I'm a roadie (sorry!!) looking for something to start to knock about on. Used/Cheap Please feel free to offer bikes/give suggestions.
Cheers
alex

whats the budget?

buy a bike for where you are going, not where you are at!

however little i can get away with!! I'm not looking for a £50 ex halfords tractor, but neither am i looking for £2000 quids worth of Orange. If i could get away with a couple of hundred quid i'd be happy.
alex

if you gettin new £200 aint going to be enough. you should think more £500-600 if you want anything worth having. buy cheap and buy twice….

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160401768193

GOOD STARTER

Joe
Appreciate new is similar to roadbikes.(500-700+ for anything 1/2 decent)….so i'm fully prepared for well used. What i'd like to do is get the right style well used, and then trade up assuming i dont get a nosebleed with the fat tyres and road noise!!!

Cheers Mud
Thats exactly the kind of thing i'm looking for (i think) would be good to try to get one closer to home Yorkshire/N West to save the big travel.
Cheers for the help
Great forum
Alex

hi Alex welcome to the wonderful world of mountain bike riding.

there are many options open to you, but a good place to start is…how much do you want to spend?
£0-300 gets you an old(ish) bike with no suspension but maybe half decent components on from yesteryear.
£300-600 could score you a nice bike with front suspension forks and disc brakes front and rear. look for specialized/giant/marin. good forks might be rockshox recons or fox vanillas for example
£600+ you might want to search out an entry level 'full suspension' bike, with disc brakes and better things hung off it i.e xt gearing(105) or better wheels(mavic/hope), look out for trek/spesh/orange(if you are really lucky!)
£1k+ getting a bit more bling/committed to the sport, shiny shiny kit xtr(dura-ace) rockshox pikes/fox talas forks.

this is not an exhaustive guide and i am sure other people will have opinions that differ from mine.

have fun and remember that 'its all about the downs!'

How tall are you Alex? I might have a frame / bits you could start with…

As an intro offer the new cycle surgery store in victoria, london is going a giant hardtail for £499 down from £850 as a new store opening offer looks a good bet and for that saving worth travelling for

Vdubber67

5'11'' any help??

No Prob…
This site maybe some help. very good for searching auctions.
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/auction/

If you start with no front shocks you will learn to find good lines…

Might be worth talking to local bike shops, many will do px and so will have a steady stream of used bikes, at least that way you can ride it round the car park and have some advice and even back-up if something goes wrong.

WELL SAID NICK…

Nick/Mud

Interestingly tried that, but even my local "rock and roll" MTB shop Blazing Saddles, doesn't do used (which amazes me as i'm sure they can do some great deals and a great service getting people into the sport)
Alex

I had £300 to spend last year, and the best I could find was the Halfords Carrera bikes. They are decent bikes with good quality parts for the price as long as you have a rough idea of how to tighten things up when you get it.

I bought it in the sales, and at that point, people were selling second hand ones of the same model for the same price, and to be honest the 2nd hand bikes on here for that kind of price were no where near as high spec as what you got new. It is annoying, as I was hoping to go 2nd hand (recycling innit), but people seem to want 75% of rrp or something silly for 5 year old bikes, and I didn't want to pay extra for a 2nd hand less good bike.

It appears to work okay, I've done lots of riding on it over the winter.

Joe

Tried the classifieds on here?

atlaz

It's a totally valid question, but the problem is i don't know what i'm looking for (my lack of knowledge is the big problem!!)

Any help greatfully appreciated

Alex

Alex – sorry mate – the frame's I've got are way too big for you.. 🙁