I have finally settled with the Panaracer Fire XC Pro. A riding buddy had good experiences with them, so I purchased a set after going through a set of Tioga Factory XC tires in about two rides! The Panaracers have been really good for traction, yet have lasted forever! As my drivetrain began to wear out, I replaced several components. I replaced the chain and rear cassette with new versions of the same thing. I removed the old cranks and front chainrings and replaced them with new cranks and just a single chainring... a 32-tooth (middle) chainring. I now have a purpose-built 7-speed mountain bike! Thanks to a Christmas present from my riding buddies Chris and Allen, I also have an upgraded set of v-brakes to replace my original, old-school brake system! It's just amazing how technology has changed since my bike was built! Nicer components can now be had for just a fraction of the cost! My most recent upgrade was the changing of my cycle computer from a Trek Sensor (no longer manufactured) to a Planet Bike Protege 8.0. Despite popular opinion about Trek computers, my Trek Sensor worked amazingly well for me. I logged over 2,000 miles on the original battery, and was only recently beginning to have trouble with the buttons on the unit. My last crash was (unfortunately) enough to demolish the computer. But the Protege computer didn't stay on for very long. I took it off to check the calibration of my motorcycle's speedometer, then decided to leave it off my mountain bike for good. I think my riding has improved since ditching the computer. If you want a nice, 4-line LCD bike computer, I have one for sale!