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Been eying up a 2012 Kona Jake Cross-Bike that been reduced to £850 in my local Evans. Never owned a drop-barred bike before, but want something to ride in the winter and do long road miles on, but that still can be used on the odd bridle way and won't leave me with a large dental bill if I hit a pot hole like a road bike might. My ultimate goal for this bike is to be able to ride from my home near Brighton 160miles to my Brother's in Norfolk (bearing in mind that my longest ride to date is 67miles on a singlespeed 29er, but I wasn't overly knackered from it)
Any experience of this bike or other ideas? Been looking at a Genesis tdf that I think I could persuade my LBS to do 850 as well. (850 is my more than I want to spend and my absolute max. budget)
There was a good deal on a charge from wiggle posted on here yesterday IIRC
jake is an ace bike
i still regret not bringing mine back from NZ - did thousands of KMS on it as it came out the shop - loved it.
did a couple of mtb races on it as well down there. managed 12th out of lots.
Buy it. It's not that light, but if not CX racing, who's bothered.
Get them to stick some slicks in.
Sold my snake this year. One of the best bikes I owned. Now regret letting it go.
I have had one for a couple of years now and it's great..slicks give you reasonable speed on the road and with the original tyres I can manage the odd off-road.
buy it ! I have an 07 Jake the Snake and love it..
Yes yes yes. I love my Jake the Snake. Probably my favourite bike of all.
Just try not to do this to it>>>>> I snapped the mech hanger last night.
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i have had a "jake the snake" for six years. brilliant bike! i've used it for sportive rides, cross racing, off road on bridle ways and as a commuter. its a comfy bike and efficient even with the 32C tyres and flat pedals. (great colour too mine is the 2006 black and neon orange one!)
. always fancied that one , but ended up with the 07 neon green 😀(great colour too mine is the 2006 black and neon orange one!)
i saw a more recent one (2011 i think) recently on the train and noticed that it appears to have lost the rack bosses at the back and the Easton tubing, but gained a carbon fork. Not sure if this makes it better or worse, but was just noted.
I liked all the neon colourways in the jake, and previously had the 2004 with the metallic petrol green frame. Great bikes...
isnt that the jake the snake master of none ?
the jakes a different beast .
another +1.
I've done many night rides around delamere, a few loops of trail centres in North wales and both with mates on mtb's and no problems.
Mines an old one so the original brakes were scary on drop-off/steep hills but upgraded to project 2 with a disk mount and changed to Vee's out back and its much better. I then used it to commute on the road into central london with some slicks and now commute on a mix of road and bridleway/grass.
I ride this bike more than any of my others.
EDIT: yes it isnt uber light and yes get slicks and some schwalbe trail masters and a spare mech hanger might be good, just in case. One bike to rule all ! well.. sort of. 😉
To put a spanner in the works, I recently got a Cannondale CAADX Sora for the £700 mark.
Brilliant bike. Really well specced, and worth a look?
Thanks for the comments, I think I'll have to buy one. 🙂