How cheap were your current mountain bike(s)?

diamondbacker

Stemming somewhat from my other thread about £100 bikes, how much did you pay for your bike and what kind of riding do you do and are you happy with it?

I'll start - diamondback s20 £100 (used) off ebay. I picked this up as I fancied getting in to mtbing and didn't have much money. I used it a fair bit in woodland/roots etc and apart from servicing etc it's been pretty good.

Rockrider 5.2 £200 (new). As I enjoyed my other bike, yet still not having much money I decided to treat myself to a new bike. I've added some semislicks as I don't do quite so much offroading on it and a bit more road/gravel but I still love it. A very competent bike for the price. I tend touse this bike most now.

Both bikes have handled everything I've chucked at them to be fair and I'm happy with both. I also picked up an immaculate Saracen Tour roadbike for £150 for when I just fancy doing roads, but that's getting away from the MTB theme.

Anonymous

Are you only interested in budget bikes, or are you also wanting to know specifics of why we buy higher end bikes?

cooldad

I have quite a few bikes, but two bargains were a roadbike in Reynolds 531 for £5 and a Rockhopper for £34, sold some bits and replaced them with stuff I had lying around and it actually cost me zero.
The road bike did need new tubes though.

supersonic

Diamond Back Traverse £180
GT Zaskar LE, 2nd hand £400
Saracen NZyme £300
Marin Mt Vision Pro, 2nd hand, £200
Saracen D Tox £300
BeOne Drone £600
GT Idrive ID4, 2nd hand, £300
GT Ruckus £300
GT Zaskar Carbon Team, £600 frame only
Mongoose Otero Super £400

And probably some I have missed.

Northwind

I've intentionally avoided costing up the expensive ones Maybe £1000 for the hardtail? Full suss somewhere about £1800 I think. Good value that though, couldn't buy anything else as good without spending a lot more.

The rigid probably only owes me about £400 including the donor bike, that's not too scary to think about. And the retro-sh*tter was about £60 plus finding the old bike up the back of the garage. Oh and £30 for the BMX

nicklouse

i built one out of spare parts I had in the "shed".

it then changed.

Northwind

My rigid started out as a parts-bike. Then unexpectedly it aquired a set of crossmax enduros and some easton carbon bars and some oros for brakes and a new saddle... Oops

Anonymous

Northwind wrote:

My rigid started out as a parts-bike. Then unexpectedly it aquired a set of crossmax enduros and some easton carbon bars and some oros for brakes and a new saddle... Oops

It's amazing how magnetic bike frame are, isn't it?

Northwind

It's like I covered it in superglue and rode it through ebay.

BorisSpencer

Thanks Northwind, I've finally found a sig.

getonyourbike

Northwind, that was pretty good tbf. My cheapest, most expensive and only bike is my Fury. I got it for £370 but I'll soon have spent way over the original store asking price of £600. I concur, bikes are magnetic

nozzac

Wow Supersonic has a cool list of budget bikes. £300 for an ID4 seems like a great deal.

My latest bike is a RockRider 6.3 for £300. I've moved some bits from my other bikes and upgraded the forks (only to some cheap air jobs) which has knocked off c.1.8KG. I love it. I was asking about sub £300 bikes on the forum before buying and asking about what to get to help me enjoy riding more again. I ignored all the good advice but I made the right choice because this has done exactly that. My old HT is tiring to my old back and too bumpy for my arse and wrists etc. The RR is ideal for me and I'm out all the time on it.

I don't think that the price of a bike is in direct relation to how much you enjoy riding. Obviously we'd all spend a lot if we had unlimited funds but that doesn't automatically translate to proportional increase in fun.

tsenior

1995 rigid steel giant : £60 ebay + £20 on parts

1999 GT Avalanch: Donated Frame and forks, from spares box + £100 on parts

2005 Marin Attack trail: £500 ebay full working order

lawman

Surprisingly I've only had 3 proper mtbs in nearly 7 years of riding, I know some folk on here have had that amount in as many months

first was a Claud butler cape wrath, bought for about £400 back in 2004, was a great starter bike, never changed anything on it, sold it in 2006 to fund my maxlight, which I still have now. Probably spent around £1k on it to start with, and around £600-700 upgrading it january last year. Now I've moved onto the mojo HD and I dread to think what it's actually worth, as I got slot at discounted price when I worked in the LBS, but I'm guessing at retail it's around £5k

.blitz

Quite a few purchased for £100-£300 'upgraded' with £100s of bits and sold for £50.

kaytronika

1989 Saracen Tufftrax - Free, it was in a work colleagues garage and just needed a new saddle, tyres and blocks.... I spent about £20 on it in total and it looks almost new.

1994 GT Timberline FS - £300 to buy in 1994 without the Rockshox fork it should have come with (price with fork would have been nearer £600, price for a Timberline was around £400 so not a bad deal)... It's had a few quid spent on it over the years.

2009 Carrera Fury - £550. The most I've ever spent on a bike.

mrfmilo

First proper mtb, GT avalance - £200 used, slowly upgraded then stripped and sold.
Custom Norco Torrent, about £600.
Then bought Marin quake frame only, transferred/ sold bits from Norco and added upgrades. £350 for frame and £200 on parts.

So about £1400 for three bikes ranging from XC to FR, mostly funded by myself at 13/14.

joshtp

landrover tahora - £260 - crap. stolen
Kona Firemountain - insurance replacement - awesome - stolen
GT Aggressor XC2 - insurance replacement - awesome - upgraded and eventually split and used parts/sold
GT Aggressor XCR - second hand - $450 - awesome - slowly upgraded and eventually split and sold the frame, used most of the parts for my new build. Some bits were binned due to dead-ness or sold.

