mtb bikes

[retrofive]

May as well throw this out there. I'm sure some of you guys mountain bike. I am so far out of the loop (and never really was in one) of bikes these days.

I have had in the past a 2001 S-works, 2003 StumpJumper Comp, and currently parts to a 2002 Specialized p2.

Looking for a new ride. The p2 is fun, but not what I want.

Don't have a lot to invest so was looking at older Specialized FSR's, Epics. Enduro's or Cannondale's Jekyll, Scapel (if I could even afford the frame), Kona's.......

So what is a decent company now days with a decent price point? I don't mind sacrificing the full suspension if it is a good hard tail.

Budget ~$600

 

[tag3]

No full suspension at 600. Trust me on this. Piece of crap bikes. Minimum on full suspension is $1400-$1500. Minimun.

 

[Fast Eddy]

You know there's a whole MTB board?

You could also check out a local forum on MTBR: Oregon - Mountain Bike Review

For your budget and where you live, I'd look for a nice used steel hardtail with disc brakes. A Jamis Dragon would rock, or a Gunnar. Look for 853 steel, but 4130 is pretty good too.

I've got a sweet steel Singlespeed that's complete, but not for $600. Mr. Phil Wood is about double that.

 

[oUZIo]

Yes you can get a full suspension... at a superstore, the only problem is it wont last long

Bought a hardtail Trek 4300 a few years ago, no disks, helps me with all the adrenalin I need on a singletrack. A buddy bought a cannondale at the same time, man... it was nice.

 

[mustardfj40]

For 600 bucks I would keep riding that S-Works MTB that you already have, just install a new set of tires and brake pads and ride away.

600 bucks don't get you much if you want a new nice complete bike. A good front fork may cost more, or nice full suspended frame cost twice that much.

The US dollar has lost quite a bit of its value. 600 bucks may buy a you nice XTR crankset...Ouch!

 

[semlin]

for $600, get a used bike on craigslist or pinkbike.com. bottom end on used full suspension in rideable condition is closer to $800.

 

[trainrech]

Ditto on upgrading the s-works.

 

[mazder]

RideMonkey.com Sold my last 2 bikes on that site. Great classified section and info.

 

[retrofive]

Thanks guys. Looking around. I sadly sold the s-works few years ago.

 

[Jetboy]

I'd try riding a 29er if you haven't been on one before. Not everyone likes em. I love mine for what I do. I mostly ride cross country single tracks, and I throw a set of slicks on for commuter duty. (29er=700c so you get a wide variety of tire options from the MTB tires to cyclocross narrow knobbies to slicks.) If I were riding hardcore downhill or going to MOAB on a regular basis I'd probably buy a full suspension 26" bike. I have done slickrock a few times with the hardtail 29er. Works fine, but not as confidence inspiring on the more technical downhill sections in part because they sit taller.

Also I'm 6'3" so the larger bike seems to fit my size a bit better.

I bought a different iteration of this bike for both me and my wife. Save up to 60% off new Mountain Bikes - MTB - Motobecane Fantom 29Trail. Looks like they've changed a few components down on it - like the shock that was rock shock Dart 3 w/lockout is now Suntour.

No affiliation with the company, and it's risky going with off brand, but I've been happy. They are all Kenisis frames - same as Felt, GT, Jamis, K2, Raleigh, Trek, Kross and Kona, and the components are off the shelf parts. This one seems like a decent deal as soon as they get more in stock. Mountain Bikes - MTB - Windsor Cliff 29 PRO . I probably would have bought that one if it were available.

Neither bike has a lot of high end components, but they are mid range stuff.

Bikes are ridiculously expensive for what is being produced. There's no reason why a bicycle should cost more than $1,000 with aluminum components. The engineering is not complex. The manufacturing process isn't all that complicated. But a $30 frame and $2-300 worth of parts becomes a $2k bike. Think about what goes into building a motorcycle as compared to a bicycle and when you can buy new dirtbikes in the price range of a bicycle it's obvious that the profit margins are enormous in the bike industry. - rant off

Good luck with whatever you end up with.

 

[semlin]

i disagree with jetboy

there is a ton of r&d engineering cost in modern bikes, relative to small volumes of sales. distribution, marketing and support to hundreds of individually owned bike stores is also expensive, as is warranty support on products that get broken constantly. these are small companies with technically complex products and huge overhead expenses relative to sales. most are on the brink of bankruptcy all the time. for example, the owner of race face, which was a major bike component maker with over 50 employees, recently walked away from the company after the bank wanted to reduce his salary to $120k/year. he couldn't find a buyer and neither could the bank. he felt he could do better owning a hardware store.

the online bike and bike parts market is cut throat and super competitive and you get what you pay for. a cheap frame with high end components only makes sense if you are not going to ride the bike hard enough to risk breaking it, and if you know the cheap frame fits.

i do agree many local bike stores are not high volume so they have a healthy markup, but paying the extra is worth it if you do not do your own maintenance.

 

[Jetboy]

Have you ever broken a frame? I have had plenty of components down in flames, but unless they are house brand stuff, they have little to do with the label on the frame.

The only one I've ever seen actually fail is a carbon Madone 5.2. IIRC the older 5 series were American, but are now built by Kinesis.

It seems kinda hard to believe that a lot of cost goes into aluminum mountian bike frames when there are about 3 factories in Taiwan that produce 95+ percent of aluminum frames. Basically a buyer can just select from a set of pre-drawn forms. You pick a material, extrusion size and/or formed tube shape for your top, down, and seat tubes,

Then you select your stays:

, A bottom bracket, head tube, and some dropouts and order it up. IIRC large orders get you to around $30-50 per frame.

