Recommend a good mountain bike

Quoted message said:

I wonder if anyone can advise me on purchasing a mountain bike. I am
looking to spend upto £100 for something just to ride around the
streets in an attempt to get fit. If I get into it I would probably
like to try some proper biking in the peak district or similar but I
realise I would probably need to get spending a bit more for something
like a muddy fox or similar.

I did spot the Shockwave SUS 500 in Halfords but I'm not sure if it's
any good, I haven't really used a moutain bike for about 10 years or
so so any advice would be most appreciated, in terms of what features
I should be looking for etc.

If you're spending less than 100quid on a bike, I'd strongly recommend you
look for the one with the least "features" - things like suspension, etc,
because they're likely to be cheap and liable to break quickly. An 80quid
bike with front suspension rings warning bells in my head.

For now, buy something simple, solid and without any fancy features.

Chris
--
Gamertag: parm * BRING BACK BLUE SKY IN GAMES *

"Back when I was young, we had to travel back in time to put the tape in so
the game would load before we died."

Quoted message said:

I wonder if anyone can advise me on purchasing a mountain bike. I am
looking to spend upto £100 for something just to ride around the
streets in an attempt to get fit.

Don't, is my advice in short. A £100 MTB will be a "bike shaped
object", in automotive terms the equivalent of a bottom of the range
Lada with a Go Faster Stripe.

At the level of quality you'll get it's entirely likely it'll just end
up neglected in the back of the garage

Quoted message said:

I did spot the Shockwave SUS 500 in Halfords but I'm not sure if it's
any good, I haven't really used a moutain bike for about 10 years or
so so any advice would be most appreciated, in terms of what features
I should be looking for etc.

First, I'd up the budget to a /minimum/ of £150 and preferably closer to
£200. After that, avoid any suspension and disk brakes. They won't
help, and just mean things will go wrong quicker (done properly,
suspension and disk brakes are excellent, but "done properly" a single
bike disc will cost as much as your entire budget). These things are
just there to look the part.

Around the streets, as opposed to the mountains, a mountain bike is
often a bit of a liability. The tyres may be great on mud but they make
for hard work on tarmac and make the bike a chore to ride. The
suspension is designed to eat big shocks, but on the road it will just
go "boing" and waste energy, and be something to go wrong. If it's a
chore to ride it probably won't get ridden. Rather than a mountain bike
(or mountain bike lookalike, which is what £100 will get you) just get a
normal bike with as few extra frills as you can manage. That way your
money goes on reasonable basic engineering for things that matter, the
frame and the drive train.

Something like a Dawes Discovery 201 is about £200. It will be more fun
to ride, go faster, further, in more comfort and not go wrong nearly as
much as a £100 "mountain bike". Twice as much, but at /least/ twice as
good IMHO. It will make a good hack bike for years to come. Add
mudgaurds and a rack and do your shopping on it, ride to work on it, go
to the pub on it. Lots of exercise just being useful.

HTH, Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

PS... go to a proper bike shop and chat and sit on things. Halfords are
highly variable, some are very good, some clueless box shifters, and
you've got all the shades in between.

All local bike shops are not created equal, of course. Where are you,
and perhaps someone can recommend a good one?

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Superb advice there thanks very much.

I live in Manchester (south) there are a few bike shops I know of but
I haven't been in them for donkeys years.

Quoted message said:

Superb advice there thanks very much.

I live in Manchester (south) there are a few bike shops I know of but
I haven't been in them for donkeys years.

The Bicycle Doctor (Rusholme), Ken Foster's Cycle Logic (Chorlton), Harry
Hall (Whitworth St) - all should be able to help you.

Chris
--
Gamertag: parm * BRING BACK BLUE SKY IN GAMES *

"Back when I was young, we had to travel back in time to put the tape in so
the game would load before we died."

email hidden said:

Superb advice there thanks very much.

I live in Manchester (south) there are a few bike shops I know of but
I haven't been in them for donkeys years.

I'd echo the sentiment about aiming for a hybrid rather than a
mountain bike. Something like the Giant CRS 4.0 can be found for
about £150 (http://tinyurl.com/29sluz, but at this price it's a
question of luck whether or not you can find one in the right size)
and it's a good step up from the heavyweight trundlers that you'll
find in Halfords.

Another thing to consider is the Cycle To Work scheme (Wiggle have a
worked example here: http://tinyurl.com/253rep). Assuming you're
working, speak to your employers to find out if they would be amenable
to this since it gets you about 40% or more off a bike so you can
expand your budget a bit.

Colin

in message <[email hidden]>,

(') said:

I wonder if anyone can advise me on purchasing a mountain bike. I am
looking to spend upto £100 for something just to ride around the
streets in an attempt to get fit.

Look, you can't. It isn't possible. Good hardtails cost from £400 upwards;
good full suspension bikes from £1,000 up. Even second hand you won't get
anything worth having for £100.

Quoted message said:

I did spot the Shockwave SUS 500 in Halfords but I'm not sure if it's
any good,

No, it's rubbish.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

... a mild, inoffensive sadist...

