Asking for some help and your wisdom and opinion are needed

[Justarida]

I am in my early 60's. Decent shape, really enjoy hiking just starting to get hard on the knees. Have no interest in riding on the road. I want to ride offroad at a slow pace, lots of hills, creeks, rocks, and tress where I live. Class 1 and 2 are allowed where I plan to ride most of the time. So do I go with the throttle or just the pedal assist? Also seems to be alot of brands to choose from with vast differences in price points. Should I stay with a brand I know? Trek, Yamaha, Giant or go with somthing else. Would like to stay under 5,000.

 

[Django]

Yamaha has one of the best warranties and will probably be around long after most are not. They make a nice hard tail mountain bike that is reasonably light and has good specs. It doesn’t have a throttle, (Yamahas do). It should be a fun bike and is about $3500.

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[procreator]

There's a lot of factors to consider. Riding position, your ability to perform maintenance, steepness of the hills you will be facing, distance you will be riding, weight of the bike, etc.

Once you have prioritize these, the decision should become easier.

Regarding throttle, I can envision being at the bottom of a steep hill and wishing you could just let the bike carry you up. That's what a throttle will do for you.

For the money you're willing to spend you should have plenty of good choices.

 

[Rabbit170]

For the type of riding you described I would think a Himiway fat tire cruiser with both pedal assist and throttle control for around $1,500 would work very well.