MarylandBro

Hello everyone,
I'm new here and I'm interested in buying a mountain bike for college. I'm not interested in a more expensive bike, as I'm mainly using it to trek from class to class. Also, bike thefts are common on campus apparently. The campus is quite hilly- and there are a lot of bike pavements along with the road

I found three bikes on Dick's Sporting Goods, which are all on-sale for similar prices. I don't know much about bikes, so any feedback on which is best would be greatly appreciated.

Diamondback Sorrento 2014- Originally $380- now $200
Diamondback Sorrento Mountain Bike | DICK'S Sporting Goods

Diamondback Outlook 2014- Originally $310- now $180
Diamondback Adult Outlook Mountain Bike 2014 - Dick's Sporting Goods

Nishiki Pueblo 2014- Originally $300- now $200
Nishiki Adult Pueblo Mountain Bike 2014 - Dick's Sporting Goods


Also, what size frame should I get? I'm a 6'0 guy, around 210 lbs.

Thanks!

no1mad 

Moved from Mountain Bikes to Commuting, since campus cruising fits in better here than among the DH/XC discussions.

no1mad 

You can remove the Outlook from the list- too small. You should be looking for a ~20" frame.

MarylandBro

Thanks for the reply. I was also considering this Nishiki Hybrid for $250. Between this and the Diamondback Sorrento, which would be better? Nishiki Adult Montour Hybrid Bike 2014 - Dick's Sporting Goods

dminor 

At your height, don't look at anything less than a 19. That's pushing it a bit even, but for casual campus cruising would be a comfortable blend of easy on-and-off and efficiency . . . as long as you can get decent fit.

no1mad 

Basically the same drive train on both. The DB Sorrento has 26" wheels and trigger shifters, the Nishiki has 700c wheels and grip shifts...

If this bike is to basically live outside all of the time, I'd probably go with the Sorrento- alloy crank and hubs, versus the steel of the Nishiki.

MarylandBro

I'm going to be primarily using it on roads/pavement, so would using the Sorrento slow me down/be less efficient? Also, I'd like to take this bike with me when I travel, like to Virginia Beach.

InOmaha

I'm 6'3", 225-230 lbs and I picked up a used 22" 2008 Sorrento a couple of years ago that's holding up okay for my uses. I've dinged the frame a couple of times and the aluminum doesn't care. It has a replaceable rear hanger in case you use it as a mountain bike and bend it. I'll probably look at a used 7sp Deore XT rear derailleur now that I've put 1,000+ miles on it. Shifting is a little off in the middle of the cassette and I can't get it dialed back in. It's not worth dinking around with the lower end components when I can snag older high end components off eBay.

You'd need to replace the plastic pedals immediately since they will break and it seems they put a cheaper front shock on these newer models. Crank the front to the maximum resistance and change out the knobbies for something that rolls easier and it's not a bad commuter.

MarylandBro

Are mountain bikes fine for mostly pavement/road use? Like is it inefficient to use them? The Diamondback Sorrento is $50 cheaper than the Nishiki Montour. $50 is $50 lol. Do a lot of people ride around college campuses in MTB?

InOmaha

It's less efficient but not terrible. I rode mine 22 miles yesterday. I'm using it to train back in shape after a surgery and my road bike stance is too aggressive.

InOmaha

We recently went back to my old college and there were bikes of all sorts. Older steel 10 speeds, mountain bikes, cheap and crappy BSOs, and lots of bright colored fixed gear conversions and cruiser bikes.

One of the new ones you listed would work, or if you're handy, an old steel bike off craigslist and a tune up might work. $50 and another $50 in tires and cables might get you a something you could lock up on the rack and not worry as much about it going missing.

Our campus police had a bike sale every semester. They went around after school was out and collected the bikes abandoned by students who graduated or moved back home and dumped their bike because it cost more to do something with it then it was worth to them. You may check there too.

Our local police have regular auctions out of their impound lot too.

fietsbob

Spend a Lot on a Locking system, Colleges are places bikes are stolen.

TransitBiker

Try to get a good and proper treaded trekking/commuting tire, and keep the agressive tread tires fr when you plan to ride offroad.

I just bought a new tire to replace a blown out one on my uptown, and it was not cheap, but its better than the one that came with the bike.

Do not get anything too skinny, you need some cushioning.

- Andy

sonatageek

I think the Sorrento in the larger size would be the best bet from what you are looking at. Getting a set of smooth tread tires for it would make it a nice campus and vacation bike. If it were me, I would spend a bit more on the tires and get something with good flat protection and ideally a reflective sidewall for safety. As to replacing the pedals (all of those bikes have not so great plastic pedals) I would opt for a nice set of large alloy platforms.

Saving Hawaii

Speed depends on how you look at it. A carbon fiber road bike is gonna be a lot faster than a beach cruiser. But if you're living pretty close to campus it might not actually get you to school any faster at all. Slick tires on a MTB is faster than knobby tires on a MTB but once again if you're not going very far it won't actually make a difference in commute time. If you can see almost all of your riding being short local trips you wouldn't really be at a disadvantage to just use the stock knobby tires until they wear out and buy new commuter ones then.

phoebeisis

Used-MTBs Trek 700(700c wheels) ,800,900 (26" wheels) series bikes with mainly Cromo Frames-are usually cheap-$60-$200
sturdy reliable with decent resale.
The steel generally is surprisingly resistant to rusting out-UNLESS you live in a road salt rust belt region-in which case get aluminum frame.

Specialized Diamondback pretty much all the manufacturers made similar cromo steel usually not sprung "Mountain bikes"
Which weren't actual mountain bikes,but were great Do Anything- asphalt concrete grass gravel light trail bikes
The wider low pressure tires make them great for unforgiving potholed streets
Change the tires for "street tread" no lugs-and they are perfect campus/urban/suburban bikes

Aluminum equivalents are just fine also-usually 1.5 lbs lighter-roughly the same price- mid to late 1990's"mountain bikes" with no suspension-or perhaps just a heavy but functional suspension front fork-don't let the suspension fork scare you off a higher number Trek 900 series-
They are very nice bikes-despite the heavy superfluous suspension fork

Anyway-decent bikes-mid late 1990's " unsuspended mountain bikes" even some Schwinn "Paramount" named ones with splatter paint jobs-yeah they are distant 3rd cousins to the Paramounts the Vintage folks"cheat widows out of" then brag about it.

RubeRad

Depends what you consider to be "terrible"; knobby tires are the #1 biggest inefficiency of riding a mtb on pavement rather than a road bike. #2 I think would be the loss of energy in a suspension fork, so like recommended above, crank to maximum stiffness if that adjustment is available. And as also mentioned, a tire swap is an easy way to avoid the inefficiency of knobbies; there are plenty of cheap commuter tires out there.