On-One Summer Season - best bike in the world. Spent around £350 in bits including the frame and used parts from the GT XCR.

Over the years spent around £700+ on upgrades including a few bits since I "finished" the 456.


Probably spent around £1800 in total in 4 years of biking, but I did have a few bikes get stolen, and many of the parts of previous builds have ended up on other bikes... in fact from the bikes in that list I have another bike made solely from old parts, plus a new frame.


still scary! :shock:

welshkev

specialized hardrock frame - bought for £30!! built up with other bits and pieces cost around £400 in total

a felt compulsion2 that i paid £880 IIRC and i've spent £120 on new brakes and £90 on a new chainset

mingmong

+1 on the magnetic theme - bikes do attact shinny new parts

My first bike was a Raleigh Lizard. £100 SH. Swapped out the bars, peds, post, seat. Added bar ends. Remembered for the Farmer John gum, walled tyres

Currently got a susser, a big forked HT, a winter bike, a race HT, a commuter and just adding a folding!

Symptomatic! 8)

diamondbacker

Are you only interested in budget bikes, or are you also wanting to know specifics of why we buy higher end bikes?

Nah, anything that you think has been a bargain really (obviously the cheaper it is the better the bargain if it's any good!)

Some good buys in here. Thought I'd done well for myself until I read this!

Mental Mickey

It's clear some of you pay next to nothing, but you have to be able to build a bike from scratch in many cases if buying frames etc..from Ebay so that's not an option for some of us.

I paid £600 (new) for a Giant XTC 2.5 2008 and £1400 (new) for a Stumpy FSR Comp 2009 and would say that in comparison to what kinda prices are being asked for 2010 and 2011 models, I didn't do too badly at all.

pastey_boy

having a quick and approx add up in my head i reckon i have easily spent over £50k on mountain and road bikes since i got properly into bikes in the late 80,s although a large portion of that came in around 2005ish when i had a bit of a breakdown and my head disappeared up my ar5e and i basically emptied my savings account and filled my loft with about 13-14 fully built high spec bikes bought mostly from the states when the dollar was weak. scary when i look back but im glad i pi55ed all my money away on bike and not booze and drugs.

mingmong

diamondbacker wrote:

Are you only interested in budget bikes, or are you also wanting to know specifics of why we buy higher end bikes?

Nah, anything that you think has been a bargain really (obviously the cheaper it is the better the bargain if it's any good!)

Some good buys in here. Thought I'd done well for myself until I read this!

In that case, my Townsend Volcanic (Argos sold them a long time ago for £100ish) cost me SFA as it was left in the garage when I moved into our house a few years ago Contacted the former owner and he said it came with the house :!:

GHill

I'd rather not be reminded of how much I've spent, thanks

njee20

Sadly there's a function on the system at my LBS (where I worked for 10 years I add) to show total turn over. I hold the record at something like £70,000 spent since July 2000, admittedly there's a couple of bikes in there for my Dad/girlfriend, maybe £5,000.

For the last 5 years I've bought a new MTB at staff rate, used it for the year and sold it for what I paid/slight profit, so the actual amount isn't that relevant! Not sure what I'll do when I can't get a discount any more, got used to self perpetuating bike purchases!

xisle

just using an old trek 4500 frame i bought off ebay for £10 built it using bits i had in my parts bin just as an everyday ride and not have to be to worried that some toerag takes a shine to it, and to allow me to sell my pride and joy bikes as im currently without a job

Mental Mickey

xisle wrote:

just using an old trek 4500 frame i bought off ebay for £10 built it using bits i had in my parts bin just as an everyday ride and not have to be to worried that some toerag takes a shine to it, and to allow me to sell my pride and joy bikes as im currently without a job

Sorry to hear that Xisle, you not got many booking for that little sideline business of yours either?

leaflite

My first "proper" bike was a GT Aggressor XC2 09 from halfords. I got it for £310.
I have since spent over £900 :oops: on 140mm Rockshox Revelation RLTs, Deore XT 30 speed dynasis drivetrain and Hope Tech X2 brakes with red floating rotors.
Wheels are next

t4tomo

I bought a BMX from the local paper for £20 to take to uni as my road bike I had down there wasn't reallly suited to bumping up & down pavements and riding along tow paths.

Rode it for 3 years and sold it on as I graduated for ........£20!


Bought a saracen rufftrax of Gumtree for £80 which was a couple of years old when I got it which did me nicely and is now my station hack bike, happy to leave locked up and confident it should be there when I get back. I invested £8 on a new chain and a crud catcher mudguard and I might get some cheap road tyres for it.

Bought the Fury in my signature for £200 off gumtree, it was virtually new. It has attracted some decent tyres to it and a muckynuts mudflap so cost e £250 all told.

Pastey Boy - struggling to see why you thjought you might need 13-14 high end bikes. That should be on the "clinically insane" thread not the "bargain buying" one. Hope you managed to shift them on for not too big a loss.

kaytronika

Mental Mickey wrote:

It's clear some of you pay next to nothing, but you have to be able to build a bike from scratch in many cases if buying frames etc..from Ebay so that's not an option for some of us.

Paying next to nothing for an old junker is a nice way to learn the skills you'll then be able to transfer to all aspects of your cycling life. Definitely worth a try I'd say. Now't like being able to stop and help a mate who's bike is playing up on a ride.