What Mountain Bike?

[adamr]

I know the seller very well... He is selling it because he has got into the army and now does all his training there. He used it to prepare himself for that...

The main use will be off road but not jumping etc...having said that I'm not going to be doing marathon 30miles in a session sort of riding but a day out with the lads around the lakes will be more like it..


Thanks

Adam

[Mark Davies]

Originally Posted by adamr

would you recommend this type of frame or a normal frame??

It depends on your size. If you are quite short it might be okay for you but perhaps not if you are anything over about 5'6".

If you are planning on using a bike to get fit and lose some wieght you need to be doing plenty of spinning on the pedals. Roads or easy off-road terrain are best for that, and that's not what these bikes are designed for. So, you need to be comfortable in the saddle. To get the saddle height right you should sit on it and then with the heel of your foot on the pedal in its lowest position your leg should be straight. You can't achieve this on a short frame without a very long seat post. The problem with a long post is that it will flex a lot, absorbing effort and making the bike less efficient as a machine.

So try it - if you can't get that leg extension with the seat post at it's full height (watch for the marker line on the post) then the bike is too small for you. Added to that, anything more than about 12" of seat post is probably too much.

[DIVE BUDDHA]

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

it is very easy to spend in excess of £1500 on a decent mountain bike!.

how right u r mark !!!! depends on what kind of biking ya want to do ! im not a big lover of full susser bikes ! they make cross country riding hard unless u can lock the back shocker totaly out ! and to get that kind of performance u would be talking expense !
i do like the new ranges of gt bikes with the triple triangle frame !
very sturdy and not bad prices although again depends on what kind of gear ya want on the bike !! i love my diamond back although its one of a kind and was built from frame ,even hand built wheels ! with mavic rims !!! god the cost can be endless!!

[adamr]

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

[font=Comic Sans MS][color=indigo]It depends on your size. If you are quite short it might be okay for you but perhaps not if you are anything over about 5'6".

Lol I'm a healthy 5'7"...short ass really..... Looks like a conventional mountain bike frame is the way forward...

Now someone just needs to offer me a bike for about 150 and we're sorted!!

Cheers

Adam

[Mark Davies]

Originally Posted by DIVE BUDDHA

im not a big lover of full susser bikes ! they make cross country riding hard unless u can lock the back shocker totaly out ! . . . i love my diamond back although its one of a kind and was built from frame ,even hand built wheels ! with mavic rims !!! god the cost can be endless!!

I'd agree there. I never used full suspension for cross-country competition - it severely reduces transmission efficiency on the climbs and as you spend a hell of a lot more time going up than you do going down you just can't recoup the losses on the downhills. There seem to be some very good systems out there now but as you say, you pay the price.

I had to give it up because of my back injury but my last bike was a dream. Built on an Orange Clockworh frameset with Rockshox forks. Deore XT gearing, custom Hope Technology crankset and brakes and pretty much everything else in titanium . I was fortunate in that I got our team involved in quite a lot of product development so nearly 15 years ago we had kit on our bikes that you're seeing in production today but nobody else had back then. Sometimes it paid off, others (like the first disc brakes) were a real disadvantage. But our bikes at least attracted attention even when our race results didn't!

[adamr]

Is this a bargin ??



http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GT-Aggressor-Mountain-Bike_W0QQitemZ170102667564QQihZ007QQcategoryZ33503 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks

Adam

[MartinS]

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

You're unlikely to be able to change them later unless you change the frame - you need lugs welded to the frame to attach the brake calipers to.

Mark
FYI the Trek already has the lugs on both front and rear - you just have to replace the wheel hubs (or, as in my case, the entire wheel) for a disc specific one. It seems more and more bikes are including the fitings for discs.
Regards
Martin

[DIVE BUDDHA]

Originally Posted by MartinS

Mark
FYI the Trek already has the lugs on both front and rear - you just have to replace the wheel hubs (or, as in my case, the entire wheel) for a disc specific one. It seems more and more bikes are including the fitings for discs.
Regards
Martin

the hs 33 hydraulic rim brakes are just as good as discs !
although ya do have to change the blocks depending on what cycling ya doing !
i.e green frog for wet, black for multi purpose,red for dry dusty and grey for ceramic ! so if ya bike ya get doesnt have a hanger for the brake caliper just get a bike shop to fit magura hs33,s