The MTB thread

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by pookie

thats a great bike, they've got a good price on them at evans at the moment.

I'm paying £300 less than Evans' sale price.

[pookie]

wow, thats a flippin good deal..looking at getting a new bike through cycle 2 work. Dont suppose they do other bikes at great prices

That's a lovely looking bike Mike.

Right bit of advise really, I currently have a Specialized Crosstrail Sport 2010 which is a hybrid bike. As you will know Drew prefers to go off road (something that my bike will struggle with)

We are off to France next June and the plan is to take the Bikes, so we either stick to dirt tracks as that is all mine will handle or we slowly upgrade mine. Which I don't now if this is possible?

Would you be able to recommend some items to upgrade my bike.

Many thanks

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by pookie

wow, thats a flippin good deal..looking at getting a new bike through cycle 2 work. Dont suppose they do other bikes at great prices

Take a look http://www.pedalon.co.uk/acatalog/index.html - now is a good time to be looking as most shops will have a 2010 model sale on. Oh and if Pedalon or whoever are not convenient (wish I had thought of this!) the big shops like Evans have a price match service, so if you see a great deal you may force someone more local to match it.

[pookie]

brilliant idea..thanks for that..hopefully going to get a new bike in the next few weeks..

[northwind]

Originally Posted by lily

Right bit of advise really, I currently have a Specialized Crosstrail Sport 2010 which is a hybrid bike. As you will know Drew prefers to go off road (something that my bike will struggle with)

We are off to France next June and the plan is to take the Bikes, so we either stick to dirt tracks as that is all mine will handle or we slowly upgrade mine. Which I don't now if this is possible?

Would you be able to recommend some items to upgrade my bike.

It's tricky... Do you use it for what it's designed for? The problem is, you can make a hybrid work a lot like a basic mountain bike, but then it won't be as good on the road and it'll still not be great offroad either. You could put fat 700c cyclocross knobbly tyres on it for a cheap and easy upgrade that'll mean you could take it a bit further, but it'll still be held back by the forks and they're not realistic to upgrade really. On the plus side it's a reasonably tough bike, most city hybrids are...

My own hybrid's almost exactly like the mountain bikes I started out riding 20 years ago So on the one hand, I know you can get a lot out of this sort of bike. But at the same time, it's not as good as even a very basic mountain bike and to change that would cost more than a whole other bike.

So not sure what would be best. Depends on budget and exactly what sort of use you want to put it to.

[Drew Carey]

Originally Posted by northwind

It's tricky... Do you use it for what it's designed for? The problem is, you can make a hybrid work a lot like a basic mountain bike, but then it won't be as good on the road and it'll still not be great offroad either. You could put fat 700c cyclocross knobbly tyres on it for a cheap and easy upgrade that'll mean you could take it a bit further, but it'll still be held back by the forks and they're not realistic to upgrade really. On the plus side it's a reasonably tough bike, most city hybrids are...

My own hybrid's almost exactly like the mountain bikes I started out riding 20 years ago So on the one hand, I know you can get a lot out of this sort of bike. But at the same time, it's not as good as even a very basic mountain bike and to change that would cost more than a whole other bike.

So not sure what would be best. Depends on budget and exactly what sort of use you want to put it to.

That was what I suggested, some better tyres would probably make a big difference. The forks to be fair aren't to bad, they are a set of half decent suntour forks (if you can call suntour half decent).

The other option is that if she stays where she is, could use cycle to work. But I think would be a waste for a bike that will only be used now and again, hence thought would be better to make this one more capable.

To be fair, we wouldn't be going on trails like those we did at the weekend. Would be more cycle paths and bridleways type stuff.

Easy going trails shouldnt be a problem tbh. Tyre's and you'll be away

[northwind]

Yeah, should be fine. It's what we used to do after all oh and cycle to work has gone crap, they've changed the rules on final valuations so you can't get the token £1 payoff at the end any more apparently.

[pookie]

the c2w depends when how long you expect to work in your current place

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/articl...ng-staff-28198

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/eim21667a.htm

I think its still quite viable for those self employed types. Pretty much down to the company anyway as technically the company doesn't actually have to sell you the bike as its a hire scheme I believe.