Then you choose a fork and groupo or a mix of various components and you've got yourself a bike.

Or they offer a list of pre-made options. I kinda like this one:

Anyway, I'm not sold on the idea that a good quality bike can't be built for a lot less than a high end name brand bike.

I do agree that if you don't know how to tune and maintain a bike you need to have a good relationship with your local bike shop. If you don't you shouldn't even consider one like I bought as they come just like bike dealers get them in a box with about 40 minutes of assembly to do to put the fork on and adjust and tune everything.

 

[semlin]

Have you ever broken a frame?

The only one I've ever seen actually fail is a carbon Madone 5.2. IIRC the older 5 series were American, but are now built by Kinesis.

It seems kinda hard to believe that a lot of cost goes into aluminum mountian bike frames when there are about 3 factories in Taiwan that produce 95+ percent of aluminum frames. Basically a manufacturer can just select from a set of pre-drawn forms. You pick a material, extrusion size and/or formed tube shape for your top, down, and seat tubes, Then you select your stays: Welcome to Kinesis Website, A bottom bracket: Welcome to Kinesis Website, head tube Welcome to Kinesis Website and some dropouts and order it up. IIRC large orders get you to around $30-50 per frame.

Then you choose a fork and groupo or a mix of various components and you've got yourself a bike.

Or they offer a list of pre-made options. I kinda like this one:

Anyway, I'm not sold on the idea that a good quality bike can't be built for a lot less than a high end name brand bike.

i broke my previous frame, which was a rocky mountain etsx. before that i bent the stays on my old trek hardtail. but yes, if you do not ride hard singletrack trails i agree a cheaper bike frame will probably do.

i was riding this weekend with my son and a couple of his 13 year old friends. one was on a specialized hard rock and the other on a k2 department store bike. both entry level and probably $150 retail between them. same frame size, and model of suntour shock, and both made in taiwan factories.

i was comparing the construction and welds between them. weld quality looks the same but otherwise no comparison. on the k2 the stay tubes are much smaller, weld joints are smaller, headset joints smaller, and all the main tubes are slightly smaller. despite that the k2 weighs significantly more due to it's cheaper heavy wheels, steel handlebars and seat post and a dozen other small detail differences, plus slightly crappier components.

i would not hesitate to buy the specialized.

 

[Jetboy]

I edited my post quite a bit after you had quoted it - some of the pics weren't working right. Anyway I believe I read that Pacific bikes or whoever it is that imports the bikes for walmart and other department stores, buys frames for under $10 each from China. I'd guess there is a difference in frame quality between a well known factory in Taiwan and a true bargain basement Chinese factory. Who knows if the department store K2 comes from the same factory as the bike shoe K2? I have no idea. Possibly they are all from Kinesis? The K2 Factory 4.0 is obviously the generic frame I posted above. Here's a pic

My season pass at the snowbird is good for biking this summer as well, and my buddy works as deer valley (which has a lot more downhill biking terrain), so I'll probably put quite a few downhill miles on this summer that I wasn't able to last year. At 215 lbs I should put the frame through it's paces pretty well. I'm not a hardcore biker by any means, but I did just run a marathon this Saturday, so I'm in reasonable shape. We're still skiing here though, so it'll be a while before I'm out riding much.

 

[retrofive]

All very good info. Perhaps I should give a little more info.

The s-works I loved, started the build from the frame up with all the components I wanted. I probably was into the whole bike $800 with some patients and smart shopping. Nothing spectacular, but solid frame, shocks, and components.

Crappy financial times came about with a breakup (shocker right)... and it left.

Not finding another frame within my cost I found the stumpjumper complete at a pawn shop and picked it up. Rode similar to the sworks, little more heavy with some lx stuff (vs all xt) but was happy......

until someone broke into my garage and stole the stumpjumper fsr, my old skool GT bmx and just the fawking front tire to my P2.

I dont really want to buy a new wheel for the p2 seeing the neck is bent. I would prefer to just find a another bike. I don't ride as much as I used to, and don't care if it is not fancy.

I have been looking the Scott line up of hardtails. I also have most the components in either xt or xtr lines to swap out.

 

[Fly Rod]

You are just 2 months late. Cimperative cyclist had Yeti frames on blow out. $699 would have gotten you and asr or as-5 frame. Bummer.

You might check some of the bigger online shops for closeouts. Fwiw, the new Salsa Spearfish frame retails for $995.

Good luck!

 

[retrofive]

Just a brief update, friend wasn't using his bike, just sat hanging in the garage, so he let me use it I hate the shifter.lever combo on it and may swap out some parts. But it rolls lol. '09 trek4300

 

[retrofive]

Haven't ridden enough to tell I like the front fork, but have Manitou 120 fork in the garage from a project I never started.

 

[Mr. Toad]

...

i was comparing the construction and welds between them. weld quality looks the same but otherwise no comparison. on the k2 the stay tubes are much smaller, weld joints are smaller, headset joints smaller, and all the main tubes are slightly smaller. ...

These are some of the best welds in the industry. Awesome tubing too. Made in the USA.

Titus Racer-X, same frame that I ride.

Haven't ridden enough to tell I like the front fork, but have Manitou 120 fork in the garage from a project I never started.

Any riding is better than not riding.

 

[ravewoofer]

Did you see Titus closed shop a few months ago? The firm had a great reputation, so I'm guessing some one or entity will buy the name and designs and start Titus up again.

I never saw Titus here in New England, although guys from my NY office race them and really love them.