New Bike Advice

slinkydonkey

Hi All

I was lucky enough to do the Demo MTB day at Queen Elizabeth Country Park in Perersfield at the weekend.
I was lucky enough to try out the following bikes:

2015 Specilzed Camber 29er felt slow and clunkey to me (maybe thats just me lol)
2015 Cube Stereo 120 29er HPA Race felt good nothing amazing though.
2015 Cube Stereo 140 HPA Pro 27.5 again felt ok mabye a bit stiff.
2015 Cannondale Scalpel Carbon 1 felt really good I loved the lefty would be good in British winters! (I was too tried to try out there full suspension aluminium one.)
2015 Bianchi 27.2 ethonol FS was super light and fast felt like an F1 car! (I did get a slight clicking from the gears which I didn't on any other bikes))
2015 Bianchi JAB 27.1 FST looked great and was fun to ride (I did get a slight clicking from the gears which I didnt on any other bikes)
2015 Scott Spark 710 Carbon, this was an amazing bike maybe something to do with the colours! but it also has this Twin Lock device where you can lock on both the rear and front suspension from the handle bar and put it into either full downhill mode or trial mode.


I have a about 2k to spend but I would rather spend about £1500 I want the lightest bike I can get for the money. Now this is what confuses me ..the Cube bikes have a Carbon front triangle and a rear aluminium rear tingle. So I would have assumed they would be the lightest in there price range.

But when I look online for example the Spark 750 has weight of 28lbs (this bike is alu version of spark 710 Carbon).

The Cube 120 HPA Race 29er has a weight of 29.54lbs
I am also test riding a GIANT Trance X 2 this weekend that weight 29.76 lbs

The guy at the Canondale stand said that they make the lightest bikes I said is that because of the lefty he said it was yes but they don't publish there weights on the site.

I mainly do the Evans Ride it these days yeah I know I could them on a Raleigh Activator but I also go to Wales and sometimes to North Wales.

I love having 120 of travel for the uphils but on the downhills sometimes feels its lacking but for what I need generally fine.

I am very temped to take out a Scott Spark 750 and weight it or I might get a Bianchi JAB 27 as it seemed very well speced for the money £1800

Cheers
Paul

Some photos here https://plus.google.com/photos/11366158 ... qeGxs6L8gE

rockmonkeysc

Are you planning on xc racing or just all-round trail riding?

slinkydonkey

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Are you planning on xc racing or just all-round trail riding?

All round trail riding I just don't want a heavy bike I used to have a specialized camber yes its was a comfy ride but it was heavy on them hot summer days going up a hill.

The Rookie

Ignore material when it comes to weight, there is much more to it than that, even more so when you start talking a complete bike as the frame weight is only a small part (1.4-2kg on an HT and 2-3.5Kg on an FS).

As an example my Halfords Carrera Kraken HT had a decent frame weight of 1735g and the complete bike was 9.6Kg - lighter than many carbon HT's, my aluminium FS Litespeed frame is lighter than my sons similar (100mm travel) Carbon/magnesium Scott frame by about 400g.

Get what 'feels right' and then do some judicious weight reduction later, you'll probably be replacing tyres straight away anyway!