Rose Beef Cake DH 2 as first DH bike?

felix.london

Would this bike be a good entry into DH. I am new to mountain biking & currently doing a few downhill runs at the weekends and XC trails all week on my '06 Rockhopper.

I am living in the Alps and as much as I've learned on the hardtail (still improving on every run) I am starting to realise it's limits on the steeper, faster sections.

http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/rose-beef-cake-dh-2/aid:446839

Does anyone have any experience of this bike? I wouldn't mind getting into a bit of racing at some point although I'm rapidly nearing the old-fogey category (37 this year).

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Thanks.

nicklouse

nothing wrong with it.

felix.london

Sorry - I put this one in the wrong section :oops:


OK - well let me put it this way;

In this price range (which I guess is entry level DH bikes?) are there any bikes/manufacturers that I should avoid and are there any particular bikes/manufacturers that I should be looking at?


Thanks.

madmossy

For ~£1400 you wont find anything cheaper new, its a pretty basic spec with decent enough forks and an ok shock, the next step up is ~£2000 with the Canyon/YT Industries bikes, then of course you go into the mid range category of £3k+ all the way up for £7-8k for the Carbon V10's.

felix.london

Cool. Cheers for the info.

I've seen Specialized Big Hit I's around for about £1500 - are these proper DH bikes or freeride bikes or what? And have they been discontinued? because they seem hard to find in the UK although they are shown on the Specialized website (US). A good choice?

rockmonkeysc

Very good bike. I do uplift days at Triscombe, both the drivers sons are sponsored by Rose & ride Beefcakes & they seem to do very well with them. Contact Rose, they take bikes to races for demos so yu could probably arrange a test ride. The Beefcake is a long way ahead of the Big Hit, it's closer to the Saracen Myst & Mondraker Kaiser and Kona Operator DH.
Big Hit is ok but the spec is crap.
At that price there is nothing to match the Beefcake, good upgrade potential, great frame & forks that can be tuned to be very good (TF Tuned can fit a motion control damper for about £100)

felix.london

aha! That's what I was after some good advice. Thanks. The Rose website is pretty good. Cheers for the heads up about contacting them to see where they'll have demo bikes.

I'm in France so thought getting one from Germany might be cheaper but the UK price is exactly the same. I guess the bikes on their website are 2011 models. When do the 2012's normally come out and do you think the 2011s will drop in price then?

Thanks for your help

rockmonkeysc

Contact Rose. Fin is a good bloke, he sponsors our club DH races. You should find him really helpful.

felix.london

Good man! Much appreciated.

madmossy

Katy Curd rides a Rose Beefcake for the UCI World Cup so they cant be that bad at all.

felix.london

Yeah nice one. Just watched a couple of videos of her - on the Beef Cake. Good ad for the bike. Thanks madmossy

madmossy

Ignore the part about her breaking an arm recently, it wasnt the bikes fault ;-)

Obviously her bike is a top spec so its probably closer to 3k, but the base spec model at 1.4k is still very good for starting out.

felix.london

hahaha - yeah cheers for that! - nursing a bashed up shoulder from a tumble yesterday..and that was just on my local XC trail!

Yeah for sure - have been having a look around and it seems like a good bike alright and a good price.

The Rockhopper is getting some serious abuse and I don't whether the forks will take another summer like this one...

madmossy

As a starter bike you can't really go wrong, its not the highest spec, but the base model will certainly get you into downhill biking and at £1400 if you decide in a year or so its time to upgrade you won't have lost much money with depreciation.

The only thing i would recommend is to upgrade the tyres to the Maxxis Minions and maybe swap out the stem, seat post and handle bars for the Eastons the rest can pretty much stay as is unless you have an extra £800 spare to get the Fox RC4 shock and Fox 40 forks :-)

felix.london

OK - was looking at the options and had the tyres down to change for the Maxxis.

I'm using Eastons on my XC bike and I do like them.

The only thing is what size to go for but the only way I can decide that is get on the bike and test them out (I have sent Rose an email). The website is saying I should go for a Large but it also says I should go for 20" hardtail but I've always ridden 19" bikes (Sarecen, Ridgeback & this Rockhopper). We'll see. Hopefully I can get on one sometime. Never ridden a fully so looking forward to it. My LBS has a couple of Specialized test bikes (a Stumpy & an Epic) so gonna take them out this week or next to gimme the feel of a full suspension bike.

rockmonkeysc

I wouldn't bother with the Minions as an upgrade. Just buy a set of High Rollers, they are a much better all round tyre. Minions don't work too well in mud. I would leave the spec as it is, looks pretty much spot on to me, shame they don't offer Boxxers though.

felix.london

hmm, there's not a lot of mud round here. In fact it's very dry. You do obviously get rain and can have muddy-ish days but nothing like the UK. Although I did notice today they had some high rollers in one of the local sport shops. So maybe they know something I don't. From October/November any rain will fall as snow. Snow tyres?

Northwind

That looks like great value... Fork is as heavy as a heavy thing though.

Don't assume you'll want to change tyres, DH is incredibly Maxxis-obsessed but Der Kaisers have a great rep too (never used them personally)

felix.london

tbh I'm gonna need to keep the price as low as poss. so I think if I can make this happen it's gonna be grab it as is and poss. upgrade some bits at a future date. I think the whole setup will be fine for me for a season or two anyway before I even start thinking about changing stuff. Easton bars sound good though but only cos that's what I use now. Now experience of anything else...

rockmonkeysc

Fork is mega heavy but if your going up on ski lifts then it's not a problem. For £1400 you can't really expect to get a light weight DH fork, a set of top spec Fox 40's cost as much as this complete bike.

madmossy

I wouldnt say the Domain's are mega heavy, only a couple lbs more than the world cup boxxers, a few lbs isnt that big a deal, just don't eat that cheese burger and fries before you ride :P

felix.london

@ RockmonkySC...update...

Contacted Rose, Germany - as it's nearer to me;

Good = They do have a Beef Cake DH 2 (test bike) in Vaujany, which is only an hours drive form me

Bad = but their website is showing no stock of the anodized black version

Oh well, might hammer the Rockhopper next season too and then pick up a 2012 bike this time next year 8)

Anyway Rocky - cheers for your help.