Beginner bike buying help please!

Billycrowarse

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to buy a second hand mountain bike to get into it.

Looking to spend about £200 and thinking a hardtail with front suspension and disc brakes.

There are so many for sale going through eBay and not got much of a clue what is a good deal and what isn't.

Any ideas of decent bikes I should be looking at for that price be would be a big help!

Cheers

Mark

Plodder82

Loadsa bargins on eblag (only a quick search),
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/carrera-krake ... Swx6pYoj17.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/carrera-vulca ... Sw-0xYkX-a



So many peeps buying bikes then getting bored after 1 or 2 rides then selling them for around £200.Seen quite a few disk braked, 27.5 Carrera's going for less than hundred quid,a bit tatty and nearly always rusty, forks.£50 for replacement sr xcm forks (£150+ for considerably better upgraded forks,which would then makes your bike a hell of a lot better than than new).
Also Btwins are worth looking for,but I own a Carrera so i'm biased,lol.

I guess you could google the "new" price of the bike and go from there.

Gareth711

I'm in the same boat but my budget is lower. I saw this on gumtree https://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/rale ... 1217572571 which in my limited experience looks a good spec as an upgraded bike. However I can't find any reference to a Raleigh Mercury MTB.

Your comments would be appreciated.

Plodder82

/\/\/\/\hahahahahahahaha.Nowt two do0 with the owner then EH?? Zoom forks,cud pay a £1000 einglish pounds pleasings for these,eh???

Gareth711

Absolutely nothing to do with the owner. So it looks like a waste of money?

Billycrowarse

Cheers for the replies. It's opened up a few more options I'd never heard of.

This is one I'd been looking at and considering, are they any good? Quite like the look of it.


Men's Mountain Bike Voodoo Bantu New

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/132095341991

vulva65

You've got the right idea going for second hand at that price range, you'll hopefully get a lot more for your money. Things I personally would concentrate on are making sure you get hydraulic disc brakes and NOT mechanical, and if possible air forks and NOT coil ones. Good luck, keep shopping around and keep an eye out for bikes that look like they have been looked after and not just chucked in a corner.

The Rookie

The essentials for a mountain bike these days are hydraulic disc brakes and a fork with at least a cartridge damper (HLO in Suntour XC range speak), air forks are a nice to have (lighter and you can get the right spring rate with no parts changes where a coil fork may need a different spring) but not crucial - and in some ways, despite all the clever stuff in the air springs coil is still nicer.

Plodder82

imho,I wouldn't say hydraulic brakes are essential,certainly not for a beginner.You can easily and cheaply upgrade to new (basic) hydro's anyway.I still have a mech brake on the back of mine (but would be nice to have a hydro,lol).
NEW hydro brakes..£41
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shimano-BR-BL ... XsgsD#rwid

Same goes for new forks...£50,typical factory fit for cheapish hardtails.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SUNTOUR-SR-XC ... Swo4pYbikm

LimitedGarry

Plodder82 wrote:

imho,I wouldn't say hydraulic brakes are essential,certainly not for a beginner.

Hydraulic is a set up and forget system. They usually only need to be bled once in several seasons, while cable actuated will require regular adjustment in order to maintain optimal function. I really wouldn't shy away from calling hydraulic brakes essential, especially with a beginner who's very unlikely to be able to set up his brakes. They'll add not just performance, but also convenience. Give cable actuated brakes to beginner and he'll end up with crap braking performance in a few months, unless he's really going to be taking the bike to a shop for regular maintenace (which is unlikely).

Fozzy06

Please can someone advise me on the best one of the following two options:
- Scott aspect 750
- Incline Alpha
Both at a similar price of £300 and new/nearly new.
Thanks for your help in advance.

cooldad

Presumably second hand?

Not without links, or details of specs.

RichardSmart

LimitedGarry wrote:

Plodder82 wrote:

imho,I wouldn't say hydraulic brakes are essential,certainly not for a beginner.

