Hey, my name is Chris, and i'm just getting into mountain biking. Right now I have a Kent sport tech, and i have had it for about 6 years(my first Real bike) I got it when i was 10, becuase it fit me. Now, i want to get a REAL mountain bike. I have a friend who rides alot, and she reccomend I look into Specialized, Trek, Cannondale and Kona. I have not got a chance to go to a bike shope yet, but i will soon.
So, i was wondering if you guys could help me out a little, cause I know Nothing, I have no idea what a 29er is, I know what a Hardtail is, but thats about it.
all depends on how much you want to spend. Im new to the sport as of about 5 months ago. I wanted to stay in about the 500 dollar range for my first bike so i went out and picked up a Gary Fisher Tarpon and i love it so far. Basically i wanted something fast just so i get out on the trails, most likely in the future i will upgrade some components or the bike itself.
I dont know much about 29ers and have never ridden one, but the main difference is the wheels are 29 inch and not 26 inch. I heard gary fisher makes some good 29ers so you could check those out. www.fisherbikes.com
Full suspension has front and rear suspension, and hardtail only has front. Depending on what you want to spend would most likely determine what you should get.
Full suspension is more expensive, and you may have to spend over 1000 to get a decent one. I chose the hardtail just because my price range, i would like to try out full suspension sometime and maybe pick up one.
Well I am new to this as well but I can only tell you what I found out for my self
I bought a Giant Trance X2 (full suspension) for $1100.00 I love it BUTTTT.
My coworker advised me to make sure the bike I buy has a front lock out. I thought my bike had a lock out but it has a rebound damping that makes it a lot stiffer. after I realized there was a difference I went back to the bike shop to see about a up grade but with a Giant you can't up grade and I am not sure if you can swap out forks either. I hope this helps
I think you'll find that, for a given price range, most bikes are fairly similar. As you get higher in to the prices, technology differs as do the components, but below $3000 or so, most bikes, brand for brand, offer similar technology, component specs, etc. For your price range, you can either look used, or try new offerings from each of the companies you mentioned. Ride each, and choose the bike that is most comfortable, and does what you want the best. For example, I do a lot of climbing, so I tested my bike by hammering a 10-story parking garage against a few others in a similar price range. Do something similar, that mimics the type of riding you want to do (if possible), pick the one that you like best and feel confident that you're getting a quality bike
Well I am new to this as well but I can only tell you what I found out for my self
I bought a Giant Trance X2 (full suspension) for $1100.00 I love it BUTTTT.
My coworker advised me to make sure the bike I buy has a front lock out. I thought my bike had a lock out but it has a rebound damping that makes it a lot stiffer. after I realized there was a difference I went back to the bike shop to see about a up grade but with a Giant you can't up grade and I am not sure if you can swap out forks either. I hope this helps
If this was 1998, yeah, you'd need a lockout. Unfortunately, this is now 2008, going into 2009, where most of the mtbers out there have seen that lockouts don't present an advantage, or even a "must have" aspect to suspension. Suspension has gotten much better, and people have shed the false image that suspension is only an advantage going down, when it has clearly displayed time and time again that it's an advantage going up as well. Any shortcomings will reveal your technique is what the problem is, not the bike. If you note, most suspensions have no lockouts anymore. There is some scattering in the bottom end and high end featuring lockouts, but by and large, people realized they wanted their suspension to work, and those lockouts gave way to platform damping, which has given way to reduction of platform when many people hated it initially, along with control over low speed compression, as it should be.
Now just because your co-worker told you you need a lockout doesn't mean you actually do. This is what many are seeing and commenting now about on the forums, with respect to newer people in mtb posting about the things and expensive upgrades they absolutely NEED to ride, otherwise they can't ride their bike, or their bike is inadequate. Hell, there was a post in the last couple days where someone was asking about if he NEEDS some sort of energy food or something for riding. I think the marketing is really messing the experience up for a lot of people.
