Opinions sought

crm114

Hello Forum,

I am a relative newcomer to MTB and have spent sometime knocking about local forest
trails on a €250 special and would like to now get something proper. I saw this in a
local shop (Germany) and would like to solicit opinions about its spec and price etc
the indicated price €999 is £790 The details can be found via this link. Sorry its
in german but the letters and numbers are all the same. Thanks in advance for your
opinion. Incidently if would like to suggest another off the peg model feel free.

http://www.bulls.de/de/bikes/cross_country.aspx?sub=7

BlackSpur

I am afraid I know nothing of the bikes in the link you posted, although the specification does look very nice. Being in Germany you have another two well known and generally very highly regarded brands - Cube and Focus. I would look at bike in your price range from both manufacturers.

Larok

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/?fn=produ ... egoryId=39

BlackSpur

I think if you are new to this then trying out the bike should be done before purchasing it. Any issues regarding warranty etc would also be very very slow to sort out if you had to post the bike back to the UK, as you would do with the Merlin above.

beeroclock

I think they may have made a mistake on the price - if you look at the lower specced models they are priced the same.

philip

crm114

Thanks for your replies,

beeroclock - noticed that also the price of the higher spec is correct I have seen it in the local dealers but there is more info on builders website (which is clearly wrong !).

Blackspur - perhaps I did not make it clear but I live in Germany, but the english forums are easier to decode !

Larok - if you push the groupset on this xt 2008 the price goes to £1,070

More generally I have looked at CUBE; STEVENS; CANNONDALE and none of those i have seen seem to offer (for the same outlay) the same spec, principal differences are not a full groupset, or a lower spec fork from the same manufacturer. It seems to me that all off the peg bikes are assembled from a global parts bin Shimano, Rockshox, Mavic, Ritchie, Magura, and the only real difference is the frame which themselves within the same class utilise the same tubing. The difference then being geometry and quality of construction, the latter being difficult for a novice to determine and former probably really only comes with experience.

On separate subject, any tips are assessing suitabilty in the flesh- how do you determine if it really is comfortable ? the most one might expect is a run round the car park of the seller not really sufficient bearing in mind intended use. There appear to be all kinds of formulas to determine the correct size of frame, I would think that those at the extremes of the sizings are clearly too big/small which means choosing one of two. It was suggested to straddle the top tube feet on the ground and take the one that offers the greater distance between frame and genitals. Any thoughts ?

dhxcme

seems a good spec for the cash i'd go with what you where origionally looking at. Getting the exchange rates o a good day will help as well.