[Closed] Admitting to yourself you've bought the wrong bike.

IMO, cx bikes make pretty good winter road bikes and kack off-road bikes

Not doubting for a minute some people have fun on them, I imagine someone will now post a video of yon mon jumping off walls etc on that mongoose making them look ace.

I just can't get it to work for me.

You should have bought a Kinesis Tripster

It would have been easier to sell on I suppose.

I've had more wrong bikes than right and most of the right bikes I got right from pure luck. Only mistake you can make, is keeping a wrong bike.

Happened to me with my dream frame. The seller even gave it to me as a complete bike for a week to try out. Unfortunately I was blinded by lust and desire, just mostly admiring it rather than riding it properly. within weeks of owning it I realised it was completely wrong.

Ah, happens all the time. Just sell it on and buy something e;lse/Sure you won't get what you paid for it but hey, just put it down to experience and having had the chance to test ride. It'sall good 😛 . Apoligjkes for the cra'[ spellibng - I may have beneen drinking LagunitAS ipa 😛 BUT REGARDless of beer choice, the sentiments still stand.

OP I'm kinda feeling the same way, and never really wanted to accept it til I saw your post! I'm 5"4 45kg and I've bought a medium Surly ECR which isn't all that fun to ride, sluggish and a heck of a lot work. VikB from the mtbr forums explained it to me in a way that makes sense:
A stiff bike and a lighter less powerful rider usually ends up feeling dead/sluggish. It's the difference between a bike that surges forward with each pedal stroke and one that seems to absorb your energy without moving the speed up as much as it should. There is no easy way to measure this, but if you compare bikes with similar components you can feel right away which ones respond well to your pedal strokes.

I'm not giving up on it though! It's a goddamn beast. Maybe I'll just try and grow haha

What's a three month old £1100 bike worth that has hardly been used worth?

Lol i hope its not my size. As for cx bikes being rubbish offroad scaredypants pah... they are great

Well I paid £650 for a 3 month old CDF on the classifieds that had done around 100 miles and had cost £1150 new. I don't suppose you wanted to hear that.

i have probably bought more wrong bikes than most.
sell it and try something else......and keep on trying untill you find something that suits.

I've found that cx bikes don't make good winter road bikes at all!
I used mine as a winter bike, as I couldn't afford another bike at the time, but the geometry & gearings just isn't ride for many road miles.
I've since built up a very budget build Ribble as a winter bike & it's great-love the thing & keep my cx bike for what it's designed for.
A cx bike certainly has it's place & can be great fun in the right place at the right time, but replacing a fun hardtail isn't it.

Buying wrong bikes is part of the process of discovering right ones. It's often the ones that you convince yourself are going to change your riding that bomb. A Rayley Mmmbop was my most obvious, but in honesty any full suss I've ever bought too. A Specialized Langster was a surprise winner though.

Maybe you are expecting too much from a cx bike.. It's a totally different style of riding even from riding a ht.
Stuff you can just plough down on a mtb require much more finesse, line choice and mincing.
If you don't enjoy it then just move on.

Happily not an expensive mistake.

Bought a super-mincy carbon hardtail from the classifieds here. It had 80mm of travel, a riding position like the TdF bikes and made you feel like you were being beaten up when you rode it over anything bumpy.

Luckily, for my marriage, it didn't cost much at all to sell it and get something more suitable. It took me 9 months before I gave in and started looking for a replacement.

Well done for owning up to your error, it's part of the healing process that allows you too move on! 😀 And buy new stuff.

Toyed with a CXer myself but thought it would be too much like MTB'ing in the early 90's. Perhaps not quite that bad.

I've made the CX winter bike mistake too. Twice! TBF the Genesis Vapour was actually pretty good if a little harsh. The CDF was horrible stodge for faster road riding and as heavy as my HT for off road.
Anyway the thread title indicates that this is a thread that Hora should contribute too 😛

Same as you really but with a road bike. However because it was 1. Cheap and 2. Useful training tool.

I've kinda come to accept it. I use it and don't greatly enjoy it. But I see it going in Feb when bonus time comes. Happily as I only paid £230 for it, I won't lose more than £100.

Northwind has it, don't keep a wrong one, I tired in the end mrsforge was like were off to get a new bike!!! It's a shame buy one that's doesn't work for you but it's best to move on, plenty more to try 🙂

What's a three month old £1100 bike worth that has hardly been used worth?

About £650-ish. Popular sizes, medium/large, might get you a bit more.

...or you could just do what Planet-X do and try and sell it for near RRP despite it being [url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Planet-X-XLS-Carbon-Fibre-Cyclo-Cross-SRAM-Force-Bike-51cm-12k-Carbon-/301326435487?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item462874849f ][i]'a little dirty and has a big chip/scuff on the side of the downtube[/i]...'[/url]

What size is it? Been looking at those... 😉

Had plenty of wrong bikes, whats really worrying is that I keep wanting to change my right bike for something else??

Wait until the weather goes crappy, it might start to make more sense when the trails aren't as much fun on your MTB.

If it helps you may have saved me from wasting my money on a CX bike. I've been tempted for winter miles but will stick to the 29er hardtail and invest the money in a better goretex jacket.

In the unlikely event it's an XL I may be willing to take it of your hands!

