Advise on decent y frame please

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Soldato
Joined
29 Aug 2005
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Advise on decent mountain bike please

I have been riding for awhile now but have never really owned what you would call decent reliable bikes ie halfords specials lol, so i have decided to take the plunge with a max budget of 3k. I'm looking around the net for a decent make i have found many brands obviously. I have fallen in love with specialized and ironhorse, the look of these two makes really appeal to me look wise any advise thrown my way would be appreciated!:)
 
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Y frame as in full suspension?

We need to know what sort of riding you wanna do be it Xc,FR or downhill. Starting of with things like the stumpjumper fsr as an XC full suspension then the mid travel FR bikes such as SX trail and finally full on DH machine such as the demo.

£3k is a LOT of money to just throw at a bike without much thought. Specialized use FSR linkage which feels totally different to ironhorses DW link. Ride as many bikes as you can before making your mine up.
 
Jonny ///M said:
Y frame as in full suspension?

We need to know what sort of riding you wanna do be it Xc,FR or downhill. Starting of with things like the stumpjumper fsr as an XC full suspension then the mid travel FR bikes such as SX trail and finally full on DH machine such as the demo.

£3k is a LOT of money to just throw at a bike without much thought. Specialized use FSR linkage which feels totally different to ironhorses DW link. Ride as many bikes as you can before making your mine up.
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Sorry full suspension, XC,DJ riding mainly ive had cheaper full suspension bikes in the past i just want something decent that can take a good beating also Ive been banging the weights for the last ten years so I'm not as agile as i once was.
 
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These three seem to be what I'm after, i know specialized have a good reputation what about the other two are they quite solid bikes?

Marin Quad Trail 140 attack trail

Specialized Enduro FSR Pro Carbon 2008

GT Marathon Carbon Pro 2008
 
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The GT Marathon is a different sort of bike to the other two IMHO. I'd say it's more of an XC / Marathon type bike.

The Marin Mount Vision is What MTBs bike of the year but is hard to find as all the 2008 bikes have been sold by the UK distributor.

If I had £3k to blow on a bit, I'd be off to get a test ride on a Whyte E-120. The XT version is £2900ish.
 
If you have that much to spend I would get 2 bikes.

A quality lightweight hardtail with 100mm forks for XC (I have a Specialized Rockhopper Comp £750, love it).

Then I would get something more meaty with 140mm to 160mm front a rear travel for "all mountain". Like a Pitch or Enduro as an example from the specialized corner.

The thing is, i've rode lots of 3K+ full suspension bikes on the test days, and for XC they are still slower than a hardtail even in this price range. That's my opinion anyways. So I would get both if you have the money, then you always have the right tool for the job!
 
Really just wanted to get one bike, really fallen in love with the Marin Quad Trail 140 (attack trail).:cool:. There are a couple of shops near me that sell it i'll pop in some time soon and have a demo to see how it feels.
 
try as many as you can. also make sure the shop can set it up right for your weight. always makes a huge difference on the higher range full sus bikes
 
I was looking on the specialized website and they give a video clip with lots of detail on how to set up the front and rear suspension very interesting to watch.
 
try a trek fuel ex 9 they ride amazingly well and are very good on spec, or an orange 5 pro pending if you want 4way or single pivot. Then use the left over 1k to buy petrol and travel to trails :D
 
I would seriously advise against getting a carbon frame unless you're going to be competing in some way.

Id probably look at the Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Comp or the Specialized Enduro FSR Comp and save yourself £1500.
 
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