Mountain Biking - Paging Danka24 (and anyone else) opinion needed

I'd like opinions on this bike http://www.raleighusa.com/items.asp?deptid=2&itemid=187 click on the link and check the specs. Is it a decent bike? Do you think it would be huckworthy? Can I jump it off of the roof?

Thanks,
Noloft

That looks like some pretty thin rear triangle. I wouldn't trust it. I likey beefy looking rockers.

The triangle is a bit on the suspect side, if you want a bike like that get an AC1 or a Kona Stinky or Stab

I think it looks plenty strong. I'd huck it... if I were into rough hucking. Errrr...

Whoa! Looks like Raleigh is stepping up!

Pretty nice rig!

Looks like a Stinky from about 4 years ago!

L8R

You like aluminum rammed up your butt pal? I wouldnt go off a big curb on that thing. Honestly .... doers it look like a stable strong design to you? seriously does it? The rear of that bike is soooooooooooo weak in design I would huck off a roof on a "green machine" with more confidence...lmao DONT DO IT DUDE!

Go Mountain Cycle or something even Intense Cycle has some designs that are way better than that for prolly around the same price im sure.

DV,

If he is looking at those I am sure intense bikes aren't in his price range.

I don't think it looks weak at all. Sort of like an Elsworth ID or something. Looks plenty strong to me, and if Raleigh built it for freeriding and whatnot I'm sure they know what they're doing.

I agree with Mael, for the money he's probably looking for a bike around $2,000 to $2,500 complete!

$2,225 will get you an Intense Uzzi SLX FRAME!

If you want a good deal check out www.supergo.com and look for the Iron Horse SGS bikes. There are three models there. My buddy got the black one(SGS Expert) and it's a sweet bike. Plus, they're offering an additional 10% off right now with a coupon code. FYI: Code is 122203.

That's a KILLER DEAL for what you get!

L8R

yeah, i don't think he'd be looking at intense if he's looking at raleigh... unless of course, he fcan find a used intense for the price he's willing to spend (i saw a used intense uzzi dh, complete for sale on some other forum a few months ago for $2500 USD - still too rich for my blood, for now anyways).

i agree with a2, the sgs is a good bike for cheap. it's a good tough bike that you could huck off a roof or something with.

that raleigh looks nice, but like the others, i think the rear triangle looks pretty fragile. also, with only 5" of rear travel, i wouldn't be hucking off anything big with it.

Yea I will third A2's comments on the Ironhorse Bikes, they are a really godo deal considering the parts used on them.

I don't think it looks weak at all. Sort of like an Elsworth ID or something. Looks plenty strong to me, and if Raleigh built it for freeriding and whatnot I'm sure they know what they're doing.

For the hardcore (think roof drops)...ellsworth doesn't have a great reputation. Nicely made bike but the exist on the paint replacement program. The upper part of that triangle looks like it would break from a curb drop.

Ironhorse for that price. Much burlier :)

As allready mentioned, for the price not much compares with Iron Horse right now, they just have cheap bikes that can take some abuse if you don't mind the weight. Come to think of it, their SGS Freeride series coming out pretty soon isn't even heavy, they're well under 40lbs I believe.

As for the Raleigh, there is a big difference between how much abuse it will take and how much you'll like the ride. The rear end does remind me of an older Giant AC, a bike I had for a few weeks and absolutely hated. The rear end was way too flexy. You're not going to break the Raleigh unless something goes way wrong, but do you really want to ride a bike whose rear end is wagging around while you're trying to hold a line?

Unless you've ridden it there's no way you'll know how stiff the rear end is... it's just conjecture at this point.

Unless you've ridden it there's no way you'll know how stiff the rear end is... it's just conjecture at this point.

YEs but there are things that can be assumed by the design and the rocker arm and rear triangle.

But none the less it's an assumption. For all you know the entire rear swingarm is made out of cast iron :o

Engineering is based on working with past experience. You could tell me that without building it there is no way to know a bridge will fail but I can say based on past testing with load and structural members that it should not work.

If this was a new design that had never been tested then you may be right about guessing but this is a known design, there are known forces and cast iron or not the structure is only as strong as it's weakest members, which in this case are the tiny little pivots. There are tiny pivots near the dropouts but those aren't leveraged hard enough to be a problem, however the pivots to the link are going to be a definite problem. The way the link and the seatstays meet in an /\, the small bearing size, leverage the link has to twist the seat tube, and the lack of gussetting between the seat tube and the top tube it's easy to see this rear end will have a lot of lateral flex.

If you actually had to build every design you thought of instead of being able to make informed decisions by evaluating the design the whole engineering profession would be a joke. Instead there would just be a testing profession, we'd all build things, try them out and see how they worked.

Face facts, there are known issues surrounding different designs. Saying nothing can be determined from that is rediculous, it would be like you telling me there is no way I could know unless I rode a single pivot bike with no floater that it would suffer from brake jack, when I could absolutely know that because it's one of the known outcomes of the design.