2nd hand Advice

jonb_5

Hi

I haven't been online for quite some time and have been getting a fair amount of use out of my Trek 6000, however some of the terrain I am going down is wrecking the bike.

I'm going to buy a full suspension bike and local to me I have 2 options. My budget is £400 and I'm toying between a Scott Spark 60, 2012 model and a Specialised Epic Marathon M5 2008 model. They are the same price, one is newer and one a much higher spec but have heard mixed reviews about the brain shock??

Any opinions very much welcome.

Thanks

Jon

The Rookie

Argh the brain, post 2007 it got a new much improved setup as you can read here.
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... hon-12370/

But it's 100mm travel and if the terrain is wrecking a 100mm hardtail don't expect an XC FS bike to fair much better (and factor in the costs of bearings/bushings).

The Spark is more trail orientated (120mm fork) and the more modern geometry (summed up in a 68.7 degree HA versus the 70.5 on the Spesh) would certainly be the one for tougher terrain despite the lower spec parts. Add a better fork to the Spark (should be able to get something off ebay for less than £100 - and sell the Recon for circa £50) and it would be the much more capable of the two. It will also take 650B wheels so get a 650b fork (or a 26" Fox which take 650B wheels with not over the top tyre sizes) and you can slowly bring it up to date if you want to.
http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/categ ... -12-45914/
The Deore from 4 years later is much closer to the XT on the older Spesh than the same age Deore setup would be and you can always upgrade as things wear out.
£400 is a good price for a Spark, they usually go for over £500 although the 60 is the bottom of the range.

So of the two and given what you say it would be the Spark for me and I'd be looking to a fork upgrade and then going 1x on gearing at some point with a wide range (9 or 10 speed) cassette.

jonb_5

Thank you for the advice, very much appreciated!

I have also found a 2012 Giant Trance X4 quite local aswell at the same price. Reading the reviews the Giant seems to come out on top of most even though the specs look quite similar to the Scott.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Jon

cooldad

You might want to post links.

Apart from The Rookie, who doesn't have an actual life, most of us can't be bothered hunting for spec on bikes which may or may not have been changed from OE.