Buying a mountain bike...help!!!!!

lbol

Hi all, I'm preparing to get into mountain/trial biking. I'm going doing a downhill day next Saturday to see if it's for me. But I'm 99% sure. But I my question Is, what sort of bike do I buy, hardtail or full suspension??? As I'll be new what should I be looking to spend and any assecories i may need.

Thanks for your help

Lemming

First things first; is there any particular aspect about mountain biking that you want to try out? Or just generally going uphill, downhill and finding very muddy bits in between?

Secondly; have a go next Saturday and see if its something that takes your interest. Talk to folks at the event/day and see what they think before you start going nuts on the bank cards.

lbol

Thanks Lemming, it's not down hill as such. General out door trails/Forest sessions, like you said muddy patches ECT. As I said 99% sure this is for me. What sort of bike do I look at hardtail or full suspension? For a beginner how much should I spend roughly.

Spaniard14

lbol wrote: »

Thanks Lemming, it's not down hill as such. General out door trails/Forest sessions, like you said muddy patches ECT. As I said 99% sure this is for me. What sort of bike do I look at hardtail or full suspension? For a beginner how much should I spend roughly.

For a decent hardtail I would spend a bit over 1000 euro and you will get a great entry bike. If you finally go for a trail full susp you need to spend a bit more to have something decent, over 1600.
If you are going to cycle regularly it is a good investment

Lemming

As Spaniard14 has said, if you want a [new] good entry-level bike be prepared to go into 4 figure sums. You can get a good second-hand hard-tail or full-suspension bike for less, but a) be prepared to bid your time a little and b) it helps to have someone familiar with your needs/wants on hand for advice.

As for your question regards HT/FS bikes; both have their benefits, and both have their drawbacks. I have seen people on hard-tails giving people on full-suspension bikes a run for their money on trails, and there are indeed some HT bikes (due to frame geometry & wheel-base length) that give mid-level full-suspension bikes a run for their money. But I have also been in XC races where I've seen loads of people on carbon HT whippets with 29" wheels being beaten by the guy on the pogo-stick with 27.5" wheels ...

So the question is akin to asking how long is a piece of string. The real question becomes you and your ability to handle a bike.

That aside, in an attempt to give you something meaningful to work with rather than muse over, it sounds like you want a general all-rounder for a bike. So, I'd suggest either a Hard-tail with 120mm+ travel up front, or a full-suspension in and around the same amount of travel. Anything more than 140mm will probably be overkill but you'll be best placed to decide that for yourself. Wheel sizes, dropper posts, handle bar lengths, etc. all are subjective and open to opinion. First things first, get yourself cycling before you start obsessing over that stuff.

One other thing to ponder.... you might want to consider a bike with 2 chainrings up front if you're starting out as it'll give you more gear-ratios. That comment is entirely dependent on your general level of fitness.

fatbhoy

I'd advise you to get a secondhand FS/HT for about 500 - 1000, see how much you like MTBing for a while, build up you knowledge on bikes and the technologies involved, and the trails, and then after a year or two, when you know your stuff, splash out on a 3000 beast.

Nothing worse on splashing out big on something at a too-early stage when you don't really know what's out there or what you want/need, and finding that you wasted your money.