What bikes would you like us to do long-term tests of?

jamescw

The editorial team here at BikeRadar have decided to get in some long-term test bikes, and we'd like you to tell us what you'd like to see reviewed.

The idea is that we'll hang onto them for a while and see how they cope after months, rather than weeks, of testing.

We don't want £7k superbikes (well okay, we wouldn't mind them, but the tests wouldn't be relevant for most of our users), just the kind of rigs the average rider can afford.

We'll be making small changes based on personal preference - stem length, saddle design - but will be leaving the bikes largely as they are to see how they stand up to some use and abuse.

So, what do you think? Is there a bike you've had your eye on for a while that you'd like to see put through its paces?

grantway

Orange 5 AM against the Orange 160 and does the 160 geometry work
for all day riding too? I dont think so after seeing it myself.
Also test the Orange blood.

Yeti 575
Heckler
Commencal 5

Also frame strength test be a good one.
Think the above would be what most people on here may want to buy.

Cant you get the bikes for nothing ? Has you are testing them.

I think an All mountain bike test be a good one and show where you
are using the bikes IE Downhill/Freeride/Trail etc pictures and video better.

Be good to see if the frames can take it, would be important test.

Banned!

test a few bikes in the £500 range. theyre probably the biggest sellers due to the cycle to work schemes running all around the country.

boardman, GT and carrera seem to be the most popular on here for that price.

TonyWard

Scott Genius - MC30 probably sensible point in the range

mookiebaylock

maybe a full carbon full sus ..scott spark, whyte e120 etc...base models not stupid stupid money models
would be nice to test a carbon bike over a longer duration for general trail work.....
could be interesting to either prove or dispell the fragile carbon reputation that some people hold?

Stoo61

The 09 Boardman Hardtails would be good. Not seen much out about them in magazines etc.

Anonymous

mookiebaylock wrote:

maybe a full carbon full sus ..scott spark, whyte e120 etc...base
could be interesting to either prove or dispell the fragile carbon reputation that some people hold?

This is very true, how about one of those carbon Scott Ransom bikes?

zero303

Not a Meta - I think Doddy's already done enough for Meta sales already!

bellys

as Jesus said start at £400 up to £900 as this is the price range most new riders look at.
some examples.
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/rockrider-8-2-34963146/
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/rockrider-9-1-25268134/
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/rockrider-fr6-34963921/
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165499
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165499
http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/produ ... _Bike_2008

rhext

Something with a Rohloff. I have a feeling that they'd be much easier to live with than the usual Shimano/SRAM bunch - at least all the advertising says so and it kind of makes sense. But it would be great to find out what they're like to live with compared with the more usual candidates. Something like an Orange P7 Pro, Thorn Raven or Van Nicholas Zion - all available off the shelf in a Rohloff build.

ednino

FSR XC

Sarnian

What about having different materials, carbon, aluminium, steel and Ti

Kiblams

In terms of durability and quality would it be an idea to choose bikes with different components rather than just frames? As I can imagine bikes in the same price ranges all tend to have most of the same Shimano, Fox/Rockshox or SRAM components.

Lets face it; the chances of the actual frames being the weak point in terms of reliability is very unlikely.

Though if you are just looking to compare how you feel towards the ride (e.g geometry) then I guess frames is the way forward.

jamescw

Hi, thanks for your comments. There are some great ideas here.

There seems to be a big divide between the sort of price ranges people are suggesting. Basically, we're after bikes that your average MTBer can afford - probably in the £1-2k bracket.

There are some great £500 bikes out there for beginners and those on a tight budget, but I'd question whether they'd stand up to a year of riding by our team without some major changes - eg. cheap suspension forks are often flexy and lack proper damping.

At the other end of the scale, yes, there are some fantastic carbon wonder-machines out there, but they're out of reach of most riders.

KnightofCydonia

mid range hardtails (1000-1400) and similar full sussers (maybe 1700-2000) in cost. The bikes that have a mixture of mid-high level sram/shimano components, where there is a huge choice in each.

Tom Barton

I don't know how many you would be planning on having but what about 2 bikes from different catagories but at different prices - nice to compare not only different styles of bikes (i.e. XC, trial, all mountain & FR/DH) but then how much difference the bucks make

i.e. a Specialied pitch vs a SC nomad - that kinda thing

My personal desire is to see some more all mountain bikes as thats my personal interest :-) - Doddy's meta excepted of course

mookiebaylock

JamesCW wrote:

Hi, thanks for your comments. There are some great ideas here.

There seems to be a big divide between the sort of price ranges people are suggesting. Basically, we're after bikes that your average MTBer can afford - probably in the £1-2k bracket.

There are some great £500 bikes out there for beginners and those on a tight budget, but I'd question whether they'd stand up to a year of riding by our team without some major changes - eg. cheap suspension forks are often flexy and lack proper damping.

At the other end of the scale, yes, there are some fantastic carbon wonder-machines out there, but they're out of reach of most riders.

Judging by what i see out on local trails and trail centres etc, i would say people are spending an awful lot more than 1 -2k on a bike so perhaps testing something that people seem to ride (or aspire to) i.e 2-3 k bikes would be more helpful?
in my opinion, the bikes in the 1 -2 k range haven't changed all that much in the last year or two. Yet these bikes get tested over and over again.
Perhaps a test of completely different bikes in the same price bracket head to head (im thinking bikes for general trail use)....hardtail, 4", 5" travel bikes, different frame materials...
just something other than the norm i guess!

jamescw

To give you an idea of what we're looking for, here's a rundown of our mountain biking team members:

- Communities editor Matt: a wheels-on-the-ground type rider looking for a mid-travel trail centre rig.

