Which Xc Bike?

[Rob_P]

Not really what i'm looking for i'm affraid

[Tom_]

buy dmr, tis a beaut HERE

[Rob_P]

As nice as that is, i'm not sure about the whole street thing now

Just spoken to a mate who's also sold his trials and has just bought a Kona XC bike! I'm possibly going to head the same way, riding more of distance stuff, through the woods and to generally keep fit.

Something like a Kona shred is looking quite appealing with a bit of a streety look and a decent amount of gears, and price.

may not appeal to you but ive got a curtis Super X frame and some DJ3 forks you can have for a decent price as i need money.

Not really what i'm looking for i'm affraid

buy dmr, tis a beaut HERE

see above!

[poopipe]

It could be cos I think mountainbikes are gay but for all round entertainment (30mph with no brakes) + practicality (30mph) + laughing at people who fall off when they try to steal (no brakes, no freewheel) + cheapness (no expensive gears or brakes to pay for) it you need a fixie.

[Joe@Onza]

The Conspiracy Midnight retails at around £699

[strat-trials]

What about the Conspiracy Midnight? Not bad, The spec is pretty immense.

That makes me feel sick.

[MadManMike]

That makes me feel sick.

Pic?

I googled it and pictures of Bush come up - like he'd be linked to conspiracies! :|

[rider_01]

i kno a place were you can get things like the saracen zen 1 and stuff for cheap like if your intrested add to msn

sean.hughes7@ntlworld.com

sean

[haydon_peter]

Pic?

I googled it and pictures of Bush come up - like he'd be linked to conspiracies! :|

There are pictures on the first page of this thread

[MadManMike]

There are pictures on the first page of this thread

Ah I commented on it as well... didn't take a note of the name lol

How silly do I feel now?!

I assumed it was something ugly after what the other guy said - it's bloody gorgeous!

Where can you buy them?

I've scouted google and stuff, nothing comes up.

[will]

It could be cos I think mountainbikes are gay but for all round entertainment (30mph with no brakes) + practicality (30mph) + laughing at people who fall off when they try to steal (no brakes, no freewheel) + cheapness (no expensive gears or brakes to pay for) it you need a fixie.

Come on boy, you know it makes sense. Fixed (F-TW) ***.

Edited November 19, 2007 by will

[Rob_P]

Well I've just put a deposit on the Marin B17! The local bike shop had a load of 07 ones on offer. I couldn't afford the rocky ridge so very pleased with the B17!

Was marked up at £799 down to £599 but as I know them they did it £550! Pretty good price I thought! Best for the money anyway.

[Pashley26]

Hmmm, A Specialized Rockhopper is a Great bike ! When i worked in cycle works they were flying out the door ! The cheaper Hardrocks are also amazing Value !

My Orange 5 is alright i guess....

Never buy ANYTHING from Halfords, i know theres a few employee's on here but hey !

I would Recomend Speccy to anyone ! There customer service is second to none !

If you can streatch a bit the Pitch is AMAZING ! Comes Tubeless ready !

http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?sidehop=08Pitch

http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=34003

I rode one of these as my Company bike for a few months too.

http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=33982

http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?sidehop=08Hardrock

Jarrod

EDIT ! Those Marins go up hill SO well....Hydroformed tubing is nice and light too ! Shame about the fork ?

Edited December 13, 2007 by Pashley26

[Fish-Finger-er]

sorry to thread hi jack, but its kinda served robs purpose, and id only be creating an identical topic.

looking to get an xc bike, but a tough one(im 200lbs for a start, dont ride that smooth, dont shave me legs and will hit stuff hard)

looking at a giant reign 3 (06.5), a marin rock springs(07), and a kona dawg deluxe/coiler. (07)

giants at £800

marins at £1100

and the konas are £1000

think ive ruled out the konas as they are pretty low specced for the money and heavy (the dawgs like 32.5lbs and aint that burly, the coilers more purly but is almost tipping the scales at 35 i think)

the marins kinda outta me budget(i dont have a budget as in what i can afford, more what i want to spend and me roof was £1000), but it gets me an extra years 0%, so the monthly repayments are actually lower.

but is the marin £300 better than the giant, both seem to get good reviews, but its all yanks reviewing them.

