New guy looking for Bike advice

jay70

Hi guys, first post here and I'm afraid its looking for advice........With summer coming i thought id buy my first mountain bike for a ride out with the family at the local parks we have here. After a trip to Halfords last weekend to pick the wife up something cheap-ish(Carrera Valour) i spotted the Boardman Comp HT 650B.....I nearly bought it there and then but decided against the impulse buy and went home to think about it.

The next day i popped into my local bike shop for a look about, after speaking to the salesman i walked out with a Medium Cannondale Trail 6 29er! I got to ride it over the bank holiday weekend, rides really nice but i just feel its a little to big for me(5ft-7)....So this leads me to start maybe looking for something else and my wife will now move up to the Cannondale. I had a look online today and came across two 650B's. The first is again the Boardman Comp, Halfords have a 10% online discount on this bike at present which comes out at £590 the second is the Vitus Nucleus from CR which is over £100 cheaper than the Boardman.

TBH I'm pretty clueless with the spec of these bikes so I'm looking for some help with my decision....Which would be the better buy?....Or can anyone suggest anything else?

Jay

Angus Young

jay70 wrote:

after speaking to the salesman i walked out with a Medium Cannondale Trail 6 29er! I got to ride it over the bank holiday weekend, rides really nice but i just feel its a little to big for me(5ft-7)....So this leads me to start maybe looking for something else and my wife will now move up to the Cannondale.

First, are you sure it's too big for you, or do you just need to get used to it? One would hope that the LBS know what they're doing. There's every chance that if they were doing their job they sold you the right size bike and set the saddle at the correct height, too. And that can sometimes freak people out - if they've set the saddle for efficient pedalling and you're not used to that it can seem quite tall. Second, if it really is too big for you then unless you're one of those rare couples where the wife is taller then it's going to be way too big for her. And that's going to put her off riding.

The Rookie

For a normal proportion 5'7" I would say a medium is too big, after all 5'7" isn't medium (average) height, but if you are longer of leg it may well be right. You can shorten the cockpit length by moving the saddle forward on it's rails, replacing a setback seatpost with an inline one, shortening the stem or having bars with more backsweep or nay combination.

stuartglover82

Save your cash! Take it the Cannondale back to your LBS and say it's not comfortable, if they're worth their salt they will sort it out there & then making the adjustments above. If they can't and it really is the wrong size for you then they sold you the wrong bike.

jay70

Thanks for the input guys but i took the plunge and bought the Boardman Comp 650B yesterday. TBH, i think it was more in my head than anything else because standing them side by side there really isn't a lot of difference in size.

As for my wife being taller than me, she isn't but has longer legs....If she had short legs she'd be a dwarf...lol

Thanks for the help, now to start enjoying my bike...

Daerve

I'm 5'7'' and have used the old Boardman comp and now have a FS 650b. If anything I could have got away with a large on the FS and probably the HT too. Conversely I have the CX Team and that's enormous for a medium.