Mountain bikes.

hi,
after riding a (push) bike again for the first time in 15+ years i'm looking to buy one of these things for a bit of road / light off road stuff.
As with hi-fi i've been advised that the best bang for my 'buck' is to buy something second hand, i've looked on e-bay, loot and BIKEmagic however i was wondering if there were any other sites that had decent adverts for mtb's
my budget is £300 MAX for the bike and i'm not fussed about full suspension as i'm going to be riding on roads/ cyclepaths etc. for 90% of the time. i do want something that won;t snap the minute i give it some grief though, just in case.
many thanks for any help.
cheers


julian.

 

oh, and a 19" or 20" frame

 

I'd agree regards hardtail instead of full suss because you'll get far more bike for your money. There are likely to be quality used bikes to be had for £300. I think you would be wise to aim for a quality frame at the expense of the other components on the basis that you can replace parts with upgraded versions as you wear them out.

Based on the budget you will probably have to be patient and may find ideal used bikes are that bit more, but brands to look for (IMPO): Orange, Specialized, Santa Cruz, Klein. I like Cannondale but most components/specs are proprietary (headset, forks, bottom bracket, etc.) so you are kind of trapped in/around their brand.

You need to be aware that there are now quite a wide variety of task specific bikes: Dirt jump, cross-country, trail, freeride, single-speed; and bikes which aim to sit somwhere between. What this tends to boil down to is variables in frame geometry, weight and strength (the weight and strength variables are closely related as you would expect).

I guess the "trail" type bike is what you are after - hardtail, with front suspension?

Take my fave brand - Orange - UK, solid, no-nonsense bikes. If you want to get purist their P7 is a hardtail cro-mo steel affair - great value, strong and flexible, somewhere between "trail" and "cross-country". Their E8 is an aluminium hardtail, very desirable to me, but the geometry is "cross-country" orientated - forward focused for racing, not ideal for leisure trail riding.

The Klein Attitude is a desirable frame and a great platform for upgrades and is probably to be considered a good balance of design ideas making it light (good for cross-country and climbs), but geometry which is not too forward focused (ie. you can be comfortable riding trails).

On the other hand dirt bikes and freeride geometry bikes are not really designed for riding easily up hills, tending to be heavy with a "lean-back" seating position.

If you do a lot of road riding you would probably want to consider fitting tyres which are trail-friendly, but without much rolling resistance (ridged or fairly skinny, but with some knobbles).

I would say you might get a decent condition £1000 for 300-350. As an example I managed to land a 6 month old mint condish £3,400 rrp steed for £1500. There is a pattern by which a ceiling budget creeps up as you fall in live with increasingly sophisticated bikes so I wouldnt blame you for ultimately spending 500-600 in the end which would get you a good hardtail no trouble.

 

I got a Cannondale F800 with single sided front fork, XTR drivetrain, XT groupset and a spare set of Mavic Crossmax wheels from Ebay, for £600.
Very light (for a mountain bike! My road bike weighs about 6lbs less tho..), and excellent off road - it has no trouble with our local downhills..
For £300 you'd get something like a Specialized Rockhopper Pro, or perhaps even a Giant XC which are very good value.
Full suss wise you may be lucky enough to get a Saracen Zen for that sort of money (because Saracen are nowadays the Skoda of the Mountain bike world!), but I'd be very surprised if you got a Santa Cruz or Cove or similar for that - they tend to go for way over the odds.. I saw a Cove Stiffee (you can also get a Cove Handjob) go for about £1200 recently 2nd hand - you can (just about) get a brand new one for that!
Other brands to look out for for reasonable money are Handsome Dog and Rock Lobster.

 

Hi Julian,
Try the Cycling Plus website...the adds have recently moved from the forum to the main page. Bikemagic is quite good but if I were you I'd keep my eye on the local freeads and wait for something to come up there...or put a wanted advert in and see what you get offered. Its the first stop for most people as nobody really wants to post a bike which they generally have to do if they ebay it. Also you get to ride the beast to see if it suits as its local. I think a £300 budget is absolutely fine...I sold my old Orange P7 for that. Always worth spending £20 on a service to make sure you don't get pssed off with it and chuck it in the back of the shed after popping the chain off on your first hill.

Check this thread for some other websites I suggested...don't know how many will have mtbs on them.

https://www.audio-forums.com/as-rediect/showthread.php?t=5442&page=3&highlight=bike

good luck.

 

good luck with the search, i bought a 2nd hand specialized rockhopper with disc brakes recently for £250 from an advert @ work.
i'd done a bit of research before that, general advice for buying new was spend as much as u can afford, but at least £500. and the easy option is to get a rockhopper. (and always buy last year's model).