If this was 1998, yeah, you'd need a lockout. Unfortunately, this is now 2008, going into 2009, where most of the mtbers out there have seen that lockouts don't present an advantage, or even a "must have" aspect to suspension. Suspension has gotten much better, and people have shed the false image that suspension is only an advantage going down, when it has clearly displayed time and time again that it's an advantage going up as well. Any shortcomings will reveal your technique is what the problem is, not the bike. If you note, most suspensions have no lockouts anymore. There is some scattering in the bottom end and high end featuring lockouts, but by and large, people realized they wanted their suspension to work, and those lockouts gave way to platform damping, which has given way to reduction of platform when many people hated it initially, along with control over low speed compression, as it should be.
Now just because your co-worker told you you need a lockout doesn't mean you actually do. This is what many are seeing and commenting now about on the forums, with respect to newer people in mtb posting about the things and expensive upgrades they absolutely NEED to ride, otherwise they can't ride their bike, or their bike is inadequate. Hell, there was a post in the last couple days where someone was asking about if he NEEDS some sort of energy food or something for riding. I think the marketing is really messing the experience up for a lot of people.
Yeah I agree with you the reason for lock out was I was trying to go up a really steep incline 19% and my old bike made me work a lot harder cause I did not have the lock out that's the reason I suggested the lock out but if you live in flat land or going in rough terrain you don't need the lock out.
Yeah I agree with you the reason for lock out was I was trying to go up a really steep incline 19% and my old bike made me work a lot harder cause I did not have the lock out that's the reason I suggested the lock out but if you live in flat land or going in rough terrain you don't need the lock out.
That's incorrect as well. And such devices as ETA, which locks travel DOWN, instead of being a compression lockout at the top showed how useful compression lockouts really were. ETA even allowed some suspension action to allow some give over the bumps, but your assertion that lockout is still needed is absolutely wrong. A 19% grade is nothing. And under steep climbs, you actually want to make your FRONT end low, not lock it out at the top of travel. You will actually end up working harder with the lockout on because everytime you hit a bump or undulation in the trail, the fork will not have any give to that force that's looking to stop your forward motion. At the least, with some give or an active fork, that force is lessened. With a lockout, that full force is being transmitted to the bike, undamped, except for maybe the tires. This is something people also saw with ETA vs. ECC which didn't have any suspension travel at the lockdown. The ETA became the climbing device of choice for Zoke users.
What we also have on the forums is a culture of giving out false information, not out of malice, but lack of experience, and it's troublesome that it's given out with such authority, including by people new to the sport and they are reciprocally unwilling to take proper, experienced advice back from more seasoned riders looking to ease the pain for new people coming into the sport.
That's incorrect as well. And such devices as ETA, which locks travel DOWN, instead of being a compression lockout at the top showed how useful compression lockouts really were. ETA even allowed some suspension action to allow some give over the bumps, but your assertion that lockout is still needed is absolutely wrong. A 19% grade is nothing. And under steep climbs, you actually want to make your rear end low, not lock it out at the top of travel. You will actually end up working harder with the lockout on because everytime you hit a bump or undulation in the trail, the fork will not have any give to that force that's looking to stop your forward motion. At the least, with some give or an active fork, that force is lessened. With a lockout, that full force is being transmitted to the bike, undamped, except for maybe the tires. This is something people also saw with ETA vs. ECC which didn't have any suspension travel at the lockdown. The ETA became the climbing device of choice for Zoke users.
What we also have on the forums is a culture of giving out false information, not out of malice, but lack of experience, and it's troublesome that it's given out with such authority, including by people new to the sport and they are reciprocally unwilling to take proper, experienced advice back from more seasoned riders looking to ease the pain for new people coming into the sport.
So I went to my lbs today, and rode a Specialized Hardrock Disc, omg. Bike was awesome, the seat was nice, not rock hard, shifting gears was really nice, i almost wrecked the bike because of the breaks lol. Very nice, I think im going to go with that.
They did not have any of the other bikes i was looking at, which is the Cannondale f7 disc, and the Hardrock disc.
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