Bike for £200 with one gront gear

stanek.94

Hi!
I had bike Arkus VIP 5.0
http://wwww.katalogrowerowy.pl/userdata ... e/5369.jpg
but I would like to buy new bike but similiar to that one but with only one big front gear because I never used lower gears. I always ride on the heaviest gear.
I have £200. Is it enough?
Is it cheaper to buy new or buy by myself?

warpcow

What's the 'f' in 200f? Any bike, maybe including yours, with removable chainrings could be converted, which is probably far easier than trying to find a bike with a specific type of gearing for a limited(?) budget.

stanek.94

200£
Mine is sold. I have no bike at the moment. So is it possible to buy good MTB for 200£? Or is it cheaper to build?

Chunkers1980

In England £ goes before number.

And who knows - define 'good'. You won't be building anything decent (useable off road) new for £200 that's for sure.

The Rookie

If you want a decent bike for £200, buy a used one, you won't get one new and you certainly wont build one new for that.

stanek.94

And what about bikes on ebay?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MEN-BOYS-MOUN ... 338d2c103b
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Viking-Eclips ... 258dbf0a60
There are many bikes to £200

cooldad

But neither of those have a single ring, and one is a road bike.
If you only ever use the big ring in Wales, you should be in the olympic team.

cooldad

ps That 'lightweight' road bike weighs more than my full sus mountain bike.

stanek.94

But I could change a ring. Are those bikes good for basic riding? I am not a sportsmen

cooldad

Basic on road maybe.

The Rookie

Perhaps you could be clear what you actually want! What do you want to use it for and how fast do you think you'll go.

With the hills round Aber (the daughter was there for 3 years at Uni) a single ring wont cut it, make it small enough to go up and you wont be able to pedal coming down and you'll spin out on the flat.

Changing either of those to single ring would cost you at least £25 in new parts (less if you buy used).

stanek.94

Ok, and if I buy any of those on ebay for £200 will it be ok? I would change ring when I would collect some money...

The Rookie

Neither is particularly good but the viking road bike is probably better than the pseudo mountain bike, what is the hang up with riding with one ring at the front, you change things to make a bike better, not worse.

If I were you I'd decide what you want the bike for, then decide from that what type of bike you want and then get a good used one that suites.

stanek.94

Man, I ride a bike for years on only one gear, the hardest. Dont tell me what is better for me. I asked which bike would be cheaper. Bought or builded myself.

cooldad

Work out what bits you need, add them up and compare to a complete bike.

But it's probably worth working out whether you want to ride on or off road first.

CitizenLee

For £200 you'll get much better value buying a used bike, certainly compared to the two eBay bikes above.

If for off road then If for off road then something like at Carrera Fury, Vulcan or Kraken can be had for less than £200 on eBay or Pinkbike. Should leave enough cash to buy new chainring.

If for on road, then maybe a used Carrera TDF... but I don't really know enough about road bikes to suggest any others. Again, there's a couple of TDFs on Pinkbike for £200.

The Rookie

stanek.94 wrote:

Man, I ride a bike for years on only one gear, the hardest. Dont tell me what is better for me. I asked which bike would be cheaper. Bought or builded myself.

Yeah, but you still can't tell us what sort of riding you want to do 'man', or why you want one 'gront' ring, or even know what is good and what is tat.

When offering guidance, the first thing you do is make sure the person asking got the question right, many don't, hence why people ask such questions.

So what riding do you want to do?

Briggo

stanek.94 wrote:

Man, I ride a bike for years on only one gear, the hardest. Dont tell me what is better for me. I asked which bike would be cheaper. Bought or builded myself.

Who's the big bad troll, under that bridge.

stanek.94

I ride on road. @CitizenLee thanks for models

The Rookie

In that case, forget a mountain bike, pointless on road, you just add weight and complexity unnecessarily.

So long rides (20+ miles) or shorter ones?

A decent used road bike is the Carrera Virtuoso which is better equipped than the TDF, or you could consider a Hybrid, either the Carrera Gryphon (larger 700c wheels, but 28mm maximum width) or the Subway (a hardtail mountian bike frame with rigid forks), any would be a much much better bike that the 2 bits of ebay tat you linked to. Not sure about the Virtuoso but the latter two will both take mountain bike cassettes giving a wider gear range with a single front ring, my commuter is a Carrera Gryphon with a single front ring and uses mostly mountain bike bits.

stanek.94

About 30-40 miles per day.
^ Carrera Virtuoso - I've never ridden a bike with a handlebar like that. Always riser handlebars.
I'm not sure if I won't have any problems with that handlebar....
Thanks for your reply
I am from Poland and in Poland bike like Carrera Virtuoso costs max £100....
Are those Carreras worth their prices?

