Big Bike Thread

[chucky]

Heres my new bike which ive just built up:

 

[Raymond Lin]

nice lobster

 

[Jonny ///M]

Nice bike,im liking the black levers.

I love my saint brake but i have a thing for that hope brake lever. Just feels soo..solid and well made tbh.

 

[weescott]

I'm liking the black levers too. I prefer the old style Mono M4 to the new shiny ones aswell. 180mm rotors front and back?

 

[benjo plz.]

Just feels soo..solid and well made tbh.

hmm, haven't broken a Saint lever so far, but up to date, it's a deore LX, two maguras and a hope .

 

[Jonny ///M]

hmm, haven't broken a Saint lever so far, but up to date, it's a deore LX, two maguras and a hope .

Thats good to here,what hope was it you broke? (i broke the reservoir and lever on an old hope lever).

 

[benjo plz.]

Thats good to here,what hope was it you broke? (i broke the reservoir and lever on an old hope lever).

It was a mono mini lever.

 

[weescott]

How are you managing to break so many levers? Do you overtighten them so they dont rotate on the bar when you crash?

 

[benjo plz.]

How are you managing to break so many levers? Do you overtighten them so they dont rotate on the bar when you crash?

This is across about 5 years mind. I don't over tighten them, but I don't want them moving either .

The magura ones weren't very strong for starters - these were a Julie XC and a Louise XC from 2001. I never broke the levers on my Gustav M's or Marta's.
Not quite sure what happened to the LX, it *kinda* fell apart after a nasty crash. Too much Deore in it tbh. Similar thing happened to the Hope . But since then (about 18 months ago) I haven't had any problems.

 

[chucky]

I'm liking the black levers too. I prefer the old style Mono M4 to the new shiny ones aswell. 180mm rotors front and back?

Yea, the rotors are 180mm front and back.

I prefer the gold on the calipers of the older M4's although you can change them.

I like the new rotor shape mind.

 

[Jonny ///M]

Yea, the rotors are 180mm front and back.

I prefer the gold on the calipers of the older M4's although you can change them.

I like the new rotor shape mind.

I personally love the older black n gold hope parts. Looks great.

Juicy 7 carbons = win though. Carbon > gold bits.

 

[Big Chris]

I prefer the gold on the calipers of the older M4's although you can change them.

I like the new rotor shape mind.

I imagine the pot caps on the other side of the the M4 calipers on that Lobster are gold.

You can buy Hope disc bits (bolts, caps, levers etc) in all sorts of colours, check out Chainreaction.com

 

[benjo plz.]

check out Chainreaction.com

ChainReactionCycles.com *cough* *cough* .

 

[Jonny ///M]

I imagine the pot caps on the other side of the the M4 calipers on that Lobster are gold.

You can buy Hope disc bits (bolts, caps, levers etc) in all sorts of colours, check out Chainreaction.com

Yeh i was gonna buy custom M6's with red calipers I also looked at M6s with red bore caps,red levers and red res caps. Saved money and got saints though. Think i could get steve to anodize my bore cap to gold lol.

Chainreaction.......the shop aint no diana ross song.

 

[chucky]

Yea they are gold.

I was very tempted to go for gold hope proII hubs but thought they might look a bit over the top. So went for some nice halo rims instead.

All i need now is a nice new fork.

 

[SDK^]

I've just got back from first ride in over 10 years and it was sooooo much fun. Through soaking fields, muddy forests and rough terrain - awesome !
To anyone unsure about SPD pedals - go for it !!! It makes climing hills and covering ground so much easier. It took me all of 1 minute to get used to unclipping etc.

Can't wait for my next ride

 

[Giddy]

Where did you ride SDK? I usually ride over at Cannock Chase but the trails are closed at the moment due to the fallen trees.

 

[p4radox]

This is really early, but in the summer I'll be buying a new bike. I don't really know a huge amount about bikes so bear with me...

I bought a bike from Halfords about 3 years ago for £120. It's got front suspension - I don't know whether this makes it a mountain bike/hardtail or whatever. It's been pretty crap to be honest. I rode it on roads for about a year, and the first time I ragged it down some offroad hills it was nackered.

Anyway, I figure this time round I should do it properly. For now, my budget's about £250 - £300, unless I can get a significantly better bike for a little more. I'll be taking it to Uni next year and will be mostly riding on roads, but I don't want a road bike. I love to go offroad, and generally throw the thing around a bit.

What would you guys recommend?

I assume that building a bike is more expensive than buying a pre-built one?

 

[Jonny ///M]

For £200-£300 you wont get much for your money.

Once you get to £400-£500 your getting decent gearing that wont snap at the site of a rock and you get a decent branded set of forks thta actually have some form of dampning.

Something along the lines of the giant xtc.

http://www.dalescycles.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=1851

You get decent gears,brakes and forks.

Same with the specialized..

http://www.dalescycles.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=1624

Only draw back is having no disk brakes but decent set up V brakes do the job just fine.

If you cant increase your budget i would look at Gt or even carrera bikes from halfords. From building them at work i know that say...a 2006 carrera kraken is a lot better than a £120 apollo. For £265(2006 model) you get sram gears,decent crankset and all in all an ok bike. Gt are a notch up again but with specing bikes with decent vbrakes over cable disks.

 

[p4radox]

So is £500 a much better budget than £300? Will it basically get me a far more hard-wearing bike, or are there other benefits?

Bearing in mind that I'm not an obsessive biker, is it something that I'd actually see the benefit of? I'm not saying I don't trust you, but people who have a particular hobby tend to over-spec things to noobs like me!