Opinions please

in message <[email hidden]>, Alan

(') said:

Following on from my post Ebay Bikes.....has anyone any thoughts on
this bike.

Targa Pro 19" New Gents Alloy Mountain Bike Disc Brake

I have no connection whatsoever to the seller / maker.

It looks as if it might be good enough for me at this time, I am not
fast, keep the tyres connected to the ground as much as possible but
more importantly am not in a position to shell out large amounts when
my knowledge of modern bikes is almost nil.

I think you'd do better seeing what you can get second hand locally.
Disk brakes offer no benefit except in fairly extreme forms of cycling,
and front suspension which is any good costs more than this. This bike
will probably work OK, but will be significantly heavier than it needs
to be because of 'features' (the suspension and the disks) which will
offer very little benefit.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

Anagram: I'm soon broke.

Hi there,

I recon I could get up to maybe £300 to £400 or slightly higher....It also
depends on how good a deal the bike is.

Regards Alan

"wheelsgoround" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Simon Brooke said:

I think you'd do better seeing what you can get second hand locally.
Disk brakes offer no benefit except in fairly extreme forms of cycling,
and front suspension which is any good costs more than this. This bike
will probably work OK, but will be significantly heavier than it needs
to be because of 'features' (the suspension and the disks) which will
offer very little benefit.

I agree completely.

It's a bad move to get a cheap bike with suspension and disk brakes

because

Quoted message said:

it will all be of relatively poor quality.

Better to spend the same money on a bike with "ordinary" (rim) brakes and

no

Quoted message said:

suspension. You will get a better quality bike which will be better to

ride

Quoted message said:

and will be more reliable.

My advice to anyone buying a bike on the internet is "Don't" /unless you
know exactly what you want and what you are getting/

What do you think you can stretch you budget to?

Ian

Simon Brooke said:

I think you'd do better seeing what you can get second hand locally.
Disk brakes offer no benefit except in fairly extreme forms of cycling,
and front suspension which is any good costs more than this. This bike
will probably work OK, but will be significantly heavier than it needs
to be because of 'features' (the suspension and the disks) which will
offer very little benefit.

I agree completely.

It's a bad move to get a cheap bike with suspension and disk brakes because
it will all be of relatively poor quality.

Better to spend the same money on a bike with "ordinary" (rim) brakes and no
suspension. You will get a better quality bike which will be better to ride
and will be more reliable.

My advice to anyone buying a bike on the internet is "Don't" /unless you
know exactly what you want and what you are getting/

What do you think you can stretch you budget to?

Ian

Alan said:

Following on from my post Ebay Bikes.....has anyone any thoughts on thi=

s

Quoted message said:

bike.
=20
Targa Pro 19" New Gents Alloy Mountain Bike Disc Brake

In general, =A3200 is (IMHO) the point at which bikes /potentially/ start=
=20
turning good. But there's a Big If, and that is that they must be as=20
basic as possible, so all the money is being spent on things that really =

matter, such as a good frame and an acceptable transmission. Anything=20
that smacks of go-faster stripes is best avoided, and in this case the=20
GFS are disc brakes and suspension, both of which require Real Money=20
spending on them to be done properly.

But first thing's first, what do you actually want to /do/ on the bike?=20
Mountain bikes are a great wheeze if you want to bomb around rocks,=20
bumps and mud, but they're very much second best outside of their own=20
particular arena. Many (most?) MTB owners don't take them on anything=20
you couldn't easily manage on something else and spend lots of extra=20
effort on roads where they'd be actively better off on something else,=20
so what do you have in mind?

Pete.
--=20
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Alan said:

I recon I could get up to maybe £300 to £400 or slightly higher....It
also
depends on how good a deal the bike is.

£400 will get you a good bike. The Targa Pro you mentioned can be had for
£169.99 retail (or maybe a bit less on ebay) so if you follow the
no-suspension, no disk-brakes advice, your budget will get a much better
bike.

I''ll butt out at his point as Pete Clinch is asking the basic questions
that need to be asked to determine what is the right kind of bike for
you......

Ian