Mountain Biking - Newbie needs help with bike decision.

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.



PDA
Mtnbknomtns
07-09-10, 06:02 PM
I've been all over town and all over the internet and I've narrowed my mountain bike choices down to two and wondered if you guys had any input.

Gary Fisher Wahoo
http://fisherbikes.com/bike/model/wahoo

Motobecane Fantom 29
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/fantom29_08.htm

To my untrained eye it seems like the Moto has better components in almost every category, but the GF seems like a decent value as well. Also, the GF looks awesome.

samburger
07-09-10, 06:17 PM
Moto is definitely a better value. The advantage of the GF is that you could go to your local Trek dealer & have the bike right there in front of you all assembled & everything. Bikesdirect sends you a 90% assembled bike with nothing tuned. So you're looking at another $100 or so for assembly & tuning, unless you can do it yourself.
DX-MAN
07-09-10, 06:49 PM
Parts is parts; the frame is the heart of the bike, and therefore the ride. The GF (and I'm not a Fisher Fan) is a superior frame.

Motobecane, these days, has a bit of a way to go to convince me they're viable as a presence in the premium bike market.

samburger
07-09-10, 07:14 PM
^^Agreed. Well, not about the Moto frame. I have no real first hand experience with Motobecane & don't know for sure that their frames are inferior to GF. But agreed that the frame is what really matters. And I would trust a tried & true company like Gary Fisher over an internet-only bike any day.
Mtnbknomtns
07-09-10, 07:24 PM
Well, the link was to bikesdirect but there's a store called Cycle Spectrum near me that has them in stock and assembled for 50 bucks more.

As far as a superior frame goes to my noob eye the GF looks like it has stronger thicker welds, but looks identical as far as shape goes. I doubt I'll be doing anything (initially) that could possibly break a weld on either bike, so beyond that what makes it superior?