 

spotted this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7151682397&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1

worth a punt? he's open to offers how about 350 - 375?
cheers


julian

 

The only thing to bear in mind is this is a XC (cross-country) machine which you might find wearing to ride at first as the ride position is more "leaned-forward" if you know what I mean, than on a trail bike, though you might dig it. I purposely bought a XC bike as I wanted to do lots of calorie burning, hill climbing, etc.

 

calorie burning is good and there are some major hills (on and off road) a few minutes walk never mind ride away from me.
cheers


julian

 

This is no use for Julian, but if anyones a short arse..

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=98083&item=7151715804&rd=1&ssPageName=WD2V

 

How about http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=42312&item=7150741483&rd=1



My ex bought a Kona - not sure which - off ebay at about 40% RRP. Had been used, but was in good condition and is still going strong. Make sure you take postage/delivery into account.

Good luck with the search and enjoy the bike if/when you get it!

 

errrrrrr, no.
no, no, nopety, nope, nope, nope.


no.

 

If the Kona is a NONO, then it'll have to be the Schwinn?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2904&item=7151237279&rd=1

 

robs,
please see my previous post. cubed.
cheers


julian

 

Fat tyres are just what you need in the gloop...

 

For what it's worth, I got a hard tail many years ago, after riding several - Orange, Kona, Specialised, GT. I decided I liked Marin & got a Bear Valley SE. Great bike & lasted very well - still use it as a pub bike. A bit like Hi-Fi really, I would suggest try before you buy - different bikes really do handle differently. I found Kona very light & 'jittery', Marin very stable & slower steering, which suited me. Then got a Rift Zone full sus, which I'm stilll riding regularly...not as much as I'd like. A vast improvement if you'll be offroad a lot, but if not, completely unnecessary.
If you go s/h, you can get a real bargain - go for a decent make - if it looks like it's not been used, it probably hasn't...in which case age is not really relevent.
I would look at Friday ad & local ads etc rather than eBay.

 

Useful point regards Marin bikes - they are as good as any other main brand, but for some reason they're not currently a "cool" brand which means used Marin's tend to go for less, which is in your favour. Eg...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=27948&item=7151827368&rd=1
or
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=27948&item=7153258726&rd=1

Obviously the hardest thing about buying by auction is you are unlikely to be able to test ride the bikes first. Over and above whether the geometry is up your street the frame size is the most important thing to get right.

Difficulty is each bike/manufacturer can quote a different value (in inches) for a single height range as the physical measurement of the top tube is not going to be the same for all bikes built for 5'10" to 6'2" so ensure you cross reference with the manufacturers stats.

Eg. a 17.5" Marin Rift Zone frame might fit the same height range as a 19" Kona frame or an 18" Orange.

 

If you spot a Marin Sausalito, that's a great road/off road hybrid. No suspension at all but handles superbly and with fat tyres it has as comfortable a ride as any. Very light for its type. They were about £500 new.

I'm using a Sunn Notion which is French. It has a sprung seatpost which will insulate from the worst road shocks and elastomer front suspension which is fine if you're on a budget. It was also about £500 new. Again, not heavy. I lift it over gates with one hand.

A couple of things to look out for:

Brakes - The Marin had cantilevers which were OK but the V-Brakes on the Sunn are way better. I prefer Shimano because they are easy to adjust and balance via a simple screw. Some other makes have lock nut arrangements that are a royal pain.

Gears - if you're gonna do a lot of hills but also want to bowl along on the flat at a fair rate, get a triple front set. The big ring should probably have 50 teeth or your top speed will be limited. I've found 21 gears is good. I think 24 is overkill.

Gearshift - a matter of personal choice. The Marin had quickfire (finger and thumb levers) which I loved. The Sunn has gripshift and at first I didn't like it but once I got used to it, it's fine. I think I would probably stick with it now.

Tyres - for mixed riding you want knobbles at the sides but a continuous tread around the centre. Full off-road tyres make a racket on tarmac and that's all wasted energy.

Oh, and buying 2nd hand is fine but first try out a few new bikes in shops to find out what size you need for the make you're interested in.

 

I'vce got a trek 4900 (see - http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/mrcat123/Bala Lake/DSCF0145a.jpg) and these do handle differently to Marins - I can't really say if it's better or not, but I did choose the Trek over it, try to goto a bike shop and test one before hand...

 

I would add though a friend of ours runs a good bike shop and I think its out of order the number of people whi clearly use his retail establishment simply to "try-out" stuff they later buy online. Personally I think you have to play fair - either take the punt online or buy from your friendly neighbourhood bike shop.