Mountain Biking general thread

[ZedLeg]

Had a clear out of the bits and pieces I had lying around and bought myself my first 29er, Kona Lava Dome.

Still have my Chameleon, I’ll mostly be using this to go around town. Maybe some light trail riding.

Should be with me next week so I’ll see how I get on with it.

43AB5D41-A404-4D78-B324-EBA178CDE88C.jpeg (188.7 KiB) Viewed 1629 times

[John]

I love my hardtail 29er, so fast. In fact it's pretty much replaced my CX bike.

[Carlos]

Good value. Single ring hardtails seem to have come down in price

[Zonda_]

I’m going to try and get out on my bike soon, not sure if my hand will take it though.if I’m ok I’m going to see about buying a new bike as technically this one is my dad’s. There seem to be a load of different types these days, what is the most suitable for road use and going through woods?

[ZedLeg]

Good value. Single ring hardtails seem to have come down in price

Yeah, I thought it was a good price for what it is. I expect the components will be on the cheaper side but nothing stopping me upgrading later if I like it. I’m a chronic tinkerer when it comes to bikes

[Gavin]

I’m going to try and get out on my bike soon, not sure if my hand will take it though.if I’m ok I’m going to see about buying a new bike as technically this one is my dad’s. There seem to be a load of different types these days, what is the most suitable for road use and going through woods?

Depends on the woods but probably a XC bike. So hard tail, not dissimilar to Zed's new bike above.

[ZedLeg]

Aye, there's a lot of choice in the £500 to £600 range that'll do what you need. The other one I was looking at was the Specialized Rockhopper Sport.

Stock seems to be a bit thin on the ground just now though. The one I got was the last in stock in my size on Chain Reaction.

[Zonda_]

This gets pretty impressive reviews, https://vitusbikes.com/collections/nucl ... -bike-greynever heard of the make but that seem to be the case for most of them nowadays! I've noticed the biggest change seems to be with the gears, only a single sprocket at the front, have they done away with the 24+ speeds now?

[ZedLeg]

never heard of the make but that seem to be the case for most of them nowadays!

Same tbh, that's why I got a bit old man and went for one from a brand I knew

The spec on that looks fine though. Should do you alright.

[Gavin]

I have heard of Vitus, they are highly regarded, like On One they seem to be a make that isn't well known so you get more for your money.

Single front ring is very much the norm and makes life a lot easier, you know you are going up or down. On my Cube, I still have the three at the front but is 2 at the front and 6 on the back higher or lower than 3 at the front but 2 at the back? It over complicates things which can be a bummer on technical routes, probably not a problem on forest routes but I suspect it will be harder to get the 3 rings as time goes by.

[Zonda_]

I'll take my old one out for a ride and see how I go then if I'm OK I'll order one of them.

[mik]

So Danny is still off his trumpet.

That’s an agile drone too

[Gwaredd]

Is it just me or is anyone else finding it hard to get mtb parts lately? I'm tring to upgrade my hardtail to 2x11 or 1x11 drivetrain, but the second I find a good deal, no stock. Anywhere.

The only stuff in stock is the SRAM NX 1x12, but that's only in the boost options which I don't have, or XTR stuff which is silly money. I Normaly get stuff from CRC or Rose bikes, but both of these seem to have been shat on by Brexit.

[KiwiDave]

Is it just me or is anyone else finding it hard to get mtb parts lately? I'm tring to upgrade my hardtail to 2x11 or 1x11 drivetrain, but the second I find a good deal, no stock. Anywhere.

The only stuff in stock is the SRAM NX 1x12, but that's only in the boost options which I don't have, or XTR stuff which is silly money. I Normaly get stuff from CRC or Rose bikes, but both of these seem to have been shat on by Brexit.

I think there's serious issues with supply and demand globally. My mate is in charge of buying for our biggest outdoor retailer here and has given his MTB team as much money as they want and they physically can't buy stock of alsorts. Normally they're throttle by only $Xmillion to spend this year, but even with that cap removed and all bets are on attitude they can't get the stuff from manufacturers. I know the UK has much better buying power than here but I'd imagine the same is true for basically everyone.

[Carlos]

I Normaly get stuff from CRC or Rose bikes, but both of these seem to have been shat on by Brexit.

It's not a Brexit thing, it's a general supply issue.

We've bought more bikes, upgrading , fixing etc and stock is low/non existent with manufacturing and logistics struggling with Covid to replenish.

[ZedLeg]

Bike arrived today after a week of snow delays.

Not had a chance to take it out yet but it looks really good in the metal. Plastic pedals will get switched out straight away but other than that it's ready to go.

[simon_g]

Is it just me or is anyone else finding it hard to get mtb parts lately? I'm tring to upgrade my hardtail to 2x11 or 1x11 drivetrain, but the second I find a good deal, no stock. Anywhere.

The only stuff in stock is the SRAM NX 1x12, but that's only in the boost options which I don't have, or XTR stuff which is silly money. I Normaly get stuff from CRC or Rose bikes, but both of these seem to have been shat on by Brexit.

Yep, glad I did the shopping for bike bits back in the Autumn. Although most Shimano stuff was hard to get hold of even then.

The SRAM "boost" option is just to do with offset on the chainring, the crank itself is the same. So if you're in a pinch get the boost one and replace the chainring with a 6mm offset (non-boost) one. Unless you're climbing up cliffs you'll probably want a 34t or bigger chainring anyway, 32-50 is crazy low gearing for most people.

Superstar make them here so no supply issues: https://www.superstarcomponents.com/en/ ... w-wide.htm

[Sundayjumper]

I Normaly get stuff from CRC or Rose bikes, but both of these seem to have been shat on by Brexit.

It's not a Brexit thing, it's a general supply issue.

Exactly. Not Brexit, it's Covid. Last summer we had a double whammy of people off work because of covid and wanting bikes, and simultaneously (with a time lag) people in the far eastern factories off work because of covid. So it's been a nightmare supply-wise.

And although it's only a moderate part of the UK, Specialized had a huge fire at their UK HQ last weekend. Not a huge amount of stock held there but organisatrionally they're on a back foot for a while.

EDIT - Buy a Pinarello instead

[Shlergen]

Picked up a Trek X-Calibre 7 in Nov last year of the 'bike to work' scheme. It's brilliant and got me back into riding. I note the price is now 100 more than I paid

[John]

I've got a Trek Pro-Calibre, great bikes for the money and one of the lightest I could find too without spending silly money.