Bike advice please

Teach

Some of you may have seen me on the road bike section, but I am new to MTB.
I have a 5 year old specialsed hardrock sport. I bought it to go on canal paths etc with my children. Last night I was invited out through a friend of a friend to go on some forest trails, bridleways fields etc What a buzz.
My question is what do I need to do this sort of riding on a regular basis.
They were all riding £2000+ bikes. Didn't get chance to ask any questions yesterday but today the questions start!
Is my bike good enough? Do I really need full suspension (I didn't find the ride uncomfortable.)
Is it worth upgrading this bike eg new forks and change of brakes? I'm fairly competent, having just buit my road bike from scratch.
Do I start again?
With my road bike I knew what I wanted, type of frame, then manufacture, brand of gears then spec it was relatively easy. However MTB there seem to be so many variables. I really don't know where to start. I'm not looking at spending thousands . Ideally less than £500, but I also know what I'm like and if spending up to £1000 does buy a significantly better bike then it would be worth doing because I will aways wish I'd spent just a bit more.

Current bike spec fork RST GIla 100m travel
Tektro linear pull brakes.
I'm not looking at racing just getting out with some friends and having a good time.
Than you for taking time to read this and any comments would be appreciated.

ride_whenever

If you really enjoyed yourself then spend a grand. 1k ht bikes are really really really good without obvious spec flaws (usually)

There are a few FS bikes around a grand worth checking out, but don't feel you need one right away, much more to go wrong than with a road bike!

Teach

Thans for that. What about the boardman? And would you get full suspension or not?

Anonymous

boardmans always get top reviews, when you spec a bike as well as those things are, its hard to end up with a bike that rides badly.

i would always recommend spending more than you think you want to, especially if you have been out and enjoyed some of road action.

the ht or fs thing is an impossible issue to advise on really. you need to try one out and see how it feels, some people try them and find they dont like the way they feel, others try them and love them.

fs isnt necessarily about comfort though. fs is about traction and being able to carry more speed along a trail (although plenty of folk are uber quick on ht bikes too)

both will be around forever so dont buy one for any other reason than personal preference.

Anonymous

sheepsteeth wrote:

the ht or fs thing is an impossible issue to advise on really. you need to try one out and see how it feels, some people try them and find they dont like the way they feel, others try them and love them.

Load of bollorks. FS is the way an off road vehicle should be made. HTs or rigids are for weird hippy types.

Anonymous

as it happens i was regretting gving acual advice in place of saying, i ride a fs bike, fs bikes are the best.
as it happens i personally much prefer a fs bike.

thebikeschool

Two of the most important parts of any mountain bike are the forks and brakes.
It's no good spending £1000 only to find the forks have been under spec'd as upgrading after market costs hunderds. Same with brakes although these are cheaper to upgrade.

Some of the Boardmans have a good spec with decent brakes and forks.
In order to check the spec, get the components list and then seek out reviews on the crucial parts like forks and brakes.
In general the rest of the components will be up to the job if not a little heavy but cheaper to upgrade.

Just for a rough guide forks around the £300 mark should be good enough and function well. Cheaper stuff can have the feel of bed springs!

This is very general stuff but I hope it helps.

Harry.

clark2905

Hi all
just like a bit of advice i'm new to mountain biking (41 years old) been doing it through work using their bikes Cube not sure which one i have after a recent accident my tourer was trashed and I've found a Cube team LCD 2010 which 4 months old and on offer at around £450 (500 euros) just like to know if this is a good bike to start with i'm heavy biult (17 stone ) but pretty fit the reviews all seem good but would like an impartial view thanks for any advice
P.s how do i put a picture on here

Teach

[/quote]Load of bollorks. FS is the way an off road vehicle should be made. HTs or rigids are for weird hippy types.[/quote]

Thank you for all your comments?
Why?
Don't you lose a lot of energy when pedalling with the rear not being fixed?
The benefit of front forks I understand what are the benefits of rear suspension?

Anonymous

modern full sus is very efficient, there is a slight loss on smooth flat ground but on anything with bumps and lumps, i definately find fs more efficient, energy saving and more fun.

supersonic

I don't lol.

Preference. You hippy.

Anonymous

and thats the thing, the ony real advice is "try one, see what you think" but if that was made a sticky, this would be a quiet old place.

so

buy a fs, hardtails are for the poor.

supersonic

You couldn't afford mine.

Anonymous

i could probably scrape 50 quid together from the carpet of my car.

supersonic

Must be a 335d then.

Anonymous

im definately not that wealthy (or good at surfing)

diy

Personally, I would sell your hard rock on and take your £500 budget plus the £100+ you will get for the Hardrock and buy a 2-3 year old used bike. At that budget you will probably find some really good Hard tails and decent entry level FS bikes.

FS doesn't effect pedal efficiency if you have a quality rear shock, or rear shock with a lock or a frame link that is designed to reduce bob (or all 3).

There are certain things that you can do on an FS, that take a lot of skill on a HT. For example a 1/2m drop off over a felled tree on a DH section could easily have you over the bars even on a long travel HT (e.g. a HT with 120mm + suspension forks). Whereas even an XC rear shock will remove the rear bounce that can make it kick up.

If you go full sus try to get a rear shock with lock out or if the budget will stretch pro-pedal. When you buy the bike though (if its used) as well as all the normal things check the forx and shock for leaks or wear.