Looking to buy a downhill mountain bike...

odavison1

Hi there,

A recent holiday, ignited a new founded passion for downhill mountain biking, being a student i have a very limited budget but i am still willing to fork out a bit for a fairly good quality downhill bike beginner friendly but also capable of conquering the hardest of downhill trails. Maximum price probably about £1000. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

cooldad

Assuming you mean Downhill and not riding down hills, I doubt you'll find a decent DH bike for your budget. I'm also not sure what a beginner friendly DH bike is.
You'd be looking second hand, so I'll leave it to some of our more gnarly members to respond.

rockmonkeysc

There's loads of choice second hand at your budget.
Downhill bikes depreciate pretty badly these days!
I recently sold a pretty high spec Nukeproof Scalp for £1100 something like that would be ideal.
There's no such thing as a beginner downhill bike, it's not really a sport for beginners.
Look for something up to five years old. Go for a bike with Rockshox BoXXer forks, they're dead reliable and simple to service. Avoid Avid brakes and Fox Van shocks and avoid anything covered in monster energy or redbull sticker or anything which has been resprayed.
Get yourself some decent armour as well and even with that, accept that you WILL get some pretty serious injuries. I've had various broken bones, tissue damage and internal injuries and I've come off lightly compared to some riders.

Stevo_666

As mentioned above, you won't get anything new for a grand but second hand there should be plenty of choice.

Agree with Mr. Monkey that Boxxers are a good choice and armour is a good idea if you don't like too much pain and injury, but I have been fine with the Avid Code R's on my bike.

Everyone will tell you that their own DH bike is good and I'm no different so time for you to do some research...

armsterarm

I've researched a lot of bikes both online and in the stores before this purchase. The Diamondback Response Mountain Bike really is THE BEST option for a good entry level bike under $500. It's much better quality than any walmart or box store bikes. It rivals similar Trek and Specialized models that are 100-200$ more. My wife is riding a small sized 29er and i am on a large 26er. Both are great. If you have a good coupon or sale, you might get a good price at a local sports authority or sports chalet. Easy to put together with like 2 included allen wrenches. Once you read the instructions for aligning the disc brakes, its a piece of cake.

rockmonkeysc

That diamond back is a piece of junk. Not any use off road let alone for downhill.
That's a terrible website as well, recommending some of the worst bikes I've ever seen.

cooldad

What RMSC said, plus a whole bloody field of potatoes.

rockmonkeysc

^^^^^ and he never agrees with me :-)

The Rookie

There seems to be a whiff of Pork product in the air.......and a 29er HT for downhill?