Options for new DH Bike

Colmcc

Hey folks, looking at some options for a DH bike, at the moment I've been doing alot of XC riding but I'm really keen to expand my riding and tackle some of the DH trails near me.

I've looked closely at a few options and I'm torn between which one to go for from the below.

The bikes I've looked at so far are the Lapierre Froggy 218, Boardman Pro FS, Commencal Supreme 24.

I can spend up to £1500 but I want to ensure that I do get value for money, so if any of you can advise out of the 3 or maybe throw some other contenders into the mix it'd be appreciated.

Cheers

nicklouse

Colmcc wrote:

Hey folks, looking at some options for a DH bike, at the moment I've been doing alot of XC riding but I'm really keen to expand my riding and tackle some of the DH trails near me.

I've looked closely at a few options and I'm torn between which one to go for from the below.

The bikes I've looked at so far are the Lapierre Froggy 218, Boardman Pro FS, Commencal Supreme 24.

I can spend up to £1500 but I want to ensure that I do get value for money, so if any of you can advise out of the 3 or maybe throw some other contenders into the mix it'd be appreciated.

Cheers

well one is a kids bike. one is an XC/trail bike and one is only just a DH bike.

what do you mean by DH?

Colmcc

maybe didn't word my post correctly or my understanding is a wee bit poor, anyway the bike I have at present is a Specialized Rockhopper Expert, however the trails near me that I'm keen to ride are all DH with some big jumps etc and I feel I need some decent kit to be able to tackle them, I'm just not sure what options would be available so I've been looking at some full suspension bikes that I think may do the job for what I'd need.

cooldad

DH may not mean what you think it means.
If it's just fairly tough trails down hills, a fairly rugged 150mm ish bike will be fine.

Colmcc

yeah sorry for that, basicially I'm after a bit of an all rounder that can tackle the rough stuff mate

ilovedirt

What trails exactly are you wanting to ride?
As Nick said, most beginners get proper downhill confused with just XC trails that point downwards... Most modern trail machines (140mm+ full sus bikes) can handle proper downhill just fine, albeit not as fast or stable. If you want to be able to do that and still ride XC/AM etc, that could be the way forward.

And yeah, as Nick said, the Froggy is kind of a downhill bike (though no proper downhill rider would own one, because it isn't really), the commencal is a kid's freeride type bike, and the boardman is very much a cross country bike.
I think you need to think a bit more about what you really want from the bike, the trails you want to hit, and learn a lot more about the actual bikes themselves before you commit to spending £1500 on one.

paul.skibum

If you really want a freeride oriented bike I suggest this on your budget - http://bikescore.co.uk/specialized/bighit-i-2011 - you can just about pedal it back up hill again (I have one and it just has enough seat post for my diddy legs and in its lowest cog will winch slowly up a sensible grade, no use for anything over about 8% grade though!)

symanoy

sound like what you really want is a trail/all mountain kinda bike, typical options are Trek fuel ex/remedy, specialized stumpjumper/enduro, Lapierre Zesty, Giant Trance/Reign etc, bikes with 120-160mm of travel is probably what you want. these are just a few of the popular ones from the big brands, there are loads of awesome trail bikes out there!!

rockmonkeysc

I spotted this on Pinkbike, very nice bike for a very good price. I know someone who has one, uses it for everything from xc to downhill.
http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1160997