what too look for in moutain bike

[Nevada Sixx]

Hey guys,, i want to get a mountain bike,,,but have no idea what the better name brands are or what to expect in price,

anyone know much about them? I will ride about 70 percent of the time just on the pavement road/park for fitness and fun... then i want to spend a sunday now and then offroad on the trails we ride dirt bikes on (trace lake mississippi).

so whats a decent midgrade bike? and where do you get them?
thanks.

 

[Rich Rohrich]

There are lots of great midrange bikes from the major companies Trek, Specialized, Gary Fisher, etc. Here's a good site for review and sources : http://www.mtbr.com/

 

[FruDaddy]

I have Cannondale F300 that I got a pretty good deal on. It is a beautiful piece. Some things to look for are the construction of the wheels, the better ones are a multi layer construction. Valve stem type, the larger Schrader valves are not as good as the Presto valve. Weight, you want a light but strong frame.
All of the names that Rich mentioned are very reputable. You should also talk to the people at the shop, if they actually ride, then they will probably give you good advice. A good shop should be able to look at you and guess which size frame you need (I didn't even realize that there was a difference). If you go into a shop and tell them that you are looking for a bike that will seldom see dirt, and they drag you to an $1100 dollar mountain bike, then they are probably more interested in your money than your satisfaction. You should probably expect to pay $300-$500 for a quality mid range bike. Also, any good shop will set the bike up for you, including seat height and bar position (if adjustable). They should also explain the maintenance for you. My shop offered to change the grips, tires, and seat (of course, more expensive parts would raise the price). I was also allowed to test ride the bike before the purchase. My shop also installs any accessories that I purchase, free of charge. One other thing that my shop did was warn me that I would probably break the lower priced bike that I was looking at, I told them that I was into MX, but they never even pointed at the high end stuff. One downside to this kind of service; every time I walk into the shop, they try to sell me a helmet (if I feel that my head is in jeopardy, I brake out the MX bucket).
Ask a lot of questions, if the salesperson doesn't give you good answers (or seems to be full of it), then go somewhere else, but remember that nobody knows everything, and tech questions may require a tech to answer them. A good bike shop wants you to buy one bike from them (maybe one for each member of the family) and come back for all of your accessories.

 

[FruDaddy]

I forgot to mention, don't buy a bike from a department store, find a specialized bicycle shop. You wouldn't buy a motorcycle from Wal-Mart (at least, I hope you wouldn't).

 

[Nevada Sixx]

i some some by giant on their website that souned good, they ran from 300 to 800. I wanted a larger seat and tall bar height and they had some like that. Ive heard of that brand so i assume you can get parts for them. I dont know about frame/tires sized, but im about 6ft, with long legs.

giant any good?

 

[SpDyKen]

I foung a great deal ($500.00) on a lightly used, high-end, full suspension bike with rim brakes that a shop had on consignment. The guy just bought a disc brake model. Ask around at the shops you go to.

 

[FruDaddy]

Don't get a seat that's too big, sometimes you will find yourself behind it and a smaller seat is easier to get around. If you find the seat to be uncomfortable, take it back and have it adjusted first, my shop said that as long as I didn't damage the seat, they would replace it with one of equal value; a little adjustment was all it needed..

 

[xenochimera]

hey man i am coming from moutain biking actually, sizing the most important thing. go to your local bike shop and get your self measured out. next, decided what you want to do with your bike, casual rides, downhill, dirt jump, 4x racing ect. then decide how much you want to spend, keep in mind you need some extra cash for protective gear as well as custom bike parts. also check out sites like mtbr, and pinkbike, or email me.

 

[HubertGarfunkleIII]

what type of riding would simulate dirtbiking the best and also what kind of bike? Im thinking a bmx track would simulate supercross. would it be better to get a bmx bike or a full suspension mountain bike if I am planning on taking it to bmx tracks and want to simulate dirtbiking as close as possible?

 

[xenochimera]

what type of riding would simulate dirtbiking the best and also what kind of bike? Im thinking a bmx track would simulate supercross. would it be better to get a bmx bike or a full suspension mountain bike if I am planning on taking it to bmx tracks and want to simulate dirtbiking as close as possible?

bmx and 4x (pronounced four cross) would both simulate dirt biking. however, 4x probably would simulate it much more accuartely because there are various bumps, turns, and even jumps on some tracks. for 4x, you can get by with either a full suspension or hardtail bike. my close friend uses a giant trance 1 for 4x, 4.2 inches of rear suspesion and 5 in the front. you can also get by with specialized enduro or trek fuel series. these provide between 4-5 inches of rear suspension. now i would recommend a giant trance because of the suspesion design, its one of the most efficient, a single pivot would lose enegry and contribute to fatigue. the giant trance uses a design very simlar to VPP (virtual pivot point) that maximizes pedal efficency. but its more important to try out different bikes before you buy. hope i helped.

 

[xenochimera]

i some some by giant on their website that souned good, they ran from 300 to 800. I wanted a larger seat and tall bar height and they had some like that. Ive heard of that brand so i assume you can get parts for them. I dont know about frame/tires sized, but im about 6ft, with long legs.

giant any good?

yes giant is very good, they have sponsors at almost every level of bicycle competition, the Tmobile team in Tour de France uses giant bikes (2nd place in the 2005 tour de france), cory bohan, x-games BMX dirt champ 3 time and current champion uses giant bikes, they have numerous mountain biking riders; atheron riding the most famous, and i personally ride a giant bike, a giant reign.

