One good road bike or two entry levels (road + MTB)?

apobateman

Hello. After many hours of going round in circles perusing the forums and reviews I am hoping you can offer some advice to help me make a decision....

I currently have a 5 year old Kona Fire Mountain. I have been using it to cycle to work on most days (20 mile round trip) and it now has road tyres on it. It also has a rack so I can do some very light touring - weekends in France etc. I want to take advantage of the Bike to work scheme and get a new bike. My original thoughts were to buy a nice steel framed road bike for commuting/saturday rides and lightweight touring and the Jamis Quest, with 631 reynolds tubing and 105/ultegra gears seemed to fit the bill as I can get it on the scheme for £800 (effectively paying £400). I will convert the Kona back to the MTB it used to be.

However, I have been told that I could potentially purchase 2 bikes on the cyclescheme given that one of the routes I use to work is almost entirely off road, so now I am thinking of getting a cheaper road bike and also a full suspension mtb. Both would be entry level but I can get a Giant Yukon FX3 full suspension and a Giant Defy 4 Triple for £1000 (effectively costing me £500). I'd commute on both depending on whether I go off road or on road, have something for the mountains and something fast for weekend rides.

Am I likely to notice a big difference in comfort/enjoyment on the Jamis Quest versus the cheaper Defy - and the same question goes for the MTBs - will the Giant Yukon provide greater enjoyment and allow me to ride better tracks than my Kona? Thank in advance!!

mfin

Hmmm... in my opinion you can get a really excellent road bike for a grand or something really good to start on for £500 but full suss mountain bikes (if you mean for trails etc) then you really need the whole grand for cos thats just about where they become acceptable.

Remember full sussers have more pivots, forks, shocks, just more moving parts really to eat up the budget and you want it all to perform well AND be light (if we're talking general trail bikes). For instance, look up the Boardman FS Comp http://www.boardmanbikes.com/mtbfs/fs_comp.html ...thats arguably one of the best full suss bikes at £800, the 'Team' version is a grand and is even better. When you go cheaper, I'd really start to look at hard-tails so the money saved in frame simplicity and rear shocks can contribute to keeping a reasonable fork as part of the spec.

So me, I'd go for one or the other but I'm not familiar with your Kona I'm afraid.

Hope those thoughts help a little.

Dr S

New road bike and good service and a new set of boots for the fire mountain sorted!

FSR_XC

You could always look at a Cyclocross bike.

mtbhenry888

i'm very tradiontional in my bike chioce, steel, leather saddles, bar end shifters etc, i guess i just like a super reliable, hardwearing bike, think you need similar, coming from an MTB background, steer clear of anything under £750 is my advice, i have a giant XTC and love it but thats a hardtail, for an off road commute you want reliability and low mantainence, either a hardtail, aluminium or steel or a cross bike as someone mentioner earlier. I am very near to buliding my new bike which is a surly cross check, 700c road wheels, it can fit 46c tyres, guards, rack, v brakes or canti and so on, the perfect bike for what you need, you just need another set of wheels with some 23 or 25c road tyres on for the weekends! unfortunately you can't buy ready built surlys in the UK so cutom only, its up to u, go to your LBS and get them to build it or if you live near Southampton ill build it for you, just started my own mobile cycle repair business!

apobateman

Thanks for all your advice on this. The problem is partially resolved as I saw a full suspension mtb on clearance tonight in Halfords for £595 - a GT i-drive 5 XCR, so I bought that. I can now use the cyclescheme voucher to get my road bike though I am still undecided between something fast and light (though I still want a steel frame) like the Jamis Quest, or something a bit more robust that I could also tour on, such as a Dawes Super Galaxy. Or something in between, like an audax bike. Decisions, decisions...I have spent more time choosing a bike than I took to buy a house......

tlw1

I would go for a decent road bike and leave some voucher room for a few upgrades to the kona. That way it will feel like a new bike too!

Then when you have paid off the road bike I would get the vouchers again and buy a decent MTB & then turn your Kona into a full time tourer/pub bike/singlespeed!

Re: spending more time choosing your bike than house.................. well it is more important!

ride_whenever

I's say neither, get a good mountainbike!!!! You don't mention the lockup facilities at work, or the distance, but unless you're going more than about 10 miles just get a decent MTB :twisted: