I want to get a new mountain bike i have no knowledge of bikes really. I have no more really than £200 to spend on one. A local bike shop recommended the Gaint rock SE as the giant bikes seem to have the best componants on them at that sort of price range. I am looking for one which has at least front shocks. It will be for on and off road?? Any help please????

 

i walked into a bike shop last month at wouchester..........

first mountain bike i came across was £3599.............so i walked straight back out again!!!!

 

 

Wont go wrong with that for the cash mate

Altho my local shop is doing 06 Giant Rincon's for £230!!! Which is bargaintastic. You wont beat Giant for VFM at this price

 

Try and stretch a little further with your budget. You are best off getting the bike with the best fram possible as all the other components can be upgraded as they break or wear. Got my missus a Specialised the other year for £249. Stick to a rigid bike as well as there will be less compromise on other components to offlay the costs of suspension.

 

That will be a good one though! I have an old Orange that cost about £1800 to build.

 

The new bikes are so good tho

That Giant has an alu frame, butted main tubes. Roch Shox Judys with chromed steel stanchions nice v brakes, very nice alloy wheels and nice oem finishing kit. I honestly cant believe how good they are for the cash these days, something that good would have been £800 5 years ago

 

My beast...




£1600

 

That looks more like a freeride bike than a mountain bike

 

and my latest addition

 

heres my ride



also got a couple of intense frames in me bedroom that ive broke, if anyone wants to restore them as i cant be fooked too, pm me for details

 

for god sake get a hailtail if your going on-road, softails are fooking useless unless you dont want to pedal.

I.e what there designed for, downhill runs.

Hardtails are good but sometimes not needed IMO and rigid forks saves so much weight.

 

Me on my Cove G Spot in Morzine this year


Neil.

 

are u sure, cos i aint and i raced downhill

 

sure about what part exactly?

 

Could be either - modern full suss is pretty handy, and certainly better than a hardtail on some climbs (rocky/loose for example).

If I recall, mr flash can certainly ride a bike Was it you that posted the pic of you jumping off a HUGE flight of steps?

Neil.

 

did anyone even look at what type of bike he's looking at?

or did you instantly think.


Oh lets show off my trials and downhill hoppers?

He wants a road bike with ocassional offroad, just by his current choice and his budget?

Hence why i suggested hardtail or rigid.

as full sus is completely wasted on the road and completely take the kenetic energy out of your pedal motion.

 

Go on Stockton

Cool pic man

 

well about softails only being for downhill runs???

im sure x-country riders use them

im just making a point, not having a go.

i know what u mean, my d/h rig was a coont to ride on the street but the x-country softails are a piece of piss to ride on the street. i had an intense tazer 4x bike which had 4 inch shock on the back and that was easy enough to ride around.

 

personally id buy a second hand 1 thers loads about that people are selling after a few months of buying them for various reasons, mtb's devalue very quickly so u could get a £500 bike thats 2 months old for around £250 ish

as evryones posting pics of theirs heres mine

my azonic ds1 evo hardtail cost me £1500




my azonic eliminator full sus cost 4k




and my bmx only a cheap one spent over £1500 on many before




spent over 15k on bikes in 15 years, mainly bmx's too

 

never posted a pic mate but ive jumped a few sets of steps in my time

 

Ok well most of what was said is well over my head????

This is the bike in question

So this bike will do just what i want it to do??

 

sm that eliminator looks the dogs to be fair, always thought the azonics had great style to them. if i had not chose the m1 i would have got an azonic.

agree with u on the second hand bikes, very cheep nowadays. which is a coont cos my £2500 hardtaill i can only get £900 tops for

ian rst all i say is look around mate, on ebay, magazines such as dirt or mbuk, i think u could get a £1000 bike for around £300 if u looked around enough.

 

Ryan - You'd best get up to speed on your biking tech mate. Alot of 5" travel (front and rear) mountain bikes now come with lockouts or use suspension designs that utilise chain tension to stop any pedal induced bob. I've got a Stumpy expert (27.5lbs weight) which has both front and rear lockouts so it pedals as well as a hardtail on the road (although obviously the tyres generate alot more resistance than a road bike) and on the rough stuff I'm alot faster up hill than I used to be on my 23lb hardtail. At the end of the ride I'm also alot less beaten up and feel fresher as my legs havent had to deal with all the shock loadings that you get with a hardtail on bumpy trails.
Whilst you're researching bike technology check out 'Pro-pedal' and 'Brain' shox from Fox.

 

MBUK Is Mint Sauce still in it?

 

and the i-drive system from gt thats abou 4 years old now

 

The new giants are VERY good for the money TBH. And considering Giant make a hell of a lot of frames for other companys (kona, raleigh and a few others) you wouldnt be going wrong with either of them. We have just had delivery of all the '06 Giants and they look the same as last year! The rock SE would be best if you only wanna spend £200, but also the other one to look at is the Trek 3700 for £230. nice bikes too!

And Ryan, you REALLY do need to read about the new suspension tech stuff. The specialised EPIC is the most Hardtail "feeling" out the lot of them, and it actually feels like a hardtail till you hit a bump. And as these rear shocks have adjustable threshold, you can almost dial out ANY movement in the back end, or completely lock out the other Fox models.

i work in a bike shop, so if ya want any info on any models give us a shout mate.

Oh and COSSIEREP, good frames...........















































NOT!



i broke 3 of them in total in one year. AND the new EVO's are just as bad.

While we are on the subject of bikes, some of my ones.....






And a couple of shots that our shop did for MBUK....

 

good whip out shot mike

 

cheers bud. heavy as fook bike though!

 

try this belongs to amate of mine( Item number: 7190001540) on ebay now

 

is that what £700 gets u these days???

thats a lot of money

id have snapped that in a day

 

Not usually my cup of tea:



but I'm certainly tenting at that!!

ian rst - Giant are always really competitive at the bottom end of the price range, so if you really want to buy new, you won't go far wrong. There are mega bargains to be had second hand if you know what you are looking for, or have a mate who can help

Neil.

 

Neil - forgot to call you when I was in the UK about the biking! Only jsut remembered when I saw your name on this thread! oops!

Did an awesome ride here at the weekend - check it out via this link...

http://www.geoladders.com//show_route.php?route=217

I did the photo's for this ride - came out well

 

Wow! That looks amazing!! Think we'll be going back to france this year all being well

Some more pics from last time:













Amazing Place!

Neil.

 

That looks awesome



im looking to trade my rockhopper against a orange five pretty soon, the bug has bitten hard

 

OMG!! Now that looks sooooooooo cool! - Although there's jsut no way you'd get me doing that northshore off the top of that hut !!!!!!!!

The downhill trails look jsut amazing although I think my 4" all round Stumpjumper might be slightly out of its league there!

Is that Les Gets or Morzine?

 

Les Gets i think Keith


fook only a cheap ass plane ride away too

 

Bit of both! We stayed in Morzine and rode all over the ports du soleil area

You can ride over the top from the top of Pleney lift at Morzine to the top of the Les Gets DH!

Neil.

 

One of friends in Scotland is thinking of organising a trip over to the alps next summer which sounds cool to me! How much was it to stay in one of those cool log cabin/challet type thingies for a week?

 

thats a 5star french hotel there m8




theyre ALL like that up in the hills and villages, they wont break the bank anyway Keith


i could do with trying it out myself really, only ever been over to Les Arcs and la plagne for boarding, basically the same hills tho