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Superb advice there thanks very much.

I live in Manchester (south) there are a few bike shops I know of but
I haven't been in them for donkeys years.

I support what Peter has said and the Dawes 201 is a good starting bike which
will last you a long time and is a very reasonable ride for the price.. If

Do go to your LBS and ask advice.
Don't buy a mountain bike -- a hybrid like the Dawes will allow you to do a
bit of gentle off roading but you certainly don't want to buy something with
big knobbly tyres.
When I re-entered bike riding again at 66 years old I got a Dawes Discovery
501 ( good advice from my LBS - I felt a bit of an idiot as well when I
told them I was planning on cycling on a pilgrimage to Spain) and cycle camped
to from home to Spain in April/May 2004. It was to be a one of -- but I am
still biking with about 18000 miles under my belt and 3 different bikes! 2005
was down and up the Danube, 2006 down the Rhein from Switzerland back home.

Cycling from Paris to Narbonne this year -- with my tent of course -- I shall
celebrate my 70th birthday in Dijon -- I hope -- on 8 June!!!!!! Next year
will be a circumnavigate of Italy -- if I am still alive!!!

I am hardly a speed freak but I bike every day and have got an immense amount
of pleasure out of it -- even those cold, wet head wind days are good times
( just a bit of time is needed to realise it a couple of days later!).

It has been the best decision I ever made and has given me a whole new
attitude towards life!

Go for it

Right I am off out now to do my daily 20 miles +

--
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

"Peter Clinch" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Around the streets, as opposed to the mountains, a mountain bike is often
a bit of a liability. The tyres may be great on mud but they make for
hard work on tarmac and make the bike a chore to ride. The suspension is
designed to eat big shocks, but on the road it will just go "boing" and
waste energy, and be something to go wrong.

My front suspension hardly bounces at all when riding on roads and takes the
edge off potholes but the one rear suspension bike I had bounced really
badly even when made as stiff as I could so I've happily done without since.

Mountain bike tyres are hard work on tarmac (although you won't realise
until you try road tyres), but isn't that good for getting fit?!
--
peter

Cheap train tickets database
http://www.petereverett.co.uk/tickets/

Email sent to this address is generally deleted upon arrival
Visit website if you want to contact me

naked_draughtsman said:

My front suspension hardly bounces at all when riding on roads and takes the
edge off potholes but the one rear suspension bike I had bounced really
badly even when made as stiff as I could so I've happily done without since.

Front suspension is not bad when done plausibly well, but on a sub-£100
BSO it doubt it will be done plausibly well. It'll probably be a [censored]
elastomer or an undamped spring, and that means it will go Boing, but
not much else :-(

Quoted message said:

Mountain bike tyres are hard work on tarmac (although you won't realise
until you try road tyres), but isn't that good for getting fit?!

Up to a point, but IME the main effect of using something [censored] to
increase effort, rather than just go further on something good, is it
saps the will to live and, by extension, the will to get on and do it
again.
If you can cycle 5 miles and pick up the shopping and actually enjoy
yourself a wee bit for the same energy it takes to ride 2 miles on the
BSO then that's something that will prompt the bike to come out more,
which leads to more exercise. If all you want to is use up energy and
whether or not you have a [censored] Time isn't an issue, might as well save
your £100 and walk up and down the stairs...

If you have road tyres you can always let them down to the minimum
inflation value if you want to make work yourself, and pump them back up
when you actually want to /go/ somewhere.

I've found that I retain a fair level of fitness just because a bike is
my default way of getting around locally, and it's my default because
it's easy and a pleasure (people often seem to think I'm amazingly fit,
and as I know people who genuinely /are/ I know that I'm not, but I'm
way fitter than the average 40yo).

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Peter Clinch said:

because it's easy and a pleasure (people often seem to think I'm
amazingly fit, and as I know people who genuinely /are/ I know that
I'm not, but I'm way fitter than the average 40yo).

It's all relative - virtually everyone "here" is much fitter than the
average person. Whether or not that's "amazingly fit" really depends
on what happens to amaze you :/

Paul Rudin said:

Peter Clinch <[email hidden]> writes:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

because it's easy and a pleasure (people often seem to think I'm
amazingly fit, and as I know people who genuinely /are/ I know that
I'm not, but I'm way fitter than the average 40yo).

It's all relative - virtually everyone "here" is much fitter than the
average person. Whether or not that's "amazingly fit" really depends
on what happens to amaze you :/

I know someone who placed second (IIRC) in the Everest marathon and has
been an Elite class mountain marathon winner. A friend well past
retirement who can still me off on a bike is rumoured to have been in a
Scotland cycling squad in the reasonably distant past. That's my idea
of "amazingly fit"...

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

In article <[email hidden]>,
"[email hidden]" <[email hidden]> writes:
|>
|> I wonder if anyone can advise me on purchasing a mountain bike. ...

The same proportion of mountain bicycles are used on mountains as
off-road vehicles are used off-road. Discuss.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Nick Maclaren said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
"[email hidden]" <[email hidden]> writes:
|>
|> I wonder if anyone can advise me on purchasing a mountain bike. ...

