Hardtail advice please :-)

djn2414

Hi all I'm new here and just started back with some biking after a a year so off:-)

The bike I have now is a Rockhopper 2012, it's been great and I'm happy with it. I fancy a change and will probably go with a 27.5 rather than a 29er. I live in south wales and as there are loads of climbs will probably go with 27/30 gears rather than the 20 that some are offering as I'm concerned I won't make it up the hills ortherwise.
I've seen a few bikes, my budget is probably £1,000.
Merida Big Seven 600 2015 £849
Merida Big Seven XT edition 2014 reduced to £896.75
Giant Talon 27.5 0 £999

Does anyone have any views on these or any others in my price range? The meridas seem to have a lot of spec for the price.

Chunkers1980

I can't see those bikes being much different to make it enough of a change. I'd put my money into new wheels, fork and group.

The Rookie

Why do you think you need a triple front ring, the lowest gears I find unusable as they are so low geared you can't go fast enough to balance the bike, bearing in mind that a 2x10 has just about the same lowest gear as a 3x8 which we used to find perfectly adequate!

Work out the gear ratio you use now (lowest gear you use) correct for the 29er to 27er tyre (less 5% near enough) and see how that matches up.

djn2414

Work out the gear ratio you use now (lowest gear you use) correct for the 29er to 27er tyre (less 5% near enough) and see how that matches up.

Btw my rockhopper is a 26".
The lowest I use is 2nd gear on the front and first gear on the back for the steepest of all. So would that equate to 1st cog on front 1st on back on a 20 gear?

The Rookie

Is that a 9 speed if so its 32 and 34 (largest, may be a 32) so that is 0.9411:1, if its a 10 its 32 and 34 or 32 and 36 (0.889:1)
A 2x10's lowest gear is typically 26:36 - 0.722:1 which is much lower geared, in fact you would get a lower gear with a 1x10 even allowing for the 4% bigger wheel (0.751:1)

You may have lots of climbs, but they don't appear that steep.

djn2414

Yes it's a 27 speed. So are you saying that 20 speed would be fine for me as I don't understand what the ratio's mean tbh?

I hear what you are saying about sticking with the Rockhopper but I really fancy a change:-)

Even if I wait a year my budget will be the same plus I can part ex my Rockhopper for £250 which takes a bit of the sting out.

Chunkers1980

It's your money, do what makes you happy.

It's nothing to do with the speeds in essence it's the 2 ratios top and bottom factoring in the wheel size.

The Rookie

djn2414 wrote:

Yes it's a 27 speed. So are you saying that 20 speed would be fine for me as I don't understand what the ratio's mean tbh?

Yes, based on what you have told us, 2x10 or even 1x10 would be fine. The benefit of 1x10 is you'll drop about 350-400g in weight making the climbing easier!

djn2414

Chunkers1980 wrote:

I can't see those bikes being much different to make it enough of a change. I'd put my money into new wheels, fork and group.

Thanks everyone for all the advice :-)

You say that they are not much better but wouldn't the XT/SLX shimano kit be far better than my alivio? kit. Or would it not be much of a difference?
I'm not a serious rider but want a good bike to tackle anything I'm likely to come cross.

Chunkers1980

For 1K you could get full XTR group (last version) a Reba and a tasty set of wheels. That'd be some bike.

djn2414

Chunkers1980 wrote:

For 1K you could get full XTR group (last version) a Reba and a tasty set of wheels. That'd be some bike.

Are you saying to change all my kit on the Rockhopper to that instead then? So that would give me a better bike than say the merida xt?

Chunkers1980

yep.

The Rookie

Sure would....especially with some judicious shopping around, maybe picking up some nearly new used parts.

djn2414

The Rookie wrote:

Sure would....especially with some judicious shopping around, maybe picking up some nearly new used parts.

Where would I look for those?
I did a quick search and on chainreactions the XTR kit is £450 on offer but that's not cheap (to me!)

The Rookie

Cheaper than the £1K bike you were looking to buy........

As for bargains, look at the usual suspects, On-one, Merlin, wiggle, CRC, bike-discount.de, rose bikes (with the recent weakening of the euro they are good options at the moment). You could look at Full XT which is quite a bit cheaper than XTR with not much downside.

For used bargains, classifieds on here, Singletrackworld (if you can cope with the pants forum software), ebay as well as local options to you, for example there are some trading sites on facebook.

dirkpitt74

With regard to a 3x set-up would I be right in saying that you don't get 27/30 (assuming 3x9 or 3x10) usable gears as some of the ratios are duplicated?
And also with a 3x set-up 'cross chaining' between the inside/outside front/rear isn't going to do your chain any favours either.

BloggingFit

Bird Zero if you decide on a new bike. 1x10 or 2x10 options cost the same.

cooldad

DirkPitt74 wrote:

With regard to a 3x set-up would I be right in saying that you don't get 27/30 (assuming 3x9 or 3x10) usable gears as some of the ratios are duplicated?
And also with a 3x set-up 'cross chaining' between the inside/outside front/rear isn't going to do your chain any favours either.

Yes and yes.

The Rookie

On a 9 or 10 speed cassette an extra front chainring on a triple setup adds about 2 extra gears (so 3x10 is effectively a 14 speed) and on a 2x10 (with the larger gap between the chainring sizes) it adds 3 (so 2x10 is effectively 13 speed) - as a rough rule of thumb - the rest of the gears are duplicates that are only useful in meaning you don't have to do a horrid clunky front shift at the 'wrong' time but have more scope to time it.