The Rookie

It may look like the virtuoso, but I assure you you cant build a bike like that for £100, I visit India a lot and a bike like that only costs about 15% less than the UK as the bulk of the cost is in the parts which are all made in Taiwan.

If you don't like a bike with dropped bars, get one of the other two which are flat barred.

Carrera's are very good value, Decathlon stores also do some good bikes but none near you and few come up used.

Chunkers1980

If you're doing ~40 miles per day, I'd consider saving a bit more as it'll be worth it in the long run. Perhaps use bottom end chains, cassettes and rings as consumables though to save.

rickbst170

Look on pink bike, ebay, gumtree, here and any other bike forums for parts. I built mine for a touch over 500 and if I had bought components new off the shelf it would have been 2000. Yes, it's risky (front wheel needed bearings, seat post gave up first time out) but even then it was/is a bargain.

My spec for 500 quid is this:
Giant Reign 2 (2005) frame 
Fox 36r talas (2005) fork
DT Swiss ex5.1D rims on DT Swiss 440 hubs 
Panaracer Razer 2.1 tyres
Sunline V One OS bars 711mm 
Formula The One FR brakes with Goodrich braided hoses 
Formula 203mm/180mm rotors 
Formula 203mm/180mm mounts 
Rotor bolts stainless steel
Sudpin NC-17 pedals
XT M780 i-spec B shifters 
XTR bar mount adapter 
XT M785 front mech 
XT M780 rear mech 
XT M770 crank arms 
Renthal 38t SR4 chainring
XT M770 24t chainring
XT M771 Bottom bracket 
XT M771 11-36 10 speed cassette
CN-HG95 Deore XT chain
Syncros seatpost 
Giant Reign OEM clamp 
Arte Selle Dakar carbon saddle 
Lizardskin Peaty lock-on grips 
Truvative AKA stem 70mm 
Spacers (20mm) unbranded
Outers unbranded

rockmonkeysc

stanek.94 wrote:

About 30-40 miles per day.
^ Carrera Virtuoso - I've never ridden a bike with a handlebar like that. Always riser handlebars.
I'm not sure if I won't have any problems with that handlebar....
Thanks for your reply
I am from Poland and in Poland bike like Carrera Virtuoso costs max £100....
Are those Carreras worth their prices?

I ride 36 miles a day to get to work and back. A road bike is so much quicker and easier than a mountain bike. The gear ratios are better, the skinny slick tyres roll super fast and the riding position is much more comfortable if you ride fast. Having three hand positions on the bars means you can move around a bit to stay comfortable.
I can easily do my 18 mile commute in under 55 minutes on my road bike (Boardman Road Race). The same ride would probably take an hour and a quater to an hour and a half on my mountain bike.
If you're doing a lot of miles it's worth spending more to get a bike with parts which will last. Mine cost £700 and after around 9000 miles all I have had to replace is a bottom bracket a chain and a cassette.

stanek.94

But ride on mountain bike is more comfortable, you dont have to slouch and its easier to ride without holding a handlebar

The Rookie

So get a flat barred Hybrid, I use one for commuting and often do 20+ miles on it no problem, I can average circa 20mph on it.

Angus Young

stanek.94 wrote:

But ride on mountain bike is more comfortable...

Not when you have to work five times as hard to get where you want to go, it isn't.

rickbst170

Angus Young wrote:

stanek.94 wrote:

But ride on mountain bike is more comfortable...

Not when you have to work five times as hard to get where you want to go, it isn't.

Agree with this whole heartedly. I only do a short commute on mine and it is awful. Off the road it's brilliant but on road it's so much hard work compared to a road bike. Even if I put slicks on it the shock sucks all the power, gears are all wrong, bars too wide, it's too heavy, the list goes on.

If your not going to go off road get a road bike. If you're going to ride bridalways get a hybrid (never thought I'd ever suggest a dirty hybrid to anyone lol). Or save up and buy a cheap road bike ans cheap mountain bike. They're both so different I don't believe you can ever find a decent compromise

rockmonkeysc

stanek.94 wrote:

But ride on mountain bike is more comfortable, you dont have to slouch and its easier to ride without holding a handlebar

Have you ever tried a road bike?
I hate road cycling but for my daily commute on roads it's so much better than my mountain bike.
The shorter frame means that although the bars are lower your position is no less upright.

stanek.94

Yeah I tried. I dont like it.
And how about this?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GT-Aggressor- ... 58b3efdba6
or
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MONGOOSE-29er ... 3ce79e3a92