UKC

Alas, washing the venerable Rockhopper A1 has revealed two large cracks in the headtube.

I was about to retire her to child seat bike, and get something shiny and new - so now need two bikes rather than one.

Child seat carrier will be something second hand, but what should the mostly lapsed mountain biker (keen before 2000) who has just started getting out a bit again look for? Had a go on a On One 456 carbon fibre thing that felt very strange last night, complete change in geometry from what I'm used to!

I've probably got about £1000 to spend, will want one mountain bike to do everything, will mostly be in the mendips but would want something good for long rides in actual mountains as well - I would consider myself to be a trad bumbly in most sports.

All advice welcome - realise washing the bike was a stupid, stupid error.

In reply to Dr.S at work:

that's a relief I thought you were talking about penguins : )

In reply to Dr.S at work:

The geometry of current bikes has changed a lot over the last few years - the early mountain bikes were essentially off-road versions of road bikes. Modern bikes have geometry more suited to off-road and have much slacker head angles however this means you need to ride them as a MTB rather than a road bike, basically have your body further forward and up off the saddle. If you try and ride as if they are a road bike then they feel very strange up front - the front wheel wallows around.

Best bang for buck currently in MTB terms appear to be Boardmans, Cube and Canyon. Look for a hardtail rather than full-suss as you'll get a better bike for your money. Alternatively look out for a second hand bike.

In reply to Dr.S at work:

Could you get a bit of a weld job on it and keep it as intended? Then indulge yourself with the change?

In reply to Morty:

Don't know if it's worth the cost really, have taken the fork off and the cracks both look pretty nasty on the inside. Anyway how often do you get an ok from the missus to buy two bikes at the same time?

In reply to Bob:

Thanks Bob, I've been looking at the boardmans, they do look good for the money as do the White 80 and 90 series. I guess if I'm looking for something with more familiar geometry a XC biased machine is what I'd aim for?

In reply to Dr.S at work:


Ha ha - fair point!

In reply to Dr.S at work:

The Whytes are good bikes, not ridden one but a lot of people rave about them (though that's possibly the top end of the range - there are carbon hardtails at £3.5K!!)

There's a lot of (marketing) niches in mountain biking but in reality most bikes will do most things though obviously they'll excel at one style of riding and you need to compromise on the rest. If you ride trail centres a lot then a full suspension bike is going to suit you more than a hardtail but last weekend I rode at Ae, Glentress and Innerleithen on a hardtail and didn't feel that the bike was holding me back. (If truth be told, it was the 80Kgs of lard sat on the bike that was the problem )

There's such a wide range of stuff these days, there's three wheel sizes plus the newer high volume + tyres, then rigid; hardtail or full-suss so just with those two variables there are 18 options! Last weekend among our group there were 26" full suss bikes; a semi-fat bike (rigid frame with 3" tyres on 26" wheels); 650b full-suss bikes and a couple of hardtails. Back in the 1990s a big tyre would be something like a 2" with many people running 1.8", these days 2.3 or 2.4 are fairly standard, the difference in grip is amazing.

If you are mainly in to long days on traditional bridleways then a hardtail with 29" wheels is hard to beat, it's what I have, but as above if you ride trail centres then a full suss would be better in the long term. I'll drop you a PM with something I sent to Escher who posts on here.

In reply to Dr.S at work:

If you like the feel of a steel hardtail look for a second hand Cotic Soul, Cotic BFe, Genesis Alpitude or if you want something a little more aggressive a Stanton Slackline. You can get a really top spec second hand hardtail for a grand- check out Pinkbike.com or Singletrackworld.com.

In reply to Dr.S at work:


Yeah. Although put the time into the newer ones and once you get past the shock, eg several hours riding, can start to see the point.
This is speaking from experience of testing several recently to choose my new bike (although this is proving a difficult exercise since although i decided on one the buggers dont seem to want to take the money. despite being upwards of a grand).
That said though its entertaining how the trend in bikes now aint a million miles away from a bike I built in 96 (I had several years out from 2000 onwards).

In reply to Dr.S at work:

Maybe for your intended use a cyclocross bike? Can be very good as an all rounder.

In reply to Siward:

Have a roadie already, and a crosser would struggle a bit on some of the mendip trails. May look out for something like that for child carrying duties however

In reply to Dr.S at work:

Won't go far wrong...

http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/list/?location=193-*-*&q=cotic%20soul