golfer007

Wanting a MTB for simple cruising desert trails here in AZ and I will definitely do some very smal lscale jumping but nothing cray. Also want a bike that I can ride for a few miles on the street with my wife that is comfy. Was looking at this bike and wondered how this would be? Looks to be a pretty nice deal but how is quality?

https://www.bikesdirect.com/products/...ymaker2900.htm

I want something clean, usable and cheap. Please steer me in the right direction!

papaish

The bikes you chose are not bad for the price. What I would recommend before buying one on line is to go to as many Local Bike Shops (LBS) as you can and road test their lower end MTB's. Each type bike will have a different feel to it, and try to get the geometry for the frames so you can compare them to the ones you see on line. Keep in mind if you are new to the sport and have little knowledge of bike maintenance then you would have to take them to a LBS to have them put together and adjusted, which would cost more. You could try buying a couple used bikes, you will get more bike for less money as well. Hope this helps.

pablosnazzy

yes, go to every bike shop, make sure you ask a slew of questions and test ride all the bikes, spending as much of the time and energy and effort of the employees as you can, then go online and buy something. then you too can be a complete doooooshbag.

when you do buy stuff online and have a problem with it, be sure to go to your online seller for help with warranties and installation and such.

OR,

go to a bike shop, tell them you want to spend X amount on a new bike, you are new, and they should help you out, buy from them, and you will have a place to go when you need help, and you will be part of a community.

golfer007

I just got back from a local Trek store. I rode the Wahoo and Mamba. The Mamba 21" which I believe is XL fit me like a glove. However, I also rode a 1.2 rode which made me realize I think I want road. However, do any of you have experience with any MTB's of BD?

Daspydyr 

Bike's Direct is a toss up. There is a thread active right now that is about a worst case scenario of an online purchase.

I ride both but prefer Mountain Biking. An advantage of buying a fat tired bike is that you can ride it anywhere. Skinny tires are pretty limited to roads, unless you buy a CX bike.

Can you give us some more details? Age, riding experience, part of AZ you live in, golf handicap? I grew up in AZ and love it. The off road trails are absolutely smoking., especially in August! Seriously though, you have some great dirt and MUPs. You and the wife can have a ton of fun.

3speed

+1

ShimmerFade

If you aren't super concerned with riding with a roadie group you can easily slap some slick, as skinny as your rims can take tires on an MTB, and do pretty good on the road. I take my MTB over my trekking bike nowadays because it actually weighs less and it is way more comfortable (nice plush fork with some Big Apples). However, I can carry more stuff with my trekking bike. I usually have someone who can take my extra clothes (my girlfriend ;P) because I'm usually riding to meet up with her, so all I really need is my 100oz hydration pack, a bit of food, and a few tools to be able to fix up the bike in case of the most common problems. I can go for up to around 150km pretty comfortably like that depending on the weather. It also handles steep uphills really nice too without wearing me out.

However, if you are going for pure speed, and plan on riding with other roadies then you should probably get a road bike.

FutureHero

I've heard good and bad things about bikes direct, I probably wouldn't order anything from them. I just bought my first "real" mountain bike from a LBS. I test rode pretty much every bike in the $400-$600 and I ended up buying a 2012 trek marlin 29er. The shop I bought it from is moving and they were having a moving sale, so I got it for 10% off. I've ridden it a handful of times so far and I love it.

samburger

Just curious, what's the bad you've heard? Not trying to troll, I'm genuinely curious, because a lot of people seem to have negative notions about BD bikes (presumably because of the price & the fact that they're online-only) but the only evidence I've seen to back it up is a thread from years ago when Ed cut a BD frame open & said the thickness of the metal was unnervingly thin. If there are legitimately bad experiences out there, I'd like to know so I can advise people on these bikes accurately.

SlimRider

Almost all bikesdirect bicycles are manufactured in either Taiwan or China by Kinesis. Kinesis is known throughout the industry as maintaining very high quality control in the production of their bicycles. Kinesis currently manufactures all Diamonback, Raleigh, Jamis, GT, Motobecane, Dawes, Mercier, Windsor, Kona, Felt, and most of Schwinn Signature bicycles.

Needless to say, the overwhelming majority of bikesdirect bicycles are quite dependable.