Hi I come from a road riding motocross back ground and have recently taken up cycling so am mainly working on raising my fitness. I have recently decided to give up MX and advertised my bike and had an offer of a Trek scratch Air 9. I get the bike is top notch and retailed for serious money but what I would like advice on is it too much, would I be better off sticking to my Hardtail Marin Nail trail. Also what sort of money would a 2011 bike be worth? apparently had light use. whatever that means.

Hi, the Scratch is more of a free ride bike, so whether or not its too much depends on what your riding on it. The bike is around 32lbs with around 6″ of suspension travel so its going to be a bit lazy / heavy on the climbs. If your planing a few uplift days at bike parks or a trip to the alps it may be ok.
Its a big leap from your Marin nail trail, mabe something a bit lighter with less travel would suit what your riding?

TBH I’m just planing on riding more mainly over the South downs and local trails with my sons for now hopefully get some jumps in maybe some down hill mixed bag.
TBH I’m on the sluggish side myself 😆 50 and with a gut to match although I do plenty of cardio and circuits in the week, needed to to cope with 20mins all out on a track. Maybe might still be worth my taking the bike and selling it on buy something lighter. TBH the Nail trail actually belongs to my 9 year old son and he gets pissed off with dad, my own personal bike is a cheapie that’s hard work on anything other than tarmac.

As above, the Scratch is a lot of bike to get (even in a swap) when you are not sure of what you really want/need/like. How much is your mx bike worth and is it a problem selling it?

I would only do the swap if it was a really good deal, otherwise there are plenty nice bikes in the classifieds for a relatively small amount of money that you can try and resell if they don’t suit you.

Thank you woody MX bikes are pretty difficult to sell ATM and being a 4 stroke makes it expensive to maintain IE pistons every 50 hours and fresh oil and filter every two hours. My bike should be worth 3K now, but I paid £2800 (got it for a steal) and was asking £2500 although it’s been up for a while with little interest.
The scratch is supposed to be nigh on mint only been used a few times guy wants to come over this eve. I’m going to get some idea on value later on today and do more research.
TBH last thing I want is to have a all the gear no idea situation.

I wouldnt swap your MX bike for the Scratch, if your motor bike is worth £3000 the scratch is probably worth less than half that.

Ouch thanks.

pistons every 50 hours and fresh oil and filter every two hours

Wow, I never new that!

chappers998 if you are coming from road riding, it might be worth looking at a CX bike, there is a nice one here at the moment 😉

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-surly-crosscheck-complete-geared-build-size-54

Scratch is a nice bike but firmly in the park bike/winch-and-plummet category, it’s no trail bike.

I had the opportunity to ride one around Cannock and it was very capable. No need to follow everyone else’s lines or be concerned about the terrain just point it in the general direction, hide behind the seatpost and let the bike sort it out.

It has a short cockpit – an inevitable result of a steepish seat tube and slack head angle – but pedalled OK uphill it did what it had to do.

Would’ve very much liked one but IIRC the Air 9 was just short of £4.5k at the time

Thanks for the advice it’s given me a lot to think about.
ski I come from a MX background and messed around both on roads and trails etc and yes a MX bike especially a 250 high revving single put the piston under lot of stress you can leave it for longer but on a small capacity engine you run the risk of lumps of metal divorcing each other.
Rocketman
I got to see the Trek today and I was taken back how clean it is i’d be surprised if it’s been used any more than once and is in showroom condition, even the discs and tyres are barley marked. took it for a spin and found it easy to ride definitely not as focused as I was expecting.
But other than that things remain the same and haven’t progressed any further.

Hi Chappers, sell your MX bike but don’t get the Scratch. It’s a beast of a bike for hammering while in armour and a full face. As you’re new to riding MTB you’ll still be developing fundamental techniques. Do yourself a favour and get a simpler bike for the job.

If you really want a FS then I reckon stay below 140mm travel, you can do a hell of a lot with that much cush but they get back uphill ok. I personally really like the long forked steel hardtail approach. The Marin you’re riding has a 100mm fork and an aluminium frame. A steel alternative with an (ideally) adjustable travel fork around the 140mm mark will be more comfy and more capable in diverse terrain. Then again I rarely use the U-turn, but it’s nice to have.

Naturally I’m recommending what I like, but then why wouldn’t I? Don’t get dazzled by the bling of the Scratch, get something more trail oriented first and progress to freeride/DH if you take to it. Travel, much like power is nothing without control.

The On-One 456 X5 Sektor deal looks pretty good, you can upgrade once bits wear out and adapt it to suit your riding style LINK HERE.

Or better yet build something up! You’ll learn a lot about potential parts when you have to choose each bit individually. Naturally you can get lots of advice from here to help.

If you don’t already have, I strongly suggest a dropper seatpost and some of the newer generation of thin big flat pedals. If you got the 456 at under £900 you’d have some cash left over from your MX bike sale. That being said, £900 would get you a very good 2nd hand steel hardtail from the classifieds if you know what you’d want.

By the way I’m in Brighton and have gone back to hardtail for the local stuff. There’s a little bit around here for longer travel FS, but really it’s a pain to lug around the extra bike for the sort of things around here! It’s nice to be back on a lighter, more responsive bike again. You can still be lazy with a long fork but retain the immediacy of a HT frame.

But, that’s just my opinion 😀

Thanks Herman I have managed to procure my stepsons spare bike a Saracen frame that was built up originally as Jump bike but is now converted to MTB.

I didn’t realise MTB were so focused we’ve been ok using MX race bike for enduro and trail riding (when legalised) and enduro bikes on a mx track lots of learning to do.
I must say DH does appeal as it seems very similar to MX in some ways and another way to get some adrenalin flowing.

I gravitated to Full Suss as I’ve broken my back twice and found the hardtails unconfortable.
(Broken back isn’t as bad as it sounds first accident snapped 7 transverse processes and second crushed two vertebrae amongst other injuries :oops:).
Anyway I’ll keep things as they are for now.