hello advise

blablablacksheep

hello all,

My old bike recently has been cuasing me a pain in arse, and i thinking of getting a new one, the old one was pretty crappy gears(from hallfords apollo) ect.

I have around upto 300 quid to spend on bike and looking for a bike which can go off-road and up hilly areas in woods ect, but also can cope with road ie paverment, though this isnt as important.


mainly looking for a rugid bike which i can ride properly and wont have gears slipping and problems in mud areas ect,.(my apollo bike gears slipped and never seemed to work ot lock in properly thus couldnt go up hills and found if i pressed hard on pedals gear clanked and bike felt it was breaking up below me..i not fat either..)

i thinking about the
Decathlon Rockrider 6.3, or the carrera Vulcan.

hopefully you can give some expert advise ect on what i should choose.

llamafarmer

Try and get a shortlist together and see if you can test ride them. It's often easy to find a nice deal on the web, but you have no idea how the bike rides or fits.

blablablacksheep

somone said to me that i should consider hardtail bike instead sinse all mountain bikes with rear suspention are rubbish if below the 500 pound mark.

blister pus

WHAT hardtail 09

WHAT full suspension 09

Check out the 'what' thread stickies (top of forum) out as a starting point. Loads of good deals on at the moment for 08 hardtails.

blablablacksheep

was reading that and wondering.

the GT Avalanche 3.0 is hardtail so is it still good for off road and hilly bits ect, or would i get a uncomtable ride?

also am i right in saying the GT is better than Decathlon RockRider 5.2 right? (probally dunb question sorry)

seems for full suspention Decathlon Rockrider 6.3 is best option though would the GT avlanche have better parts ect than the Decathlon Rockrider 6.3 even though it had no rear suspention?

cheers sorry for being noob about bikes

Banned!

a full susser at that price will have so may price compromised parts on it that its really not worth buying at all as everything on it will be a lower end budget model.

if you consider that a decent, not good or the best, just decent, set of forks will cost around £100 and a rear shock will be around the same that only leaves £100 for the rest of the bike. so you wont get a £100 shock or forks. the forks and shock on a bike at this price will be cheap and nasty and probably dangerous too. you should never ride this as a mountain bike. ever. it WILL snap.

a hardtail for the same money, on the other hand, will have a decent frame, if a bit twangy, and better than bargain basement parts on it and will most certainly outlast the full susser. I know youre attracted to the looks of the susser but its the wrong bike. it will be more uncomfortable than a hardtail at this price and you cant upgrade it later because the frame wont take the stresses of a longer travel fork etc.

carerra do some decent bikes around this price range, go to halfords web site and have a look around there.

Vivid

Jesus_Christ wrote:

a full susser at that price will have so may price compromised parts on it that its really not worth buying at all as everything on it will be a lower end budget model.

if you consider that a decent, not good or the best, just decent, set of forks will cost around £100 and a rear shock will be around the same that only leaves £100 for the rest of the bike. so you wont get a £100 shock or forks. the forks and shock on a bike at this price will be cheap and nasty and probably dangerous too. you should never ride this as a mountain bike. ever. it WILL snap.

a hardtail for the same money, on the other hand, will have a decent frame, if a bit twangy, and better than bargain basement parts on it and will most certainly outlast the full susser. I know youre attracted to the looks of the susser but its the wrong bike. it will be more uncomfortable than a hardtail at this price and you cant upgrade it later because the frame wont take the stresses of a longer travel fork etc.

carerra do some decent bikes around this price range, go to halfords web site and have a look around there.

I would usually agree however we are talking about the Decathlon Rockrider 6.3.

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... 3-07-20096

Great bike for the price, but do you need a full susser? from what i read no.

blister pus

yeh the deal is either save some more money and buy a decent full suspension or buy a reasonably spec'd beginners hardtail with your 300 notes. If you're just messin' around doing lightish woodland terrain xc stuff and bombing about hills and reservoirs getting fit and the like, then a reasonable hardtail will more than do you.