Hydraulic is a set up and forget system. They usually only need to be bled once in several seasons, while cable actuated will require regular adjustment in order to maintain optimal function. I really wouldn't shy away from calling hydraulic brakes essential, especially with a beginner who's very unlikely to be able to set up his brakes. They'll add not just performance, but also convenience. Give cable actuated brakes to beginner and he'll end up with crap braking performance in a few months, unless he's really going to be taking the bike to a shop for regular maintenace (which is unlikely).

Absolutely - I haven't had to do anything to my Scott MC10 since I bought it - which basically shows you that hydraulics are much, much better than any type of cable-brake. If you can afford hydraulic brakes on your new bike, I really can't recommend them enough.

RichardSmart

Which (also) assumes that your "cheap" bike has the necessary fittings for fitting disc brakes. If it does, I can absolutely recommend hydraulic discs. You can get a set of disc brakes for £20.00 http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/clar ... prod135586 which is a total steal. Even if you just fit one disc (on the front, which will give you twice the stopping-power of one on your rear wheel) the difference will be very noticeable, especially if you are cycling in the wet...

RichardSmart

Obviously I'd say go for the Scott, but that's (partly) because I have a Scott mountain bike (a Genius MC10 from about ten years ago) which is absolutely brilliant!

Plodder82

LimitedGarry wrote:

Plodder82 wrote:

imho,I wouldn't say hydraulic brakes are essential,certainly not for a beginner.

Hydraulic is a set up and forget system. They usually only need to be bled once in several seasons, while cable actuated will require regular adjustment in order to maintain optimal function. I really wouldn't shy away from calling hydraulic brakes essential, especially with a beginner who's very unlikely to be able to set up his brakes. They'll add not just performance, but also convenience. Give cable actuated brakes to beginner and he'll end up with crap braking performance in a few months, unless he's really going to be taking the bike to a shop for regular maintenace (which is unlikely).

Er,your saying turning ONE cable adjuster ( on mech activated brakes) a couple of turns every so often(to take out the stretch from the cable or worn pads,mostly when new any way??),requires the most uneducated of people to take the bike back to a bike dealer,seriously??However when hydraulic brakes need servicing they need special tools AND quite a bit of experience.

larkim

On the two separate pairs or mechanical disc brakes that I've had on two different bikes, I found them much more fiddly to get right and keep right, to the point of irritation and frustration. It's their lack of self-adjustment (compared to hydraulics) that makes all the difference to me.

We've now had hydraulic brakes on three family bikes for 2.5 years and I've had to do nothing at all to keep them in order, other than replace pads.

I'm sure good mech disc brakes are good, and can be kept in a sweet spot well. But my personal experience was that there was too much variability with the ones that I've got, and for the price of a cheap set of hydro brakes I'd never want mecahnical disc brakes on any bike I ever own now!

That could be the confessions of a bike numpty, but I'm probably not too dissimilar to the "average" bike owner. Perhaps its just that the cable encourages me to fiddle, whereas the hydraulic system doesn't.

mattyfez

I agree with the above, I have cable operated disk brakes and they are a pain as you have to adjust them as the pads wear to keep them sharp.

Hydraulic brakes might need attention once a year or two, other than slinging in new pads, in which case if you don't fancy doing it yourself you can get a shop service.

Cable disk brakes need constant tweeks and are much more faf.
If I was buying a new bike or even a new brake system, I wouldn't even consider cable operated disks.

larkim

I also think that if you quite competent as a bike mechanic, it's easy to limit yourself to just turning the one barrel adjuster the 1/4 turn that you think should sort it. I've lost count of the amount of times I've rotated a barrel adjuster too many times and lost track of the starting point, or even which direction I'm rotating it in. I was amazed when I got hydraulics that all that sort of faff was a thing of the past!

The Rookie

Plodder82 wrote:

Er,your saying turning ONE cable adjuster ( on mech activated brakes) a couple of turns every so often(to take out the stretch from the cable or worn pads,mostly when new any way??)