the giants got things i like such as

easton ea30 bars and stem(as opposed to marin own brand stuff)

raceface ride xc cranks (as opposed to truative cranks)

but then the marin has

fox vanilla R 32 forks (as opposed to Tora 302's)

hayes hfx-9 brakes(as opposed to sole's)

most of the other bits are identical or pretty much the same(deore disc hubs vs formula disc hubs)

so it really comes down to which frame is better, and the biggie which is pushing me towarss the marin is the brakes(ive used hayes sole and they where horrible, took ages to set up, then needed setting up again after a couple of rides, power wasnt that good etc) as id have to upgrade the brakes on the giant, so suddenly theres only £100 difference between the two, and for the brand, and the better forks etc im errred towards it.

anyone had any experience with either or both bikes? and their experiences with them

theres also a felt equilink 07 for like £900 but i cant find much on it at all. and as i aint heard of it before i went looking, i aint too keen.

[Tomm]

IMO HFX-9s aren't great. Soles are much worse, but since you can get a pair of Juicy 5s for around £100, it's not a huge bother. My mate's got a Giant Reign X O and it's such a pimp bike. Lovely. I guess the Reign 3 has a similar suspension design so that's probably good too.

The Marin... is a Marin. Can't you get a Reign 2 or something for the price of the Marin?

[MadManMike]

Juicy 5's are £89.99 retail... Unless you meant second hand?

[Fish-Finger-er]

IMO HFX-9s aren't great. Soles are much worse, but since you can get a pair of Juicy 5s for around £100, it's not a huge bother. My mate's got a Giant Reign X O and it's such a pimp bike. Lovely. I guess the Reign 3 has a similar suspension design so that's probably good too.

The Marin... is a Marin. Can't you get a Reign 2 or something for the price of the Marin?

are marins good or bad, i dont know bugger all about xc since i stopped buying mbuk in 2003. i always thought the marin full sus bikes where real good bikes, whereas the giants where a bit gimmicky, or has all that changed now?

as for the reign 2, nope, well i probably can, but at the moment im favouring jejames as they offer 2 years 0% finance on bikes over £570,and 3 years on bikes over £1000, im owed an xmas and a bday present, which will come to around £200, so if i got me mum to put a deposit down of that, i could get like a £800 bike, or an £1100 bike for £25 a month.

before you say dont buy what you cant afford, ive got £3000 in personal savings,which ive saved in the last 3.5 months or so(in which time ive also bought a £230 ipod, spend £150ish on dvds and xbox gams, and about £250 on clothes £200 odd on camera gear) so i can afford it. its just ive cancelled a phone contract in the last week, which was £21 a month.(i was running 2 phone contracts) so £25 a month on 0% finance, would mean id see no change to me monthly expenditure and be getting a bike chucked in.

im free to any other suggestions bike wise for around the same money too.

i love norcos and konas, but there just soo heavy and konas are soo underspecced for the money.

[Tomm]

With the Juicies - I kinda did mean second hand or unused prices. Obviously RRP is more but you can often get them in CRC's sale for £60 each. I've just looked and they're £65 now. Or the other option is Shimano Deores which are just brilliant for the money (£55 on CRC) and all you'll ever need. Both are much better than Hayes IMO - but then I have a bit of an irrational fear of Hayes.

Marins are pretty good as far as I can tell... Just that they're not very fashionable. I know that's shallow Similarly, Trek do some nice well-specced bikes that are pretty 'common'.

The Giant Reign 3 is a pretty average spec really - especially the forks. No way would I pay £1300, but £800 seems fair. On the other hand, the Reign 1 for £1400 looks A-mazing. You know you want to (Only 16" though - MIGHT be too small. Although on a bike like that you probably want a small-ish frame).

The other one to look at are Spesh Enduros - they're really nice, and an 07 in the sales might be the right price but I dunno if you'd find one. Or, I've got a Commencal Meta 5.5 - That's awesome IMO. If you don't mind XL - there's THIS which is what I've got (but mine's large not XL). That's actually a complete bargain! They do a smaller-travel Meta 4 and you can get one of them for £850 (50% off) HERE. It's also a bargain price but it is XL, and only 4" travel.

[Si-man]

My HFX-9's were sharp as f**k!

ASk Edd potts what they are like, hes got my bike now.

Stop you bloody quick like.

