bike for 65 year old..

diy

The old man was about to buy a BSO at about the same time my company offered a bike to work scheme. Being a complete snob, I was going to ignore the scheme as you cannot possibly buy a decent bike for a grand. Anyway did the sums with the tax and final tax for the gift at the end it works out at about £566 net.

here's the short list.

Whyte 901 with a bit of haggling and cash in hand
Trek 6500 as above
Orange G4 or Pure 7, have to say I don't fancy the pure 7, more "steel is not a nice as alu" prejudice you might say.
Cube LTD in either a race or comp with a few extras

Spesh rockhopper comp and Trek 6300 - are probably out due to the fact that they are not really a decent spec for the money this year.

key thing is comfort, very light weight, and a very adjustable front fork. Rider is 14 stone, so coil spring is less desirable.

Are the Whyte 901s any good - this is probably the leader?

comments appreciated.

CraigXXL

Take him to try a few but I doubt he will appreciate your choice. If it was me I'd go for discounted model from last year and upgrade the forks to air or go for something like this
http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b1s2p2231

diy

This is I think the draw back of the scheme. I too would buy mail order last year's bike and 3 or 400 off the price.. I note that pauls cycles are part of the scheme, but not sure how mail order would work with the voucher.

Plus I now have to spend a grand as I have the voucher. If I don't I lose the change.

he's pretty fit btw.

diamondbacker

Hmmm. Have you considered a Penny farthing?

Realistically, at the age of 65 I'd be going for the cheapest and/or the lightest. They are all decent bikes but in reality, how hard will a 65 year old be riding them. Any of those bikes would be fine I'm sure.

andyrm

I'd suggest a nice steel frame. Look at a custom build based round something like a Cove Handjob, which I just did for my old man for his 60th birthday.

Did your dad ride motorbikes in his youth? Reason I ask is because my dad described the ride of a springy light steel frame as reminiscent of an old motorbike, so was quite familiar in the way it responded, so he felt very at ease on it from the word go...

You can easily put a nice bike together for a grand, just need to sweet talk the shop a little to get them to do it on the C2W scheme.

handful

What kind of riding will he be doing??

I would suggest a full sus purely for the comfort factor, I know weight is also an issue but as a 48 going on 49 year old I know what I prefer now let alone in another 17 years!!

Just my thoughts as another old-un.

Fudgie

handful wrote:

What kind of riding will he be doing??

This is the most important question!

I'm 64 and ride solely off road on natural trails so I know what I want. You don't say whether your dad has any idea of what he wants to do or where he wants to go. It's unlikely he'll be doing jumps and drop-offs or racing so the choice would be between easy towpaths/roads or bridleways.

If there's no bridleways nearby he might just want to ride on the road. I've just ordered my first full sus because hard, bumpy trail surfaces are starting to take a toll on my vertebrae, but a steel hardtail is still my first choice if the going's a bit softer. Although I'm afraid there are no similarities between riding this and my Triumph Bonneville back in the 60s!

If he doesn't know yet, why not consider a Boardman as these are good value all-rounders and work well both on and off road?

diy

It will be light XC, dirt trails and a bit of the gentler AM stuff - can't do boardman as they are not part of the scheme. Plus not sure how the 2x10 will work for him fitness wise.

If it was me I'd go for the whyte, but I need to step back a bit, its my money, but his present. And we should be able to get a decent hard tail for <1K, it just looks a bit tight this year with plenty of £800+ bikes being spec'd with alivio and low end deore, which is taking the pee a bit.

Fudgie

Yes, I'd go for the Whyte too. One of my bikes is a 2010 Whyte and the quality and attention to detail is excellent.

The 901 has an excellent spec and is a fine looking bike too. If my son bought me one of those I'd certainly change my will to reflect my appreciation! Do it!!!!

diy

He'd narrowed it down to the orange and the 901 and fell in love with the 901. Ruled the G4 out because it does not have a fork with a lock out, which is important for a bike that will do a fair bit of cycle path riding.

Took him out over box hill for a quick test ride and I was quite impressed that he managed to climb a couple of 25 and 28%er climbs. The 36/22 (10x3) bottom gear is insane.

The bike is extremely well put together and even has quality tyres. I took it for a quick blast and its is superb.

should have haggled discount for two

Atz

As an aside, what does "gentler AM stuff" mean?

diy

My view of AM is a bike that can do everything well, climb, cross and descend all day long. Gentler AM to me is less extreme climbing a descending. The sort of stuff that you get at surrey hills, rather than the purpose build trail centres. But more technical climbing and decending than you would do for XC riding.

cooldad

In other words cross country.

diy

Well the 901 is definitely an XC bike, just built for the bumpier end of XC, with bigger brakes and longer travel forks and a axle front rather QR. TBH its massively over the top for the old man, but he is happy and more likely to want to use a top end bike than a BSO.