I agree with chakaping ,give it a bit more time* ,you could even torture yourself and do a cross race 😈 .
How much riding have you done on it?
What did you really want from it as a bike ?

*[i]as long as it's the right size/fit for you[/i]

Cheers lads, glad to know it's not just me then!

Only mistake you can make, is keeping a wrong bike.

Sums it up nicely I think.

I did try riding it like a ht at first but soon learnt that wasn't the way to go about it. Changed my riding stylee to suit but as above I just end up mincing everywhere instead of plowing through. Suppose you could argue it's my lack of skillz but it's just a different kind of riding to what I want to be doing.

I kind of expected £700 ish tbh so would be happy with that. Does have an XT cassette/XT rear mech and KMC light chain too but still have the original bits.

Really fancy a long travel ht in its place.

It's a 54cm/medium and I'm near Bolton if anyone is interested 🙂

Fit is perfect, could ride it all day tbh. Was worried it would cripple me and take me ages to settle in to it but it rides like I've owned it for years.

It just doesn't excite me or make me want to ride it.

I don't get this 'I've bought the wrong bike' thing,if its the right size surely you ride it and get to know it,you've been riding bikes for years right? what did you expect it to do? Theres seems tons of people on here who are more into buying stuff that the actual riding/adapting to a different bike.

Theres seems tons of people on here who are more into buying stuff that the actual riding/adapting to a different bike.

..and then spend their life worrying about tyres 😉

Every bike I've ever bought has been the wrong one after about 4 months.

I enjoy riding my CX bike offroad, it's also great for going flat out round muddy fields for a hour. Don't much like it for a road bike, geoeand sizing not really ideal.

I'm getting older now so it seems to be mistakenly buying/building bikes that are really for "Yoofs" that's my problem...

Built a Dirt Jump Bike, rode it twice, now it's in bits again awaiting sale...

BMX, more of the same...

Without wanting to get too Zen. Lifes full of mistakes, you learn from them move on (haha its so easy to say that to somone else isnt it, but it is still true). Your still here fit well, not in a hospital in Sierra Leone (god forbid). Guys on here spend thousands on bikes so in the big scheme of things its not a huge mistake (thats all relative though i suppose, i would be quite gutted with a £400 loss). Throughout your life it will seem like an insignificant amount of money though.

Wouldnt a half way house be a 29'er mtb singular or something like that?

Officerfriendly - sounds to me it's not the stiffness of the frame that's the problem, probably the size? I am 5'5" and 58kg and only ever ride a small. Had a 16" orange 5 for a while that was too big and I just did not like (really wanted to though). At 5'4" and 45kg I presume a medium must be too big?

My son is also 5'4" and 48kg and rides my old small cove stiffee. It's definitely stiff, but does not feel sluggish or hard work.....

Try a small?

I think the right bike can feel very wrong in the wrong size.

So yes, my bike mistakes: orange 5 and old style cove g spot.

Simone

It's interesting that everyone keeps mentioning CX bikes, that's probably my next N+1

But it's more getting a CX bike because I've a couple of roadie mates who are keen to get CX bikes at the minute and I of course am an MTBist (Who also rides a Road bike) I think CX riding would give us a bit of a Cross over point where we're all trying something new, they're not into MTBs and While I enjoy Road riding, it's not my preferred Niche...

Will a CX bike be My next cycling mistake, or an epiphany?

First proper bike back - a 2002 Rocky Mountain Vertex. Loved it. Really did. Decided to go on a Alps trip so decided to buy a Ellsworth I.D frame. Immediately it was hideous, tall, towering. Ungainly, knew this on the first ride but thought it was me- manufacturer would know better than me and I must be wrong.

Nope it was shit.

It would help if I had the faintest clue what the right bike for me would look like 🙂

I've currently got a Five and a Solaris and both are wrong. The Five is far too much bike for the sort of mincing around that I do and I don't really enjoy riding hardtails off road. But I love the efficiency of the the hardtail 29er and the Five is the only bike that has ever made me actually enjoy riding down technical stuff (rather than just being relieved to survive). So, I guess they are both right too.

Toyed with a CXer myself but thought it would be too much like MTB'ing in the early 90's. Perhaps not quite that [s]bad[/s] good.

FTFY

It's not the ones that are obviously wrong, it's those that continually give you that niggling thought/doubt that something's not right and no matter what fettling you do like change saddle, handlebars, stem you never feel comfortable. On a more positive note when you get on a bike that [b]is[/b] right for you, it's pretty obvious and the personalised tweeking only makes it better.

Mountain biking is expensive enough without buying the wrong bike which is why I think hiring your desired steed for a day (or better a weekend) is money well spent.

only bike i regret buying was a saracen havoc, all my others i have really enjoyed.

I swithered over an El Mariachi for ages, read all the reviews and the stories of folk having epic adventures on them and was then thoroughly disappointed when I rode it. Nothing I could easily put my finger on, it just felt a bit dead and lumpen. I kept it for a year or so, still riding it, then used what I'd learnt to get a Burls Ti frame so it wasn't a total loss.

With a head angle of 71-71.5 degrees, the CdF is never going to excite on the road. You can swap to lighter wheels, with decent road tyres and a close ratio rear block for better gearing, but it will still handle like a bus (well tourer, anyway). The CAADX has a 72 degree head angle which will be a little more twitchy off-road, but is a better balance for winter road duties.

Sell it.