decisions decisions

c_doody_1999

ok so insurance replacement, and im taking the cash and running,

im a kona fan and have had 3 previous fire mountains, with suntor forks, and recently had a giant revel ltd 0 with a rockshox xc 28 stolen and have a taste for somthing better. can you help me decide?

im looking at hard tail, for 6 mile round trip weekday commute and weekend thrashings. for a max of £800

1. voodoo brokor £680 http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... &msg=#tab2

2. Kona caldera £750
http://www.rutlandcycling.com/40289/Kon ... n=pid40289

3. kona cinder cone £640
http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/kona-cin ... 67779.html

4. Giant xc 2 £750
http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.p ... 1b0s2p3484

i asked a friend of a friend to price me up a santacruz chamelion but somehow i dont think it will be in budget.

id realy apprieciate your input, i know that anything will be better than iv had before

Blue Boy

How about this

http://www.canyon.com/_en/mountainbikes/bike.html?b=3005

c_doody_1999

looks interesting, i never heard of them, it certainly holds its own for the price.

Oh Marone

If you don't mind mail order from Germany then how about this 2012 model. Try beating that for the money.
http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k1830/ ... ml?mfid=52 for around £700 delivered.

2012 model team 6
http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k1830/ ... ml?mfid=52

Also have a look at the 2013 models if you need a smaller size
http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/m52/k1 ... l?od=&ft=1

I have the 2012 team 6 in black and its a really good bike for the money, nothing else came close to the spec in the uk especially as it has a reba fork. Took 6 days in total to be delivered to the UK (including the weekend). I have some pics in the your bike section if you are interested.
viewtopic.php?f=10017&t=12887963

I almost went for a 2012 model Canyon yellowstone as the spec was very simillar but the better fork on the Radon swayed my decision. Hard to beat the Germans on the bang for your buck scale, alot of happy Canyon owners on here as well. Also have a look at the Boardmans at Halfords.

ElliesDad

Have a look at the Boardmans as well, I used to have the Comp before I upgraded to the FS Team. Great on the trail and the commute!

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165499

Or the team which gets rave reviews, but its 50 quid over your budget.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165499

c_doody_1999

that german stuff looks hot to trot. thanks somthing to think about...

c_doody_1999

so i think this is the best on over all

http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/a58228 ... r=pdbasket

unless anyone has another German miracle

jozeppi

Looks good nice kit buy and ride

winter_zombie

if you go for the voodoo or a boardman bike as they are halfords only, if you join british cycling on the basic 1 year membership costing about £12 you can get 10% off any bike at halfords even stuff thats in the sale. so you would save almost £50 on a voodoo

c_doody_1999

as a layman am i right in thinking

sam>reeba>recon

and in terms of gearing shimano xo>xt>slx>deor>alvio

cooldad

Nope. No idea what a sam is, and XO is Sram, not Shimano. Top end Shimano is XTR.

c_doody_1999

i meant sid not sam,and im geting confused between xo sram and xtr shimano

c_doody_1999

Hi,

Just wanted to post a followup,

my bike arrived two days ago, about two weeks after i ordered it, although i was very tempted by the canyon i went with a Radon zr team 7.0 for about £700 delivered, i rely dont know how they do it. why go for a cinder cone when for the same money you can have...

http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/a58232/zr-team-7-0.html

i know they are exclusively german but it had by far the best spec for the money and i know a couple of others on this forum have snapped it up.

i would post pics but i cant find how to upload one from my pc... anyway

the bike arrived fairly well packaged, a bit of a bent spoke but thats all, the breaks were imediatly swapped as the germans have them backwards...the front was on the left, quite an easy job as they are ambidextrus. stock pedles are obv crap and weaigh a ton, so i treated myself to these

http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k1333/a82937/menace-pedals-azur-blue.html

unfortunately i forgot to give them my weaight and being a biggan, my sids are prety much bottoming out. so thats another thing ill have to learn to do, the only other thing is that the breaks dont have equil pressures.

initially the front pads were so close that the front wheel wouldent slot in, after making sure they were seated properly and geting the wheele on, iv eliminated any rub but theirs still more travel on the back break before anything happens, not to the point that i think iv got air... but then i dont know of any way of adjusting them apart from fiddling with the fluid, iv tried loosening the bolts applying the break and retightning and whilst this alieveated rub i still have a differing pull.

frame looks stirdy, gear changes are smooth as butter with the slx/xt mix breaks have bags of stopping power and the sids are loverly to ride, the race face bars are quite wide but the radon grips on them are the greatest most sticky grips iv ever used, tiny dimples are the future. comfy seat and the noby nicks have bags of grip for the coming icy weather. Its not the lightest tiping my scales at 14 k just over 2 st with the new peddles but still.

if your looking for a bike you could do so much worse its a great little package, thanks for suggesting it.

chez_m356

c_doody_1999 wrote:

unfortunately i forgot to give them my weaight and being a biggan, my sids are prety much bottoming out. so thats another thing ill have to learn to do

thats something you normally do for your self anyway, i'd be surprised if they came pumped up, did you get a shock pump with the bike ?

c_doody_1999

I only just realised that they did offer to set up the suspention based on your weaight but it would obviously be an aproximation.

im not too discerning about the sag etc, and actually after more riding this morning it feels ok, only bottoming when I'm puting alot of my weaight over the forks.

I will prob get myself a kit to adjust it at some point. but its not urgent.

ps. I forgot to mention. the stingy buggers don't include a bell!!!

chez_m356

c_doody_1999 wrote:

I only just realised that they did offer to set up the suspention based on your weaight but it would obviously be an aproximation.

im not too discerning about the sag etc, and actually after more riding this morning it feels ok, only bottoming when I'm puting alot of my weaight over the forks.

I will prob get myself a kit to adjust it at some point. but its not urgent.

ps. I forgot to mention. the stingy buggers don't include a bell!!!

i'd say its the most important thing you need, its an air fork, so if its not set correctly for you, your fork wont be performing as it should, you need a shock pump so you can set it correctly for your weight, something like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beto-MP-035-S ... 43b5007ff9

jairaj

Also look in the FAQ on how to setup the fork. You'll be scratching your head for few rides while the forks bed in and become consistent. but after that its straight forward to the set them up.

c_doody_1999

looks just like pumping up a tyre. ill just have to find the port and the right psi for me. ill have an experiment. thanks.