andrewdelvard

As above. Best thing to do is visit several independant bike shops. Speak to the staff who more often than not are real bike enthusiasts and you'll be pretty sure to get great advice. Although this is a very rough idea and I hesitate to suggest it, I'd look to spend about £250 on a second hand bike and you should get something OK for occassional use. But get some education first! Good Luck.
BTW. As above 'Leisure Lakes' are very good.

[Edited by andrewdelvard - 8/2/2003 7:00:32 PM]

*Sonic*

Is this any good, for a dirt cheap Mountain bike ?

http://www.fotv.com/Shop/SingleProdu...productid=3629

Cant find any details on it on the net anywhere other than here, and in the Daily Mirror

Steve

unclebuck

Well, as with most things you gets what you pays for. It'll be ok for light use, but I doubt it would last very long. It must have *very* cheap components.

UB

Marin

iTrader: (1)

Avoid it like the plague!!! It will weigh a ton, won't go, won't stop or have any suspension travel at all. If you go on anything other than smooth tarmac it will just fall apart and the you will spend more than you saved buying replacement parts.

Could try a big bike shop for a good 2nd hand bike if you want full suspension e.g. Leisure Lakes etc.

imlach

It looks worth £87 basically (if that!).
No way was it ever £299!!

Ask yourself why you want full front & rear suspension anyway.....it is ONLY useful for offroad and serious offroad at that...

On the road, it makes cycling tiring, tedious, inefficient, and makes for a heavier bike.

It also lists one of the (5) features as "two tone saddle" - hmmm...says it all....should be more concerned with what makes the compenents are, not colour of saddle!

MarkO

LOL. First rule of buying a MTB. If you're paying less than £500, forget about full-sus altogether.

2nd rule - if you're paying less than £100, it's not a 'Mountain Bike'. Take it anywhere near a mountain, and either you or it will break in the first 5 minutes.

Love the way they refer to V-brakes as being 'new'. They were new back in '96 when I bought mine - the Vs on my bike are the first XTR V-brakes that Shimano sold. So if their definition of 'new' is something invented 7 years ago (and rapidly being moved to obsolescence by disc-brakes), I'd wonder what 'old' would mean?

As has been said, avoid it like the plague. If you're planning on doing serious mountain-biking, you'll want to spend upwards of £350 (and that's a very basic hardtail). If you're planning on pootling along some canal paths or on the road, you don't need full-sus. Either way, read this page, and have a look through the other tips pages (and the excellent FAQ) on that site.

IWatkins

In my experience, if it doesn't say "Shimano" this, "Avid" that and "Fox" thingimjig then it doesn't have any of those makes of components. I.e. it is cheap tat.

I would avoid and it'll probably weigh 50 Kg, something you really don't want on a bike.

Advice as above, if you budget is small, go for second hand.

Cheers

Ian

Mick

iTrader: (1)

On the other hand...
If you want something that looks tidy, (very) young kids will like to see you on when you take them to the park on theirs... Just pootling around like that you will get more excersize with a heavy slow full susp 'Mountain Bike' than some ultra lightweight highly efficient thing.

... And - in 2 yrs time if anything has broken or worn out, for the cost of a pair of decent tyres and tubes... - you can throw the whole thing away and get another shiny new bike

Mick

mik

As already stated - depends what you want to do.

If it's pootling to the park - great.

If it's using it on a road simply to keep fit - will probably do. I spent 18months riding (road only) a 12year old non-suspension MTB that was crap in it's day to build up some fitness and convince myself I was serious enough to spend a few hundred on a real bike. Be prepared to expend a lot of effort for little distance though.

It's much more fun when you trade up. I still do 75% road work, as it's a fitness tool rather than a thrill seeking tool, but I can and do cover trails and it's capable of doing tougher stuff too (although not fabulously suited to it). Go occaisionally with a colleague ~ great fun! I spent £260 on a "previous model year" Trek4300 by the way.

If you want to use it off road - forget it.