Thread: Mountain Bike

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