New user Intro

mixedmode

Hello to you All!

Let me introduce myself.

I am a lifelong cyclist living in Milton Keynes, working near Oxford, 32 years of age.
Most of my cycling has been urban/commuting/touring – no serious road racing and only the occasional bit of off-roading. I bought myself a brand new Marin B17 in (I think) 2000 but never really used it much. I’m the sort of person that wasn’t keen on the idea of putting your MTBs on the back of the car and driving to the trails – at the time I preferred the idea of cycling to where the trails were, which for me meant 10 miles of urban riding and back…which on my full suspension B17 was a bit too much bobbing and swaying. So, in the end I thought I’d just stick to the urban bit on my Boulder Alu. The Marin was used about 5 times and was forgotten about, sitting in the spare room of my house – hence it’s almost-new condition. I will put it into the Buying & Selling section soon!

However, these days, I work right near some nice looking trailsy bits and have decided to get into MTBing. But this time, what I want is a decent hard-tail so it can be a bit more practical on roads too. I’m currently earning decent money, so I want this hard-tail to also be my first titanium bike…. I’ve always wanted to ride titanium!

So, if any of you people want to recommend a decent Titanium Hard-tail, let me know – and let’s start by saying money is no object…. And perhaps work down from there!

Cheers for now!

Whytepeak

On - One do a titanium 426 - very nice.

Then there is Whyte's titanium 19 trail.

Cove hummer

Charge Duster Titanium

the list goes on

BoingBoing

On one 456

Cotic Soda 8)

Lightspeed Obed or Ocoee

just to add some others

mixedmode

Thanks for the suggestions guys... i've always been a bit scared of the murkiness surrounding titanium.... bikes claiming to be titanium but in fact only the front forks are Ti or the paint is Ti in COLOUR!! ...or worse still, the whole bike is made of supposed Ti but in fact there is 1 thimbleful of Ti in it and the rest is.... tin or something.

So i trust all the ones mentioned above are decent quality titanium?

I had read about the On-one in the review here:

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/frames/mountain/product/lynskey-ti-456-08--31339

is the £1000 mentioned at the top for the frame only, or a whole bike?

jairaj

price is for frame only, but it is a good one.

What kinda riding are gonna be using it for?

The Northern Monkey

Welcome to the forum

mixedmode

Jairaj,

I want to start by doing trails, particularly through forests. I won't be racing hard, but i want to feel i have a bike that has 'growing room'... one that i can start doing harder, perhaps even rocky terrain. I also want to be able to ride on roads a fair distance on it to get to some of these sites from where i work or live, hence my desire for a hard tail.

So out of the bikes above, it sounds like Bike Radar reviewers like the On-One 456 the best - it got into their top 5 bikes of the year.... it doesn't say which year so i presume its 2008.

I have a few questions i have brought with me from urban/touring/commuter world; some of them i might get laughed at for, but here goes;

1]
I've always wanted to try out the NuVinci infinately variable gears... i realise its heavier the derailleur mechs and it's bottom range is'nt as low, but could something like that do ok in moderate forest/trails riding?

2]
Does mountain biking have an equivalent proposition to the Powerpace cranks and similar - cranks that eliminate the dead area of pedalling? As most mountain biking pedalling is much more varied than road riding for long distance, maybe such a thing would never come into it's own in mountain biking...?

mixedmode

what does any1 think of the Enigma Ego?

http://www.enigmabikes.com/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=20

S-Works-Rider

that Enigma Ego frame is nice, can you buy the whole bike like that with the XT wheels...... if u can it's a cracker

My opinion

mixedmode

The other thing i am a bit naive on is how much money i should go in asking for my Marin B17 (year 2000 i think). It was £1300 in it's day, and i seem to remember i bought it because of good reviews/awards. It has cantilever brakes as it came out before discs were widely used. I mentioned it to an MTB guy down the pub and he remembered it well. Not saying he thought of it as a classic but it stayed in his memory and gave him a warm smile recalling.

Mine is hardly used, [5 times!] ... here is a few pics of some1 else's B17...mine is the same paint job:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mogplayer/1341408847/in/photostream/

jairaj

to be honest most if not all of the options above are awesome bikes / frames.

I think the charge duster ti and cotic soda are more suited to smaller travel forks and more XC orientated. While the rest of the bunch should make good trail hooligans ready for a bit of whatever. maybe pair it with a travel adjustable fork that you can change to suit your / the trails needs.

See what dealers are close to you and pop along and see if you can try out anything.

not sure what the old bike would be worth but it prob won't be much. bare in mind that last years 2nd hand bikes go for ~50% of original value and lot has changed and improved since 2000 probably means you won't get lot for it. but then again im no expert.

ElishaA

Hi I'm new to this site and have decided to take up riding as part of my new fitness regime.

I live around Bracknell and am very new to the area I've heard the look out is good for riding?
Does anyone know of any ohter good places to ride. I want easy routes to start with until I've built my stamina.

Thanks Elisha

Twisterboy

welcome to the forum

ElishaA

Hi Thanks!!

I shouldn't even be on the internet I'm at work!!

jairaj

Hi welcome to the forum,

im not from around that area so can't recommend anything personally but maybe a search on the routes section might come up with something?

http://www.bikeradar.com/routes/

ElishaA

Waow I just took alook at that its brilliant thanks I just typed in some areas and it comes up with all sorts of names of places.

This website is brilliant!!

Thanks for your help jairaj!

rsquire

Hello every i am very new here.

ElishaA

Hi Rsquire,

I'm new here to. Are you starting to ride ? or do you already?

Eli