Thread: Mountain Bike

I'm looking at getting into it, but currently lacking one crucial piece of equipment. What should I buy and where from?

I know nothing about them.

As far as a bike to ride offroad or a bike to bomb down hills?

Great fun Gimp, I had an old hard tail (front shocks only) and recently upgraded to a Giant Trance X2 which has front and rear shocks. What a difference- a much better ride with far more control and I could instantly ride better.

Not sure what your bike shops are like in dunedin. You would be best trying to get a 2011 bike (last seasons) at a heavily discounted price, failing that wait for the 2012 models to come on special just before the 2013 models come out.

Get decent components especially the rear derailleur, shifters and hubs/rims. Fox or Rock Shox are the way to go on most factory bikes, same as most things- you get what you pay for.

This will tick your boxes http://www.specialized.com/nz/gb/bc/...cname=Mountain

Anything less would be a waste

Where are you going to ride it and how poor are you?

Megabucks for that bike, would be over 10K wouldnt it?

Had this for about 5 months now. Really like the 29 inch wheels...

One word, CANNONDALE

You need to decide do you want:
1. What type of riding you want to do?
2. No suspension, Front suspension only (hard tail), or full suspension?
3. 26 or 29 inch wheels?
4. Budget will then determine the components etc that you can afford.

I built mine up out of components I wanted as I couldn't find a off the shelf bike that I liked for the price...

Those one sided shocks look bloody wierd!! you dont see many Cannondales around these days. There are some mint MTB brands out there now and the only limit is what you are prepared to spend

Originally Posted by Steve338

Those one sided shocks look bloody wierd!! you dont see many Cannondales around these days. There are some mint MTB brands out there now and the only limit is what you are prepared to spend

Yeah ya not wrong there Stevo, shit things have changed alot in 10 or so years. Quite afew of the big brands from the 90's have dropped off & fizzeled out in NZ
My brother'in'law has just got back into MTBing & is using T me to his full advantage, some deals to be had on there



Ive got to get back on the bike this summer ( if I can find the time ) great fun

I don't know the answers to most of those questions. I'm short (175cm) if that makes a difference to the wheel size. I was planning on going hardtail as I've heard it's best to start with. Nothing too serious for a start. Budget of up to $1k I suppose, my policy (as with everything) is to buy something basic to begin with then buy something better when I know what I like/need.

Hmmm the 1K range in bikes is uuuuber depressing and they are simply not up to the job of actually mountainbiking. Even if they do survive it will be a heavy nasty ride.

Go S/H, look for one from a big brand (Specialized / Cannondale / Trek etc etc) that hasnt done much work (most of them) and you should be sweet. When it all boils down most bikes that have been sold in the 3-5k range new are pretty damn good and 90% of them have never done much more than go to the shops / occasional gravel road.

A good full suspension bike is so good you wonder how you ever survived without one - a cheap F/S bike is simply awful. Front suspension is pretty de-rigeur these days but once again cheap suspension is worse than none. The 69's roll over bumps much better, havent ridden a 29FR yet.

The main thing I recon about mountainbiking is that getting silly definitely seems to have an age limit - things that seemed totally reasonable at 18 like riding down Allenby Terrace steps in Wellington every day now just look utterly INSANE. At knocking on 40 riding down a steepish hill on a nice gravel road makes me slow down so yeah I probably dont need that flash bike in the garage any more

mountain biking, yeah baby!! Love it lots, crash lots too. Just bought a new helmet after I rode off a jump ( not enough speed), did a headstand at high velocity then off to a+e for a while. Nothing broken yet though. As for a bike, there's so much choice, Trademe is good , but beaware just because that bikes only six months old it may have had a hard life and bearing etc are starting to wear quickly. I also just got a new Stumpjumper (Specialized), so light compared to my last bike (hardtail Avanti). In my opinion you don't want to pay less than $1500 for a hardtail (new), $3500 (new) for a full susser. As said before up there you get what you pay for, but also depends how and over what you want to ride. Have look at some vid's on Vorb.org.nz and if you can join a club, like minded people and loads of fun!

Short!? I'm 175 too, lol. Medium frame should be fine, I had a large frame before and spent more time looking at the ground coming up to say hello than I did riding sometimes. best thing to do is go to a reputable bike shop and ask them to be sure. Of course they will sell you a bike there too.:p

Looks like secondhand it is then.