[Closed] Buying a New Bike

If you want to do any proper mountain biking, you'll want to up your budget probably to get something worthwhile. Unless you look on eBay for 2nd hand bargains etc.

If your budget is firm though, and you're only going to be riding gentler trails on it, then any bike from the popular makes such as Specialized, Trek or Giant will be great, so get down to your local bike shop and ask for some advice!

When you say upping my budget, by how much are we talking to get the cheapest decent spec. bike?

If you can up your budget to £500, the decathlon rockrider 8.1 is good value.

rockshox recon fork,sram X7 gears,avid elixir 3 brakes,shimano deore
chainset

build one from 2nd hand bits. Seriously, you will get a much nicer bike.

build one from 2nd hand bits. Seriously, you will get a much nicer bike.

Yes, but you (and I) are benefitting from years of experience and hindsight. When I first started riding, I didn't really have a clue as to what was what, and why one bike was better than another. This stuff is all learnt as you go...

Solostar, don't get me wrong, it's perfectly possible to have plenty of fun on a £300 bike, I just think that if you're planning on doing any proper offroading (rather than just cycle paths or fireroads) I think an extra couple of hundred quid would feel like money very well spent. Seen lots of people try MTBing on a cheap bike, then give up shortly after as the bike was inevitably impeding their enjoyment. These days, most bikes costing £500 or so easily offer plenty enough performance and light enough weight to be considered a worthwhile offroad proposition.

Though, as mentioned above though, if you know what you're looking for, you could always get lucky buying 2nd hand off eBay perhaps.

Whatever you get though, the important things are as follows and roughly ordered as such...

It should fit you well!
It should make you want to get out and ride it
Disc brakes, particularly hydraulic, are a big bonus
Suspension forks are nice, but ideally you want some with some form of hydraulic damping control and a rebound adjuster... If not, they're not really worth bothering with.
Number of gears is not important, it's the spread of ratios and how it suits you as a rider, that matters
Saddles are very personal. What suits me might not suit you and vice versa.
Buy some decent pedals. The cheapo ones that come with most cheap bikes are awful. Some DMR V8's or similar will do nicely to start.
Tyres can easily be changed to suit terrain. Most people who do lots of offroading tend to have a set of tyres specifically for the winter months when it's very muddy, and another set for the rest of the year.
Wear padded shorts! Can't stress this enough...

Good luck!

How about having a look at these three?

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/gt/aggressor-10-2011-mountain-bike-ec024763

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/jamis/trail-x2-2011-mountain-bike-ec026064

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/hardrock-2011-mountain-bike-ec024187

I don't want to suggest you stretch your budget too far, but you'll find that disk brakes really help with mountain biking, as opposed to fireroads and paths etc.

e.g.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/hardrock-disc-2011-mountain-bike-ec024136

Have a look in the classified ads on here - there are some bargains to be had. If i remember correctly, there's a very nice On One Scandal hardtail for sale which I nearly bought myself. Mattupnorth is the seller I think

Me my dad and uncle have all built bikes before, but I don't have the time right now to do this, Last time I bought a bike I remember that I bought the old models eg this time round buy a 2010 model. Is it still possible to do this as the price rockets down?

Other than that - I've never had a disc brake bike and know exactly how to tweak/change/upgrade V Brakes so is their much advantage to getting disc's over V-Brakes?

At a quick glance and without reading reviews on specific parts etc I like the look of: http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/hardrock-2011-mountain-bike-ec024187#reviews

Reliable brand and model.

However - no disc brakes.

Any advice on this bike at all?

Regards, solostar.

that is a great value first bike. disc brakes are good but I didn't have them for years and still managed to go out riding.

the main piece of advice I would give you is to try bikes as much as possible first. My first 2 bikes I bought on the basis of the specs \ part list and it took me ages to realise I just didn't like the fit or the shape of the frame.

If you can afford to hire one a couple of times, or borrow from a friend for a couple of off road rides it will tell you a lot about the sort of bike you feel comfortable on

Got my GF a Hard Rock Disk Comp and she is happy with as pie with it. seems a nice enough bike and would recommend it from when ive had a little play on it. fork is a bit of a week point but always will be at this price point. and as you start to push yourself can always update at a later date.

That specialised is a good buy, I think it has disc mounts so you can add them later, anyway you might not need them..

Also like the gt aggressor which is cheaper here [url= http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/offers.php?cat=1 ]http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/offers.php?cat=1[/url] and there are other good offers here for around 300 too. I like the giant yukon disc myself.

Must be a troll!

Having said that, mine and mrs xiphons Patriots cost less than £500 each to build.... 😀 😀

the biggest problem with £300 bikes is not the bike, its the upgrades...

a £300 bike now will be much better than the bikes from "back in the day", however, expect costs to be cut on various components. Forks will be limited, brakes may be a bit poor but also consider the hidden components and associated costs (as I learnt so many times over!)

For example, you may find a really nice bike, light, easy to ride but with V brakes. V brakes are fine and if well set up work well, however, if you wanted to upgrade to Discs, will you need new wheels as well? Has the frame got disc mounting tabs? Likewise hidden components like bottom brackets and headsets are quite often cheap ones, no problem here, expensive ones can fail too, but bad components can make riding bikes not fun, and thats the point really isn't it!

Don't get sucked into the arms race (most people do) you don't need half the things magazines tell you ("you WILL NEED at least 8 inches of full suspension to ride off anything bigger than a curb)"

I'd suggest as Mboy one of the big brand bikes, or have a search and find something a bit better but a few years old, there's plenty of old bikes knocking around that can be had for good prices, but go and try some, se what you like, and what you don't. ITs no good paying extra for fork lockout if you're never going to use it, or finding that you hate the feel of SRAM shifters sucks when thats what your bike has! At this price range most bikes are equal, so go with what you like the look of as well.

Good luck and we'll see you on here in about 6 months when you're asking "What £4.5k full sus carbon all mountain bike?" 😉