Offered a second hand bike

[gareth805]

Hi,

I am newly back to cycling, looking to buy a second hand MTB. I have been offered a Townsend Dakkar (it has the 5 sold looking wheels), its in fairly good nick except the rear brake caliper is broken at the top.

I am have been offered it for £80. Cant find any info on the web on this model. Does anyone have any thoughts as to whether this is a good deal?

Thanks.

Gareth

 

[gbb]

Hi gareth. Cant help you much, but my son had a Townsend MTB, not a Dakkar, but i cant remember the name....it was just a cheap MTB, not a quality piece of kit.
£80....without knowing its spec etc...i dont think i'd pay any more...maybe not that amount.

 

[Evilcat]

From a cursory Google, these days Townsend seems to be a brand stocked by Littlewoods, Asda and so on, with most models less than a hundred quid new. Draw your own conclusions, but it's probably a lousy buy: heavy, poor quality components and likely to render itself into its component atoms after a short period of time. Sorry, but usually you get what you pay for when buying cycles.

If you can let us know your budget range I'm sure there will be many folks hereabouts who can give some ideas for buying something better.

EC

 

[gareth805]

This is all great advice! Well I was hoping to pay no more than around £100. I am looking for something to ride around locally in Edinburgh, and then possible take for some very light off-road use in the Highlands on the weekends.

 

[Evilcat]

That budget is going to be difficult: for anything decent you'll be looking at second hand (maybe police auction?). Anything new at that price is likely to be supermarket crap: heavy, probably with useless suspension and lousy components.

If you want a new bike that will last and that you'll enjoy riding you'll need to pay a bit more: reasonable brands start around £150 or so. For example, see the ranges at Evans and the Edinburgh Bicycle Coop. Visiting a local bike shop is a good way of working out what the options are, as well as trying out a few for size.

Incidentally, if you're only using the bike for light offroad use, then I suggest you consider a hybrid rather than a MTB: the hybrid will be lighter and faster around town, and won't be burdened with things like suspension forks.

EC

 

[kyuss]

Like everyone else I'd stay clear of that Townsend. A quick google shows a bike that would be lucky to be worth £80 brand new. Very heavy frame and components that wouldn't last 6 months.

Have you looked at Gumtree? There are sometimes decent bikes on there if you know what you are looking for and if you can go £30 over budget there is a decent looking Carrera Subway on at the moment which would be an ideal round town bike and with a change of tyres would be fine for a bit light offroad.

It might also be worth popping into The Bike Station. They rescue unwanted bikes from around town, service them and sell them pretty cheap. Average price is about £55 and you even get a 3 month guarantee.

 

[gareth805]

thanks

Thanks to all the posters. I ended up picking up the Carrera for £130, read some other reviews and it rides really nice.

The only problem I can find is I cant quite figure out how to raise the handlebars an inch or so, is there some kind of kit you have to buy to insert some spacers?

 

[shimano]

Hi gareth805, I'm not familiar with the Carrera but every (admittedly cheapie) bike i've had has had a bolt in the handlebar stem ( maybe an Allen key one) that, if you loosen it a turn or two, place a foot either side of the front wheel to hold it down, you can then 'wiggle' the stem with upwards pressure on the handlebars higher to suit.

 

[punkypossum]

The subway (at least the recent models) has an A headset, which means you can't add extra spacers or pull the handlebars up, but you might be able to get a riser stem to bring them up higher - then again, I'm pretty sure it comes with an adjustable stem anyway...

 

[kyuss]

Thanks to all the posters. I ended up picking up the Carrera for £130, read some other reviews and it rides really nice.

The only problem I can find is I cant quite figure out how to raise the handlebars an inch or so, is there some kind of kit you have to buy to insert some spacers?

Bloody hell, you don't hang about do you?

Looking at the picture on Gumtree and Halfords it looks like it has an ajustable stem. That bike on Gumtree looked as if it was adjusted about as high as it would go though. There will be a bolt just in front of where it attaches to the fork steerer at the point it starts angling upwards, loosen it off and have a fiddle, you never know.

If you're fairly new to cycling though it might be worth sticking with the position at the moment unless it really is very low. When starting off bars can feel a bit low but you do get used to it. If it turns out that it's causing you pain, and the stem can't be angled upwards any further then I'm afraid the only solution would be one of these.