Mountain bikes... advice please!

skunkwerx

Hopefully it'll drop again soon. It has done several times so far!

ThePrettyDamned

I still think it's worth you trying a few out. As I say, I was crazy in love with the marin Pine Mountain plus, especially as it would be super easy to maintain (1x gears, no suspension, shimano hydraulic brakes). I was looking for front suspension... And then I wound up with a touring bike with drop bars because I realised what I *really* wanted to do with my bike (ie mile munching). I'm not suggesting you want the same bikes I did, but actually getting on them and seeing what I thought was a huge influence on what I decided to purchase in the end. 

How far are you from a proper bike shop? Just try a bunch of bikes out, and don't try to box down your spec - if you're after a fun fitness bike, you want to make sure you like it. You may find a surprise in the form of a returned bike at discount, too. 

ThePrettyDamned

Regarding some spec differences too, I found there was a reasonable leap in general feel from the claris gears to the sora set (shimano road gears). Trying a tiagra set was a step up, but slight - felt much the same as sora, but with ten cogs at the back rather than nine. 

Basically, don't sweat the small stuff - if a bike is well built from decent bits, it's going to be pretty great. I was astounded at how good a mountain bike you can get sub £1k (my budget being £500) compared to when I was looking in 2009.

skunkwerx

ThePrettyDamned said:

I still think it's worth you trying a few out. As I say, I was crazy in love with the marin Pine Mountain plus, especially as it would be super easy to maintain (1x gears, no suspension, shimano hydraulic brakes). I was looking for front suspension... And then I wound up with a touring bike with drop bars because I realised what I *really* wanted to do with my bike (ie mile munching). I'm not suggesting you want the same bikes I did, but actually getting on them and seeing what I thought was a huge influence on what I decided to purchase in the end. 

How far are you from a proper bike shop? Just try a bunch of bikes out, and don't try to box down your spec - if you're after a fun fitness bike, you want to make sure you like it. You may find a surprise in the form of a returned bike at discount, too. 

I feel ya. 

I could consider hybrid off the shelf, as my main aim is to have fun, bit of adventure and mainly street use. Local shortish journeys, but I'd also like to at some point do a bit of journeying on it. 

But a hardtail mtb draws my attention because theres a local cycling centre with gravel trails, and I'd use that.

Guess what I would like to do is have an mtb and get some hybrid tyres, then I can switch it up and customise as I like.  

The downside is, some of the mtb's I've been eyeing have 2 front chainrings instead of 3, with the bigger of the two being smaller than the largest on a 3 ring bike. So, I imagine thats more suited for off road riding, whereas I could probably use higher gears on the street. Whether it would be a huge issue though I don't know! 

The only places I know nearby are Evans and Halfords. I think there is a cycles Uk in the area though, and also a Go outdoors. 

As for independant stores, theres one I know of a little drive away, as I used it once for some spoke adjustments, this was about 4 years ago mind, but when I had a look around there wasnt much if anything sub £1000! 

I'll take a drive down there later in the week and see whats what though! 

Go outdoors sell the calibre two two, which is reasonably specced and around £400, and they also take emergency service discount cards (I think mine is still valid for a couple years).. but, i'm wary of buying just because its cheap, as I've been down that road before. 

Barrivee

Personally, I would be looking used, aiming to get the best frame/fork combo I could for the money and, as long as everything else is working, don't worry too much about what else is hanging on the frame. Get it through the rest of the summer and into winter and start replacing components as required at whatever level you want to go to. There are some superb retro bikes popping up every so often with great frame sets and forks. You can buy used Pace forks now for a song, which were the dogs a few years ago.

duotone

@Barrivee  any website recommendations for buying used? Or would you just use eBay & check sale sections of local bike shops?

Would like to get a mountain bike or hybrid, but don't wanna spend too much and end up being heartbroken if it gets stolen after being locked up somewhere.

beed84

Boromedic said:

Awwww mate, awesome bikes they are I wish I hadn't had to sell mine as I'd put a load of man hours into stripping it and refurbishing the gears etc. but I had no choice at the time. Mine was a 1995 one and I loved it, had Mavic rims and full Shimano. Looked ace once I stripped the chipped coating and polished it up.....

