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bloody hell marc, he's got no off road experience and you try to hand him a nicolai... thats like giving a new driver a super car. nice bikes hey are though.
sparky, think about your budget first, and then go look at the trails and see what they are like.
its pretty obvious but the more fancy stuff you get for your budget, the lower the overall quality of everything will be. do you need gears or will singlespeed do? do you need suspension forks or will rigid be fine? look for disc brakes cos the are better, cable ones work well enough but dont feel as nice as hydraulics, though they are much easier to work on if your knowledge or tools (i.e. on the trails) are limited. rigid bike are amazing first bikes, they can teach you so much finesse and make you a better and quicker rider based on skill alone, so if you ever upgrade you'll take that extra learned ability with you right away. my local store has started selling the charge singlespeed off road bikes and they look quite impressive (except the huuuge wide bars). do you wanna jump and throw it around or do you wanna sit down and pedal for hours at a time?
never an easy question to answer, but it might also help you if if you popped to a few bike shops and spoke to the staff there. at the very worst, you'll know what you dont want to buy.. good luck.
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A decent brand (Kona, Specialized, etc.) with a front suspension fork is the best option.
or you can get a Hybrid, that usually all it take for it to make it ready for off-road is a simple chanhge of tyres.
work for me when I got a Kona Smoke, flick the tyres round and it's already a rigid mountain bike that handle well (and of course removed the mudguard if you don't like it).
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on one inbread frame and forks, build it up as you want. If you don't have the money for gears to start off with just set it up single speed to start off with. Swap to suspension forks if you fancy in the future.
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If you have the budget...
http://www.freeborn.co.uk/shop/frames/full-suspension/67-ellsworth-epiphany-frame
Its the next gen to the Id, which is probably the nicest bike I have ever ridden. So I bet this is the bees knees.
As for going ridgid. Depends on your trails. How hardcore they are. Can't say I'm a fan of them in any case. I used to run a Hardtail that was dead nippy and I can't imagine going back to the Surrey Hills on a ridgid bike. However if you do have the budget, and are doing rougher stuff a high end full sus is the way to go. They aint worth it on a lower budget. Personally I think you need to spend at least a grande on the frame if you do that. I think I still have some bits at my parents house. Including a Manitou Black from about 7 or 8 years ago that could defo do with a check up, but is still a sexy fork.
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Hardtail. If you can get one, MTB Comp from Boardman, 650 quid, decent kit (recon forks, juicy 3 brakes, x.7 gearing, nice ritchey wheelset) crazy amount of spec for the money!
Hardtails are also best to start off on, light, nippy, and as it's not as forgiving as a full sus, it'll be better to get the technique down, then when you feel you wanna go too big for a hardtail, get a full sus, go big, get hurt, get back up.
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I have this one
http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/product/5473.html
deore groupset
race face cranks
mavic rims
Hope mono mini's
Marzocchi forks
£800 ish
Very nice ride. -
http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/?fn=category&categoryId=100
Value for money you don't get much better than Merlin.
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About
Bumpy bits
Posted by
@Sparky
Coming back from a nice ride to the coast yesterday I realized that I now live two miles from a forrest that has miles of lovely hilly tracks. I also got an email from the HR department at my new job about the bike to work scheme. An idea is forming.
Do I go for a nice hardtail mountain bike with lots of lovely gears, or one of these new-fangled jump type bikes? I've got no offroad experience, and I've got other bikes for the road. I just want somethin indestructible to bomb about on. Any help much appreciated.