I am looking for a beginner downhill freeride bike… my budget is £2000, any recomendations…
Cheers,
Luke

Hi cluke
You have to give us a little bit more information.
Do you want a DH bike or do you want a freeride bike.
Although similar, bikes are going to be very different.
A freeride bike is perfectly able to be ridden uphill (wait for people to shoot me on sight) it will have usually 2 front rings and 9 rear cogs and usually they are going to be “quite” light (around 15-16kg). But don’t get me wrong they are perfectly going to be able to whistand the stress of going down, and might be perfect suitable for some occasional DH practice.
A dh bike wont be able to be ridden up hill as it will only have on big front ring.
The geometry is going to be very different too. DH bikes are going to be a bit longer and have more slack than a FR bike. A DH bike is a very specific tool for a specific job.

Now if you want a FR bike, plenty of bike for this price range, commencal, kona and rocky mountain have some very good bikes for such use. Apparently trek and specialized have some models that would be perfectly suitable for your needs. If I was/were you (sorry I did ask, but no one gave me the rule) I wouldn’t rule out 2nd end bikes. Kona stinky is highly regarded, so is the RM6/7.

For DH bike I only know about the commencal, the kona or the RMX/flatline. But I am sure more DHer on here will be able to help you with that.

Hope it helps

XJ

“if i were you….”

and juan, why you sending kisses?

before typing a load of crap advice ^^ 😛 ..er what do you want it for? ie. where are you planning on using it and for what?

Juan – Who “highly regards” a kona stinky or a RM6/7 ? 😕

get a bike for where your riding is going not for where its at now

Juan – Who “highly regards” a kona stinky or a RM6/7 ? [:?]

Euh yes what is wrong with that?

beginner bike / £2000 budget.

more money then sense

Jedi…

😉

heh heh heh 🙂 : 🙂

Or, to give a simpler answer…………

If you’re looking for a bike that can be ridden at trail centres, all day rides, but still handle some not to extreme downhill. Then something with 6inches either end like a Kona Coiler.

Before all you “experts” shoot me down in flames. Bear in mind that the Mega is usually one on something around that size. 🙂

bighit, innit

I guess it also depends if you are a beginner when it comes to riding a bike or not 😉

The simple fact is that you don’t necessarily need something built like an oil rig to ride a DH course or huck off drops.

Juan I’d hate to see what your idea of heavy is, if 15-16kg is “quite” light in your book!

nor do you need a featherweight mincer bike to ride an xc course but its better at it.

if you want to ride DH (uplifts, armour and flat out) then get a proper DH bike (orange 224,giant glory,iron horse sunday, commencal team DH, spesh demo8…..take your pick)

if you want to ride a bit harder terrain then go on a skills course and ride what you already have.

You could…

Spend a grand on a last year’s Kona Stinky, ride it down/off/into stuff, it won’t break, you’ll have fun and you’ll find out which bit of DH/Freeride you enjoy most. And you’ll have change for helmets, pads, armour, goggles, a trip to the Alps. Then you can flog it and spend the rest of your money on something more specific, if you need it, and if the Stinky isn’t doing it for you.

Other things to look at, Spesh SX Trail, Marin Quake. Both available in cheap-flavour (if you want) and are all-round enough gravity bikes to find out if it floats your boat.

If you want to spend all your £2K then have a look at an Orange Patriot, you’ll get something from around that budget and it can be built up a few different ways at different budgets and tuned for different things.

Note: Having plenty of cash to spend on a bike isn’t a crime, give the guy a break.

Note: spending it on a kona stinky should be a crime!

Ignore comments on weight and the usuall “you can use your 2mm travel HT” or the “I use my 1 inch travel HT in Gnarr British Colombia” if someone else can huck 30ft on zero travel, good luck to them… ride what YOU want and feel comfortable on!

If you already have another xc / am bike then get what you want for the job. If you want a DH or FR bike then shop about, you can easily get something very nice for 2k, it depends if your buying new or if you would go 2nd hand, either way it is a buyers market.

If you know you like DH or FR then get the best you can 1st, if your not sure then get something more budget.. but I guess either way you can sell it if you don’t like it. Up-Market DH I would look at Demo 8, Giant Glory, Intense socom, Iron Horse Sunday (Older one with DW Link).

Freeride a demo 7, Intense Uzzi, Commencal Furious, Transition Bottlerocket, Foes etc

Stinkys and big hits will do the job but they are heavy and may quickly want something a bit nicer (nout wrongwith them but most of us on here are bike tarts!)! Have a look on http://www.southerndownhill.com for some good advice.

