Thank you all, guys, for the response an for the warm welcome! It's really nice to receive the help and to read the opinions from people around the world. Internet is a really great thing, and this forum is one of the best resources there!
Originally Posted by
aggiegrads
Please forgive the question, but how much do you weigh?
Oh,
aggiegrads, you should not apologize for your question, it's correct! My weight is about 50-55kg (110-122 lbs), plus backpack (no more than 10 kg (22 lbs)), see photo below:
Originally Posted by
aggiegrads
It weighs 3-4kg more, but if you are carrying gear, you would hardly notice the weight.
The weight is not a problem while riding. My current bike is about 18 kg (~39.7 lbs) and I really do not feel it's "heavy" while riding.
The problem is that I need to travel to my riding road by the train, so I should carry the bike in hands to load it to a railroad car, to bring it to the railway platform and so on... The problem is about hand-lifting and carrying, not about the riding.
Originally Posted by
fietsbob
Can you get all those bikes where you live? are there bike shops to test ride any on the list?
No, unfortunately, I cannot get none of the listed bikes locally. There are only a few bike shops in my area, and there no Konas, Salsas and so on there. The most popular bikes here are
Stelses,
GTs and, sometimes,
Cubes. Almost all bikes here are
MTBs. Most of them are full-suspended.
I have to mention that buying a new, well-known-branded bike is not common in my area, most peple buying old used Japanese or very-very-very cheap Chinese nonames.
There is no such thing as "test ride" in local shops, as I know. You can go to the shop, talk to seller, see (but not to touch!) the bikes and make a decision which to buy (or not to buy). If you buy a used bike (or bike which someone sells personally, not as a shop), you can do a very short ride arond the seller (a few meters circle around the person who sells the bike). I have no idea how to understand anything from such test!
So, I decided to import the bike myself. Fortunately, now the e-Commerce is very developed and Russian post has a very large and reliable logistics network, so delivering a bike from the US or the EU should not be a problem. I have an experiense in delivering appliances and equipment from Germany, China, Japan and the US, so I think, I can buy the bike online anywhere.
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I have a question about Jake the Snake. I've read at
Bike Radar's review that this bike is hard to drive uphill:
However, while we understand that 48/39 front chainrings are great for the road, we were gagging for lower ratios when riding 'proper' trails. That'll require a change of chainset though, so try and negotiate a swap to a triple or compact drive unit when you buy.
The are many hills in my area, and climbing ability of the bike is important to me. Which of the mentioned bikes can provide it?