Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

IMG_1394 by andrew8200m posted 10 May 2024 at 00:54

God I love this thing! All clean after a ride out earlier. It’s so much fun and nimble, absolute weapon of a bike!

 

Nearly all the suck is done. Long story short...



I am going to leave some sections exposed raw steel (with clear coat over, obs)





So like these bits, that always get mangled by the wheel nuts



Easter eggs.





Many time later.



Etch.







Am thinking this prolly.

 

Advice taken. Fox 34 Performance forks in 29" wheel, 130mm travel, boost axle have been purchased.

 

Beast of a bike!

 

Nice lightweight set of forks. I do love me the fox stuff. I may get a second front end for mine, a fox 38 factory 180 and stick a 27.5” up front for when I fancy doing stuff a little more hectic on the downhill front.

What wheel, tyre and brake set up do you plan on running on it? Tubeless with a little less pressure for added compliance or sticking with tubes and a more healthy pressure for better rolling resistance?

 

I always run Hope brakes and hubs.

I've got a pair of Tech 3s from my previous build and I'll probably get Pro5 hubs on one of their wheel builds.

I usually always run Schwalbes for tyres on mountain bikes. I've got a pair of 2.4 Nobby Nic's ready for my Trance build, and a pair of 2.8s on my Nukeproof build.

I've only just gone tubeless last year, Muc Off valves and solution. PSI wise it depends where I am. We have a lot of loam where we ride in Northumberland, if I run less that high 20s, I'm constantly second guessing myself if ive got a puncture.

 

I've read good things about the Schwalbes, especially the Tacky Chan so may give them a go once I've beat up the stock butchers a little more. I can see why you'd run higher given the terrain, had many punchers from there then? Touch wood I have only ever had 2 punctures however I have torn the side wall out a few times more than that.

I love the hope stuff but the last set of brakes I had was a while back and the machining was questionable at best between callipers which put me off. Having seen others with the newer vented V4 stuff I have to say its come a long way since those days.

Love the SRAM Codes for modulation and power, yes there are more powerful brakes out there but with larger rotors there is very little chance Ill need more now and these MDR-P 220mm rotors are mad! Little experience with them but so far so good and very clean and noise free which I wasn't expecting.

 

Bike started being a tart earlier, was part shifting between rings so the chain was laying over the smaller ring but not engaging just spinning over it or just clean over shifting off the bit ring. Which I thought was strange being its eTAP so theres no cable to stretch. Moron, the chains suddenly stretched on me. Also a lovely creak in the BB on the same ride so some work to do.

Nice ride mind, bar some code brown pothole avoidance.

 

Was hoping this might be a good thread to get some advice in, I'm looking at getting my first mountain bike having not owned my own bike in about 20 years. However I'm completely clueless when it comes to bikes and have no idea what I'm looking for, my budget would be around £500 ish and will just be using it for riding casual trails around the New forest, nothing too serious. I've seen these ones for sale near me which I think would be ok but I have no idea what I'm really looking for, I think I need a L or XL size frame and larger sized wheels due to my height (6'6") but that's about it.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/bicycles/cannondale-trail-29in-xl-mountain-bike-/1479242168
https://www.gumtree.com/p/bicycles/chris-boardman-mountain-bike/1478862033
https://www.gumtree.com/p/bicycles/gt-aggressor-jamie-swan-comp-9er-xl-brand-new/1477585841

Would any of these be any good or should I be looking for something else? I don't mind buying new as I have access to a cycle to work scheme where I work I just figured buying used would be better value for money.

 

XL frame Cannondale looks like a good deal and at 6.6, you deffo need XL.

 

Finally the shakedown.



I tried to stand it against that wall but the wind is up (15 mph today) and yeah. I was having a rest after about 2.5 miles. That is the thing with wind. You go out with it behind you and before you realise it you are miles from home feeling like a bad ass and then the realisation hits you have to go back into it

So for today's shakedown I didn't want to go too far (like I said about 2.5 out, 2.5 back that is enough for a test) and that was good.

