[Closed] Decisions Decisions....

budget?

5 or heckler

In the tradition of recommending your own bike - Spesh Pitch is worth looking at, I love mine.

Budget of max £3000-£4500... Probably the only time in my life i'll be able to say that for a new bike!

Just spotted the Trek for £3500 which seems to be a great deal. Going to try it out on Thursday 🙂

Surely you'd want to build one for that money? What about a nice Nicolai or a Carbon Blur or something tricky like that?

4k would get you a lovely spec bike built exactly to your needs. If you had a 1000 for a suit you'd have one made over an off the peg?

For £4500, you can get a fully build santa cruz nomad.

Sure, the spec won't be as good as the trek or giant, but come ooonnn, carbonium frame!

Bizzarre, isn't it... we are living in a world where (apparently) everything is financially up the crapper, yet a man gets made redundant and, almost in response to this, considers spending the best part of 4k on a bicycle.

I'm not knocking this, at all. 😀

But, looked at objectively, it is a bit odd, isn't it?

Apparently, we in the UK are 4 times richer (in real terms) than we were post WWII. I'm guessing that was real austerity then. This ain't nuthin'..

Fair point joolsburger, I custom built my recent XC bike which was fun but I made plenty of mistakes on the way and whilst the geometry works i would say it's by pure luck than any planning!

So I'm really wanting something built by someone who knows what there doing, the finished product so to speak.

I had a carbon bike until September when i was hit by a van, the frame was written off but even before that I found myself worrying about damaging it, I'd rather keep away from the carbon IF that's possible.

Bizzarre, isn't it... we are living in a world where (apparently) everything is financially up the crapper, yet a man gets made redundant and, almost in response to this, considers spending the best part of 4k on a bicycle.

I know 🙂 But I'm on a decent wage and I've worked here for over 7 years so the package i get is quite substantial. Also got another job pretty much squared up so this is my treat 🙂

I'd go for a standard Reign, rather than the X. 150mm travel up front, and is sweet climbing, and more than enough to hammer descents.

bottlerocket?

It's a tricky one, go and get some test rides in.

I've said it before. I'll say it again. I'll be ignored again.

Pronghorn PR6 Trail, with 160mm up front. Best bike I've ridden. Easily doable within your budget.

Would you get more use out of a 6in FS bike?

Orange Alpine 160 or something like that maybe.

Bike Radar just reviewed the Intense Tracer 2 and it got massive praise & high marks, You'd be able to build a pretty smart one within your budget, its "boutique" and there's not as many around as reigns/treks....

I normally say Orange 5 for everything but what about an ST4.

What bikes do the people you ride with have? If you buy a big burly bike and they're all on XC hardtails you'll find you've always got the wrong bike. Or you'll have to find some new mates. Or ride on your own. From my experience, it's worth mulling over whether you'll really use a big bike or if you'd just really like to

Singletrack rated the rocky mountain slayer higher than both of the bikes you mention.
If it's purely gravity riding, I'd look at a custom orange blood or maybe an intense ss built burly with coils front and rear.
You'd get a massive spec for that money I reckon.

Is there anything to be saved in building it up yourself, or is that recommendation from a couple of you really about being able to choose from a more exotic range of frames?

I'm a similar decision situation, though not because of redundancy, and have decided to go off the peg with a Canyon XC based on what seems to be the amazing value of getting full XTR and top end shocks/forks/etc for under £3k. Full XTR having always been something of a dream!

But... I can always cancel given delivery is still a few weeks away, go for nice carbon frame instead and just make do with cheaper components which would prob be gradually upgraded over the years anyway 🙂

Never built a bike but have replaced drivetrain and it can't be that hard with a bit of advice from y'all and might actually be more satisfying.

I'd go for a boutique build, something like a foes xct/fxr, heckler, five with a float/van 36 with flows and depending on budget deore/xt drive train.

Is there anything to be saved in building it up yourself, or is that recommendation from a couple of you really about being able to choose from a more exotic range of frames?

Canyon?

Spent a lot of time looking on their site and they have some lovely (and bloody well priced) bits of kit

Sorry for the delay in responding to the posts, I was offline most of last night.

@'The Flying Ox' That looks interesting, can't say I've seen it before.
Just had a quick browse on google but struggling to find a UK supplier...

A few people have suggested something closer to 160mm travel, just been to my LBS to see what they had and managed to sit on Trek Scratch Air 6 and a Specialised Enduro Comp, both 2010 models but both felt nice, even though there different beasts.

I guess the proof will be in the ride it's self, I'm hoping another shop will have a 9 built up for me to test tomorrow in my size. When i first started looking I was sure I wanted something closer to a downhill rig than a trail bike but im worried the cockpit of the 9 will be too small for climbing, it's hard to tell just from sitting on one without pedals though.

@Cheezpleez - I ride with a few different sets of people who ride all sorts. I also quite like to go out for a ride early by myself on a Sunday morning.

Yeti ASR-5 alloy frame then hand pick what you want to hang off it.

@'The Flying Ox' That looks interesting, can't say I've seen it before.
Just had a quick browse on google but struggling to find a UK supplier...

Flying Fox Bikes in Alva, near Stirling, are the ones I know for definite. It's where mine's from.
Pronghorn dealers [url= http://www.pronghornracing.dk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=38&Itemid=36 ]here[/url], but I don't know how up to date this is, cos I think Pronghorn had a bit of a hoo-haa with their original UK distributor?

@'The Flying Ox' Yea just looking at their site, they seem to be the only ones advertising the brand but no mention of that model. I'd be quite concerned over support if I had issues, i'm all the way down in sheffield and thats quite some journey up to stirling!

Yeti ASR-5 alloy frame then hand pick what you want to hang off it.

I've looked at Yeti's, in fact i looked at the new SB66 too but after i add components to it the price soon jumps past my budget 🙁

@superted666
I think Flying Fox have it listed as a Pronghorn LT. Same thing.

Also, I'm from Sheffield originally but in Edinburgh now. I'll bring mine down one day if you fancy a go. It's perfect for Peak District riding.

\And XC. And Enduro. And anything else, short of the Red Bull Rampage 😀

Search about on the net, you will get a lot of items a lot cheaper, Merlin are a good site which never seem to come up on google, also look at on one web site, they seem to sell items at really stupid prices like £250 brakes per end for £100 or less, schwalbe tyres at £20 instead of £45. I searched high and low to find things to sell to fund my dream ASR-5 build, thought I had nothing to sell but scrapped together another grand some how! where theirs a will theirs a way! Its really nice having a custom specced bike just the way you would want it, and then to piece it together yourself is all part of the journey/fun. I got my Yeti frame from free flow bikes, free delivery and price matched frame at £1350 also chris king headset at £130, very good service and will price match anything, how a bike shop should be run. You could always get a Canyon like suggested earlier then sell the frame and stick the parts on the frame of your choice ie Yeti ASR-5 as this would probably work out to be the cheapest way as their prices can't be matched and the parts are top notch.

Ruscle - Where did you find an ASR5 for £1350 (which, if I understand correctly, Free Flow price matched?).