Mountain bikes

[Leyburn Lad]

Rock Lobster Team Tig SL... Assembled at Merlin Cycles in Chorley handmade by Paul Sadoff. Basically dogs danglies...

 

Either a rock lobster or Merlin malt, you can go over to there shop size yourself up for the bike and as the man says basicly spec it to what you want, ive had a malt 1 for about 4 years now, so impressed I'm getting it rebuilt for a ride in august in spain over the sierra nevada.

[Pedroski]

Decent bike - gotta be a Commencal Supernormal. Love mine - nice and light, fast on the road and fast off the road.

[Chris Sheppard]

Either a rock lobster or Merlin malt, you can go over to there shop size yourself up for the bike and as the man says basicly spec it to what you want, ive had a malt 1 for about 4 years now, so impressed I'm getting it rebuilt for a ride in august in spain over the sierra nevada.

 

I'm still riding my Malt 1 ltd that I built up nearly 15 years ago complete with a whopping 1.5" of fork travel. Old skool cool

[nooie]

You can't go wrong with a Cube. German mass produced which keeps the price down compared to bikes built here. Good quality spec. Hard to beat price for spec. Have a look at Bikes, Bike Reviews, Cycling Routes, Race News - BikeRadar for lots of bike reviews.

[sylvaarb]

Hi, relatively new to this site but not new to mountain bikes, I ride a Dialled Bikes Price Albert at the mo for trail centres and bike parks thats a steel hardtail with long travel front forks. Ride a 96' rigid Lava dome to the

yard every day and on local off road rides (absoloutely fine for off roading in north herts and cheap to maintain).

 

Merlin Malt and rock lobster is a good choice, loads of bike for your money, used to ride one and have built my girlfriend a malt 1 and she loves it. On one bikes are deffo also worth a look as are diallled imo

, make sure you get the sizing right, have seen many people get put off mountain biking from poor fitting bikes how tall are you?, im 5"9" and ride 16 - 17" frames typically, that allows me to lower the saddle for technical/downhill sections. I have adjustable travel on the suspension forks as well and find that a useful feature as you can wind the front end down when climbing to keep the front wheel on the ground.

 

I wouldnt personally recommend a full suss for a first mountain bike, you can develop more skills on a hard tail and it will make you a better rider if you wish to progress, i have ridden full suss in the past but returned to hardtail as i find its less maintenence and more challenging, i also need to avoid any more head injurys due to health so the real hardcore riding is out of the question now!.

 

It would also be worth thinking about what you will be using the bike for, if its for commuteing on the road to work and shops forget about mountain bikes and get a decent hybrid with a good set of panniers and a rack and if you can face it mudguards, me and the girlfreind share one of these, she doesnt drive so uses this for her main transport and its great, faster and more comfortable than an mtb on the road and no sweaty back from carrying everything in your rucksack, this was my bike when i was temporarily unable to drive and i used it to carry all my climbing gear and even 020 sometimes easier than it would be to carry it in bags. Kona do a good range of hybrids. as do trek, marin, spesh and giant. Hybrids are very practical 99% of the time for most cyclists but are not very cool hence the popularity of mtbs i think.

 

Sorry for ramblings but will talk about bikes all night (if im not riding them)

[Mark Bolam]

Good post Sylvarb, welcome to the forum.

 

I assumed the OP rides to work on a mix of trail/tarmac? Unless you really be living beyond the tarmac boy?

In which case let us know....

[mistahbenn]

I just got a specialized stumpjumper pro for $315. cant beat that really!

[Nick Waring]

I just got a specialized stumpjumper pro for $315. cant beat that really!

 

how'd you manage that? they are like $3000??? or is that a typo?

[Jarbman]

IMO, dont go below £300 otherwise you begin to get budget components, a Specialised Hardrock is a good entry level bike.

[brothergrim]

Problem is your only allowed to choose your bike from 1 website cycle solutions, there seems to good savings, but they don't have any of the makes listed on this thread,lol