I need some advice on a bike to buy for roughly £250

mtbnewbie19

Hi,

I have been looking at getting a new bike for a while now. My budget is roughly £250. I am pretty sure that any bike i get will be better than my apollo fs 26 which i have had for about 3 years now.

I was looking at btwin rockrider 5.2 c3
http://www.btwincycle.com/EN/rockrider- ... 201222958/

and Ridgeback mx3
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/rid ... e-ec032062
as a top price bike

I will appreciate any advice and other suggestions.
The bike will mainly be used for riding in woods and cycling around campus

supersonic

The Rockrider is the better bike of the two@ the main reason is gearing. The RR has a good 8 speed set up, and compact crankset, while the MX3 gets a limited 14-28 tooth cassette on a freewheel (more likely to die) and oversized 'touring cranks'. The low gear on this bike is going to be some 50% harder than on the RR!

It also gets better parts elsewhere.

mtbnewbie19

thanks, what do you think about the front forks on both of them? unfortunately there isn't much information about the RR

supersonic

They are basic - no damping and not very well sealed, though the one on the Rockrider is smooth and doesn't top out. We reviewed the previous incarnation of this bike, scored very well - and little has changed.

chez_m356

obviously size dependant, but http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/product ... tain-bikes not bad for the money

mtbnewbie19

also, can anyone recommend a bike with a good frame, after doing research i have realised that i do not need very high quality front forks as i am just beginning to go offroad so the type of trails i will be doing will not be extremely hard or stressful on the shocks.

cooldad

Any of those mentioned have decent frames. Most aluminium frames are OK - it's the rest of the bits that aren't.
And just starting out means little - you'll be hammering down gnarrly singletrack before you know it.

supersonic

If you can stretch to it, the fork is the MOST important part. All frames are at least adequate nowadays.