[Tomm]

Spesh do something called a pitch comp now too - dunno if they're any good, but they're basically a cheap Enduro. Not sure on price though.

[Fish-Finger-er]

Spesh do something called a pitch comp now too - dunno if they're any good, but they're basically a cheap Enduro. Not sure on price though.

yea just read some reviews/forums discussion on them,aparently the pitch comp at £1200 isnt that brilliant, but the pitch pro at £1400 is real good.

however for that price, the £1100 marin beats the pitch comp hands down spec wise and stretchin to £1400 for a pitch pro is a bit too far, and i dont think its £300 better than the marin(unfortunately the spesh's have hayes brakes as wel)

think im pretty set on the marin,unless theres any other steals out there, looked at the kikapu buts its too flimsy, the dawg and the coiler are overpriced,heavy and underspecced, ive kinda gone off the giant, as by the time i upgraded the brakes to the marins level, then im suddenly not far off the marin, for a better bike altogether with a better set of forks) although need to prioritise, with thinking ive got quite a big shopping list.

merc c class sports coupe(what ive been saving for)

20d/30d camera(although this in fact effectively free or close enough, ill sell me 350d with kit lens and a memory card for £250 no problem, can pick up a body only 20d for that,small step up, but it is a step up)

flash for above camera.

an xc bike

desktop pc, with a nice big tft screen, for photoshop work.

possibly a new laptop for when im working away/at college if the one ive got thats broke cant be/isnt advisable to be sent off to be fixed

bongos got me tempted to get an r6 or the like at the beginning of summer.

real do need to get some club photography jobs on a friday and saturday night, and perhaps one night in the week.

think im gunna come home tomorrow as well, and strip down the trials bike and sell it off. never gets used, may as well go, i can then step aboard hms chit chat fully.

[BIG Drew]

Have you considered the boardman bikes?

They are pretty damm good for the money.

You will have to buy through halfords though.

http://www.boardmanbikes.com/

[MadManMike]

Boardman Mountain Pro is a beast

Juicy 7's on it, forks look alright too!

[Tomm]

yea just read some reviews/forums discussion on them,aparently the pitch comp at £1200 isnt that brilliant, but the pitch pro at £1400 is real good.

think im pretty set on the marin,unless theres any other steals out there

Did you look at that Commencal in the link I gave you?

My mate's just got a brand new pitch comp for £990, I could ask where from if you're interested? Or not.

[Fish-Finger-er]

Did you look at that Commencal in the link I gave you?

My mate's just got a brand new pitch comp for £990, I could ask where from if you're interested? Or not.

yea i looked at the commencal, but its not really what im after(that sounds really nobbish, its an xc bike) i want an xc bike, but i want something a bit more hardcore, due to the fact im an ex trials rider, so wont get off and step over the hard bits, will bunnyhop over logs etc, and the fact im 6 foot 3, with a rather big frame(muscle wise, superdry xl t shirts are skin tight on my chest,shoulders and arms. with a fair bit of space round the belly) and ive got a pretty big gut(just it sticks out a fair bit less than my chest) weigh somewhere around 14.5 stone. stuff such as that commencal, and the kona kikapu etc are just too lightweight. i dont want to say freeride, as it gives the impression of hucking. All mountains a fair comment(5 inches travel, beefy rims, but will still climb)

also as already said, im loving the 2/3 years 0% finance j.e james will give me, purely because it means ill be paying the same per month for the bike as my phone contract i just cancelled cost me. so anywhere offering for 2 years is really the only option. unless theres a total bargain to be had somewhere(i.e a significantly bigger bargain than j.e james bikes)

just found on their site now, despite missing it for about a week.

trek remedy 6 2006

Trek

is that a real good spec for the money??

because i know nothing about xc bikes (i know sr suntour is generally crap, and alivio-deore-lx/hone-xt-xtr/saint is how the shimano groupset goes, understand the sram numbers,and can get a rough idea of what a bikes meant for by lookin at it). see i love the marin, for the fact its got fox forks. because when i used to have a vague interest in real mountain biking, they where new on the block, and cool, and £300+. so i assume im getting real good forks. but they could be utter toss now.

likewise manitou nixons, i know manitou, but no nothing of the nixon brand? is it any good. or just cheap toss.