Born again biker...

[DanGPR]

Hi, I've never ventured into this section of the forum before, but I was hoping to pick your brains.

I was heavily into bikes as a teenager, I owned Kona and DMR jump bikes and pretty much spent my life on them both, however in the last few years cars/motorcycles/work have taken over and I am completely out of the loop with bikes!

I attend the gym 4-5 times a week, weight training, but have recently noticed my diet/lack of cardio has been taking its toll and have gained a few inches around the middle.

I live on the south coast, within 15 mins of the Downs and, as i know how much I love riding bikes, I really should get back into it! Looking at buying (probably secondhand) a hardtail XC type bike, however would consider full sus if the merits are available at my budget. Thinking of spending ~£600 , but could be persuaded into spending a little more if it would be a worthwhile investment. Have noticed a lot of new brands about (CUBE/Focus/Lapierre etc.) and was wondering if these have proven themselves worthy competitors to Giant/Commencal/Specialized etc.

Any help is much appreciated.

PS. I'm 6' 1", guess I'll need a Large frame(~18.5+?)

TL;DR , What secondhand XC hardtail for about 600 quid?

[anonymous-user]

DanGPR said:

Hi, I've never ventured into this section of the forum before, but I was hoping to pick your brains.

I was heavily into bikes as a teenager, I owned Kona and DMR jump bikes and pretty much spent my life on them both, however in the last few years cars/motorcycles/work have taken over and I am completely out of the loop with bikes!

I attend the gym 4-5 times a week, weight training, but have recently noticed my diet/lack of cardio has been taking its toll and have gained a few inches around the middle.

I live on the south coast, within 15 mins of the Downs and, as i know how much I love riding bikes, I really should get back into it! Looking at buying (probably secondhand) a hardtail XC type bike, however would consider full sus if the merits are available at my budget. Thinking of spending ~£600 , but could be persuaded into spending a little more if it would be a worthwhile investment. Have noticed a lot of new brands about (CUBE/Focus/Lapierre etc.) and was wondering if these have proven themselves worthy competitors to Giant/Commencal/Specialized etc.

Any help is much appreciated.

PS. I'm 6' 1", guess I'll need a Large frame(~18.5+?)

TL;DR , What secondhand XC hardtail for about 600 quid?

its a little accepted fact but almost every aluminium framed mountain bike (and road bike for that matter) over £500 or so, comes form one of four or five factories in taiwan. china deals with the cheap stuff so we'll discount them. Now these factories in taiwan are pretty bloody good and there area four or five manufacturers who "own" pretty much 95% of the bikes that come out of the factory. some people who pay the premium for a specialised want to believe it was built in a "better" factory than the other brands but they are deluding themselves, they are in part paying for the name...

As an example, Merida, a quality brand on their own, have about 25% stake in specialised so they will use many of the same components. but people like the specialised brand because they see the pro riders on a specialsied and will turn away from the bikes branded as "merida" on the basis that they are a bit unknown. its quite likely that with a bit of research on geometry, a merida might well be a specilaised albeit with different branding and finishing kit.... so the first point is that a "proven brand" may actually be the owned by a "lesser brand" but its really the same as the VW/Audi group owning stakes in Porsche, Lamborghini etc etc. Incidentally, Cube, Lapierre and Focus have been around for years on the continent, a few brands are upping their UK presence in light of the cycling boom in the UK. Merida also make the carrera and boardman branded bikes sold in halfords...

for £600 you will get a good hardtail, ignore anyhting full sus at this price, it will not be up to the job. its hard for a newbie to understand just how different a £600 full sus bike is compared to a £2000 bike but if you have had a DMR (Trailstar?) you'll know its a different world. if you are going 2nd hand, something like a spesh rockhopper or equivilent would be ideal but you can get a good bike new for that much these days.

it sounds like you havent been out of the scene for that long so a quick read of a few of the mags will get you sorted. i would stress that spec had gone downhill recently, you wont be getting the same level of spec on todays bikes compared to the same amount of money a few years back. in short, the spec on the mid level stuff three or four years ago is now entry level.