What longer travel slightly older 26" bike?

Mattcee

I'm after a longer travel full suspension bike for more hardcore trails and own a 4" travel Xc orientated bike and a road bike so buying another bike is hard to justify to the wife and I'm on a smaller budget.
My thinking is getting an older second bike from eBay with 26" wheels as prices as these seem to be lower priced than used 650b's.

Trouble is, I have no clue what to look for as all the mags etc seem to concentrate on newer big wheeled bikes.

Any suggestions on decent 26" wheeled bikes with at least 140mm of travel and decent components I should be looking for?

rockmonkeysc

There's so many options and all cheap now! I would probably go for a Transition Covert or maybe a Yeti SB66.

Mattcee

Thanks but there still over my budget which I didn't mention in first post and am looking around the £1000 area.

rockmonkeysc

You should be able to get a Covert for a grand. You might just have to be patient and make some cheeky offers.

codfather

There's a massive range of well specced mid travel bikes you can get for that amount. Patience is the key with buying like this, just keep an eye on Pinbike buysell, Gumtree and the like and you'll be sure to find something before long. As RM says, you don't stand to lose anything by making an offer and you can often end up paying well below the asking price. As a point of reference I bought and upgraded my 160/150 Pitch to it's current spec for less than the same budget.

paulmon

How tall are you? I'm looking at getting a 650b/29er Stumpjumper/Camber so will be offloading my Enduro which has been brought bang upto date.

Specialized Enduro SL Expert by Paul Monaghan, on Flickr

These are great bikes and there are a few knocking around on e-bay. I'd like to keep it but I fear it would be one bike too many and never get used.

maddog 2

Trek Remedy will make a solid s/hand buy. I sold mt 26er for £1000 and it was fully set up.

Mattcee

Any more suggestions? Is a Lapierre Zesty 514 any good?

rockmonkeysc

I wouldn't touch a used Lappierre, frames can be a bit fragile.
There's a used Devinci Dixon for sale near Taunton if that's any good. Large size 2014 and advertised at £1200

welshkev

you can get a santa cruz nomad for around a grand now too

rockmonkeysc

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19709882#p19709882]welshkev[/url] wrote:

you can get a santa cruz nomad for around a grand now too

Easily but they weigh a ton.

Mattcee

Yeah I'm after a light bike.

nferrar

If you've got a grand to spend then just buy one of these new... http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m1b65s183p5686/CANNONDALE-TRIGGER-4-27-5-2015

rockmonkeysc

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19714521#p19714521]nferrar[/url] wrote:

If you've got a grand to spend then just buy one of these new... http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m1b65s183p5686/CANNONDALE-TRIGGER-4-27-5-2015

Nice bike but that fork would need to go straight in a skip.

nferrar

Pfft, whilst I agree it's not the best fork it's perfectly usable. I've had forks and shocks in the past that people have said were rubbish or unrideable and they've all seemed fine to me, I guess some of us aren't as tuned into suspension performance as others.

The Rookie

Or some ride on trails and/or at a speed where the fork's damping is less critical?