You may find a full DH bike fun but many people change them pretty quick as they are a bit specialist, unless your racing DH I personally dont see the need for a full DH! I moved from a Demo 8 to a Commencal Furious, my riding mate has moved to a Bottlerocket, 5-7” seems spot on to me for DH and FR mix. My furious has 7″ travel but single crown forks so it can cope with tight tech terrain (the best of both worlds imho)

Anyhow, if you would go 2nd hand you can easily get a Demo 8 around 1k, 224 for about £1400, Mini DH (Commencal)under 1k, you could pretty much get anything for your budget.

Good advice from Spankmonkey.

Also have a look on Pink Bike they have a DH/FR section, if you’re in the market for a second hand bike.

My only other advice is if you buy a second hand DH/FR bike, then check it out in person. These bikes can get ridden very hard, crashed, bent, flat spots on wheels, etc. If you’re not confident what to look for, then take someone who knows about DH/FR bikes with you.

And don’t forget to have fun on it when you get one!

cheers blue, on the other hand you get a lot of DH FR bikes hardly ridden as they are brought in error, ridden like an XC bike etc etc so you can pick up an A1 bargain! I saw a mint Demo 8 sell on ebay for £680 not long ago, 223 for £800, 2k in this market is a lot of bargaining power. But 100% agree if your not sure take someone who knows with you to check it all out. Be careful on Pinkbike there are a lot of scammers, just do cash in hand! There are a lot of very nice bikes on Southerndownhill at the moment

Ah here we go again with the normal pathetic STW comments from the same people as usual with their normal “heres my chance to be nasty to someone on the other side of the monitor comments.
He was merely asking a question and someone was just giving advice afterall everyone is allowed the freedom of speech right??
If I were you mate I would shortlist 2-3 bikes from both freeride and DH category and read some reviews from bikeradar/bikemagic etc then figure out what riding you will be doing primarily and then look for the bike that fits that style.
And as for more money than sense WTF! if he has the money then let him get a nice bike! he’s probably earned it, sounds like jealousy to me 🙂

But seeing as you have asked I would deffo buy 2nd hand as you get more for your money, if I were getting a freeride bike then probably a Santacruz Bullit, for downhill then probably a second hand V10 or maybe an Orange 223/224 etc 2nd hand also as chances are it will be very well specced and have just about everything upgraded and be bombproof for £2000
It would probably make more sense if your just starting to get a 6-7″ travel bike with a double upfront so it can be pedalled uphill as chances are the majority of good downhills in the UK normally start with an uphill 🙁

Go for it mate and just have fun riding.

MUPPETS!

people have a good point tho. Do you want a bike you can pedal uphill? or a DH bike? as getting the wrong one could end up being a very expensive mistake.

I agree you need to decipher from DH and FR but there is a bad and constant thing with STW and DH questions. He asked what DH / FR bike and gets the replies of what you want that for, an oil rig… very surprised we have not yet had any rad gnar riders from BC on saying you only need 3″ travel. It was a simple question, which DH or FR bike, not which HT or AM. Not which 18lb SS Ti you can huck in lycra with no padding. And if you had 2k for a bike would you buy a stinky or a Big i instead of an Intense, Commencal, Foes etc? no

If you want a bike you can pedal uphill, blast the downs and take it down the odd DH course then the Giant Reign X1 has the personal woodywoodbine seal of approval.

09 is about £2k I think. Had mine nearly two years now and its been battered all over from living in Vancouver and riding the North Shore most weekends for 6 months, 6 weeks non stop riding in Whistler, a week in the Alps, hiking up and blasting down Ben Lomond, trail centres all over the country and it’s just served me well at the Kielder Enduro last weekend. Not tried too many others but for me, it does it all. Fairly slack angles and a bottomless feel in the suspension but minimal bob unless you’re mashing out of the saddle in the granny so you can comfortably pootle up to the top of the next run.

High leverage ratio on the Giant tho, so if you are heavy they aren’t a great choice. If however you are ‘pie light’ they are great bikes.

very surprised we have not yet had any rad gnar riders from BC on saying you only need 3″ travel.

LOL – well I’m riding a 4″ travel 4X frame and a hardtail in BC this year 😉

Buy anything…..it doesn’t really matter as long as you enjoy it.

