fishymamba

Hey guys! Any recommendations for cheap platform pedals? I've been using the stock ones that came with my bike and they are horrible. I want to get something better, but I don't really have much money to spend. I don't really care about weight that much, just need something that is grippy and will last a while.

bob13bob

wellgo mg1. cheap light durable.

YeA SpecialiZed

I had a Specialized Rockhopper 26 for a few months. Then I sold it to build a Fixed gear Specialized Langster, now I'm trying to get back on a mtb. I know I want to go with a 29er small frame (15-18) but the question i have is. Do I buy a frame and build one up or do I just buy a full ready to ride bike ? I tend to like building up things but I am not sure if its str8 forward when it comes to running the lines for the brakes and gears ? WHen i built my fixie I obviously didnt need to worry about running lines or de-railers.

NYCJohn170

Thank you, it is indeed a Redemption. I just had it tuned up at my LBS. Thank you!

poperszky

Hello after living on my road bike (Giant Defy 1) for the last several years, I am getting bored and looking to mix it up a little during the season. While I have a good working knowledge of what makes a good road bike, I don't know anything about mountain bikes. I hate wasting money, and you waste money two ways: 1. Buying crap because it is cheap 2. Buying equipment that is way out of your skill range. 3. Buying something you outgrow really quickly and have to buy again (Yea, I know that is 3 things). My price range is under 1K and I am currently looking at this: https://www.bikesdirect.com/products/...antom29_x5.htm

Any thoughts?

poperszky

Well, I chickened out on a mail order bike, when down to my LBS and walked out with this: https://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/...6268/#overview

Just got back from my first trail ride and aside for having to stop and wait for dog to catch up with me a couple of times, it was a real blast.

schmitty87

I am looking for my first Mountain Bike and am probably out of my league posting on here, but I came across a 2009 Gary Fisher genesis sugar 2. It also says bontrager on seatpost. The individual selling this bike is asking $250. He says it has a ton uf upgrades on it. Shocks etc. What kind of questions do I need to ask him, to find out if this is a good deal?

schmitty87

seller says it has: marzochi bomber pro MX front shocks, fox rear shocks, hozfeller aluminum alloy handle bars, all shimano shifting components, shimano deore xt derailer, specialized long arm ll cranks, specialized front shift rings, and parallax wheels.

aaronmcd

Hey, I ride road, race road, commute road. I feel like getting an entry level something-else to mix things up. I have a unicycle, but that's not very convenient for riding around. Problem is, I don't know if I want to ride trails, city, or more bmx style stuff. Ideally I'd get something that I could climb, descend and jump on; and something else for street riding, maybe bmx or hardtail mountain, or fixie (for the backwards/wheelie options).

Obviously it's impossible to get one bike that does everything my road bike can't do, and obviously I can't stuff 2 more bikes into a studio apartment with 2 bikes already. So... looking for help deciding
Suspension
Wheel size
Gearing (trials gearing won't get me around town, single speed is probably better for trick stuff, gears better for the hills I assume)
Geometry/wheelbase/seat height
Brake options

Can anyone tell me what I want?

Zephyr11

You want a Komodo! Ed and I just posted a boatload of pictures of them: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...avel-front-end

But they're versatile bikes. Burly enough to jump and eff around on, but better geometry and better gearing for riding singletrack than a jumper. A little on the piggy heavy side for a hardtail, but just about anything overbuilt will be. Plus they're just fun bikes.

aaronmcd

How heavy is heavy? As one used to 15 lb road bikes, I'd probably think 25 lbs is heavy haha. Also, that head tube looks really shallow. Is that normal on mountain bikes?

Zephyr11

Stock, it's about 35lbs. If you wanted, you can probably upgrade things to lower the weight a bit, but it's not a light frame, and you'll still want to stick with burly-ish stuff if you're going to mess around with it as an urban bike and DJ. Not entirely sure what you mean by shallow...my headtube angle is pretty slack because I put a longer fork on there, but HT angle varies for mountain bikes depending on the bike and its purpose. Very generally speaking, steeper headtubes are more nimble to steer and climb better, but are less stable and more squirrelly on descents.

