MTB under £200 advice

ollocks
ollocks Posts: 3
edited July 2012 in MTB buying advice
Sure this has been posted before, but if any of you wouldn't mind suggesting a few bike's it'd be muchly appreciated.

Have been using the cheapest, steel framed mtb for the last year i've given in and am going to upgrade. Haven't got a lot to play with, so wanted to see if anyone had suggestions of what to go for in the £150-160 price range. Could push it to £200 if needs be, but i need to keep it as cheap as possible.

My daily rude is under 5 miles through london so not exactly mammouth, and hence not needing an amazing bike to do it on.

I was looking at:

The rockrider from decathalon
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/rockrider-51 ... 67116.html

The Claud Butler
http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/claud-bu ... 62063.html

Dawes Tourismo
http://www.bikes2udirect.com/B2326.html

Am i on the right path? Any better suggestions?

Comments

  • Chunkers1980
    Chunkers1980 Posts: 8,035
    For that money, look for fully ridged. Cheap sus forks offer nothing but weight.
  • ollocks
    ollocks Posts: 3
    Ok cool, thanks for the advice. Good to know
  • mitomaniac
    mitomaniac Posts: 117
    Maybe consider used if you were to be looking for a bike with front suspension but allow a little for a service and maybe a few little parts tho, for that budget you could get a older bike with a ok fork like a gt avalanche or a rockrider 5 etc....

    All down to personal preference but would avoid a new bike with suspension at that price like said above as the forks are often ineffective heavy and more of a hazard then help
  • passout
    passout Posts: 4,425
    You're in London so get a 'fixie' - the lowest is about 300 new so you may want to go used. Seriously though for 5m in London you don't really need sus forks or even gears.
    'Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible' Marcel Proust.
  • cooldad
    cooldad Posts: 32,599
    A single speed maybe, a fixie is just stupid. Seriously.
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  • spr wheelie
    spr wheelie Posts: 110
    in all honesty id save up or find more money somewhere. ive went out a couple of months ago and bought a 190 quid bike and wish id just bit the bullet and doubled it. it only took a week or so on the trail for a compleate novice like myself to find the shortfalls of the bike.

    but if your going to buy any way the advice i would give is

    avoid mechanical disc breaks. i got them and there just big heavy gimmics that go between working badly and working teribly depending how well i sort them this time.

    look at the drive train. one of the things that anoy me most about my bike is the horrible grip shifters and the fact they stay indexed for about 15 mins then the chains wraping itself round anything and it wont drop gears.
    id look at a named drive train rather than just shimano equiped.

    im shure someone more knoladgable will talk about forks. mine are useless and someones already said ridged but i would think theyd be hard to find.

    well thats all ive got. im sure some one better qualafied to give you advice will come and tell you what advice ive gave is good or bad.
    good luck with shopping.
    sight 3 se

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