Patriot, Alpine 160, 224 or some other single pivot, depending on what you’re after exactly. If you’re new to it, you want a bike that doesn’t need much attention, and this lot are as low-tech and maintenance-free as they get. See this month’s Dirt for an Alpine review, and heaps of Dirt back issues for praise for 224s, 223s and 222s. Patriot’s reliability is pretty legendary too. All very capable bikes at what they’re designed for, though you possibly won’t find a second-hand Alpine yet.

You do need to answer the DH or FR question though. Personally, I look at a FR bike first as you can still have loads of fun on an uplift day (like CwmDown and UK Bikepark) but still ride it XC/Trail – albeit hard going.

I love my DH bike from the first time I rode it, er, downhill. Bad set up and all. But I do hanker for something a bit more All Mountain (maybe a new G-Spot?). But then again, I am a Cove bike tart through and through.

If you are thinking of an Orange keep an eye on here for a bargain

http://www.orangebikes.co.uk/offers/

Mk1fan.. what Cove you got mate?
Iv’e just finished building my Cove Stiffee 🙂 pics on the bike chat forum by the weekend 🙂

pimpmyride

On my second Handjob and third Stiffee.

Got a Sanchez frame that I aquired whilst drunken bidding on e-Bay.

And a Hustler and Shocker. I’d like a G-Spot but may wait for the ‘new’ one.

They are awesome.

“On my second Handjob and third Stiffee.

Got a Sanchez frame that I aquired whilst drunken bidding on e-Bay.

And a Hustler and Shocker. I’d like a G-Spot but may wait for the ‘new’ one”

Flippin eck!!! now that is more money than sense lol!!
I can’t wait to ride mine just fine tuning/setting it up at the weekend then off for its 1st spin can’t wait 🙂

Just by means of a defence of my earlier comments seeing as Spankmonkey seems to have take exception to some of them. The point I was trying to make is that most mountain bikes, with the exception of XC race bikes, are massively over engineered as it is.

So a heavy bike with tons of metal in it labelled as a DH bike may not necessarily be any more fit for purpose than something a good few pounds lighter. Plus there’s the whole issue of how heavy your riding style is too.

A Heckler?

Some lighter weight bikes are ok for DH, it’s true. Until you come off them and realise those thin butted top tubes fold like crisp packets when they meet a tree. DH and freeride bikes might seem heavy, but there’s a good reason.

pimpmyride – Member
Flippin eck!!! now that is more money than sense lol!!

Not really. The first Handjob fell off my mates roof rack at 80mph and ended up under a Skoda Fabia.

My first Stiffee is 6-years old and had a very hard life. I ran it with 125mm Talas’ and so the size (17.5-inch) was fine, however I’ve upgraded to Pikes and I needed a smaller size. As a check I bought a ‘cheapy’ ’03 15.5 and then a new one with heavy discount.

Hustler frame was too good a price to pass on, as was the Shocker and Sanchez – got all three for about the rrp of the Shocker.

Handjob really was bought to ressolve a bike shortage with the OH who wants to come riding. Little does she know!!!!

The only one I paid full rrp on was the first one. Then I got 10% back.

Loving them all.

personally, if i was you i’d get a trek remedy 7 with your budget. It’s really versatile, but maybe not suited to regular DH.

Ahum, how aboutThis very nice, reasonably priced downhill bike

jimmer 20 kg is heavy. With a 15/16 kg bike you can still do an epic ride and have some fun on DH days.
I use to have 2 pair of wheels for my switch. A light one I kepts for epics on saturndays, and an heavy pair, pushing the weight of the biek to 17.5 kg perfect for one hour climbs and uplift days.
As other have confirmed, makes sure you know what you want to do with you bike, it’s easy to get hook up my marketing niche.
As said gnar ganr can probably go down fort william on is fully rigid carbon bikes faster than steve peat does, but that does not apply to mere mortals. And I concurs the stinky is a very good bike that would be able to handle DH day without problems.

what is wrong with the stinky

How about this?

http://www.hopetech.com/database/For%20Sale/HIGH%20OCTANE%20FOR%20SALE.pdf

spend a grand on an 08 stinky
and ride the tits off it

spend the rest on armour, full face lid uplift days at cwmcarn, ae etc etc

Forget pedalling – thats what your other bike (I’m assuming you have other bike) is for.

I’ve got a Giant Glory, not ridden it for ages as I’d blown my brakes up, literally – was thinking about selling it as I was starting to forget just how much fun it is – decided to buy new brakes instead……….cant wait to put its through its paces at weekend!

Agree with another comment on here about the leverage – I’m fairly heavy and the recommended spring just isnt enough