Focus Black Hills 2008?

GT BACKWOODS

Anybody got any information on the Focus Black hills 2008? Im thinking of upgrading and only have around the £400/£450 mark. Ive seen a few i like but the Black Hills really catches my ey, problem is i dont want to buy and not have some sort of insight into them. Just aftre general advice really. I am keen off roader, more of the enduro type, and the trails i hit, Dartmoor etc do not require dual sus, hardtail has done me so far, so ill keep with them for now.

Any advice appreciated.

Cheers
Chris

supersonic

What are you upgrading from?

The Black Hills is very good value at 360. I'd also consider the Carrera Fury, and trying them out if you can.

GT BACKWOODS

Many thanks for that mate.

George Poole

Hey Backwoods,
Did you buy the bike? Thinking of getting one too but not too much experience with Focus bikes and I can't find much feed back on here.

Cheers, Geordie

silly lily

George Poole wrote:

Hey Backwoods,
Did you buy the bike? Thinking of getting one too but not too much experience with Focus bikes and I can't find much feed back on here.

Cheers, Geordie

Hi! I and few others here have the Focus Superbud which is a truly excellent machine and the quality of the frame (weight, geometry etc) is remarkable. Search for 'focus superbud' and you'll find the threads.
Don't know that particular model, but I do stand by the uality of focus bikes.

pyro_maniac

i second the quality, i have a focus fat boy '08 and i am very happy with it, the only weak point so far seems to be the fork, being a dart 2 its not the best out there but the rest of the kit leaves me lots of room to upgrade in the future

twicemonkey

And I third it.

I own a Focus Black Forest '08 and the build quality is awesome. Good ol' German Engineering there. Plus you usually find that bikes for the same price can't match the spec of a Focus.

I've had mine since April and have really punished it on the Chiltern Hills and the North Downs (including the punishing Summer Lightning in Dorking....yay fun).

George Poole

Hi twicemonkey,
Glad the bike is so good, thought the Black Hills looked a great deal at £360. How was the buying experience from Wiggle, and did the bike arrive "ready to ride" as they advertise?

Cheers, geordie

bullcross

ive got the focus superbud top bike
anything german is usual well made

i-drive

ive owned my black hills for some time now & it is spot on.

at this sort of money now £ 359.00 nothing gets even close to touching it.#
go buy it now .

admitadly i have now changed the limited suntour forks to some magura odur,s but thats because i use the bike a lot other than its initial intended purpose.

the focus build quality & spec is top drawer for your money & wiggles customer service is exellent & yes the bikes come all ready twsit the bars & go thats it.

you even get a handy tool kit with them bonus.

buy one quick as the 09 models don,t look nearly as good a bang for your buck.

the bigbud is the best bike ive ridden end of.

silly lily

George Poole wrote:

Hi twicemonkey,
Glad the bike is so good, thought the Black Hills looked a great deal at £360. How was the buying experience from Wiggle, and did the bike arrive "ready to ride" as they advertise?

Cheers, geordie

Hi!
I bought 2 bikes from Wiggle so far and no problems. Yes, they arrive truly ready to ride, you just straighten the handlebar and put tyhe pedals on. That's it.

George Poole

Hey i-drive,
What size frame did you get on your Black Hills? I'm 5' 8" with a 30" inside leg (shortarse) and an 18" frame gives me absolutely nowhere to dance i.e. no ballroom.

Cheers, Geordie

i-drive

i got a m 45 cm which is perfect for me .i am 5ft 9 & inside leg of 30 so you should be ok.do bear in mind anything ordered via the internet without seeing it can be returned no questions asked foc.

so if you ordered the wrong size simply retun it to wiggle.

shame your not local to me you could of borrowed it for a weekend.

George Poole

I-drive,
Dithered about too much and 45cm ones now sold out. E-mailed wiggle to ask about length of seat post to see if I could get away with a 40cm model.
Suppose this will give me better stand over clearance and its only 25mm shorter than my current bike which I could counteract with seat/stem tuning if need be.

Do you think this will be OK?

Cheers, Geordie

PS Just send yours up any time you fancy, promise to clean it before I send it back.

i-drive

tbh i would not normally reccomend it for your size but i think in this case it will be fine given the fact i nearlly went for the 40cm myself.

the stand over height would not worry me at all but the c o c k pitt is quite small on my 45 but it does suit me as i have a small torso so unless you have a large torso you will be fine.

the germans seem to make the top tube quite compact given they are very into race xc.

twicemonkey

Hey George

Wiggle are fantastic at getting out a bike quick. When I got my Black Forest I had it within a week, all setup professionally (they're Cytech trained, so they know what they're doing). All I had to do was attach the pedals and the handlebar and I was away (plus they threw in a free multitool and pedal spanner just for the job).

However, I find the pedals that came with it were crud, so I'd advise getting some DMR V8s while you're there.

George Poole

Hi all,
Silly lily, your bike looks awesome, however two parasitic children and a mortgage plus the fear of killing myself if I overstretch my abilities prevent me from splashing out.

Twicemonkey, thanks for the feedback, seems they are pretty on the ball at this game by all accounts.

i-drive, waiting for wiggle to get back to me re frame size. I know 50mm isn't much but I don't want to over extend the seat post and as I said the cockpit difference is minimal and can be adjusted out with tuning of stem and seat if needs be,

Thanks again to all you lovely people out there
Geordie

George Poole

Hey folks,
Got a reply from Wiggle that they had 1 45cm Black Hills 08 returned to stock so I ordered it right away. Let you know when it arrives and thanks again for all the help,

Cheers
Geordie

i-drive

here is a little tease.

George Poole

Hi All,
Bike arrived this afternoon and you were all as good as your word. Straight out of the box, handle bars and pedals on with the free pedal wrench and good quality mini multi tool.
Great service so far from Wiggle and bike looks first class. Only had time for a ten minute blast before work but I'm like a kid on Christmas.

Cheers
Geordie

jamieh5463

Only slight problem is when you get a slight buckle in the wheels the tyres are so FAT they rub on the frame.