Mountain Bikes... The idiots guide to... ?

wersal gummage

Very grateful for any advice on this.

Have a few road bikes at home - cannot justify buying another one.

Have been sent away for work for a few months. So am thinking of buying a bike and with winter coming and forests nearby, I figured a mountain bike..

I know nothing whatsoever about mountain bikes. I do NOT plan to do any extreme stuff. Probably mostly on road for fitness and grass or tracks etc.

Grateful for any views on what I should be aiming for at around the € 1k mark (am somewhat flexible here either side of that budget).

Full suspension v other kinds of suspension ? What's the significance of this ?

What is the shimano mountain bike equivalent of sora, tiagra, 105, ultegra, DA etc on mountain bikes ??

My last road bike was a Canyon - guessing they will also be hard to beat on mountain bikes ??? I also have a very nice Ridley bike at home that I'm very happy with - so would be happy with a Ridley (and I'm in Belgium so maybe they are well priced here....).

Sorry if this seems like a lazy post - I am doing some research on this stuff myself - just regularly find this place gives solid advice. I asked here years ago about buying a hybrid and was told to buy a road bike, I ignored that advice and regretted it soon enough! So will listen to what I'm told this time!

Thanks very much

CardinalJ

wersal gummage wrote: »

Very grateful for any advice on this.

Have a few road bikes at home - cannot justify buying another one.

Have been sent away for work for a few months. So am thinking of buying a bike and with winter coming and forests nearby, I figured a mountain bike..

I know nothing whatsoever about mountain bikes. I do NOT plan to do any extreme stuff. Probably mostly on road for fitness and grass or tracks etc.

Grateful for any views on what I should be aiming for at around the € 1k mark (am somewhat flexible here either side of that budget).

Full suspension v other kinds of suspension ? What's the significance of this ?

What is the shimano mountain bike equivalent of sora, tiagra, 105, ultegra, DA etc on mountain bikes ??

My last road bike was a Canyon - guessing they will also be hard to beat on mountain bikes ??? I also have a very nice Ridley bike at home that I'm very happy with - so would be happy with a Ridley (and I'm in Belgium so maybe they are well priced here....).

Sorry if this seems like a lazy post - I am doing some research on this stuff myself - just regularly find this place gives solid advice. I asked here years ago about buying a hybrid and was told to buy a road bike, I ignored that advice and regretted it soon enough! So will listen to what I'm told this time!

Thanks very much

What height are you? Theres a guy selling a canyon MTB in the adverts section that would probably be perfect.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056729542

wersal gummage

CardinalJ wrote: »

What height are you? Theres a guy selling a canyon MTB in the adverts section that would probably be perfect.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056729542

Perfect except I'm in Belgium.... !

I'm 6 foot 3. In case that matters in terms of 26 v 29 ??

Run_to_da_hills

If you are used to road bikes you are probably better off going for retro MTB I made the same move and could never get used to all this suspension stuff so ended up going old style.

west cork lad

Hope weather is better there than here. In my opinion I would just go hardtail and not full suspension if all you are doing is mainly road and single track. I would not even spend that much on it. I would strech to hydraulic disc brakes over manuall tho. Again in my opinion worst to best gearing are Alivio-Deore-SLX-XTR. On the throw around bike I use, I use Alivio as I am sh1t at taking corners and have pulled them off 2 times already this year and are cheep to replace. What ever you get, enjoy it. Some buzz flying down between trees in the pouring rain. :-)

JRant

Try out a hardtail ( suspension on the front only), for 1k you can get one with adjustable forks so you can have it soft for trails and firm for road use. Shimano do Deore, XT and up for MBT's. You should also get disc brakes for that money. I use a Specailized rockhopper myself and it's a great bike, especially for the winter commutes.

IM0

I second the hardtail given your intended use, also suspension sucks energy especially when standing up hill, all that wasted energy.

JRant

IM0 wrote: »

I second the hardtail given your intended use, also suspension sucks energy especially when standing up hill, all that wasted energy.

+1 on the wasted energy. I remember having a full suspension some years back and it was like being at sea with all the bobbing going on when using it on the road!
Can't recommend adjustable forks enough as you get the best of both worlds.

pump

if you not planning mad stuff and want it fother road go hardtail, cube bikes offer good value for money. make sure there is lock out on the front suspension that way it will work well on the road.

epicmtb.com is an irish website for mtb and they will answer any questions you have im sure

C3PO

For "bang for buck" you can't do better than Canyon and given your requirements/budget this has great spec for the money.

http://www.canyon.com/_en/mountainbikes/bike.html?b=2539

If you could stretch the budget a bit a 29er would be better again for the type of riding that you'll be doing.

http://www.canyon.com/_en/mountainbikes/bike.html?b=2750

A full suspension bike would be complete overkill and would be heavy and poorly specced in your price range so I would avoid!

tfrancer

Take a look at the Quantec MTB bikes/frames on bike24.de. I got the lightweight MTB frame. Very pleased with it.

n-dawg

2 years ago I went for the evans own brand pinnacle bike... I was really impressed. The components were more common on bikes with a price at least 50% more then the pinnacle and Evans costumer service was really excellent.

Although they have since stop selling the bike I got, this is roughly it:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/pinnacle/iroko-one-2012-mountain-bike-ec035899

C3PO

n-dawg wrote: »

2 years ago I went for the evans own brand pinnacle bike... I was really impressed. The components were more common on bikes with a price at least 50% more then the pinnacle and Evans costumer service was really excellent.

Although they have since stop selling the bike I got, this is roughly it:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/pinnacle/iroko-one-2012-mountain-bike-ec035899

The Canyon spec is significantly better (particularly the fork) and it is a couple of hundred euro cheaper!

wersal gummage

Thanks for all that lads, great help.

C3P0 - that second bike you linked to is the one I had kinda settled on myself before you linked it - so glad to see that I'm not barking up the wrong tree.

Anyone know how long the Canyon sale is on for ??

billyhead

I am also in the market for winter commuter/training bike and was considering an MTB for this. I notice the Specialized Rockhopper bike crops up a lot as being decent. I have a commute of 26km each way so if I threw on a pir of slicks would this do the job or can anyone suggest any other MTB bikes. I will have to go 2nd hand aswell as I don't have a huge budget to spend on it

C3PO

billyhead wrote: »

I am also in the market for winter commuter/training bike and was considering an MTB for this. I notice the Specialized Rockhopper bike crops up a lot as being decent. I have a commute of 26km each way so if I threw on a pir of slicks would this do the job or can anyone suggest any other MTB bikes. I will have to go 2nd hand aswell as I don't have a huge budget to spend on it

Unlike a lot of the guys here I'm first and foremost a mountainbiker but I wouldn't buy an MTB for use exclusively on the road! You will end up with all the disadvantages and few of the advantages! Far better to buy a road (or even Cross) bike and put some 25mm tyres on it and use to commute/train. But if you are planning to ride some offroad stuff .....