Below 25lbs, you're mostly looking at XC bikes, as well as pricier trail and possibly a few expensive all-mountain bikes. What are you looking to spend, anyway?

laegrim

Hey Ya'll; I've been riding road bikes for a while, and I'm looking to get into mountain biking. I just craigslisted an old road bike I had lying around, so I have about 1000 to play around with. Living in the Austin I've got great access to the Texas hill country and city trails, so plenty of opportunities to start out and work my way up.

I've been trawling craigslist looking for some good deals, and came across these:
https://austin.craigslist.org/bik/4188983688.html, which I've worked down to 900
https://austin.craigslist.org/bik/4178994907.html, which I've worked down to 1000

Any advice on which might be the better deal, or either is a good deal? Are there some new bikes I should be looking at instead? My main concern is getting a bike I'll be happy with for at least a few years, and won't feel limited by when if comes time to upgrade parts.

Thanks for any advice you guys can give!

vaspurakan

Hello everybody,
Can you suggest which bike to choose between these two.
[h=1]Cube Aim SL 29 2014
https://www.cube.eu/en/bikes/mtb-hard...9-black-white/[/h] Specialized Hardrock Sport Disc 29 2014

https://www.specialized.com/us/en/bik...-disc-29#specs

Zephyr11

You test ride them both? If not, go do that and get the one that fits and rides better. They have pretty different geometry, so there's a decent chance that one will feel better than the other. The bike that feels better is the bike to get.

If for some odd reason they feel exactly the same, I'd probably go with the Specialized since I'm familiar with their products (well, their road bikes...their mountain bikes are fine quality, but I have yet to ride one that actually fit me and felt good).

vaspurakan

Actually I do not have chance to ride and test them both. In locale shops we don't have Cube bike model and I can test it when after ordering it will be delivered to me, but we have Specialized bike shop.

As I can see from specifications Cube model has little advantage for some parts compared with Specialized model, but the price in the internet online shops Cube price is less then Specialized in 200$ (I am wondering why), but locally for me price will be less then only 20$, so this is why I am thinking if Specialized can produce more reliable bikes may be I will buy Specialized model and not Cube. What can you suggest?

Ahoutsch

Hello all,I'm def a novice mtb'r. Started with a 26" HT gt avalanche a few years ago. It was a 26" on xl frame. For reference, I'm 6"2' with very long legs so even tho it was an xl frame, I always felt it was a small bike. I felt that I had to have the seat so high that my center of gravity was way up in the air. That led me to buy a 9r HT.

I got a diamondback overdrive sport with hydro disc brakes. It is also on an xl frame with 22" tube length. On my first short DH I felt like I was so stretched out that I was going to fly over the bars even with the seat lowered so I ended up shortening the stem (90mm to 60mm). Any shorter and I'd be too far back on the bike. It did the trick for the most part.

The challenge I still have is that because my legs are so long, I struggle to find a sweet spot of seat height for trail riding that will give me good pedal efficiency and obstacle clearance without destroying my knees. A super high seat makes me feel very unstable on the trail but I gain major pedaling power. The xl frame on the 9r is obviously not as nimble as the 26r but it does drop my center of gravity a little and the obstacle clearance is nice, as well.

The point of my post: I'm in the rocky area of eastern Pennsylvania and I think I'm ready for a F/S rig. I don't want to go brand new 9r because the cheapest option in my budget is the gt sensor which is about $1100. Downside of that bike is that it's so entry level that I feel a slightly older used bike would be better component wise. The upside of that bike is that I can pretty much choose the frame size and I can buy it on layaway from performance. My other options are what I've seen on eBay a lot of 26r's in large or xl frames with full susp and better components. Lots of options I've found in the ~$1000 range. Not many 9r's tho.

