Which bike would you rather buy? If none, could you recommend me a trekking bike in this price range?

[EdgarAllanPro]

Hey!



I'm looking for a bike about 150.000-200.000 HUF (approximately £400-500). Last year with a couple of friends we started going on bike trips (the longest was about 250 kms on hilly and mountainous roads mainly on gentle slopes, we did it in 2.5 days). This year we want to go to Northern Transylvania; the whole trip is approximately 400 km long and according to plan we would do it in 4-5 days. The terrain there is steeper so I'd like to buy a new bike that would stand the trial and could be used in the future as well (atm I have a very basic mtb from my childhood, if I sold it it would worth about £50).

Alas, it's exceedingly hard to find new bikes these days (as far as I know there were manufacturing problems due to the pandemic). In my vicinity these two bikes are available and I've been advised to check them out

https://www.lapierrebikes.com/fr-en/o/trekking-10/

https://www.hervis.hu/store/Felszerelés/Kerékpárok/Cross-kerékpárok/KTM/Fun-Line/p/COLOR-2720576

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the English description of the latter one, however, its specs are written below and I've been told that it's more or less similar to this bike:

https://www.thebikelist.co.uk/ktm/life-road-2014



Besides cycling in the city, I only started going on a bit more serious trips the past year, so I'm not that familiar with specs and other details, though I'm trying to catch up with them. Right now I'm looking for a bike I could use in the future as well on similar or maybe a bit longer trips.
Which one would you recommend? Or could you recommend me other bikes as well in this price range?



Thank you very much for your help!

 

[HobbesOnTour]

Hey!



I'm looking for a bike about 150.000-200.000 HUF (approximately £400-500). Last year with a couple of friends we started going on bike trips (the longest was about 250 kms on hilly and mountainous roads mainly on gentle slopes, we did it in 2.5 days). This year we want to go to Northern Transylvania; the whole trip is approximately 400 km long and according to plan we would do it in 4-5 days. The terrain there is steeper so I'd like to buy a new bike that would stand the trial and could be used in the future as well (atm I have a very basic mtb from my childhood, if I sold it it would worth about £50).

Alas, it's exceedingly hard to find new bikes these days (as far as I know there were manufacturing problems due to the pandemic). In my vicinity these two bikes are available and I've been advised to check them out

https://www.lapierrebikes.com/fr-en/o/trekking-10/

https://www.hervis.hu/store/Felszerelés/Kerékpárok/Cross-kerékpárok/KTM/Fun-Line/p/COLOR-2720576

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the English description of the latter one, however, its specs are written below and I've been told that it's more or less similar to this bike:

https://www.thebikelist.co.uk/ktm/life-road-2014



Besides cycling in the city, I only started going on a bit more serious trips the past year, so I'm not that familiar with specs and other details, though I'm trying to catch up with them. Right now I'm looking for a bike I could use in the future as well on similar or maybe a bit longer trips.
Which one would you recommend? Or could you recommend me other bikes as well in this price range?



Thank you very much for your help!

My advice?
Don't buy a bike for one trip, especially now when prices are high and stocks low.

A old MTB is a perfectly good touring bike with many advantages - cheap components that are (usually) easily sourced, easy to work on, less attractive to thieves, tyre choice.
If it has suspension, probably best to lock it out or change the fork.

A new cassette on the rear can make climbing easier. A good service and it can be as good as new.

Sorry, not what you wanted to hear but a £50 MTB can be the perfect touring and adventure bike!

 

[Pale Rider]

Both bikes in the links have suspension forks.

At this price point, they tend to add little more than weight, so I would look for something with a rigid front end.

 

[raggydoll]

As you say yourself, you are not familiar with specs and other details.

I would recommend spending a bit of time reading into the different types of bikes and the different types of components within those.
There are loads of videos on the web that will explain the differences.

There are so many different options (more than the list below)
Mountain bike
Road bike
Gravel bike
Cyclocross bike
Hybrid bike
Touring bike
Electric bike

Within that you have so many options:
Rim brakes or disc brakes?
Suspension or no suspension?
What size wheels?
What size tyres? (the frame will determine how wide the tyres can be)
Does the frame take mudguards? Do you want mudguards?
Does the frame have mounts for a rear rack if you want that?
Gearing - what speed..7 speed? 8 speed? 9 speed etc etc....
Cassette - An 11-32 cassette will be easier on the hills than an 11-28 cassette (with cassettes, the more teeth they have, the easier it is to climb hills).
How many chainrings? 1x will have 1 chainring....2x is a double chainring...a triple has 3 chainrings. With chainrings - a higher number of teeth will let you go faster....a smaller number of teeth will be easier to cycle and again, easier on hills.

There is so much to think about and rather than rushing in and picking based on what others say...I reckon it is best for you to understand what you want from a bike. When you know more about the specs etc you will know which specs would suit you.

 

[battered]

I use a 1995 mountain bike for touring. It's great. I've done trips such as you describe, carrying luggag e and going over big hills. I prefer it to my road bike on a big trip carrying luggage for hours.

 

[Tigerbiten]

What's your MTB ??
If it fits you and you're comfortable riding on it all day then spending ~£200 doing up the gears to suit you may well be more sensible rather than trying to find a new bike at twice that cost.

My basic rules for touring gears are ....
Large chainring is only 4x larger than the smallest sprocket. That gives you a top gear of just over 100" so you'll spinout at around 25-30 mph. While it is "fun" to have a higher top gear, it tends to come at the expense of the bottom gears which you want for hill climbing.
For first gear you want your large sprocket at least 4 teeth bigger than your small chainring.

So going old school touring gears ........
A triple is easy on a MTB frame with flat bars, something like a 48-36-26 or a 44-32-22. If 48 then a 12-32 or even a 12-36 cassette works, if 44 then 11-28 works. Because you're not going for a massive range on the cassette then 8/9 speed will work fine. You may get away with a 6/7 speed but the jumps between gears tend to be to big. Drops are more tricky because it's harder to match the shifters to derailleurs in that format.
Doubles are more tricky. At the correct size, something like 44-28, they tend to be triples minus the large chainring again matched up with an 11-32 8/9 speed cassette.
A 50-34 compact double is good for racing where you're after high speeds but useless for touring gears where you're after the low end. You're looking at a 42t big sprocket to get low enough gears. So 11/12 speed and mega bucks.
A 1x setup is similar, you need 11/12 speed cassettes to get the range.

Luck ..............