Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

I'm a roadie but i lack a road bike atm
probably going to grab one before nov for the bay in a day ride (that or do it on something like a trek soho s or redline 925)

Anyone else a commuter rider?
and anyone else want an xtracycle

 

Can't find one review for the Scott Scale 50, even though reading about it seems like a fantastic bike (and my bro also said it's fantastic)...

 

plenty of reviews via Google (well look out for mtbr etc)

Anyway it's a typical low-medium range XC bike* with typical XC geometry, travel and weight. The Tora 302s are good bang/buck and it even has some XT kit on it. Juicy 3s are good brakes and punch above their weight. It compares with pretty much any other hardtail XC bike at the same price point

In my book (for XC): Low = 500-700 quid, medium = 700-1000, high = 1000-1500, stupidly high = 2k+, insanity = 3k full carbon sub 9kg bikes.

 

Those of you with Hope hubs - what do you think of the noise? I can't stand really clicky growly hubs... I want a smooth hub with zero noise freewheeling, so when I'm rolling through a forest I can hear the noises around me.

 

I swear you get used to it, to the point that you can't even hear it. It's weird, sometimes I'll be on a ride and I'll TRY and listen to my hub, but it takes a few seconds to pick the sound out, even though it's really loud. Call it desensitisation or whatever, I promise you that you won't worry about it being too loud. You can get perfectly silent rear hubs though - at least you used to be able to (Shimano Deore clutch hubs) but I wouldn't bother. Or just try and go as loud as possible and get a Chris King

They do make front mechs but I've not seen one - my meta came with a Shimano front mech too. The front SRAM mechs are compatible with Shimano shifters (and vice versa) so it's easy to mix it up - whereas the rear ones are annoyingly incompatible.

My bearing actually went first, after about 6 months. I got the replacements from ebay at £2 each (4 needed per bike). I got a bushing off a mate who had a spare, but apparently he got them from Maplins. As long as you get the exact right diameters it's a very cheap way of doing it. But I haven't tried it myself so can't confirm.

 

Not really, I mean a proper review on the bike i.e. going through everything, giving score etc.

 

^those kind of reviews are hard to find for any bike stuff online, you've got to buy a magazine to read a really good review. most of the major publications have good back-catalog departments, if you call them and ask if they have an issue with a review of that bike they should be able to tell you what issue, and you can order a copy.

 

Also to a pretty large degree, a cross country hardtail is a cross country hardtail. The spec is average for the price rang with nothing too flash or too cheap and Scott have a solid reputation for race-bred hardtails. But it would be very difficult to separate it from any other Marin/Spesh/Giant/<insert bike co here> in the same price band. Unless you can ride a few to see what you like, you may as well just go off the spec

 

The noise on mine over a few months has gone from a very clicky-clacky noise to a slightly more dampened click. It's still loud but not as bad as it was. Tomm's right, you do just tune it out when you're concentrating on riding.

Ok, cool.


Completely agree with Tomm on the hardtail stuff, there really isn't much between them in terms of frame, handling or characteristics, so you can just choose on spec/paint job

 

The grease migrates after a few rides and that quietens everything down. You can add more lube for a quieter hub if you really want.

 

Anyone had any experience with those helmet cams?

 

My girlfriend and I are just getting back into Riding. I literally hadn't been on a bike for about 5 years until just the other day. But anyway - with my new (maybe crazy) mentality of "Lets get all fit and nice, and lose the belly", I'd love to get back into it.

Can anyone recommend a good brand to look into, as I'm thinking of splashing out on a new bike. I've got about £100 - £200 to spend on it, but in particular it needs to be a good ride for both town and country. Any suggestions would be very greatly appreciated!

 

You'll be lucky to get a good mtb for under £200.

Have a look here for cheap stuff though.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...319_crumb_33980-33957-31319_topcategory_31319

 

TBH I'm not massively fussed about second hand bikes - just looking for some general ideas about which brands / makes are good choices.

 

I have experience of watching helmet cam stuff. They're boring to watch unless you're really, really, good. Also do you mean an external helmet-mounted camera for a DV camera or just one of those all-in-one units you see in some places, that save to SD cards? I reckon those all-in-one things will be rubbish - you'd probably get better results by sellotaping your phone to your helmet...

 

It's a bit of a paradox really - if you spend under £500 on a mountain bike, and you actually use it as such, it'll work out more expensive in the long run, as parts will break or simply wear out too fast. My arbitrary cut off is at about £500 for a hardtail (£1000 for full sus). On the other hand if you only intend to use it once and put it in the garage afterwards gathering dust, then £500 is a lot of money. It's tricky.

The only 'answer' to this is to buy a second hand bike for ~£3-400 and ride it a bit. If you get bored, at least it'll be worth roughly what you paid in the first place, and you can just pass it on.

I'm aware that's not a massively helpful reply, by the way

 

Or really really bad

It's not really for others to watch. I'm going to the alps with my dad later this year and I thought it would be a cool thing to take with us. All the ones I've seen though do look utter toss.

 

Loads of places sell decent kit, though for a worthwile setup you're looking at £400 with bullet cam and helmet or bar mounts. Looking into purchasing a sports recording setup myself, but all in ones aren't really worth the money. The best one is the ATC-2000 which is £90ish, fairly ok quality but AA batteries and 2GB max SD card limit it somewhat, it's IP68 waterproofed though! I've tried a large percentage of whats on the market (I work for the people who make a lot of them) and the camera is the limiting factor in quality not the recorder!

 

Pics of my Commie Meta 5.5.1





Bigger size on my Flickr (though you might need to log in?)

 

Mmmm, lovely. I need to get pictures of mine.

I just bought a DMR Trailstar frame to try my hand at dirt jumping. Built it up with some bits off my trials bike, resulting in a stupidly low BB, and the stem is too long but it's still damn fun. Regardez:




While I'm doing pictures, here's my trials bike: