Step 3: Find your trail. I might put this as the most important step of all and should be considered before anything else. Dedicated, purpose-built mountain bike trails make all the difference. Grinding your way along a gravel road trail is not fun [though there's an entire subset of bicyclists that think just the opposite]. Riding a 4wheeler trail is less fun than a gravel road. You cannot ride on hiking only trails, that makes us all look like assholes. So, you need to find your local bike trails.
Simply put: there just ain't mountain bike trails everywhere. Until Prestonsburg's Sugarcamp Mountain Trails opened up, there weren't any MTB trails anywhere close to my beloved mountain home of southeast Kentucky. However, you would be surprised how many trails there are in cities like Louisville - flat or not. Supply and demand... or demand and supply? You get the point.
I cut my teeth on Lexington's Veteran's Park MTB trails. I literally got into the sport because it's similar to riding my dirt bike and I could do this every single day I wanted, with little planning, on my way home from work, while living in a city. If you're not from the Bluegrass, Lexington is flat. No, there are no mountains but there are mountain bike trails. And yes, they are good.
Again, your local bike shop (if you have one) can point you to the closest trail(s). If you don't have a shop to refer to, there is a ton of information online at sites like Trailforks.com and MTBProject.com. Those two websites are gold mines when it comes to researching mountain bike trails. Your local tourism office, National Forest visitor center, or state park are also great resources for free maps and information.
Share the trails.
Don’t forget basic trail etiquette. Most of your local trails will be open to hiking and biking. Always yield to hikers and don’t get too carried away with your speed because you never know who or what will be around the next corner.
And there you have it. Get the right bike, don't sweat your gear, and find your local trail. Three easy steps that hopefully make it more comfortable to get into the sport of mountain biking.