recommend me a bike....help a noobie :-)

[stevo_125]

first post so, hi everyone

well i bike an awful lot on and off road. i've been doing around 6 miles a day, every day for the last 5 years cos of school/college. BUT.... i never really had a decent bike. My current bike is a raleigh tigershark (isync 266 fork) its an o.k bike for road use, but long distances or of road and it sucks... slow gear changes, sluggish, tempermental brakes. all the rest of it !

now i've finally decided to get a new bike, preferably a MTB, got around £200 to spend, £250 absolute max... i know that wont get me anything special, but suggestions on something reasonable + easy enough to upgrade.
at the mo im looking at the claud butler "rock" 2004 model, or the diamondback m20.
the CB bike has deore gears, but pretty standard v-breaks, not sure about the DB, the guy in a local bike store suggested it too me. both bikes have suntour XC60 front shock.

steve.

 

[Prophet7131]

how much is 200 pounds in american cash? If possible i would look at cannondales. Also if possible get a lefty. once u ride a bike with a lefty u wont want 2 ride anything else!

 

[woodenit]

The cannondale Prophet is one hell of a bike and it's available at a variety of prices...TJ

first post so, hi everyone

well i bike an awful lot on and off road. i've been doing around 6 miles a day, every day for the last 5 years cos of school/college. BUT.... i never really had a decent bike. My current bike is a raleigh tigershark (isync 266 fork) its an o.k bike for road use, but long distances or of road and it sucks... slow gear changes, sluggish, tempermental brakes. all the rest of it !

now i've finally decided to get a new bike, preferably a MTB, got around £200 to spend, £250 absolute max... i know that wont get me anything special, but suggestions on something reasonable + easy enough to upgrade.
at the mo im looking at the claud butler "rock" 2004 model, or the diamondback m20.
the CB bike has deore gears, but pretty standard v-breaks, not sure about the DB, the guy in a local bike store suggested it too me. both bikes have suntour XC60 front shock.

steve.

 

[Super Otaku]

The cannondale Prophet is one hell of a bike and it's available at a variety of prices...TJ

Maybe you should check out the Specialized Hardrocks. Very good all terrain MTBs.

 

[woodenit]

How much American do you have top spend....it might be a good idea to go thru your local want ads. Specialized, Raliegh, Mongoose, Trek, Schwinn, Gary Fisher and Giant are but a few good names to start with....TJ

 

[Prophet7131]

yes the prophet is one hell of a bike. As you can probably tell I have one and I am never going to ride anything but Cannondale full-suspension ever again! You can look on Ebay. You can usuallly get full-suspension for about the price of a hardtail, sometimes even good full-suspension like a prophet or jekyl for instance. I hope I have been some help.

 

[DecSim]

Hi Stevo

There is a very similar discussion going on in this thread- http://www.cyclingforums.com/t218551-which-one-is-best.html

I've suggested some bikes in there. Ignore Cannondale purely because for £200 (round about $400 for all you americans ) it's not worth considering.

 

[intensity]

well i dunno what pounds are really but i think that about $300 something right??? well you cant get a whole lot for that much. maybe look on ebay and check out some treks, you may be able to get a 4900 on ebay but in a store i think tat much will set you in the 4500 range. that will give you a nice light frame to start of and when you break all the crappy components you can just throw on good ones and then eventually buy a good frame and then pow! you have a sick bike.

 

[freeride_er]

hey i got a hardrock, im into dirtjumps and stuff so i moved up to a p.2. i think somethin from the specialzied hardrock line would fit u well. i had one and it only had a few small probs cas i abused it and rode it really hard.