First Bike- How long did you look!
paul_GY
Posts: 50
Been looking for my first bike for over a month now, and its doing my head in :evil:, All the shops in my area have very little stock to try, and coz im only 5'6" its even harder to find owt. I have £600 to spend on a xc bike but there are so many to choose from. I dont want to buy without riding it first, Im going to Manchester next week are there any good shop with bikes to try there.
Paul
Paul
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I was looking for about 3 months and then had a 5 months wait for delivery. Worth spending time to make sure its right. Try to draw up a short list of say 3-5 bikes from internet and LBS research. then try them out. I guess more bikes will start to appear from October onwards.0
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I spent about two weeks looking. I wanted something on the cheap side and initially the choice was overwhelming particularly with all the developments since I last bought a bike, about 18 years ago. I could have continued looking for longer but I wanted to get out cycling and for my basic cross country needs the Giant Boulder in my local shop, with the right frame size for my 5ft 6 height, looked fine and the research, including this forum, suggested it was well thought of for the price. I would now consider it of great regret if I had spent more time looking for alternatives and cheaper prices rather then getting out cycling during the last two weeks.0
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In the city centre there is an Evans on Deansgate and Harry Hall Cycles. In Chorlton there is Ken Fosters and in North Manchester try Mike Cookson Cycles or Leisure Lakes in Bury.
Chris0 -
What size frame did you buy grahawk. I think I have done to much research on the net, now im totally bewildered. I do have a bike to ride at the moment but its not mine, and its crap!0
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I think I probably looked for about 3 weeks, I had a Carrera Kraken before, and like the feel of it but wanted to up my budget a bit this time, but I still ended up sticking with a Carrera again, a Fury this time though.
Definitely worth researching, but trying is a must. The internet is a great place, but there is only so much it can tell you. Good luck!2010 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Expert Carbon
2014 De Rosa R848
Carrera TDF Ltd Commuter0 -
Leisure Lakes looks like a good shop, they have the Rockhopper Disc 08 for £540. Anyone delt with Leisure Lakes before.0
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Hi Paul, to be honest - i'm probably going to do what I always do, and suggest a GT Avalanche as your first bike, because i've got one, and frankly, I love it.
If you get one now, then you can pickup the 08 model with 10% off @ Wiggle, I mean this one, the 3.0 is only £242 so you can't go wrong really.0 -
Well I just spent a couple of days in the Manchester area and I visited quite a few shops. Evans, Leisure Lakes, Mike Cookson Cycles and Merlin in Chorley. I tried just about every bike in my price range, all the shops were very helpful and very knowledgeable, to be honest I didnt know what I was looking for. All the bikes felt very good compared to the bag of s*#t ive been riding.
Anyway I ended up getting the merlin malt 2 with an upgrade to the SLX groupset. It came in at £ 674 which was a little over budget but what the heck
. This one just felt right, not sure why :? . It looks a lot better in the flesh than on the website and comes with the new 09 reba forks, only thing im not sure about is the tyres!
I also got a new Giro Hex helmet, some gloves and a really smart pair of baggy shorts 8). Had to get out the shop quick before I ended up bankrupt. lol0 -
I reckon i was looking for 2-3 months. Loads of time trawling the internet, reading brochures etx, and visited most bike shops within a 30 miles radius!!2014 Whyte T-129S0
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Probably not long enough. It seems that with every day I find myself wondering if I could have bought something better if I'd have held out and saved up a bit more money. Maybe something with Recon forks rather than Toras, Juicy 5's instead of 3's, etc etc. But, I'm thinking that's only because I've not had a chance to actually ride mine properly yet. I'm sure I'll love it when I do!Welcome, to my bonesaw!0
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Forgot to mention it will take upto 2 weeks before its ready
I liked to cube acid but it only had 80mm of fork travel.
The Felt Q920 is a nice bike but the cross bar was a bit to high for me in the 15.5 frame.0 -
I looked on the net and narrowed it down to 5...
went to LBS and looked at the 2008 Specialized hardrock comp and wanted that... but then I went upstairs to look at the ladies bike and Saw the one... I had to have it.
Ordered following day, arrived in 2 weeks.
Chosen purely for the colour! <whistle>The futures bright....
The future is PINK0 -
I'm 5'6" with 27" inside leg.
Its the angle of the crossbar that makes some of them feel bigger.0 -
Took me about 3 moths from decision to get back into MTBing to buying the bike.
Read loads of reviews, browsed the internet / forums. Considered the riding conditions I would be using (hence hardtail) and narrowed down. Selected one bike (tried it) then did more reseach on that. Changed mind and increased budget - twice, and so on and on. As said took me 3 months :shock:0 -
I did not look long enough. Do not do what I did and order online without knowing the right size. I'm 6ft with a 33" inside leg and ordered a 17" thinking it was the average size required. And without checking other online stores and my lbs's. Don't get me wrong I love the bike - bar it's mech disc brakes - I just jumped in too soon and ordered the wrong size. It's rideable and feels chuckable, just cramped overall.http://stcolin.pinkbike.com
BeOne Aspire 1.0
RS Recon Race Air Solo 100mm
Raceface XC and Easton
Mavic 321, DT Swiss spokes, XT hubs
Panaracer Rampage SC's0 -
I just got my bike today after procrasitnating since May!
Got into MBing after gf took me to Mabie Forest in March. Absolutely loved it. After much searcing around forums and bike shops decided GT Avalanche was bike for me. Managed to persuade emplyers to sign up to cycle scheme in May...summer went by, employer still not officially signed up, so today i had enough of looking longingly at photos of the GT and headed to LBS where I got the very last 2008 Avalanche 2.0 in stock at at a cracking £300- £100 off the rrp. Most pleasing.
Love the bike, but regret that I missed out on a summer of riding...
Mzungu0 -
I looked around & saved for 2 ~ 3 weeks after I fell in love with my first proper bike in a bikeshop window back in '93. Went and bought it cheaper somewhere else as the owners in the 1st place were pr¡cks (and still are :P)0
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i decided i wanted a bike to go to work on first and mentioned it to the gf over lunch and a couple of hours later i was looking for one each on the net (my budget now reduced). i figured anything would do as it would just be leisure rides at first so i managed to pick up 2 ebay specials for £180 all in. 2 years on and i'm getting ready to upgrade so i figured i'd buy everything bit by bit (as i'm the worst at saving), so far i have bought an xt groupset. and i'm looking for a frame and forks next. i will hopefully have a bike built up by the middle of next month then i'll head out up wyre forest 0
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Spent about 1-2 months looking for a bike, started looking at a GT Avalanche/Specialized Rockhopper, then something called a student loan came and gave me alittle more money whilst i kept working and saving and ended up visiting a bike shop one morning with a friend. By this time I got my friend interested in biking, wasn't even planning to buy a bike that morning but ended up buying a Specialized SX trail 1 08. Loving it so far!Yorkshire Man living in Somerset
http://twitter.com/Mattharperbikin0 -
I'm still waiting for Merlin to ring me, to tell me my new bike is ready
Hope its not too much longer.0 -
I took me nearly 9 months to choose mine and now I've only had it for 2 years and they were the best 2 years off my life with thath bike, then i totaled it in a very big crash, I spent 4 weeks in hospital and several months recovering form a Broken leg,4 ribs and both colar bones.
I tried rebuilding it, but it cost to much, and some one said it would never mbe the same way agin, so I've spent 2 months so far looking for my new one.
Have fun riding you r new bike0
they had 'just the bike for me'.