Oh dear.....
1/ You shouldn't be touching the barrel adjuster but the pad stop in the calliper
2/ You will hopefully have 2 pad stops per calliper unless they are really awful brakes
3/ Cable stretch is not an issue at all, that's AT ALL (my commuter went for 5 years from build, about 6000miles without t9ouching the brake cables, but pad stop setting being carried out regularly)

Your knowledge of the brakes is reflected in the quality of your advice, which it would appear to be pretty close to zero.

On gritty rides you could be adjusting the pad stops about every 6-7miles.

larkim

On the BB5's I had, the pad stop adjustment only affected one piston in the caliper, so (and this could be my cack-handedness) simply adjusting the pad stop didn't have all of the effect needed as the other pad would remain steadfastly getting further and further away from the rotor. I think I attempted to resolve this through barrel adjustment? Though I never got it "right".

RichardSmart

Plodder82 wrote:

LimitedGarry wrote:

Plodder82 wrote:

imho,I wouldn't say hydraulic brakes are essential,certainly not for a beginner.

Hydraulic is a set up and forget system. They usually only need to be bled once in several seasons, while cable actuated will require regular adjustment in order to maintain optimal function. I really wouldn't shy away from calling hydraulic brakes essential, especially with a beginner who's very unlikely to be able to set up his brakes. They'll add not just performance, but also convenience. Give cable actuated brakes to beginner and he'll end up with crap braking performance in a few months, unless he's really going to be taking the bike to a shop for regular maintenace (which is unlikely).

Er,your saying turning ONE cable adjuster ( on mech activated brakes) a couple of turns every so often(to take out the stretch from the cable or worn pads,mostly when new any way??),requires the most uneducated of people to take the bike back to a bike dealer,seriously??However when hydraulic brakes need servicing they need special tools AND quite a bit of experience.

But they very, very rarely need servicing, at least not to the extent of having to re-bleed them - sure you'll (eventually) have to change the pads (although I've not had to replace them yet, and my bike is about ten years-old), but that is about all you'll ever have to do. I would ALWAYS go for hydraulic disc brakes - there is a reason why ALL modern cars and motorbikes use hydraulic disc brakes, and that is that they are the BEST way of removing energy from you as you career madly downhill. If you REALLY think that rim brakes are better then you would seem to be living in the early '90s - And I mean the 1890's - just in case you were wondering. :oops:

Fozzy06

Hi All

I am purchasing a 2017 Marin Bobcat 3.

Do people think it's a decent purchase for track rides with my children and some more adventurous riding?

Thanks

Fozzy06

Hi All

I am purchasing a 2017 Marin Bobcat 3.

Do people think it's a decent purchase for track rides with my children and some more adventurous riding?

Thanks

cooldad

It's a bike. You can probably do better for the money.

Dozens of threads on what to buy here.

Links help as well.

The Rookie

At its RRP of £500 its pretty poorly specced when you consider than the £360 Trott MTB1 has better fork, better gearing and better brakes. The Trott is also about 2Kg lighter.

RichardSmart

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/clar ... prod135586 are pretty, sorry, I mean VERY good value for money. At £20 per end they are phenomenal, and the difference between hydraulic discs and rim brakes is massive, especially in the wet. Plus, if you manage to dent your rim, it won't have ANY effect on a disc brake, but on rim brakes it can be a nightmare.

RichardSmart

Plodder82 wrote:

imho,I wouldn't say hydraulic brakes are essential,certainly not for a beginner.You can easily and cheaply upgrade to new (basic) hydro's anyway.I still have a mech brake on the back of mine (but would be nice to have a hydro,lol).
NEW hydro brakes..£41
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shimano-BR-BL ... XsgsD#rwid

Same goes for new forks...£50,typical factory fit for cheapish hardtails.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SUNTOUR-SR-XC ... Swo4pYbikm

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/clar ... prod135586 are even cheaper and are pretty good - (hydraulic) disc brakes are ALWAYS better than rim brakes, and for £20 an end, you really can't go wrong with them. Not to mention that your front brake is twice as efficient at removing energy from you than your rear brake, so if you can only afford one brake at a time, upgrade the front first...