Entry level mountain bikes



kingsley wrote:

> We bought a Giant Upland for my dad yesterday.
> There are two models, the basic and the 'SE'(?).
> Essentially the difference seems to be the front
> suspension. We got the base model - my mum was
> paying so I had a limited budget.
>
> For the money ($320 at our lBS), it's a nice bike.
> At that sort of price range you're never going to
> get anything very flash. It's a 7-speed with
> what looks like a huge range on the rear cluster.
> Polished alloy (aluminium?) frame, to pick it
> up it's very light (19" size). It does come with
> knobbly tyres though - get these swapped over for
> (semi)slicks, something more suited to road use anyway.


I'll consider the road tyre swap: that sounds like a good idea. I've got
a semi-slick on my mountain bike, and they're actually pretty good on-road.

$320 sounds like a bit for a basic Upland (I keep thinking "Upload" for
some reason; too much time at the keyboard), but I guess at your LBS in
the Christmas rush you can expect to pay a little bit more. We're almost
certainly going to go for a Boulder SE, and the best I've seen them for
is $385. Our LBS sells them for $429. We're in a smallish country town
about 180km NW of Melbourne, and I have no desire at all to do ~400km to
save $40. :)
 
.. We're almost
> certainly going to go for a Boulder SE, and the best I've seen them for
> is $385. Our LBS sells them for $429.

Make sure it's the 2004 model.
2003 model is 21 speed
2004 model is 24 speed and better components
 
i just bought my girlfriend a TREK 3700 MTB... for the price range -su
400, I was told by many stores that the Trek was a far more competan
road/off road bike than any Giant bike. When I eventually get a chanc
to ride the damn thing, i'll let u know how the bush bashing goes


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