I am after a new mountain bike and have about £500 to spend, I need recommendations. I will mainly use the bike on roads and dirt tracks in national parks.

Si.

You can have my Cannondale f600 (medium size) (3yrs old, vgc) for £350 plus postage.

Cost £949 and hardly used....

Cheers

I may well be interested Sipie - I'm in Edinburgh - whats the spec?

Anyone want a Kona Hahana for £150?

sillysi: Look at the Evans website(http://www.evanscycles.com).
You can get a last years model at really good prices.
The Foot and Mouth situation last year left a lot of dealers with lots of surplus stock.

Personally I'd recommend the Specialized Rockhopper A1 FS Disc '02, which is a cracking bike with Disc brakes for £549.99 (£150 off list).

Don't be tempted to go for a full-suss bike, at that sort of money you will get really cheap components and the bike will be junk after a few months.
If you can stretch to a full-susser then you can also get deals on them.

Personally I'd never buy a bike without disc brakes, the difference is stunning and you don't need to worry about them not working in the wet!!

Si, ignore some of this advice from hardcore riders. :D

Your first priority is to get a decent frame, with some half-decent bits on it. Disc brakes are not necessary at all - XT V-brakes are superb, and quite a revolution on anything you're likely to have ridden previously. Most bikes come with them as standard these days.

As has already been said before, don't get a full-suspension bike immediately - just get front suspension forks (not too pricey these days) and learn to ride the thing before you go full-sus.

Kona are a good manufacturer to look at - they produce top-class frames with good, well-matched componentry, and all for very reasonable prices. Once you're confident about riding, and you've got more cash, you can then go about upgrading the bits you can afford, or that you wear out, break, etc.

Go to a specialised independent bike shop, and chat to the guys about what you're likely to be doing before you spend anything. It's a whole different ballgame if you're intending to ride along some canal towpaths than if you're wanting to do some hard-core off-road trailing.

And don't forget to budget for a helmet (essential) and if possible gloves and maybe even shoes and SPDs.

Excellent advice MarkO,

...Buy a decent frame and then replace all the other parts with good stuff as they break...If you use it properly.

Well, it worked for me. Bought a Kona Cindercone with Judy Rock Shox, and mostly XT stuff. Within 8 months I'd done a lot of riding and got confident enough to do some real hard-core stuff, by which time most of most of my kit had been upgraded to XTR, either through want or necessity. ;)

Im with marko XTR V's are incredible ive just put them on mine.

Si

It's all very well you guys saying V brakes are good, and I'm not doubting they are, but have you tried disc brakes? (good ones of course). I always find V brakes hassle to keep clean and service and also they are less efficient when wet/muddy. On the other hand the disc brakes need absolutely minimal maintenance and stop amazingly in ALL conditions.
With discs on I can pull stoppies all day long, can't for the life of me figure out why I keep doing this though ;-)

I was out at the weekend with a Canadian who was riding with our usual pack, we all had disc brakes and he had V brakes. Alright the conditions this weekend were really bad and very wet, but everytime we came to a steep downhill he was having to take it very slowly as his brakes would not stop him very well. The rest of us on disc brakes were all nailing it as usual. His comment to me (which prompted my earlier reply to include the disc brake comment) was "I must make sure my next bike has disc brakes".
To be honest I'd never really thought about it much until then, you tend to take them so much for granted.

£80 V £250 a disc set up??hope??

Thats where im coming from

Si

Got to agree with SheepS.

Discs are the way to go in dirt/wet conditions.

Even so, I run Avid V's on my singlespeed and they are good enough even in hub depth mud but I wouldn't do DH on them.

XTR Vs are great in the dry, OK in the wet, but terrible in the wet/mud/leaf stuff. Even the 2002 XTR was poor (IMHO) and that was after trying different rims, blocks etc. The XT stuff was better in these conditions, much like the XT rear mechs shift better than XTR in the crap.

XTR = Over priced bike porn for those who don't know better or just buy it for the pose value. IMHO of course ;)

So, advice (getting back on thread). If you are doing roads and occasional firetrack you do not need suspension at all. Go get a rigid. You should be able to pick up a good rigid with good components for £500. Try you local bike shop if you have one (not Halfords) or some of the mail order places e.g. Evans etc. Riding a rigid is a much more involving and fun way to ride. Suspension just gets in your way and is unneccessary weight for what you plan to use it for.