The same proportion of mountain bicycles are used on mountains as
off-road vehicles are used off-road. Discuss.

Are you /seriously suggesting/ that the car parks at Tesco, B&Q etc. are
"roads"?

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Am Fri, 27 Apr 2007 13:32:55 +0100 schrieb Peter Clinch:

Quoted message said:

naked_draughtsman said:

My front suspension hardly bounces at all when riding on roads and takes the
edge off potholes but the one rear suspension bike I had bounced really
badly even when made as stiff as I could so I've happily done without since.

Front suspension is not bad when done plausibly well, but on a sub-£100
BSO it doubt it will be done plausibly well. It'll probably be a [censored]
elastomer or an undamped spring, and that means it will go Boing, but
not much else :-(

The better suspension alternative on low-budget bikes is to get a tyre with
large volume, such as the Schwalbe Big Apple:
http://www.schwalbe.co.uk/shop.sfxp?page=product&id=1137&usmSID=276629-317-086
My next bike will for use in the city will definitely have one of those.
Even on not-so-smooth tarmac and road surfaces that gives you a rather
smooth ride. Such high-volume tyres to not fit on all bikes, but even a
cheap mountain bike should have enough space. But for a pair of those tyres
would probably invest half of what you invest for a sub-£100 "bike". :-)

Andreas

Am 27 Apr 2007 12:55:35 GMT schrieb Nick Maclaren:

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
"[email hidden]" <[email hidden]> writes:
|>
|> I wonder if anyone can advise me on purchasing a mountain bike. ...

The same proportion of mountain bicycles are used on mountains as
off-road vehicles are used off-road. Discuss.

But a 4x4 off-road vehicle tends to be more expensive than a normal car.
Even a heavy-weight SUV that can not be seriously used off-road tends to
cost more. But there are many bikes out there that just pretend to be an
off-road mountain bike for a much lower price than a decent hybrid or road
bike.

Andreas

In article <[email hidden]>,
Peter Clinch <[email hidden]> writes:
|> >
|> > The same proportion of mountain bicycles are used on mountains as
|> > off-road vehicles are used off-road. Discuss.
|>
|> Are you /seriously suggesting/ that the car parks at Tesco, B&Q etc. are
|> "roads"?

For some meaning of the word, yes :-) Alternatively, you come to the
conclusion that almost all vehicles used in the UK are used off-road.

But are YOU seriously suggesting that you need an off-road vehicle in
order to park it in a metalled car park?

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

in message <[email hidden]>, Nick Maclaren

(') said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
"[email hidden]" <[email hidden]> writes:
|>
|> I wonder if anyone can advise me on purchasing a mountain bike. ...

The same proportion of mountain bicycles are used on mountains as
off-road vehicles are used off-road. Discuss.

(i) agree;

(ii) it's a real shame...

I was out with the club in Dalbeattie forest Wednesday night. In theory we
were there for an off-road time trial, and I was there as a marshal. But
as the SXC is being raced at Dalbeattie this weekend, the overwhelming
vote was that we do a lap of the expected course. Needless to say, every
time we went off piste - off the red route onto the classic bits
of 'natural' at Dalbeattie - I was completely out of my depth. Every body
else rode the widowmaker, I walked 90% of it and then managed to lose my
line on the easiest 10% and crash rather unpleasantly hard into a tree...

However, it was brilliant fun. And it was instructive listening to the old
hands coaching the kids round the hairiest bits of the course (on adder
alley, there's a steep descent to a right-angle turn on wet roots: 'lift
your front wheel over, and then use the roots to slide the back end of the
bike round...' - Jesus, I'll never be able to do that).

Fortunately, on Sunday I shall be marshalling. I'm so /rusty/ on a mountain
bike.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; MS Windows: A thirty-two bit extension ... to a sixteen bit
;; patch to an eight bit operating system originally coded for a
;; four bit microprocessor and sold by a two-bit company that
;; can't stand one bit of competition -- anonymous

in message <[email hidden]>, Andreas

Schulze-Bäing (') said:

Am 27 Apr 2007 12:55:35 GMT schrieb Nick Maclaren:

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
"[email hidden]" <[email hidden]> writes:
|>
|> I wonder if anyone can advise me on purchasing a mountain bike. ...

The same proportion of mountain bicycles are used on mountains as
off-road vehicles are used off-road. Discuss.

But a 4x4 off-road vehicle tends to be more expensive than a normal car.
Even a heavy-weight SUV that can not be seriously used off-road tends to
cost more. But there are many bikes out there that just pretend to be an
off-road mountain bike for a much lower price than a decent hybrid or
road bike.

A mountain bike costs at least twice as much as a road bike of equivalent
quality, usually more. Cheap road bikes are usually OK; cheap mountain
bikes are dangerous rubbish.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
; ... of course nothing said here will be taken notice of by
; the W3C. The official place to be ignored is on www-style or
; www-html. -- George Lund