I guess my question is: at 6'2" 225 lbs (before riding season weight), am I too big even for a 26" on xl frame? Should I def save and hold out for a 9r whether entry level new or upgraded and used?For reference, my riding skill is beginner/novice. I ride trails that are rated 2 out of 5 in difficulty. The super rocky crazy downhills are not something I'm into yet. I'm doing tight and twisty single track with a little downhill exposure. Lots of technical rocks and roots etc. if I could get by for a year or so on a decent used 26" fS that costs me $500-$1000, then I'd probably go that route. My fear is that the geometry of a 26 fS will screw me no matter what I pay for it. Thoughts?

dminor 

One of the more obvious solutions to me is for you to get a dropper seatpost - - that way you can have good leg-extension for climbs but still be able to lower your saddle for confidently negotiating descents and technical sections.


BTW, I broke your run-on narrative into paragraphs so that it would be readable.

Zephyr11

I RARELY recommend people get 29ers. However, at your height and knowing you're riding Eastern PA, I'll make an exception. Most of my eastern PA buddies ride 29ers for XC trails (and when I say most, I mean just about everyone I know other than myself, including my fellow short riders who look ridiculous on bikes with huge wheels). I guess they all just are willing to sacrifice a bit of the agility for bigger wheels over the roots. I don't think I've talked to one of them who regrets the 29er.

Ahoutsch

Yeah I enjoy that without much technical handling skill, my 9r HT pretty much goes over anything. Handling I think will improve as my own personal fitness and agility improve. I'm obviously not going to get any shorter.
Think I'll be heading to an lbs or performance to test ride a fS on both a large and xl frame. I've been told that with an fS, you want to size down on the frame. Is that accurate?
I recall with my 26r going over small log rollovers and the front seriously plunging into the trail and having to use all of my strength to keep from flying over the bars. I'm thinking I don't experience that with the 9r because a) I've learned to shift my weight back and get the wheel up and shoved over the log and b) shortened stem.
My fear is that the stem on an xl 26 would also be too far over the front wheel but shortening would screw up the rest of the geometry.
Seat post dropper is def on my to get list. Currently I'll ride an entire trail with the seat lower while standing during 95% of it. Sometimes I can adjust the seat on the move.

Hope this 'narrative' is edited a little Better

Ahoutsch

Here is a shot of me sitting on the 9r xl HT

Ahoutsch

So I've narrowed it down to the GT Sensor 9r FS 2013.
There are 2 options available.
One is from performance bike and is the Sensor Comp which prices out around $1199.
The other is the Sensor Elite which prices out around $1440. Better shocks and slightly different/better(?) components on the elite.
I've done as much research on the varying components as possible. To me, the better buy seems to be the elite. The guy at performance told me that the brakes on the comp were better than the brakes on the elite (Shimano BR-m395 on the comp vs avid elixir 1's on the elite) but I don't know much about that. I have the shimano brakes on the HT and I think they stop pretty darn well.
I'm strongly considering selling the hardtail to put the cash towards the new bike. At a $240 price difference, is the elite the better purchase?
Thoughts?

harrisonk

I stick mostly to road and TT bikes but want to buy a fat bike for the fun of it. What is a good entry level bike that I can get? The Specialized Fatboy is $2,000. Is there anything cheaper?

meganlatebird

I am looking for something light, nimble, good climber. I ride mixed roads, trails, fire roads, old logging roads in the mountain. I am small and light and am not going to be doing any serious stump jumping. A cyclocross bike might be adequate except that most of them seem to be geared for racing and not for the kind of hills/mountains where I ride (17% plus slopes). Any suggestions?

roadandmountain

I'm looking at a specialized fsr xc from 2008. The owner says it's been well maintained and is asking $700 OBO. Any thoughts on this bike? Is that a fair price?

It has 4" travel front and rear and v brakes, not disc. Solid deore level stuff for the most part. Any feedback appreciated.