Cheers

Ian



[Edited by IWatkins - 10/14/2002 6:22:44 PM]

super_si: I agree, if price is the only factor then there is no competition and V brakes are the way to go.

However a lot of models from last year have been discounted down so much that the component levels are almost irrelevant. i.e you save about £50 all in, which is IMHO bugger all for the benefits you get.

Mark'O good reply...

Well I for one will always say get a Kona !! (Mine is for sale.Frame only but could build up a bike) See for sale section.

Disc"V" V brakes !!! always a debate...

1. Disc on front?? yes ,well worth it.
2. Disc on back??? Only for certain riders.
3.Good or bad??? Like everything . well "Hope" are loosing their good reputation. SORRY but ask the shops and riders.... I have over £2k of Hope equipment. But for the money you cannot beat a Avid"Mech" disc set up front.with a XT V brake with good pads on the back

No leaver to buy and simple to set up. They do everything I want..unlike Hope Minis..

My Marin Team Titanium is for sale.
Would accept £500
Titanium Frame
Manitou Forks
NEW Mavic 521 downhill wheels
All new Shimano XT Gear set

This bike has been kept in top tip from new by me

Bob.

Luke,

You were almost there :D IMHO, an Avid Mech Disc on the front (seen the new 203mm disc ?) and an Avid SD7 V (or Ti if you are flash) on the back, both with SD7 levers. Class and not too much dosh.

Still reckon that combo will stop you quicker than anything Hope can put together. Well, in most conditions anyway.

Of course, IMHO :D :D

As an aside, anyone running Pace RC31 rigid forks ? If so, do you know if you go for the V brake version you still get the mounts for a disc caliper should you wish to change at a later date (by simply removing the V brake bosses) ?

Cheers

Ian

Nope. :D But my point is that for a beginner who's intending to do some fire-track stuff, V-brakes will be more than sufficient. I remember getting V's for the first time the year they were released, and going over the bars several times 'cos the stopping power was so much better. Discs are a matter of degree - I'm sure they're awesome, but there's no point spending half the budget (remember the thread title) on brakes!
Naah. Rode through 2 winters on mine, and never had any problems with performance or maintenance.

As I said before, once you're confident you're going to a) notice the difference and b) actually do enough hard-core riding to warrant it, I've no doubt discs are well worth it. But for a beginner with a budget of £500 (let's face it - any budget under a grand) they're just unnecessary, and the money could be far better spent on other components.

Cheers for the replies everyone, now I will have some idea what the lad in the local MTB shop is talking about.

Si.

One last thing. I said it before, but it's worth repeating - get a helmet. They may look daft ;) but having had a few big 'offs' and seen the damage to the helmet (which would have been my head :eek:) I swear by 'em now. :D

I agree with MarkO and there are some really cracking deals at independant bike shops.

I got back into biking this year and bought a GT i-Drive (£399). Full sus, V brakes etc. Its great and I love it. The i-Drive system does work exactly as GT say. I've also got a hardtail that I've compared the ride with. My frame will also take discs, should I want them. I have a great trail of about 10 miles (no roads) that I ride as often as possible, but it doesn't have any massive descents, so discs wouldn't improve the ride for me.

I must admit, I rarely ride if its pi$$ing down, weekends like that are for the pub.

I also agree on helmets and gloves. A good Bell helmet is about £40 and money well spent. I don't think they look daft, I think you look a lot more serious if you've got decent protective gear on. Especially if its the same colours as your bike. Also agree on avoiding Halfords, they are damn expensive for bikes and parts.

All in all, its probably the wrong time to buy and you may be better off waiting for January as bikes do get quite heavily discounted in the sales.

I've had lots, Kona, Specialized, Trek but it all depends on what you intend doing on it, if you want something with great handling and something you can chuck around and jump on etc then def go for Kona, I ride a Kona Cindacone now if that's how you spell it, I can't remember lol but it's brilliant for that knid of use, ifound the trek bike was great for longer cross country trips though as it was more comfortable.