New to freeriding; What bike?

danuneek

Hi

I've been riding on and off for a while now, I bought a GT Avalanche 1.0 about 7 years ago to start off with and I've been riding mostly single track since then.

However, I've found an amazing freeride/downhill trail near where I live and having taken the GT down there a few times I've come to the conclusion I need a bike built for that environment.

I'm fairly new to freeriding and so my technique isn't amazing (something I'm trying to improve) I tend to just go for it.
I want an all around bike; for those rough downhills, jumps and single track.

What's my best bet for around a grand? (as I'm still getting into it I dont want to spend more than that really, but I do want the potential to upgrade so a good starter base would be preferable).

Cheers

Dan.

danlikesbikes

Wow talk about a can of worms - I'm sure you will get lots of different opinions.

Buying a bike for £1,000ish should get you a pretty good bike, best piece of advice I can give is do some internet searching and see what you can get for your money then go try them. Just because one person likes one bike does not mean that another will & until you have ridden it you will never know if fits you and your comfortable with the bike.

You may even find some good deals on 2011 bikes as shops need to clear their stock down, you might need to drive a way to buy it but a saving is still a good deal. I bought a 2009 bike last year but was brand new from a main shop who couldn't sell it due to the size and people always want the newest colour scheme but I got a massive discount, raced it for one year and sold it after 12 months with no problems.

.blitz

Scott Voltage FR30?

640 pages of pristine, rarely-ridden clown's bikes here: http://www.pinkbike.com/forum/listcomme ... adid=81521

Actually not a bad bike for throwing down hills over and over again I have a 20 meself:

chez_m356

can's say i know about the freeride scene, but looking at some of the so called freeride bikes, you may struggle with £1000 budget unless you go the second hand route, i did find this link though http://www.btwincycle.com/EN/freeride-bikes-34911525/ , i'm sure others will be able to tell you if they are up to it or not

danuneek

I've done quite a bit of research and its lead to the Saracen Ariel, I just wanted to see if anyone had any alternatives...

http://ride.io/reviews/saracen-ariel-1-long-term-review/

http://www.wheelies.co.uk/p41521/Saracen-Ariel-1.aspx

I was also thinking about second hand, but I think I would rather have a new one as I know how abused these bikes can get.