Mountain Bike

[orac]

Cannondale

I have a Cannodale. You are talking 5K with cleats and shoes. As people have pointed out this will last forever, mine is the 2005 version of below. I am not a bikey (even though I have 7 bikes!), I hate the Lycra mafia who go on the train on the morning.

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Cannondale-S...-MTB_21251.htm

In your price range I would go for a Specialized hard tail or a Giant (who make frames for Specialized). I would give Evans Cycles a miss, they tend to not assemble properly. If you go the more expensive bike it will last longer. You can also write a bike off as a company expense, if it is over 2K you can claim back the VAT even if you are on the flat rate scheme (large capital item), plus other "bringing into use items" panniers, helmet and lights.

[Board Game Geek]

Last time I got a bike was when I was 14.

I think my parent's got stitched up though.

I was a chop-shop cut and shut.

The front half was a Raleigh Chopper, complete with the "Easyrider"-style handlebars, and the rear half was the back half of a shopping trolley.

Sort of like this, but in reverse. (SFW)

I've never touched bikes ever since in case I get another bad one.

[threaded]

Yo...

I am looking for a new mountain bike. It has to be light and not too expensive. Ideally less than £300. I also need to buy it online and have it delivered, so if anyone has had any good experiences with buying a cheap, light, good MB online, let me know...

Ta

Look at something like a cyclo-cross bike. An MTB for less than 300 quid is likely to be heavy, useless and if you did try to use it to go off road, quite dangerous.

[threaded]

Out of interest, what kind of mountain bike could one get for say up to £2000 ?

For example, how much would a bike with a titanium frame cost?

£2000 will get you something that won't deliberately try to kill you.

My ice-race bike is a titanium just about everything that isn't carbon (even the saddle is carbon fibre with titanium rails).

You can get a cheap Ti frame for under a grand, 2 grand will get you something reasonable, 3 something decent.

The components then go on as extras, and can add an extra 4 grand.

Because Ti is quite springy you won't need rear suspension if you get a decent frame.

If you're doing stuff that needs rear suspension, then a Ti frame is a waste of money.

[threaded]

Edit: Just saw badgerpig's reply above. What about £3000, if there are quite a few models between 2K and 3K ?

I'm not interested in ultra-light racing bikes, with seats like razor blades, just tip-top quality indestructable mountain bikes.

Indestructible?

Hmm, that's more to do with the engine than the ride...

[threaded]

Or, you could build one of these,

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/...-bike-ec018436

but with the titanium frame.

One of the problems with cheap frames is they save money by using shorter tubes. You try going up a hill and unless you're able to control a bike whilst hanging right over the front bars you'll pull a wheely and suddenly find yourself sliding back down on your bottom.

[Board Game Geek]

I appreciate that there is probably some artistry in this bike malarkey, but surely at the end of the day a bike is just a couple of steel tubes welded together with a set of handlebars and wheels designed to annoy motorists ?

[TimberWolf]

I appreciate that there is probably some artistry in this bike malarkey, but surely at the end of the day a bike is just a couple of steel tubes welded together with a set of handlebars and wheels designed to annoy motorists ?

I tend to agree. Except where a small percentage difference in performance is a big deal, such as in competitive racing. The biggest factors are:

• Aerodynamics. Losses here are more to do with the rider than the bike, e.g. position, frontal area and and clothes worn
• Other frictional losses. Occur mostly at the tyres rather than in an expensive or cheap transmission
• Weight. Rolling resistance is proportional to weight, as is going up hill, but rider weight dominates

Positioning on the bike is important and hence a size of the frame to suit, but that shouldn't add to the cost.

Expensive bikes may also have low tolerances for failure, being just man enough to do the job for a given weight.

[daviejones]

So, the bike is a company expense as long as I loan it to a company employee (me..) and is used for all or part of the journey to work?

[JoJoGabor]

An MTB for less than 300 quid is likely to be heavy, useless and if you did try to use it to go off road, quite dangerous.

How can it b dangerous? When I were a lad, (here we go) I used to do everything on a cheapo £90 mountain bike, I even entered the odd race, did some really rough riding around the the world championship course in Malvern where I grew up, no suspension, not even caliper brakes. For 95% of the riding you would do in the UK any mountain bike would be fine, it won't fail. THe only catastrophic failure of a bike I have seen was somebody using £1000 pace forks, which snapped on a really rough downhill race I was doing a few years ago. However the nice to have's cost more, such as hydro disk brakes and nice forks.