Cheap mountain bike?

More research, and it looks like a slippery slope.....(you'll want a nice knobby tyres, and say, a specialized stumpjumper for that, minimum:D ), start looking at the specs, and think "well, just this much more, gets you these, this, and better super titanium mega stuff", its easy to see how people could walk in to the shop wanting a go-to-the shops-bike, and walk out with a 5000$ carbon frame duelly or something.

I started off looking for a kmart special, then looked at some ebay rippers (new), for 250-300 or so, more research, now im looking at a kona fire mountain.
Where does it end?

So far, i have to be realistic about my current fitness levels, beyond this would likely be too much bike.
Its easy to say you'd want to upgrade when skill improves/get bike fitness, and start shearing cranks or snapping things (preferably not hamstrings) , but given the crazy stuff i managed on my old rigid, i have a healthy respect for the laws of physics, id keep things reasonably sedate.

I still have scars on both elbows and knees, (only permanent damage to one knee, touch wood) from washing out at 35 kmh or so around a gravel top dirt road, sideways- commando rolled three revolutions (with a half pike twist) before i stopped, so you guys who race, greatest repect! I think your mad, but greatest respect :D

Some of these bike reveiws are weird, like "This bike is a POS, took it off a 4 foot drop and cracked the frame, junk rubbish".
If i want "air", id get a plane, you know?

Im just rambling, thinking of getting a new bike, sort of reminded me how much damn fun i had way back when.
Painfull, masochistic fun really, but i had legs like powder kegs for it. They buurned so bad, and felt like they'd explode..............


:)

hey, theres no law against re-using old jokes
 
Quote from jem:

I bought GT Zaskar in 1995. Everyone said they were over engineereed with the triple triangle and overdone welds.
More...

Prior to this thread, id never heard of a Zaskar, but even the new ones are damn sexy.

Question is, are the new ones any good? When did all these bikes turn to crap, if peeps in the know turn to much older, proven frames and start from there?
Seems to be a consensus, maybe its just the phenomena of the "dream" machine, building the perfect vehicle.

If i didnt have the practical, & mechanical ability of an epileptic , autistic, deaf-mute hampster, id like to try it myself, just i know damn well it would sit, unfinished, in the shed for the rest of eternity.
 
Quote from acronym:

Prior to this thread, id never heard of a Zaskar, but even the new ones are damn sexy.

Question is, are the new ones any good? When did all these bikes turn to crap, if peeps in the know turn to much older, proven frames and start from there?
Seems to be a consensus, maybe its just the phenomena of the "dream" machine, building the perfect vehicle.

If i didnt have the practical, & mechanical ability of an epileptic , autistic, deaf-mute hampster, id like to try it myself, just i know damn well it would sit, unfinished, in the shed for the rest of eternity.
More...

This could start a whole debate you weren't expecting. :)
Mtn bikers are very fun loving people. Lots of things in common. Love of nature. Love of mud. Love of beer.
But sometimes people get a bit passioned about what is the best bike or best frame material etc.

You have the steel camp and the aluminum/scandium camp. There's also the titanium group. The forums on www.mtbr.com are great. The "passion'' threads are sweet.

I'm a steel frame guy. And my dream bike is a Fat Chance Team from the 1990's. Maybe w/ some cooks Bros. cranks and a Shimano XT group with top thumb shifters :) Old school baby!

I currently ride a Specialized Stumpjumper circa 1995.
Here's a pic I took last October at my local trail.
 

Attachments

got the xt group and thumb shifters. almost bought the cook bros back then, but I had no reason drop the cranks that came with the bike.

I love the ritchey (spelling) pedals I bought after market.

After my wife and I had kids we stopped doing the serious riding. We used to ride all over so cal with trips to mtns and moab.

Now I ride flat neighborhood trails in florida.
Sort of sad but I really would not feel good about taking the risks I used to take.
 
Still have a virgin Zaskar LE frame in my garage.

I have never seen the LE crack. The rest of them were built overseas, not heat treated correctly.

Cut my teeth in BC...yeah, you've seen the pictures. Currently live in TN.
 
Quote from uptik2000:

This could start a whole debate you weren't expecting. :)
Mtn bikers are very fun loving people. Lots of things in common. Love of nature. Love of mud. Love of beer.
But sometimes people get a bit passioned about what is the best bike or best frame material etc.

You have the steel camp and the aluminum/scandium camp. There's also the titanium group. The forums on www.mtbr.com are great. The "passion'' threads are sweet.

I'm a steel frame guy. And my dream bike is a Fat Chance Team from the 1990's. Maybe w/ some cooks Bros. cranks and a Shimano XT group with top thumb shifters :) Old school baby!

I currently ride a Specialized Stumpjumper circa 1995.
Here's a pic I took last October at my local trail.
More...



Yeah, i was going to ask about that pic uptick , i thought it said "speedo" or something, was wondering about that, figured you got it from wally world when you posted it in the "lifes to short " thread.
Uh, obviously, i realize now, its a top notch bike, sorry for thinking lowly thoughts about your bike:D

But then, i also thought the classic honda wing, 80's style might have been a guzzi, maybe its the monitor, maybe its my eyes, more likely unfamiliarity.
I just couldnt SEE the detail.



Thanks guys, very interesting-im not a light person as such, i found it odd, your basically riding if not old bikes, per-se, frames from some time ago, or recommending them, that baffles me.

Frame geometry? I dont even know what that is, my first bike wasnt exactly a masterpeice, but it was made of STEEL, i chose it very deliberately over a couple others that were lighter, and felt flimsy really.
They brought out suspension models about a year later, go figure-about $1500 AU , front suspension mountain bike, in rural australia, Circa 1990.

I stopped riding altogether in protest at the compulsory helmet laws, (93-4?)and its gotten worse since, so have cyclist casualties, from being forced from the footpaths onto the roads.

But i guess i got older, and just dont give a shit now, where im at is a mountain bike haven it seems, so i figure its possible i could be happy on a treadly again.
I guess, nobody actually calls them a "treadly", maybe thats a local/personal dialect thing, i dont know.


Thanks guys, its encouraging on many levels, im not a top performer in getting things going on, but where im at now, seems purpose built for gettin round on a ........treadly.
 
Holy crap, its a friggin beast of a machine.

Damn.
Im scared to ride it....well not really, but its intimidating, to a degree.
 
Cool.
enjoy.
I'm getting my ride ready for the season now that the trails are dried out.
Tough finding time with a 6 week old in da house. :)
 
Yeah, should be a ripper.
Needs new tyres, (eventually) will have to check the brakes...are the rotors supposed to bend/flex (very, very slightly) with mechanical disks?

Hmm.
 
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