Surfing Waves

I've finally come to the conclusion that I can't surf often enough here for that to keep me fit, so I'm gonna get a mountain bike.
Anyone into mountain bikes here?
I have done a bit of research into it all and think I need a cross country bike, with no rear suspension and possibly front suspension as I will be mainly on roads and paths with the odd off road excursion. My budget is up to £300 - which seems a lot to me but apparently only gets me the bottom of the barrell of bikes !

My best bet that I've seen so far is a GT Avalanche 3.0 with or w/o disc brakes. Cheapest I've found is £270 with discs or £225 without discs - here
http://www.discountcyclesdirect.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=5560

Can anyone think of a better bet? or have any advice?

Cheers .

get on ebay mate you can pick up some right bargins, just finished buliding my cove stiffie, frame, sus every thing came off ebay saved my self about £600

Cheers bro I'll go have a look .

yep i'll go with Phil ..use ebay broo' .. im hunting a new bike too .. hanging onto 75kg body weight is getting damn fleshin hard these dayz

here she is, rips up single track, who needs full sussers

I'm quite into MTBs... Ive got a serious bit of kit for proper off-road (Trek Fuel), and a road-converted MTB for daily cycling (30 miles a day now).

If you've got £300 to spend, then your best bet will be the Specialized Hard Rock

Hard Rock

(actually that one's the 05 model with disc brakes, which frankly you dont really need. And its 15" frame, and if you're a normal size grown up you'd probably want 17-19")

They're perfect entry level bikes, and good for on the road or light off-road. Ive just worn one out, so Im buying another one this weekend!

nice man , nice .. naaa no one needs rear suspension unless your my mate martin who likes to ride of off cliff faces and such ! .. twat !!

yeh thats nice bro .. that'll take a good pounding on and off road ..how much it cost in the end phil ?

Phil wrote: who needs full sussers

Depends what you're doing, but if you're on track or road, then no you dont need the back suspension - just makes it harder work to pedal!

drowningbitbybit wrote: a road-converted MTB for daily cycling (30 miles a day now).

Are you f**king mad

Phil that is 1 sweet bike, have you ever been to the avan forest (nr port talbot) in sunny southwales its supposed to be some of the best single track in britain and you can camp there.
Me and the boys were down there a few weeks ago and its absoulutly pant shitingly awesome! Until I caught a flat tyre flying down 1 of the many hills resulting with a rapid meeting with mr stones and my body, but i limped away almost unscathed so its all good still

pat42 wrote:Are you f**king mad

Fleshin' knackered

i didnt want the extra cost of a full sus bike i almost brought a marin and an orange but i wanted a bike i could do every thing on and not struggle to much on the climbs even though the 2.5" tires dont help much there, the cove handles every thing ive done a few 4ft drop offs, takes any thing you throw at it


cost me around £650 most of it is brand new would have cost over a grand to buy in a shop

WishKid Wales wrote:Phil that is 1 sweet bike, have you ever been to the avan forest (nr port talbot) in sunny southwales its supposed to be some of the best single track in britain and you can camp there.
Me and the boys were down there a few weeks ago and its absoulutly pant shitingly awesome! :D :D Until I caught a flat tyre flying down 1 of the many hills resulting with a rapid meeting with mr stones and my body, but i limped away almost unscathed so its all good still :D

nope never been riding in wales but heard alot of good things about it, a few of us are planing a trip there in the summer

i do the quantox and haldon hills mostly and theres a few north shore type runs localy, haldon is amazing they have made a whole free ride section with skinnie, helter skelter and see saw and a few nice fast down hill sections

Bugger - I just saw this post literally hours after selling my Specialized Rockhopper FS on eBay for £150. It would have been a perfect bike for introducing you to the world of singletrack and trails!!

DOH!

A mahoosive DOH ..as that would have suited me down to the ground too !! ..

Jonny.

I'm 5'8" so I'm guessing a 17/18" frame would be the go, but this looks very tempting... The Bike
Its a brand new GT Avalanche 2.0 w/o discs £189.95 'buy it now' but its only a 16" frame - so is it gonna be too small or does it not really matter?

Oh yeah and how do I turn the url into a single word so it doesn't widen the thread?

<Quick Dec edit..changes the link to "The Bike" but if you want to change the name go for it. Also its the picture which has widened the thread.>

16" would be pretty small - 17" is about the smallest I'd go for an adult male. Also the bike on that advert is, frankly, a bit cheap and rubbish.

if you've got £300 to spend, then I'd spend that much 'cos thats about the point where you can get a quality bike. You get what you pays for etc etc

Oh yeah, URLS...
Click the url button, then make it url=whatever the site is(within the square brackets), then whatever you call the site, then click the url button again.

So it goes

[ url = http etc etc ] the site [url ]

(but without gaps)

aha! cheers bro on the url thing.

My chick's bro is getting a new bike and so he's said I can borrow his old Claude Butler Cape Wrath kind of indefinately long term or buy if I want. So it appears I'm no longer on the search for a mountain bike, but cheers for all the help guys .

Can't wait to get stuck into it, and tbh I'm kinda spurred on by a certain Mr Brent from down under laying down the gaunlet to the young'uns with his lack of a proper looking gut!

Try being his girlfriend. Tis most intimidating

Try being his girlfriend

...nah not really into that idea Libbs, you can keep up the good work there I think !