Trail Noob, some bike help

k++

k++

k++

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Joined
5 Oct 2004
Posts
585
Location
London
Hi,

I am looking for a new Mountain Bike, as I would like to go on trails with my flatmate. We have made plans to travel Bristol to Cornwall by next summer when we are fit enough :p So obviously this bike would need to be good on the road too.

Riding to work and university everyday will be essential, so am I right in thinking I would need stiffer forks that lock to allow me to gather more speed?

The whole MTB thing is highly confusing to a complete novice like myself, although I am getting there slowly.

My budget is £500, however I'm willing to pay upto another £100 if it's really worth it.

I have several in mind, however I would prefer to get one that would be a perfect starting point for me to tinker and swap parts in the future and essentially upgrade it when required.

I have looked through the Kona series and the Kona blast looks tasty, however the Caldera is also very nice. Unfortunately it's £700 so out of my price range for now.

I have also been quite excited by the Marin range and the B-17 has excellent reviews and could just be within my price range. However the Northside is slightly cheaper and seems to be adequate enough too.

I also like the look of the Haro V4 and V5 :confused:

There are many many more bikes I like the look of, too many to really list.

Help me :o

I forgot to mention, I would prefer a Hard Tail.

hope that is enough info for you wise people to help guide me :)

regards

Karl

Edit: I am 6'1", approx. what size frame and wheels should I be looking for? I'm about 190lbs at most if you might need my weight for anything.

Oh I'm male and like italian food, does that help :p
 
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georges said:
A few people on this board love their Giant XTC (I think the XTC SE model).


I love my GT Avalanche 2.0 Disc I got for £350.
Click to expand...

I did notice the XTC SE, it is spot on budget (£409 from www.paulscycles.co.uk), I'm not sure I can ignore the small price tag of the GT though. I'm off to google.

Keep the advice coming :)

Karl
 
big reccomend for the giant XTC SE,but make sure you work out what typre of riding you going to be doing before you buy. I thaught I'd grown out of the street and jumps, turned out street jumps and downhill slaloms was pretty much all I was doing, so I sold the frankly excellent XTC on the bay for £440, yes £65 more than I paid for it, and spent well over £1000 custom building a Identity Dr Jekyll 14" long top tube frame! thats a lovely bike!
 
Breamy said:
the new carrera fury looks lovely and is well specced
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The new fury is pretty nice. The brakes are ok but i think the Gian Mph's would be better. My workmate ordered the fury in as frame only for £150-170 or so and specced it up with carbon bars and proper isis cranks and ordered in a mavic rim with deore hub wheelset for £130 or so. Nice bike,about half the weight of my hard tail but its not built for what i wanna do. The only thing i dont like is the integrated headset......which i think you can upgrade if im not mistaken,its internal that cant afaik.Someone can correct me if they know for sure.

The good thing is the sram gears,im going to sram over shimano next time.....its just so precise. Its lovely but shifting up and down with your thumb feels weird to start with. :cool:
 
Hey guys thanks,

The Carrera Fury does indeed look nice, my first problem now is that I have too many bikes that I really like and now I need to start looking at individual components and see which gives the best bang for the buck.

This is my second problem, I really have no clue as to which forks are best, which model of gears etc etc.

Anybody care to elaborate :p

Karl

Edit:

I'm 6'1", what frame size and wheel size would I need. There must be someone here with similar measurements to me. I have a 34" leg. well that's my jean size anyway :p
 
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georges said:
A few people on this board love their Giant XTC (I think the XTC SE model).


I love my GT Avalanche 2.0 Disc I got for £350.
Click to expand...

Thats what bought (Giant XTC SE )and its great, whoever I spoke to said that your not going to get much better in the same price bracket.

Depending on your road/off road riding percentage ask about having more road type tyres fitted as it will be easier work on the road.
 
cheers for that, out of the few I like the XTC SE does seem to be the favoured bike.

I couldn't tell you how often I would go trailing, but atleast once a week hopefully and maybe a few extra evenings too if I have time.

I'm gonna ring the local bike shops and see if they have it in stock and at what price. paulscycles has it for only £409.

Karl
 
Oh man this just gets worse and worse.

I went to my local bike shop Bikes UK. It's the nicest shop locally, and I got talking to the manager. He doesn't stock Giants but has done and says the frames are nice, but the forks are a let down. He also recommended the Kona Caldera which was on offer at £599 and sai it would be more suited to me.

That's all fine but is obviously over my budget, and I'm not a fan of the colour.

So what is wrong with the forks on the SE?

Karl
 
I've had my 2006 Kona Blast for a month or so now and it has held up pretty well so far, i've taken it through a few of the tougher downhill runs at Sherwood Pines and it has held up great so far. I've heard the new model is slightly less suited to jumps and is a little lighter / stiffer, I've done the daily commute (30 miles there and back) for a few days too. Money well spent to me IMO.
 
Hey I was thinking and despite hurting slightly I think I have come up with something decent.

Maybe I should stick with the XTC SE, and upgrade the forks when the need comes to something a lot more substantial.
I am really interested in getting a bike maintenace book and really looking after my baby. and hope to upgrade it along the way.

I intend to buy online unless I can find a local shop that will sell for £409, therefore I really need to know the preffered size for me to buy because I don't want to be rude going into a bike shop, trying bikes out then buying from the net.

Please help me with this :o

regards

Karl
 
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