And here's mine: 



Like you, I intend to remove the coating (which shows signs of rust) and get it to a nice sheen. Out of interest, what did you use to remove the lacquer? Other than that a set of period correct Pace forks will be fitted, as will a new drive train at some point. It's just time and money against me at the moment. However, for £87 and a bit of TLC, I really can't complain. I love getting out and about on it. Everyone should own an Orange P7 at least once in their lifetime. It's an absolute classic, so much so, a fellow cyclist pulled up aside me the other day and commented just that

Barrivee

duotone said:

@Barrivee  any website recommendations for buying used? Or would you just use eBay & check sale sections of local bike shops?

Would like to get a mountain bike or hybrid, but don't wanna spend too much and end up being heartbroken if it gets stolen after being locked up somewhere.

Hi @duotone Gumtree/Ebay are sadly the main resources I think, however, google The Bike Project which is a charity that specialises in Bike sales plus its for a good cause. I've purchased from them recently.

Bygone_Tones

There are some good deals on ebay. You are paying less than 50% of the retail price in some cases. Go for 2014 to 2016 models instead of 2017 models. For some reason they seem to devalue significantly after 12 months. I guess everyone wants the latest model? Bikes as old as 2012 seem to be considered ancient.

duotone

@Barrivee   @Bygone_Tones ;

Cheers guys, will have a hunt around.  http://thebikeproject.co.uk looks good.

crunchman

Bygone_Tones said:

There are some good deals on ebay. You are paying less than 50% of the retail price in some cases. Go for 2014 to 2016 models instead of 2017 models. For some reason they seem to devalue significantly after 12 months. I guess everyone wants the latest model? Bikes as old as 2012 seem to be considered ancient.

I don't think it's just whether it's the latest model.  It's the possibility that you might need to spend some money on it.  With heavy use, you could wear out the chain and cassette very easily in 12 months, and put a lot of wear on the tyres.  When I was commuting a longer distance I used to have to replace the chain every 9 months or so, and replace the cassette every second chain.  The budget rear tyre that came with the bike needed replacing in less than a year as well.

Wear on a cassette or chain ring is relatively easy to spot.  The teeth will look the wrong shape.  If there are no close ups of the teeth on an Ebay auction I'd steer clear - or expect to pay a lot less.

If it's on Gumtree and you can go and see it, then get one of these to check chain wear.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/park-tool-chain-wear-indicator-cc3-2/rp-prod5784

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/x-tools-chain-wear-indicator/rp-prod10219

£7.49 for the nice Park Tools one, or £2.99 for the cheap and cheerful one.

Replacing the chain,or even a cassette, won't cost a fortune but if you can fit that tool in between the links then you know the bike has seen some action, and parts have worn.  That's ok but you would want to pay accordingly.

Boromedic

beed84 said:

Boromedic said:

Awwww mate, awesome bikes they are I wish I hadn't had to sell mine as I'd put a load of man hours into stripping it and refurbishing the gears etc. but I had no choice at the time. Mine was a 1995 one and I loved it, had Mavic rims and full Shimano. Looked ace once I stripped the chipped coating and polished it up.....

And here's mine: 



Like you, I intend to remove the coating (which shows signs of rust) and get it to a nice sheen. Out of interest, what did you use to remove the lacquer? Other than that a set of period correct Pace forks will be fitted, as will a new drive train at some point. It's just time and money against me at the moment. However, for £87 and a bit of TLC, I really can't complain. I love getting out and about on it. Everyone should own an Orange P7 at least once in their lifetime. It's an absolute classic, so much so, a fellow cyclist pulled up aside me the other day and commented just that

Heyyyy, sorry I meant to reply to this and then got mega busy and my brain forgot!

