Mountain Bike Questions

[Penhold]

Mr. Cruiser

You may want to check out the July 2004 edition of Consumer Reports magazine. It has a review of Full Suspension Mountain Bikes, Front-Suspension Mountain Bikes, Hybrid Bikes and "Comfort Bikes."

The bikes reviewed there (many of which are available in Canada) should satisfy your needs if you are only a casual rider and not intending to use it for heavy off-round use (or for careening wildly down Blackcomb).

Under the Full Suspension bikes, they rated both the Cannondale Jekyll 400, Specialized FSR XC Pro and Trek Fuel 80 bikes the highest (in that order). All list at about $1500 to $1600 in Canada.

Under the Front-Suspension bikes, they rated Gary Fisher Marlin, Specialized Rockhopper and Trek 4500 the highest (in that order). All list at about $690 to $750 in Canada. The best of these bikes rated below the best of the full suspension bikes.

The article contains some other information that may be of interest before making a decision.

Try visiting a few of the shops that sell only bicycles (e.g. Cap's) and ask questions - when you start getting the same answers from several different shops you can start separating the bs from the facts.

It's true that you get what you pay for. However, it's also true that many people buy far more or far less than what they need for their intended purpose.

If your needs and wants don't justify a $4,000 mountain bike but only a $1500 bike, that would leave you with $1500 for other hobbies - such as the ladies.

 

[azen]

there's a sports store that sells used equipment on the city hall side of the cambie bridge. might be able to find what you seek there.
xo...azen

 

[Granola Boy]

It sounds like you guys/girls are harder core riders than me. But, here's my 0.02.

You have to ask yourself what type of riding you're going to do: downhill, trail, mostly road cycling, etc.

From there you can break down the type of bike you'd like to get. If you're planning to do a lot of road cycling, but want a "mountain bike", then a cheaper hard-tail is fine. Even a bike with no suspension is fine.

Hard-tails (front suspension) is fine if you're going to do trail riding/cross-country riding. My personal favourite are the Rocky Mountain bikes. Designed in Delta, it's easy to get parts for them. Norco is great too, as they're based in Coquitlam. Same goes for Giant, which is based in N. Vancouver.

Full-suspension is mostly for those that want to do downhill riding, like what you see at Whistler and on those Ride Guide shows. I've never done it so I can't comment on which ones are good. Expect to spend like most said here at least 4000.00 for a good bike with good components (esp. good shocks and disc brakes-I'll explain the pros and cons of that later).

If all you've got to spend is 500.00, you won't be able to get a good-quality new bike-maybe something from Walmart, Canadian Tire or London Drugs, but not from a dedicated bike shop. If you're willing to go used, there's plenty of places, which include pawn shops and used sports equipment stores. My present trail riding bike is a Rocky Mountain Hammer Race and it retailed for over 1100.00, but I picked it up for 290.00, so you can do the math on what I saved on it. I got lucky and didn't have to do much to it except get a new stem, so that's something to keep in mind.

Keep in mind around Sept. 15 is the unofficial end of the riding season and they'll be slashing prices for bikes in places like Whistler and the other places where they rent out bikes. I almost bought a bike that was several months old for 50% off until I got my present bike.

GB

 

[deke]

For the amount of money we are talking here, I think us lazy guys would buy a dirt bike.

 

[james007]

Go to Precision Cycles on Victoria Drive. (604-438-7661)

A few of my buddies and i bought a few bikes there and the prices were better than anyone elses when we were shopping.
They have a big sale right now and they also custom build bikes.

Oh yeah, they also have good discounts for parts and stuff.
Go check them out.

james