 

[HubertGarfunkleIII]

bmx and 4x (pronounced four cross) would both simulate dirt biking. however, 4x probably would simulate it much more accuartely because there are various bumps, turns, and even jumps on some tracks. for 4x, you can get by with either a full suspension or hardtail bike. my close friend uses a giant trance 1 for 4x, 4.2 inches of rear suspesion and 5 in the front. you can also get by with specialized enduro or trek fuel series. these provide between 4-5 inches of rear suspension. now i would recommend a giant trance because of the suspesion design, its one of the most efficient, a single pivot would lose enegry and contribute to fatigue. the giant trance uses a design very simlar to VPP (virtual pivot point) that maximizes pedal efficency. but its more important to try out different bikes before you buy. hope i helped.

you helped but also lost me, giant trance is a brand of bike obviously but im not familiar with it. what is a single pivot? whats virtual pivot point?

 

[HubertGarfunkleIII]

i just did a search on youtube for 4x and four cross. I saw some stuff. the guys were on full suspension mtb as well as those bmx looking hardtail bikes that have front suspension and gears. 4x looks great but I wont have any acess to places like that. The best I will be able to do is go to my local bmx track. so as far as riding at the local bmx track goes, since thats all I will be doing on it, what bike should I get to make it closest to dirtbiking? full suspension mtb? bmx? or hardtail with front suspension bmx?

 

[76GMC1500]

Look at geometry, components, and weight.

 

[xenochimera]

i just did a search on youtube for 4x and four cross. I saw some stuff. the guys were on full suspension mtb as well as those bmx looking hardtail bikes that have front suspension and gears. 4x looks great but I wont have any acess to places like that. The best I will be able to do is go to my local bmx track. so as far as riding at the local bmx track goes, since thats all I will be doing on it, what bike should I get to make it closest to dirtbiking? full suspension mtb? bmx? or hardtail with front suspension bmx?

i would say a mountain bike simulates dirt bike more so then a bmx bike since you get full suspesion, gears, disc brakes. and you have the option of riding on a trail as well. a front suspesion only bike, or hardtail, have the best pedaling efficiecy since the wheel is firmly planted, the draw back is lack of shock absorbtion. a full suspesion mountain bike have shock absorbtion, but its heavier, more expensive, and never as efficient in pedaling. there are numerous suspesion designs when it comes to mountain bikes, VPP is a type of suspesion design, you will find them on Santa Cruz bikes, and Intense bikes only. Maestro is another very efficient design, found on Iron Horse, and Giant brand of bikes. Single Pivot is the least efficient design and found on almost everybrand. the best way to see which bike fits you is going to the local shop and try them out. so, generally speaking, Hardtrails are cheaper, lighter, and easier to pedal. however, it lacks any shock absorbtion. Full Suspeion bikes have shock absorbtion, but are more expensive, requires more maintaince, and never as efficient.

 

[XRpredator]

Look at geometry, components, and weight.

I only look for a few things:

• wheels
• handlebars
• seat
• pedals

everything else is fluff

 

[HubertGarfunkleIII]

theres mountain bikes out there with 10" of travel in the forks!

 

[xenochimera]

theres mountain bikes out there with 10" of travel in the forks!

dude those are for extreme downhill or something, its gona be impossible to ride properly with those. for bmx tracks, 5 inches should be the max.

 

[bsmith]

Take a look at the Trek, I beleive they are an American company!
I have a Trek 8000 and it's been a great bike. Just bought my Daughter a Columbia from Sports Authority. What you get for $250 is not that much anymore so might have to look a bit higher in price range. I went the cheap route since it's the first bike with that many gears and will be a learning process.

 

[HubertGarfunkleIII]

so I should get a full suspension mtb than to take to the track with about 5" travel in the front, how about the back?

 

[xenochimera]

so I should get a full suspension mtb than to take to the track with about 5" travel in the front, how about the back?

well 5 is a pretty avg value, i would say antying between 4-6 inches front and rear is fine. generally, its good to have the same amount of suspension in the front and rear, but some bike have weird rear suspension numbers like 4.2, 4.6, or something along that value, so i would say round up to the next inch. also, the longer the front end fork, the harder it is to climb a hill, i wouldnt suggest going over 5 inches with the front end. however, with the new technolgies, they have adjustble front end forks, instant reduce from 6-4 inches and vice versa. one more thing, weight is very important, the bmx bikes i have experience with are about 23-26 pounds. my friends Giant Trance with 5 inches front, 4.2 back suspesion, and weights at 28 pounds, BUT it was extremely expensive (about $3500) for everything. so you are probably looking at about 30 pounds for a bike, however, if it goes near 35 pounds, do not buy it as it well be very hard to pedal. rear suspesion design is important as well, like i stated before, some are more efficient then others, most notablly, FSR (Specialized, Fuji), Maestro/DW Link (Giant, Iron Horse), and VPP (Santa Cruz, Intense). those are among the most pedaling efficent suspesion designs, but they do add a bit more weight compared to simpler desgins such as Single Pivot (found on most bike manufactures), Faux Bar(Kona, Cannondale, Trek). like i said, go to a bike shop, they usually allow people to test ride any model.