Bike Selection

[Kentrez]

 

Hi There,

 

I have decided to start cycling again but having sold my previous bike I will need to get a new one to start up with. I'm looking at spending not more than around R25k(there is a bit of flexibility)

 

I would like to know if it would be recommended to get the best bike I can for the money I can get, or rather buy a cheaper one and then upgrade the components as I start getting more comfortable with the bike and with tinkering.

 

Also I would like to know which bikes come recommended, I personally like the looks of the Silverback Mercury and a few of the KTM bikes(Score RC 3.0 and Lycan 3.0).

 

I live in the country, so it will have to be MTB as I will be driving mainly gravel roads and dirt paths. I would also prefer dual suspension to hardtail.

 

Thanks,

Richard

 

Kentrez2010-02-02 04:57:12

[helpmekaar]

The Giant Anthems are some of the countrys top sellers currently. Have one myself and extremely happy with it. Up until recently these bikes have been on back orders at most cycle shops, other alt scott spark.

[Kentrez]

Are the giants available in other colours than the ones advertised on the int website? Some of the sparks look quite nice.

 

Would you recommend going for as good as I can get within my budget or starting out with a cheaper one and later upgrading bit by bit?

[MadScientist]

I would say buy the best you can afford, since this should have close to top of the range group sets on anyway, thus you will not need to upgrade only to maintain. I have a Merida and am very happy with it so i would obviously recommend it to anyone

 

[Kentrez]

 

I looked at the 96 HFS 3000 but the squarish frame put me off a bit. I had a look at some cannondales as well but frankly, driving on a fork with only one arm scares the crap out of me :-P

 

Does anyone here have any expierence perhaps with the Silverback Mercury's and the KTM bikes?

 

 

Kentrez2010-02-03 03:50:56

[MadScientist]

The best option how ever would have been to attend the Ride before you buy day at tokai but that was a weekend or two ago not sure when the next one would be. So the next best option is not asking for our experiances but rather go to you LBS and arrange to give the bikes you are interested in a quick try and see which you like more, eg. handeling, fit ect.

[Cranky]

In terms of weight, responsiveness, ride comfort etc. (and resale value if you ever want to upgrade), I think the Giant Anthem X is far better than a Silverback or KTM. Get the X2, then slowly upgrade components when they wear out.

 

If you were buying a hardtail, make wouldn't matter as much. But for a dual suss, the geometry and handling are big considerations, and the Giant is a winner here.

[Kentrez]

I will be doing that before I buy, just looking for some pointers as to which bikes I should be looking at. I'll have to get to Cape Town for that though as our LBS doesn't really stock anything above about 15k.

 

Also if someone has expierence with a bike they could say if the frame is perhaps prone to break or something that I should be carefull of on a specific model.

[MadScientist]

at 25k no frame should be prone to break unless man-handeld completely