New MTB advice

[mickthegreek]

Hi all

After having a few "build-quality" issues with my current bike I have decided to look at upgrading my ride.

Could anyone give me advice on my options or even recommend anything better?

Specialized Stumpjumper HT Comp 09
Specialized Rockhopper Pro Disc 09
Genesis Core40
Genesis Altitude20

Thanks in advance for all your help.

 

[RedBike]

Nothing wrong with any of the above. The only way to decide is to actually try them.

 

[roadjunkie]

Could be worth giving your nearest specialised concept store a call. You can hire a bike for a day or two, and then if you decide to buy they will knock off the hire cost...I don't know alot about Genesis I have to say.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Boardman HT range (FORGET that Halfords sell it, just look at the spec for the price)

Boardman is the only brand capable of making me be unfaithful to Spesh and Kona

 

[Mr Pig]

I have an Altitude 00 and like it. What I would say is that you REALLY need to try the bikes and think very hard about what you what to use them for. The way that the Genesis and Specialized bikes ride is completely different.

The Hopper is light, fast and twitchy but not the most comfortable of rides. The Altitude is very much set up for off road and is very comfortable, you can sit on the thing for hours.

The Core shares the same great geometry as the Altitude but with an aluminium frame, so is kind of between the two.

All I can say is that after trying the Altitude 00 it took me thirty seconds to dismiss the Rockhopper. If I had the money I would buy the Altitude 20, no question.

 

[mickthegreek]

Thanks for all your advice folks.

I want the bike for trials and commuting but I live in a very hilly area so lockout forks are a must. Do the Genesis bikes have these?

I have also been told by my local bike shop that the Genesis bikes (which he sells funnily enough) are the way forward becasue they match Shimano components. Is this good advise?

Thanks again everyone. After spending lots of time reading this forum I'm realising the REAL value comes when you participate

 

[02GF74]

Thanks for all your advice folks.

I have also been told by my local bike shop that the Genesis bikes (which he sells funnily enough) are the way forward becasue they match Shimano components. Is this good advise?

Shimano components can fit any mountain bike - so is rather strange advice.

depending on how much you wanna spend, the cube bikes - CR - someone posted about them here look dead nice, which isn;t the best recommendation I know. linky

you won't go wrong with the Specialized bike and can still probably pick up 08 models cheper than 09.

 

[Waspie]

The only bike out of your list that I've tried is the Rockhopper. My pal has one and I was very impressed with how good a climber it was, very light and absolutely flew up the hills. Couldn't comment on long term comfiness though.

 

[RedBike]

I'm not sure what he means by matching components.

On a MTB the higher groupsets are lighter but they don't really tend to offer any major performance benefits (other than weight). Nothing works spot on once it's got covered in crap a few times.

For example I've found myself down-grading from XT chainrings which are made of cheese to Deore because they're made of steel and last a lot longer.

Spend the money on the best frame, fork and wheels you can get and forget about everything else. If you're serious about MTBing you'll have replaced most of the groupset due to wear within a year anyway.

My vote would be Malt or the Lobster from Merlin cycles. You can't beat handmade wheels, they come with good forks through out the range and the frames are all absolutely top notch.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I found an 08 Lobster to be a bit flexy (I looked like RedBike's avatar at the time) and thought the mud clearances were not overly generous.

 

[RedBike]

I found an 08 Lobster to be a bit flexy (I looked like RedBike's avatar at the time) and thought the mud clearances were not overly generous.

There are advantages / disadvantages of most designs.

It's the flex in the frame that give the bike the comfort. The disadvantage is larger riders find it flexy.

The shorter closer seat/chain stays mean the bikes accerlates like a scaulded cat and the traction uphill is fantastic, the disadvantage is you have to use slightly narrower mud tyres in extremely muddy condtions.

The bottom bracket is relatively low making it very stable and quick in the bends, the disadvantage is it's easy to hit rocks with the pedals.

This is why the OP really need to test a few of these bikes. They've all got their own quirks!

 

[Mr Pig]

Genesis are distributed by the same company as Shimano so the bikes feature a full set of Shimano parts rather than the mix and match you often see on bikes. It's not that big a deal but it does give them a nice coherent look and the bikes do seem generally well thought out with good attention to detail.

Most forks above entry level have lockout these days, it's one of the current 'must have' gadgets. My Tora fork doesn't have lockout and when I first got the bike I was pretty unhappy about it and planned to change the fork. To be honest though it's just not that big a deal, the fork works fine. Where I live is very hilly too and it's not a problem.

What is a big consideration is that your local shop stocks Genesis. I would say that buying a bike locally is almost as important as which bike you buy. My Altitude was back to the shop quite a few times getting stupid problems sorted out. That's not that uncommon and would be a nightmare if the shop were a long way away. Buy a bike off your local shop owner and you'll have a friend when you need one.

Revue of old Altitude 20: LINK

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Buy a bike off your local shop owner and you'll have a friend when you need one.

I prefer not to pay my friends in £50 notes. YMMV but that is not always consistently the experience of what happens after you buy a bike from your LBS. Many are particularly bad a warranty work if posts in here are anything to go by.

Buy your bike from wherever you can get it for the best overall deal, which will vary person-to-person, and then learn to service and fix it yourself. It's an MTB; there ain't no LBS up on the tops and it's always, imo, a really long boring walk to the nearest one.

 

[marzjennings]

I'd go with the stumpjumper as I prefer fox forks over rockshox and as I've test ridden one briefly I did like feel and geometry of the bike.

As other have said go test ride the bikes and then go find the one you like for cheap online. I've stopped buying much of anything from my LBS and only use them for services.

 

[mickthegreek]

Thanks one and all for all your excellent advice.

The problems I have had with my current bike I have had to bite the bullet and take to my LBS to sort out (and pay for!)

My idea this time round was to buy a better quality bike from a local bike store with an excellent reputation for sorting any niggles there and then.

I appreichiate you may be able to save £50 or maybe even more on the net but I would prefer to have some comeback this time if anything goes wrong.

I've had the bike for 3 months, spent £80 already fixing problems with the gears, wires etc and more importantly I've missed over 2weeks with it being in a workshop. I'm even currently riding round with a rear brake lever held on by 1 screw and half a clamp as it snapped 3 weeks ago and I'm still waiting for a replacement under warranty. My current bike is a Dawes XC2.2 but am losing confidence in its reliability which is a big issue as I want to do some long rides soon including a coast 2 coast.

As advised above I'm going to try and ride a few bikes this weekend and take it from there. I've also found a local shop selling Cube bikes which I had never considered before - they look awesome!

Thanks again for all your continued help - I'll keep you all posted. In the meatime if anyone spots any bargains in the North East area give me a shout.