Introductions - Greetings from an FOS (Fresh on Saddle) :)

Hi friends,
At the outset thanks to Tom for a warm welcome note, appreciate it.

I am Sid from New Delhi, India (33yrs), got pulled into cycling by my younger brother who has been keen hobbyist cyclist (& so was i eons ago). Jr. wanted to start riding again and hence get roped me along as well.

I am otherwise into shipping as my full time profession and most of my free time goes to Music & Listeningn to High end Audio systems at friends/dealers & sharing views.

EXPECTED USAGE
Coming back to cycling, after some bit of Rookie-Research i have got us both the below mentioned wheels to ride on. I just wanted to ascertain how good or bad my decision has been for the purpose of - Riding for pleasure & comfort, not really intend to go off-road big time, unless a rare chance might just pop up. Mostly the bikes shall be driven on mortar streches.

Here are the pics for ready reference:

TREK 3700
http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/images/tr/trek-3700-2006-bike.jpg


GF MARLIN 29er
http://www.mtb29er.com/pics-2011/2011_Gary_Fisher_marlin_29er_bike.jpg


Tx to everyone who can spare time to share some more information on these bikes & tips to consider wrt - shifting gears, handling brakes + other some basic points that you feel could come handy. Considering the fact that this is a my/our first supposedly serious - pair of bikes.



Much apprecaite the help.

Gracias
..

Cheers, welcome to Bike Forums.

Is there a particular reason you want to have a suspension fork, for your planned type of riding?

--J

Hi J,
Tx for stopping by.

The decision made on these two was purely on the basis of the ride comfort and later came to the specs.

I would be beaten by the brick bats here I assume, if I share that I was tpo pick FIREFOX COLORADO - dual suspension, but at higher speed it was funny.

The Marlin has a feature to lock the fs to gain speed, which seemed like a fine option considering the rides till nearby areas on normal road.

Personally, I didn't quite like the tyre treads being offered for now, I'd look to change them wheels with something else in future.

Rest, if the decisions were apt, guess I'd have to ride n tell.

Howdy and welcome to the forums! I am guessing both of these bikes will fit your riding style well with the information you have provided, I have no idea the stats on either of these bikes. Remember it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks as long as you are comfortable and are enjoying riding the bike. The suspension system will make the bike heavier but if you are riding on brick roads it should soften the ride a bit. Also might consider better hand grips if the bone jarring of the bricks gets to bad.

Tx Jon.

Just got back from a small ride around the block with GF and Yes shockers did help and for understandable reasons and these ones are certainly better.

The only contentions are :

- The gear combo was acting funny in some permutations. As if the chain was stuggling between gears.

- the bike seeming got unstable/shaky (can't find words to best describe) while I tried to push it at higher speeds. May be this is one of the lightest around that I drove hence till now and had the 29s on it, so I need to have a hang of it.

- tyres shall definitely need to be changed.

Any pointers on well priced online shop with paypal?

Re: gear combos. So called cross-chaining will make the drivetrain sound bad, wonder if that's what happened there. If you switch to the innermost (smallest) front cog and to the outermost (also smallest) rear sprocket the chain will run at an angle. Same if you use the large-large combination. It's noisy and causes more wear than other combinations.

Indeed a vital pointer there.

Tx Juha

Welcome to the forums. I agree, suspension forks on lower end bikes only add weight an inefficiency. Most of the big companies have started to offer unsuspended bikes once again. Have a look around.

Tx G, it does make sense to have em and not have em. Depends what we as a rider are looking for. Got back from a 30min ride and can surely agree to what u said for locking the FS made an instant difference in speed. But the FS did come handy as well with the bumps here n there. I surely know that, I need more speed here hence would seek options and an online store that anyone may wanna suggest on tyres, the current ones are too soft and offer too much of a surface area on road hence plus the treading isn't too great with huge blank patches (in the design). And to increase the speed a wee bit, I need to trim myself down way much more. Hopefully soon.