J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Am after a Mountain bike to leave in the shed as a habitat for spiders and to generally take up space that could be better taken up by something useful.

Thats what my ancient Diamond Back does but its by virtue of the fact its ancient, crap and a fairly painful experience all round, its about 14 years old ! but its part of my heritage so it will stay, for the spiders sake.

So, I have decided on a new one, not the Halfords 99 quid special offer with dual suspension but the next level up I think, I want front suspension and disk brake(s), have my eye on one called a Carrera Kraken at 359 quid.

Is it utter crap or actually ok, remember I am not a very demanding/discerning rider, just stopping (the DB just wont), not grinding or slipping gears and generally feeling rickety would be a start, so dont get sniffy about it not have carbon fibre this and that, I weigh sixteen stone and can save 200 quid worths of weight saving upgrades by having a poo.

Also there is a second hand one locally thats on Ebay, whats it worth and am I better off getting a new one ?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...e=STRK:MEWA:IT

Anyone selling anything similar/better in the Cheshire area, I need a 20 inch frame apparently.

mark_h

£350 should get you good bike to start with and avoids all the crap out there; for that price I think you've made a good choice to avoid rear suspension as it'll improve the quality of all the other components.

The ebay bike is nothing special IMHO; it has a Shimano Acera groupset which isn't that great. Personally I'd want at least Shimano Deore which is two up from Acera. Everything below Acera is total **** and should be avoided IMHO - it won't last 5 minutes if you intend to do any offroading.

I had Acera on my first mountain bike and snapped the rear mech in no time at all - replaced it with Deore and it was much better. Of course you could get the bike on ebay and replace the Acera bits when you break them!

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

The new mode Kraken has the following,

7005 aluminium frame features double butted 3 main tubes.
SuntourXC 60 suspension fork with adjustable pre-load.
27 spd Shimano Deore rapid-fire shifters and derailleurs
Truvativ Isoflow chainset.
Tektro disc brakes.
Tioga Factory Extreme 2.1 tyres.
Double wall eyeletted rims.
Tioga double butted handlebar and Tioga Comp seatpost.


So it looks like the later model is higher spec with the Deore gear.

milo

tbh bro in the £350 range if you're looking for disc brakes, you're going to end up getting poor ones, and probably a bike that's had a lot of corners cut to boot.

personally i would suggest getting a used name bike such as giant or kona.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Am I really going to notice the difference, if so I can always upgrade to better diks at a later date, can I not ?

milo

yes but the point is that by having disks (albeit poor quality most likely) in the first place will result in cheaper frame and/or suspension and/or wheels... and you won't actually get any benefit over v-brakes (in fact probably the opposite).

mark_h

You could ask it the other way round too - if you're not going to use the bike for serious offroading, will you notice the difference between V-brakes and disk brakes?

Don't underestimate the stopping power of a good set of V-brakes; properly setup they're great even in the wet. The advantages of disk brakes come when you use them hard or when it's really muddy or wet.

Why not take a trip to your local bike shop and try out some bikes, with and without disk brakes and see what you think. If you can do without disks, it'll improve the quality of everything else. And if you get a frame, forks and hubs with the mounting points on, you could always add disk brakes at a later date.

the moose

Honest opinion? Get a good bike to start with. Doesn't need to cost a lot - look at Merlin Cycles website and consider the Malt 1 (with discs) which goes out at £549. It's got good forks, excellent brakes, a light frame, and it's great to ride.

You can pay less, but you'll get considerably less for it.

MarkO

Would now be a good time to mention the £380 ex-hire Giant XTC3s at The Hub?

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Hmm, absolute tops would be 400 quid I reckon, I have responsibilities and no particular longing for any kind of credit agreement but I can see the points made about buying a better starting point and that disk brakes are the be all and end all.

The owner of the one off Ebay rang and said I could have it for 150 quid, then rang back to ask if I could wait until the end of the auction as he didnt know how to end it early, suspect I may buy this as it only been ridden 3 times and a new one the same is 359 quid, I can then see how much I use it (no excuse of crap bike) and then start saving for the next one.

the moose

If £400 is absolute tops, then MarkO's suggestion of ex-hire bikes from The Hub is a very good one, despite the fact that he used to look after them ......

milo

didnt know how to end it early?! lol thats a good one. he wants to wait to see if he gets a better offer, and if not has u to fall back on.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Milo, thats what I would do !

Regacy

XTC 3 £380 ALL SIZES

Looks like a good deal to me, losts of bike for the money......

MarkO

TBH, I'd avoid the Kraken at all costs. It's going to be heavy, rubbish components, and will look sh1te too.

I would seriously recommend the Hub ex-hire bikes; the current lot were brought into service after I left the shop, so haven't been anywhere near my hands and will be mechanically sound . However, 'cos they over-ordered at the start of the season, they've got loads too many this year, and so are turning them around much quicker. Most ex-hires are sold on after just 8-10 weeks of hire use, and they're fully serviced after each hire so will be in good nick.

As has been mentioned, it's a lot of bike for the money - Ali frame, the excellent Giant MPH hydraulic discs, mostly XT groupset, Manitou Axel forks.

If anyone here is interested, give the Hub a call on 01721 721736. Tell 'em MarkO recommended them, an they'll sort you out a good 'un. They'll post the bikes to anywhere in the UK too.

BTW, I'm not on commission, I just like to see people saving money and getting out and riding decent bikes rather than the deathtraps that Halfords put out.