£6k bikes

Shaggy_Dog

Last summer, after riding around on either a Specialized Enduro or a hardtail for a few years I bought myself one of these; http://fisherbikes.com/bike/archivemodel/479 which retailed for £2,100 and weighed 27lbs with pedals.

It was noticeably flexier than both the Enduro and the hardtail, I suffered from a bit of ghost shifting under hard power on the first few rides and it felt a little bit uneasy when pushed hard through rough corners. After a while I learned to ride around the flex and it made my other two bikes redundant.

Unfortunately they all got stolen the following autumn and I replaced the whole lot with one of these; http://fisherbikes.com/bike/archivemodel/477 which retailed for £4,000 and weighed 24.5lbs with pedals, since the HiFi Pro was so good I assumed that this could only be better.

Initial feedback after the first ride was that the brakes weren't as powerful, the frame wasn't anywhere near as stiff, on it's maiden ride at Cwmcarn it was tying itself in knots on the tecnical parts of the climb and getting out of the saddle to power up smooth sections resulted in terrible ghost shifting. On the plus side, the bike was noticeably lighter, the XTR cranks shift a lot better than anything else I've ridden, even under full power the front shifting is excellent. I can't honestly say that I've noticed any difference elsewhere in the drivetrain, although I like the way you can position the X.0 shifter body and thumb lever. The suspension is identical and the wheels are a gnat's fart lighter. I was initially very disappointed with my purchase and considered selling it to fund another HIFi Pro.

I think the reason the bike is more flexy is because it is a year behind design-wise, but over time I have learned how to ride around the flex and even use it to my advantage, you can kind of 'pop' it out of corners. It's terrifically fast and great fun! There is a certain magic carpet ride to the carbon frame and it has shrugged off rock strikes that put bloody great big dents in my alloy bike. Apparently there is only 100g difference between the alloy and carbon versions of this frame.

They are both excellent bikes, they really suit my style of riding; long distance back country XC where you never know what terrain you might encounter. When I ride locally I tend to climb out of the saddle a lot and hit corners as fast as I dare.

There are things on a bike that I would want to be very high end and others that I wouldn't be too bothered about. I'd be perfectly happy with SLX throughout on my bike, I'm sure the weight penalty wouldn't be too much, I'd have a set of Hope or Chris King hubs though, and maybe keep the XTR cranks. I'm not overly fussed about carbon, the weight difference alone doesn't justify the cost, on a road bike the comfort factor of carbon is very important but on an MTB with 2"+ tyres it's a very esoteric thing, just as much comfort can be had from bars and seatposts anyway. So it all has to come down to stiffness, which in theory carbon should best alloy but as is often the case with bike manufacturing, the design trumps the material.

richg1979

steponahen wrote:

Once you get over 2k they all basically perform the same. The silly money bikes should be lighter though.

not really, even some 2k bikes have some shockingly cheap and nasty parts.

i would say after 3.5k it just turns into pointless sales waffle.

njee20

That's A bit much, you can't deny that a £6000 bike is lighter than a £3500 equivalent. Whether it's worthwhile is different altogether, but you can't say it's pointless sales blurb.

Shaggy_Dog

The thing about bikes is that the rider is the only power source and that he (or she) weighs far more than the bike itself. Expecting the bike to do the work for you is futile. When you pay more than £1,200 for a hardtail or £2,500 for a 120mm full suspension bike you are getting into esoteric territory. Only a few riders will be able to genuinely appreciate the difference. If you are loaded and want to spend a load of money on a bike, go ahead, if you're not, you better be mustard to get any noticeable benefit

Dobbs

The acid test has to be;
If you won the lottery, what bike would you buy?
£1200 hardtail? £1500 full bounce?
A lot to some people maybe very reasonable to others.