I always stop either here or about another 2 miles along. Mostly because this spot and the other one are between 2-4 miles from Butlins, you can't park anywhere and people are too lazy to walk there so it is always quiet lol. I would have liked to have gone the 2 miles on but yeah, wind, not exactly hot (16c) and so on. Besides it was only a test ride. I totally missed the incredible weather last week as I was working in it. Typical !!!







Now for the important part. How was it carrying it back up 106 steps with very sweaty boobies? well it was much, MUCH easier. Fukka still bit me though



Four sodding holes I did not have before and I bet that won't come out. I am so over that tbh. I saw that they do fold up pedals I might try either those, or those mad ones that are just like rubber pads with no spikes. I don't think I would need anything else and I am tired of this shyt.

I also got into a convo with my brother last week. "Can you build me a bike" he says. "I sure can !" he replies "One stipulation it must have gears". "Bike I can do, you can stop being a woofter because I can't give you gears. Even if I wanted to the frame is 120mm at the rear end and you can't cold set alu". He then changed his mind lmao.



I bloody wish I had a brother like me ! ffs. Funny thing is I hoarded every part, nut and original bolt as well as all of the orange upgrades so the above owes me nothing. Even the grips were free (they are fake so I got a full refund but they match that bike lovely). Only thing missing here is a rear wheel. I said to him I would swallow the cost of all of it if he installs my wall panels in the loft. Done deal, so I bought him this.



Just need a freewheel. Like I said, I fookin wish I had a brother like me

 

Oh and how does the Ti ride? amazingly. It is a thousand times more comfy and forgiving than alu. Coming back? jesus, it is a rocket ship.

 

For me you have 2 ways of looking at it, go with one of the three you've linked. If you don't get into it you've wasted a few hundred quid. If you do get into it you'll realise where the bike you've bought falls down (i.e. you're always on the road get a road bike, or bridleways get a hybrid or gravel bike, etc) and can look to get something better based on this.

Of the three you've linked I'd take the GT. The Cannondale uses Microshift gears and they are crap, it's also get cable pull discs which are poor but better than v brakes. I wouldn't touch the Boardman as its a cheap end full suspension, no lockout on the rear shock, 26" wheels so probably at least 15yr old. Due to it's age I bet the drive train is worn out and will need replacing which will cost maybe £2-300. While it does have hydraulic discs, they are really old Avids and will need some work to get them back to operational (and operational was never that good). Now the GT, while it's the most expensive, it states its not been ridden (and it looks true) so you shouldn't have any worn components. It's a 29" wheel, so being a giant it should fit you better. The downside of it is it's got mechanical discs.

If you went new and cycle to work, you're looking at £5-600 to get the spec of the GT, but I'd recommend spending closer to £800-£1000 to get something that would last.

 

Thanks for that, I don't mind spending a bit more if getting one new as I'll be doing it on C2W so will be paying for it monthly and will save on tax, do you have any suggestions around the £800-£1000 mark? I can then weigh up my options and decide how much I want to spend, I'm not too worried about not getting into it but I want something that's a good all rounder and not too specialised.

I've just seen this one which says it's a hybrid bike and is a bit more expensive so closer to my budget, would this be a better option and is it a better spec than the others?

 

How casual are the trails in the New Forest? Will the bike be used anywhere else or for any other purpose?

 

There's little elevation change and it's not very rocky so they're mainly quite flat gravel/dirt tracks. I won't be using the bike for commuting as I have a car and it's too far so it will see very little road use tbh, I also don't really plan on doing any high difficulty/technical trails so it will mainly be for easy to moderate cross country stuff I guess.

 

For £150 that Cannondale's a very good deal. For green trails and paths it's plenty. Avoid that Scott hybrid, that's about the same level of bike as the Cannondale but hybrids are never any good off road. Between the geometry and tyres they're always skewed towards road use and get sketchy at the slightest hint of dirt.

 

My only concern with the Cannondale is the tyres look pretty worn so I imagine they will need replacing fairly soon and would indicate it's had quite a bit of use (compared to the GT) so don't know what else will need replacing soon. Anyone have any thoughts on this one as this is what I've been looking at getting if I buy new, is it a decent spec for the price?

 

I'd personally steer well clear of that Halfrauds effort.

 

You could get a nice Whyte or even a Specialized hard rail for £675… get looking!