£1500?

Muttly1981

This is my first post here so be gental

I only really started riding again properly around 8 months ago on a Carera Vulcan XC and it does a job on the blue and red at Llandegla but have got to the point where i'm ready to upgrade in the new year as i'm having to borrow a Kona Stuff for the black runs, i'm falling in love with full sussers but with all the choice out there my head may just explode with the ammount of information i need to take in. I'm looking at £1500 as my top limit and i have a vague idea of what i want but i could do with some info on what works best for the type of trails at Llandegla etc. Full lockout would be ideals aswell for the ride to work in a morning.

Commencal Meta 5.5 pro I love this bike and the spec seems ok but have noticed a few on ebay that have cracked welds on the head tubes is this a common fault?
Specialized Epic FSR Comp 2010
Lapierre X Control 310 2010
Sunn Kern LT S2 2010
Mondraker Factor R 2010
Scott Genius 60 2010
Lapierre Zesty 214 2010
Felt Compulsion 2 2009

Any help would be much appeciated

coxy17

the problam with the commencals was just the 2009 frames there has been no problems with the 2010 frame i am currently ording a 2010 meta 5 frame i hope to build up there so posse to be really good frame

but test them and see what they feel like

getonyourbike

I think you're better off getting the nice full sus and then a scroty old rigid with some v's and slicks on for the commute. If you look after it it'll be lovely to ride on the commute but thieves won't notice it as much either, so your full sus won't get nicked and neither will the commuting bike. For some reason thieves only seem to want to nick MTB's with discs.

Muttly1981

Cheers Coxy thats at least put my mind at ease about the frames because it is a simply stunning bike to look at

@Getonyourbike i was thinking of going down the route of buying a seperate bike for the road but my 4 mile route to work only has 1 mile of road(which has a major hill which is why i could do with the lock out) and fortunately it takes me though our local country park so i get to do a little cross country riding each day. Also i get greif for having just the one bike in the kitchen so adding another wouldn't go down well at all :twisted:

Another thing i forgot to mention is weight because i've always had the mindset of full sussers being too heavy but how do the newer ones compair weight wise to hardtails?

thel33ter

A decent 120mmish travel full sus will be around 12-13kg at that price. The Felt will be the heaviest at around 14+kg

Best is to try a couple out and see which feels best, as there is a wide range of types of bike in your list, from 100mm travel race bikes to 160mm all mountain bikes.

I'd look at the Scott, Lapierres and Mondraker if you want relatively light.

bluechair84

An £1800 bike for £1200, and the iDrive stiffens when you stand off the saddle, or are pedalling hard up a hill.



A £2100 bike for £1500, same suss design as the iDrive really.

Click on pics for links. Don't really know much about any of the bikes you've listed, but the Suns are gorgeous bikes 8)

Pudseyp

The Mondraker Foxy or Factor R are great bikes, for just over a grand you should be able to get a nice 2009 and for the £1,500 a 2010 Marin Mount Vision....I ride mine a deggy all thge time and it has never let me down...get the 5.8, which is a great spec and all you will ever need....the Trek EX8 is also worth a look !!

Muttly1981

bluechair84 wrote:

An £1800 bike for £1200, and the iDrive stiffens when you stand off the saddle, or are pedalling hard up a hill.



A £2100 bike for £1500, same suss design as the iDrive really.

Click on pics for links. Don't really know much about any of the bikes you've listed, but the Suns are gorgeous bikes 8)

I've tried to distance myself from GT as over the last 10 years or so the quality of there products have fallen off massively, although i've been told they have now been bought out and the 2011 bikes spec wise are getting back to the days when if you owned a GT BMX at school you was obviously spoiled or rich. Also i know someone who broke a weld on the downtube but never rode it off road :-s

Again i've always seen Mongoose as a BMX company that dabble in MTB from time to time, i'll look into them though and see what they have to offer.

Pudseyp wrote:

The Mondraker Foxy or Factor R are great bikes, for just over a grand you should be able to get a nice 2009 and for the £1,500 a 2010 Marin Mount Vision....I ride mine a deggy all thge time and it has never let me down...get the 5.8, which is a great spec and all you will ever need....the Trek EX8 is also worth a look !!

I've seen a few riding Mount Visions and they do look a lovely piece of kit although i felt sorry the last time we went as we'd been chatting to a lad at the cafe with a Mount Vision and the week before he'd broken his rear mech so was trying out his new SRAM XX mech that he'd just had fitted. We caught up to him just after Snowdon View and he was pushing his bike after clipping a tree stump and snapping the rear mech

I have to admit i'm falling in love with Lapierre bikes but i'm trying to not let my impulsive side rule my head and am seriously gonna take my time and decide what is best for me because my normal trick is "oh i love the colour of that one, i'll take it" hopefully my bike mechanic friend will give me some advice first.

mattv

Epic is perhaps a little bit short travel? Would be perfect for the road sections, and going up the fire roads etc, but woud llimit you on the black runs perhaps.

Muttly1981

mattv wrote:

Epic is perhaps a little bit short travel? Would be perfect for the road sections, and going up the fire roads etc, but woud llimit you on the black runs perhaps.

I guess this is my problem because this will be my first full susser so i honestly don't know what would be the best travel, weight etc for the type of riding i do. The funny thing is i'm being asked for advice from mates who are getting into biking so i'm just telling them to do the things i didn't lol

Muttly1981

Another for the list is an Commencal Meta 6.2 2009 it's got £1100 knocked off at leisure lakes bikes so comes in just in my budget at £1499

Bar Shaker

You should be able to get a decent new bike for £1500, rather than a 2 year old one.

I am a big fan of GT's iDrive system. If you can't get lock outs (and you should for this money, front and back) then iDrive is the next best thing.

Muttly1981

I still haven't ruled out paying £1500 deposit and getting the rest interest free and buying one of these



Because it is simply stunning and everytime i head up to my LBS i just seem to get drawn towards it :oops:

Briggo

mattv wrote:

Epic is perhaps a little bit short travel? Would be perfect for the road sections, and going up the fire roads etc, but woud llimit you on the black runs perhaps.

How much travel do you honestly think you need for UK trail centres? 180mm?

It'll do the black run at Llandelga perfectly, there isn't any huge rock gardens or drops infact Ive ridden around the black with a mate who was on a Carrera Vulcan and he did just fine.

Pudseyp

Muttly1981 wrote:

[I've seen a few riding Mount Visions and they do look a lovely piece of kit although i felt sorry the last time we went as we'd been chatting to a lad at the cafe with a Mount Vision and the week before he'd broken his rear mech so was trying out his new SRAM XX mech that he'd just had fitted. We caught up to him just after Snowdon View and he was pushing his bike after clipping a tree stump and snapping the rear mech

He obviously can't ride it then !! mechs and hangers don't snap unless you hit something...bike of the year twice is statement enough how good they are !

Muttly1981

Spoke to a mate today and he thinks he may have a 2009 mongoose teocali super in the warehouse. He says he may beable to get it me for £1k with staff discount he said they retail at £2k and the spec looks very good with a mix of xt/slx and fox rp23 and f32 fork but I've got a nagging feeling that with the spec being imo very good will the frame quality suffer?

Pudseyp

I had the Elite two years ago and it was great, the freedrive suspension takes some getting used too.....check out the reviews on here as they always score well....a grand is a good price considering the forks and shock are worth near that !

bails87

Boardman Pro FS?

t0pc4t

giant anthem X

Muttly1981

After talking to a mechanic mate he says the Mongoose Teocali for £1200 is pretty much unbeatable spec wise so looks like i'm going to have a 400 mile round trip in the new year :?