Carrera's Vulcan and Kraken at Halfords would be worth looking at, those are disc brakes but you could go v-brake, which are cheaper with not much fall off in performance. GT Avalanche, Decathlon Rockriders, Giant Boulder are your starting points, then find a deal. If you trawl the forums many 'what bike' threads you'll get an idea what deals are out there around the 300ish mark. Obviously you could do with finding somewhere to try some of these out, or at least sit on them. Local bike shop would be first port of call too.

Mattmanic

I would say find an extra £50 and get the Carrera Kraken from Halfords. It's excellent value, 27 speed and a 120mm damped fork. I think it's 7005 aluminium so it'll be pretty bullet proof too.

If it was my money and there was nothing second hand available that caugh my eye, that's what I would go with.

blablablacksheep

cheers for info though i would not be getting a bike though hallfords as i found their service utter crap tbh and the build quality was shocking, this the reson for me getting new bike sinse my old bike was so poorly made, also have freinds who have had simular issues.

on the bike spec, would you say
Carrera Kraken is better than an GT avalnche?

basically best hardtail bike i can get for around the 300 mark would be?

andrewjoseph

blablablacksheep wrote:

hello all,


mainly looking for a rugid bike which i can ride properly and wont have gears slipping and problems in mud areas ect,...

This may have been due to improper setup and/or worn parts.

this can happen on any bike but is much less likely on a singlespeed. with a geared bike you will still get poor shifting and possibly slipping when the drivetrain is covered in mud. more money will not stop this.

OwenB

blablablacksheep wrote:

cheers for info though i would not be getting a bike though hallfords as i found their service utter crap tbh and the build quality was shocking, this the reson for me getting new bike sinse my old bike was so poorly made, also have freinds who have had simular issues.

on the bike spec, would you say
Carrera Kraken is better than an GT avalnche?

basically best hardtail bike i can get for around the 300 mark would be?

Carrera bikes are only available through Halfords mate so if you want one you'll have to use them. Although the GTs are good bikes (I have an Avalanche 1 and it's great)
You'll be best off finding out what bikes are available to you locally, try a few out and then either buy from your local supplier of look for a cheaper deal online. If I were you I'd buy locally and then you'll have the support of your local store as well.

Northwind

The Kraken is an extremely nice bike for the price... The Apollos are totally different, no shared parts, different production too... on the Kraken you find decent truvativ and sram drivetrain plus hydro brakes. It's a bit weighty and the fork's limited (though competent) but I ended up sticking a Tora SL into mine and it'd outperform some bikes costing a lot more. I'm still using a lot of the parts on my new build as well, for now. There are other contenders though I;m sure, lots of brilliant discounts just now.

But the downer is, it has some parts that I would say really want upgraded out of the box- the pedals are GASH, though obviously that's by intent as so many people will change their pedals anyway. Sort of fake V8s only with no spikes, barely OK for road use. And the tyres are incredibly heavy, and not very good- 1060g EACH. That one's just a cost-cut, but it does hamper the bike a lot. It's not neccesary to replace them, but it'll unlock some of the bike's wasted potential if you do.

Halfords customer service is... Lets say variable. I've always got on well with my local and their warranty service was spot on when my freehub died (after about a week of supply problems, they just gave me a whole wheel out of a display bike, and never even asked for my warranty card- just as well as I bought the bike used! But others get, basically, crapped on.

And yes, it'll go offroad, I never took mine down anything tougher than a blue because I doubted my own abilities, but it'd have dealt with a red. I saw someone today at glentress on a red with a Vulcan- same frame, cheaper parts- and doing OK.

See also: Be One, Rockhopper.

The Decathlon's amazing value, and it's right to recognise that but it's still not really as good as it would need to be to be worth considering.

llamafarmer

I was looking at full sus bikes up to £1200 recently and with every one I tried, I found compromises, be it weight, fork, rear shock etc. I've come to the point where I don't really think it's worth the money for the type of riding I do and that I can get a much better hardtail for much less money and spend the extra on other kit that I want. I'd 100% recommend you go for a hardtail.

As for the slipping gears, you can often dial it out with a bit of tuning before your ride and using the fine tune dials on the shifters while you ride.

homerjay

i'd go for the commencal normal from merlin @ £225, barter had and you MAY get it upgraded to discs for the remaining £75