- Oli our database guy: wants something he can rag around the BMX track on at lunchtime and shred brutal downhills on at weekends.

- Operations editor James (me): after a 100mm-or-so bike that's light enough for cross-country but handles well and can still take a bit of abuse.

jamescw

Basically, we're looking for bikes that aren't already on long-term test with MBUK, who tend to cover the more expensive end of the market.

s-worksenduro

Matt - Cannondale Rize or maybe a Moto

Oli - Higher end Scott Voltage or Charge Blender

James - Giant Anthem X

pdid

Love to see you test a Rock Lobster from Merlin. Fits in nicely with your 100mm cross country rig which can handle a bit of abuse.

Always come highly recommended on the forums (and not just by me).

Mattmanic

I'd give anything to use a Cube AMS HPC R1 Mag Teamline for a year. Do you keep the bikes at the end or do they go back to the shop you borrowed them from? Or what?

rhext

I'd still like to see how a rohloff hardtail stacks up for taking a bit of abuse as an XC machine. They seem to start at about £2K, so within your price range.

Bikerbaboon

I think seeing if a £500 bike could stand up to a years bikeing or not could be a good test. Loads of mags have got full sus and HT in the 1-2k mark. non go below.

Even if the bikes shocks are flexy you could then look at the best upgrade path for the bikes say they have £500 to start. ( say a good birthday present) then after 3-6 months of use they get a well done for sticking with it of £500 to upgrade the bike they have. We could see how the pros splash the cash for the best bang for your buck way.

Anonymous

s-worksenduro wrote:

Matt - Cannondale Rize

That was on my wish-list.

Ghengis

I'd like to see some frame builds maybe a Cove Stiffee/Hustler up against similar other stuff. Not much written about these recently - it would be good to know how they would stack up against some of the stuff Pace and others are doing.

Banned!

no no NO!

the average rider does NOT have 1-2k to spend on a bike. not all at once anyway. I have voiced this concern many times in the past and now it seems i will be forced to do it again.

a lot of people i know look at the sport and ask the same question 'how much does a bike like that cost?'

when you tell them its anything up to 5-6 grand they look at you as if you were mental.

'for a bike? I can buy a car for that!!'

even so, a 5 grand bike is easier to deal with because its something that it unattainable for 99% of us and exists in an imaginary place, but tell the same people the bike youre riding cost £1200 and they will be shocked, because thats not as much but, in thier eyes, far too much money to spend on a bike.

now, we all have owned bikes in that range or plan too in the near future, but it is certainly not the price range of the average rider and it is not a figure that should be casually thrown around when talking about 'beginner and budget bikes', because it will put far too many people off getting involved int he sport or going along to trail centres and race days because they will think thier £4-500 machine is utter crap and not a real mtb.

its ok for the mag guys to talk about these bikes because

a. theyre working

b. will get a fair bit of kit for free or as near as

testing a £500 bike for a year with the wrecking crew is something that needs to be done. how else will joe public know which bike to buy if he plans to use it for riding to work, jumping and bombing downhill on?

Mattmanic

Listen to Jesus.

He is the son of God after all...

Kiblams

+1 for Jesus!

s-worksenduro

At the same time though, as James said, the "cheaper" bikes may not be able to stand up to that much abuse. I don't know the standard of the test riders, but I feel that they may be able to hand out a lot more abuse than the bikes could take.
If, for example, a Carrera Kraken was being tested and a few months into the test, the forks, wheels and half the drivetrain had been replaced due to wear, tear and breakages, surely it would have been better to test a bike such as the Giant XTC 2 where there is a much better spec. Also, if someone owned a £500 bike, they may look to the longterm bikes for ideas on upgrades.

If you go to a trail centre, an awful lot of people will be riding bikes that cost well over £1k and I feel that these are the bikes that should be tested. These are going to be the sort of bikes that people will buy as their second bike. They had a cheap one to begin with, to test the water to see if they enjoyed the sport. Now that they know they do, they want to splash out on some equipment to take their enjoyment to the next level. These should be the bikes that are used.

I do agree about the cycle to work scheme, but in my experience working in a bike shop, people buying these bikes take the recommendations of friends and shop staff most of the time, purely because the majority won't read MBUK or similar until they get into the sport a bit more.

nigel f

I'd be interested to see what style of bike best suits typical UK riding ie. bit of trail centres, moors, rocky ascents and descents and will do most of them well. Although I'm a full suss convert a decent hardtail like the P7 might fit the bill or the Orange ST4 with 4" of travel and slacker geometry might be enough. Maybe 5" bikes' geometry varies too much under travel and 6" 'all mountain' are just too slack to enjoy getting up the hills?

I don't know the answers, pretty much rely on the experts (ie. journalists!) but not often that different types get tested on the same routes. Did test my dream bike though, the Nomad, and it was so plush that I could pretty much straightline anything. It started me thinking that it would remove the thrill from most of the riding I do unless I went at silly speeds which doesn't really work when you're on new trails and don't know whats round the next corner!

But equally, in the present climate and with C2W schemes, a long hard thrashing of up to £1k hardtails would be sensible. But then again, if its for commuting shouldn't they be buying a road bike or hybrid? Where's the What Hybrid Bike forum.........