That is a gorgeous looking P7 and what a bargain at £87!! I used Nitromors paint remover and a shed load of elbow grease mate to get the laquer off, it was a pig in places requiring multiple coats of the stuff and copious scrubbing. Got there in the end and polished it up with a very fine wire wool and Brasso, then topped that off with a car polish to keep the water beading off it. Topped that up after every few rides or so, always looked grand! I see yours also has the Mavic rims, light as air them things!

Skunkwerx did you pick a bike up in the end?

skunkwerx

Ello all! I did indeed..
 This is what I went for...

Out of the box...


What is it? Its a.....


Out in the forest... And I bleedin love it so far! Added an Elite race cage + water bottle, a cheap B'twin saddle bag for now, a Cateye Micro Wireless trip computer and changed the saddle over to something a lot more forgiving on my poor asshole... a Selle Royale gel jobbie from halfrauds. Oh and a chainstay guard... which was far too long so I've cut it down to size and as the chainstay changes in diameter I've had to ziptie it on at the slimmer end haha. 

Reflectors came off too. 

Boromedic

Awesome, what a gorgeous colour as well!! Have fun and I'm glad you got sorted in the end dude :-)

TTBZ

Nice! I've always wanted a lairy colour like that for my bike but always ended up with boring colours. If cannondales mtb are anything like their road bikes it should last you a good while - my 2010 caad8 is still going strong! 

skunkwerx

Haha cheers guys! Yeah its been great so far. 

Hoping to get out on it tomorrow morning! 

Gotta say, the paintwork and double passed welds are great looking.
Seems like most bikes I've owned have been bright actually! Always had a yellow one as a kid, then in more recent years had an orange b'twin (not so good). 

I quite like the matte black schemes that seem popular these days, or glossy white! 

duotone

Guys what’s your thoughts on the Orbea brand of mountain bikes?  https://www.cyclesurgery.com/brands/orbea.html?from=LHN

Worth a look, or is there other companies using better components to look at instead?

Iamnobody

I’m no expert but hydraulic disc breaks on a sub £300 bike seems decent spec.


https://www.cyclesurgery.com/p/orbea-mx-50-27-5-2018-Q1114333.html?colour=3603

It’s a rrp £429 bike.

Is this the one you are looking at?

duotone

Cheers @Iamnobody ;


Yes that one, and the below £500 range in general.

Bygone_Tones

crunchman said:

Bygone_Tones said:

There are some good deals on ebay. You are paying less than 50% of the retail price in some cases. Go for 2014 to 2016 models instead of 2017 models. For some reason they seem to devalue significantly after 12 months. I guess everyone wants the latest model? Bikes as old as 2012 seem to be considered ancient.

I don't think it's just whether it's the latest model.  It's the possibility that you might need to spend some money on it.  With heavy use, you could wear out the chain and cassette very easily in 12 months, and put a lot of wear on the tyres.  When I was commuting a longer distance I used to have to replace the chain every 9 months or so, and replace the cassette every second chain.  The budget rear tyre that came with the bike needed replacing in less than a year as well.

Wear on a cassette or chain ring is relatively easy to spot.  The teeth will look the wrong shape.  If there are no close ups of the teeth on an Ebay auction I'd steer clear - or expect to pay a lot less.

If it's on Gumtree and you can go and see it, then get one of these to check chain wear.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/park-tool-chain-wear-indicator-cc3-2/rp-prod5784

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/x-tools-chain-wear-indicator/rp-prod10219

£7.49 for the nice Park Tools one, or £2.99 for the cheap and cheerful one.

Replacing the chain,or even a cassette, won't cost a fortune but if you can fit that tool in between the links then you know the bike has seen some action, and parts have worn.  That's ok but you would want to pay accordingly.

Given you a wis for this. 12 months after buying  a used mtb (whyte 901) on ebay, I have just had to replace front and rear cassette and chain. Not cheap, but still much cheaper than buying a brand new bike. I've spent about £600 on it altogether - buying it, getting a few accessories and having it repaired. Retail price would have been £1000 when new.